A Plus Vacation Homes This compnay placed people in my vacation charged them rent and refused to pay me. celebration Florida

 I am writing in to confirm that the original poster is not the only one to be taken advantage of by A Plus.

We also signed a contract to have them manage our FL vacation home.  Their contract was VERY poor and left a lot of questions as far as responsibilities and costs.  We asked MANY questions about this; primarily, what would happen if we did not like their services.  We were assured both over the phone and also by email that there are no cancelation fees (their contract did specifically state this also).

After a short time it was very apparent that the arrangement was not working out.  When we asked about the lack of bookings we were receiving, the response from the owner was not appropriate.  We therefore asked to cancel our contract with them.

It took several months to get an answer back on the status of the funds they owed to us.  It was at that time that we were informed they would be charging us over $950 for 'marketing' the home to 'recoup their expenses'.  Long-story-short: there was never any agreement made for any service that may incur a charge like this to us.  NOWHERE in their conversations, emails, or CONTRACT does it state they can charge this to us (in fact, they have to give us a written estimate prior to ANY services in excess of $200). 

We have all of the emails, as well as the contract, verifying this.  This company uses a VERY vague contract to try and 'twist' things their way.  Due to the vagueness in the contract, we asked numerous times about issues we felt might come up; especially about cancelation (my wife had a gut feeling something was amiss with this company).  Even though we were assured they're would be no fees for cancelation, they still decided to simply keep our money.

We even had to file a BBB complaint just to get the uncontested funds they owed us.  It looks like we will now need to pursue legal means to recoup the remainder owed. 

Trust your gut feelings before dealing with this company.

As you can see their lies and stories continue. This truly shows the true devious nature of this company. Again, all you just have to do is a simple search to see more. There are many websites just like this one with many stories about how horrible this company is to deal with as a homeowner, guest, and or a property manager. If you don’t trust the websites, then go to the better business bureau website and you can see the truth for yourself.

Here is another perfect example of their lies: They mention below in their rebuttal that there is a contract between them and me. This I would like to see, since they do not do contracts as you can see from the email below from the owner of the company! Now, I know why they don’t have contracts, it makes it easier for them to steal from the homeowners.

-----Original Message-----
From: A Plus info <aplusinfo@me.com>
To: docfright  
Sent: Wed, Jan 30, 2013 2:03 pm
Subject: Re: Inquiry from jim vandelaer - Sep 1 to 7 - Listing #33562

No we don't have contracts with the home owners its on a trust base for the rentals (we have contracts for management) Our guest can book 24/7 online where they are offered trip insurance if they cancel within 30 days of their stay the full amount is due, if they have the insurance that will reimburse them.  But we try to work with our guest to maybe apply it for other dates etc.

The posting about a former guest is also completely bogas. They tell me out of 14 people on vacation in Disney and nobody had a camera. Nor did they have a phone that could take a picture? Where is the proof? I have not had any complaints from the guest right before them or directly after them.

The claim they are a “law-abiding company.” How can they be when they clearly lie as seen above and don’t pay their bills. They basically stole almost $2000 from me. “law-abiding? Far from it!

Again I have all the proof you want or need. I have all canceled checks, pay stubs and tons of emails which show how they just dig a deeper and deeper hole for themselves with their lies! They should change their name form A Plus Vacation Homes to F minus!

I am including a screenshot of this homeowners email showing he confirmed the booking when I said he did in March 2013, this is FACT Mr. Gardener. He canceled on us for his own booking (you can speculate why a homeowner may do this) on June 27, 2013. This is when I had to pay more than we were paid to a outside source in order to ensure our guests had a home to stay in when they traveled from Holland.

He also asks how I know his taxes are not up to date...it is public record. It took a simple search to find this information. I am attaching a screen shot of his taxes so you can see for yourself. You can also search our company and see all of our taxes are paid, up to date, never behind. We don't deal with shady homeowners for a reason. We are a law abiding company and we work ONLY with law-abiding homeowners.

This homeowner is upset because we placed a lot of bookings in his home, paid in a timely manner per our contract, and never left him with damages unpaid for. He is upset we dropped his home and will no longer book it for him. After he tried to put our guests on the street and left our previous guests with a sad excuse for a clean villa we decided it was in our guest's best interest to never book his home again. I will also include the guest's complaints that we previously booked in Mr. Gardner's home below.

We take pride in our good reputation. You should start taking pride in your home and business ethics Mr. Gardner.

Former guest's complaints:

"To whomever manage this property.
 
We rented a stay at this home from June 22 through June 27.  We checked out on June 28th.  We were very disappointed upon our arrival.  The grass had not been cut and was very high.  This was only a minor issue.  As we entered the house we found the following things that were wrong.
 
a.  The kitchen floor was dirty, counter top dirty, refrigerator was dirty.  We began to clean the area so it could be usable.
b.  The dish towels looked as though they had not been replaced in a year.  They were very dirty.  We bought new ones for our use.
c.  Bugs were crawling everywhere, but I did call someone to spray the home.
d.  The bath towels that were there for our use were awful.  They need to be replaced.  They had all types of stains.
e.  The comforter sets on some of the beds (especially the queen size bed was really, really dirty).
f.   Both irons had something wrong with it, one either leaked water and other had sticky stuff on the bottom.  
g.  The pool was so dirty with grass and other debris.  I had to call and have this cleaned.
h.  The blinds at the windows are broken,  we had to use a sheet at one of the windows to keep our privacy.
I    Garbage cans are completely broken.  Need to be replaced.
j.    Flowers need to be cut back, hanging over walk way.
 
It looks as though no one is maintaining this property.
 
 
THIS HOUSE COULD USE A COMPLETE PAINTING.  THIS IS A BEAUTIFUL HOME, BUT IT NEEDS SOME ATTENTION.
I DON'T THINK WE COULD STAY IN INDIAN CREEK AGAIN.
 
I really hope my concerns are dealt with for the next family.
 
 
Thank You,
Cxxxx and Ixxxx Cxxxx"

I have solid evidence this man tells lies, all lies.

Correct it is all lies, but I’m not the one who is doing the lying. All you have to do is look at the facts and the proof, which I have in abundance.

Fact: The booking in question was never confirmed by A Plus and has nothing to do with my complaint, which is another long story.

Fact: A Plus placed two different groups of people in my Villa in June 2013.

Fact: A Plus never paid me for the two booking they placed in June.

Fact: My taxes are up to date and always have been. I have all the canceled checks and pay stubs to prove it.

 How would he know my taxes are behind? He can’t unless he did not pay the taxes he collected for the rentals he placed in my villa. Why would I think other wise? He does not pay the home owners so why would he pay the taxes he collects, just another thing to add to his list of incompetence. It does not take a lot of searching on the internet to see this company is a bad apple. Even the BBB has them listed as less then an A.

Mr. G**** confirmed a July booking I placed in his home in March. Then a few weeks before our guest was to arrive told me he had placed a new booking in his home and was refusing to honor our guests booking. Our guest was coming from Holland and had made all their travel arrangments when they initially booked. After days of going back and forth with Mr. G**** begging him to honor his word I was forced to find a new home for this guest. The guest was upset that they had to be moved on such short notice (this was now just over a week before arrival) but happy I was able to find them somewhere to stay.

July is a very busy time in Florida and finding a suitable home was almost immpossible. I spent hours on the phone trying to find a home. I had to pay more then the guest paid just to get them a home all because Mr. G**** forgot to fill in his own calendar and then refused to honor a booking he confirmed months before. His only response was that he could "maybe" put them in his other home which did not have the appropriate liscensing. I could not count on a maybe and needed to act immediately before the guest arrived in Florida with not home to rent.

Upon further investigation we found Mr G**** is not current in his taxes realted to renting  avacation home and any booking we placed in his home was in jeopardy. In the best intrest of our guests we decided to no longer place bookings in his home and risk our customers being disappointed again. This all happened just after another guest we placed called to complain of many issues including pest infestation and other unsuitable conditions. We ask Mr G**** to bring his home up to our standards and that is when he refused our next booking. Coincedince? Maybe, maybe not. You be the judge.