TripAdvisor FlipKey Beware Firewalls preventing communication renting holiday properties through TripAdvisor - Property Owners may not get paid! Needham Massachusetts

In September 2014 a Connecticut lady saw our Cayman Seven Mile Beach listing on TripAdvisor and sent a rather substantial amount of money to FlipKey to reserve the ten days including Christmas and New Years - our most desirable, most exclusive, and most expensive time - without ever being able to communicate with us as to the verity of our offering.

In good faith, we accepted this first-ever reservation, also without being able to verify the bona fides of the family that would be staying in our home.

The good news is that the family came, stayed, and enjoyed our home, situated at the very heart of our incomparable beach - and were able to take full advantage of our location, amenities and attractions within easy walking distance.

The bad news is that in the ensuing eight months since we were supposed to be paid in December, we have yet to be paid by FlipKey, or TripAdvisor, or by anyone else for that rental. And despite several admitted failures on the part of FlipKey to successfully fulfill their contract with us, all we have to show for this is a series of lame excuses.  

The litany of false and misleading accusations that we somehow have not fulfilled our obligations is made all the more ridiculous by our bank being accused of not knowing how to accept funds....we deal with the largest bank in the. United States.

And now these same incompetent (or fraudulent) fools want us to provide them with additional sensitive personal information to them without any demonstrable reason for their need of this information, without any assurance that our information will be held secure, nor that this will in fact be an assured method of getting us paid.

Worse yet, not one individual representing the management of this firm has been willing to even speak to us from their Massachusetts headquarters. There seems to be no way to get to a responsible human voice who will either accept any responsibility nor commit to any action that will result in our being paid. 

The only eaddress we can even get is "customersupport@" that simply leads to no customer support whatever.

Bottom line is, we have yet to be paid the several thousand dollars owed us, and FlipKey/TripAdvisor has the money....all of it, including an outrageous commission for services NOT rendered.

So we urge all seeking a really nice holiday to avoid any website that maintains a "firewall" between those offering properties in good faith and those seeking only find an enjoyable interlude. TripAdvisor and AirBnb both are guilty of this fatal flaw.

Vacationers deserve to know who they are dealing with and should be able to have their legitimate questions regarding offerings answered to their complete satisfaction.  And property owners certainly should be able to try and measure the quality of those who would be their guests.  

Two questions come to mind:  

- Just how can we property owners be expected to offer our vacation properties if we cannot get paid for the services we are rendering?

- Just how do we get TripAdvisor/FlipKey to pay us what they owe us?