Through Hilton Head Island Resortquest we booked A Place at the Beach 3G on 2/2/07 for one week from March 31st to April 7th. This was the first week the unit was available on your website as the entire building has been under renovation for over a year. We know this because we also came to Hilton Head last October and wanted to stay there but could not due to the renovation. As a result, we booked Shorewood 504 the building right next door to A Place at the Beach through your organization.
I received a voice mail on the afternoon of Thursday, March 15 to call Kim Nugent at Resortquest. I called Kim at approximately 4:45. She informed me that they had just found out that day that the unit was not going to be available until sometime in June. So I was informed 10 days before my vacation that a condo approx. 1 mile from your office is not going to be available for at least another 2 months. What kind of organization are they running? She asked me where we wanted to stay and I said we stay on the ocean and like the Forest Beach region. She informed me that there were no vacancies for that week, although your internet site indicated you had beach front vacancies. She then asked if we would want a fifth row house that rents for a little more than the price of A Place at the Beach. We could not accept this as we desire to stay oceanfront. She then said she would call other rental companies and get back with me. I said I would be home waiting for her call and I never heard back from Kim that evening.
In a panic, I spent the next four hours looking on the internet for a place to stay and found that many places were already reserved. Not surprising, since it is spring and I am looking at 10 days out. Of course I then couldn't find anything as reasonably priced as the unit we rented. I did find a couple of places that looked promising but both were already closed for the day. I called another rental company the next morning and found they had a 5th floor unit available at Shorewood and I negotiated a price less than their website advertised. I then called Kim Nugent and requested that Resortquest pay the difference in price. She said she found a place at The Breakers which she considered to be comparable to A Place at the Beach. I told her I disagreed as The Breakers is right next to the noisy public access beach entrance and the units are not nearly as close to the beach. She did not disagree with me and said she would check with her manager about paying us the price difference. She called me back and said they would give me 10% off next time a book a reservation at A Place at the Beach but would not reimburse the difference in price.
This episode created quite a stressful situation for my our family. Your organization should have known that A Place at the Beach would not be ready. After all it had been under renovation for quite some time! Our vacation was almost ruined due to your unprofessional, uncaring organization. If you had planned appropriately the unit would have not even been available for rent on the internet until you were absolutely sure it would be available.
We have rented A Place at the Beach at least 12 times beginning with our honeymoon in 1991. Never once did Kim Nugent say to me that they didn't want to lose us as a loyal customer. I see in your annual report (I went to your SEC filings to get your name and address since Kim did not locate it for me) that you talk about flawless service and a passion for excellence. That certainly has not been our experience with your organization.
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