I was trying to make a "last minute deal" in finding a rental home in Orlando because my daughter was playing in a national volleyball tournament. I found a beautiful 3 bedroom home with king sized bed, a private pool, pet friendly and internet available on vacationrentals.com website. These were all the things I was looking for in a rental property. The property was listed as #47515 with pictures and a description of the property. It was listed with Pro FL Vacation rentals, Inc as the rental agent. They listed it for $540/week. I sent emails back and forth with a lady named Raquel trying to negogiate a better price since she said it was available the dates that I was requesting (6/14-09-6/21/09). This all took place on June 5. Only 9 days before we were to be renting. We finally agreed on $540/week for propery #47515. She sent me the "paperwork" the following week with the rental agreement and the address of the property with instructions on how to access the property once we got there.
When we arrived at the address of the property that she gave to us, it was not the 3 bedroom house with private pool and king size bed that I thought that I was renting. It was a 3bedroom condo without a private pool. We arrived at 6:30pm 6/15/09. We tried calling the rental company when we got there to let them know about this "mistake" but their answering machine said their business hours ended at 5pm. So we had no choice but to spend the night at this condo and call them the next morning when they opened at 9am. When we called the following morning, I spoke with Raquel. She said there had been no mistake in the address of the property. She immediately referred back to the rental agreement and told me that our property had become unavailable (in foreclosure) and they had the "right" to assign to us a "comparable property of equal or higher standard. Well, I told her this property was not comparable to a private home with a private pool, nor did it have a king size bed in any of the bedrooms. It was also a 2 story condo. The house we wanted was a one story home. She also would not give us the address of the property $47515 or tell us when she learned that it was in foreclosure. This made us extemely wary of her excuses. She then offered to refund our money less 2 nights.
We then had to get on the internet and find ourselves another property. We ended up finding a 3 bedroom house with a private pool, kingsize bed, internet, and pet friendly for $550 for the next 5 nights. This took about 3/4 of a day to arrange this and get moved to another property.
Once we were home, I reviewed all the emails, mailed correspondece and rental agreement and determined that this company never intended to rent us that house #47515. The paperwork that she sent me was all dated June 5 which was the date that I made the reservation by email and on the phone. The letter that she sent to me already had the address of the condo (unbeknown to us). There was no way that I would have known that the address was not to the house. If I had known, I would never have signed the paperwork and sent it back. I would have found another property on my own. There were so many to choose from and good deals to be made especially last minute deals.
I also checked out this company on the Better Business Bureau website once I got home and found out that this couple who owns this business, Raquel D'Saronno and Andino D'Saronno have been indicted in Manhatten Federal Court for a scheme to defraud the New York City Housing Authority and the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development of nearly $50,000 in federal money intended to help low income New Yorkers obtain subsidized housing. On October 26, Raquel Arocho D'Saronno was sentenced to 10 months imprisonment and 3 years supervised released for defrauding the NYCHA of $49,184 in Section 8 housing subsidies. Her husband, a former Section 8 landlord, Andino D'Saronno was sentenced on 10/13/06 to 5 years of probation and 6 months home confinement. Both have been held jointly and severally liable to pay full restitution in the amount of $49,184. (Better Business Bureau website)
I have since filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, Vaction rentals.com, Terre Verde resort in Kissimmee, and some manager's company that Pro fl vacation rentals belongs to. I just want the public to be aware of this company's practices so no one else will be taken advantage of like we were.
I have also contacted my credit card company and sent them copies of all correspondence with Pro FL Vacation rentals and they have just authorized a full credit to us.
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