After reading the favorable reviews on the Rocky Mountain Resort Management webpage I can hardly believe that this is the same company that recently dealt me the most disturbing experience of my vacation rental history.
Last January, I booked a condo in Breckenridge for a family get-together for 20 people, consisting of mature adults - including my 90 year old father. I booked this rental through Vacation Roost. Their webpage advertised this adjoined condo as an 8 bedroom, 5 bathroom unit that had sleeping accommodations for 22 people - perfect for our needs.
When I checked in at the office in Silverthorne and picked up the keys to the unit, I was asked to run my credit card for "incidentals". This did not seem like an unreasonable request, even though our condo had been paid for in full for at least a month ahead of time, so I allowed my card to be run.
Our family spent two nights at this condo. We played Pictionary, watched the Olympics, took our father for a stroll in his wheelchair along paved pathways, played bocchi ball and frisbee (outside in the common area, of course) and left by 9 am on our check-out day, feeling good that we left the condo in excellent condition.
The day after we checked out, I received an email notice that $1000 had been charged to my credit card for damages that were incurred during our stay. I was shocked! Damages? $1000? Believe me, we are responsible, conscientious people - the kind of people owners want staying in their properties!
I contacted guest relations at RMRM and was unable to get any specifics about the alleged damages. I mentioned that my sister had noticed several issues at the condo upon our arrival, (detached towel rack, loose cabinet hardware, bad garage door opener, etc) and due to a bad experience with a landlord, took photos using her date and time display.
I filed a dispute of these charges with my credit card company and filled out the necessary paperwork. When I finally heard back from the owner of Rocky Mountain Resort Management, Jeffrey De Paola, it was an email telling me that the owner of the condo was at the property before and after our stay and insisted that we caused $600 in damages that were never specified.instead of charging anything for damages, they would charge me $125 to clean stains on the carpet and if I chose to dispute those charges, he would charge me $40/hour for his time spent on this issue and that the damages occurred because we had "a ton of people" staying there.
Eventually, Mr.De Paola credited $875 back to my credit card account, I suspect because he could not identify specific damages (because there were no damages caused during our stay), knew that we had documented existing damages and that I had notified Vacation Roost and filled them in on this incident.
As for the carpet stains, we were certain that we had not caused those either. Mr.De Paola emailed me an invoice for the cleaning. I faxed it to my credit card dispute department. They are adept at weeding out fraud, and they made a phone call or two and determined that the invoice was fabricated. This dispute has ended in my favor and I feel relieved and vindicated, but it is not over for Mr.De Paola. He sent me a threatening email telling me that he will now go after the $1000 (for what? Fabricated damages?) plus his time for trying to scam us - although he insists that he is the one who has been "screwed". He closed his email by telling me that he will see me in court.
I am filling out this report in hopes that it can make a difference. This behavior in the tourism industry is unacceptable. I don't believe that rental owners should suffer at the hands of careless and thoughtless renters, but this experience was outside that realm. This was a blatant attempt to extort money in a deceitful and downright disgusting manner. Stay away from Rocky Mountain Resort Management - or be hyper aware!!!
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