Villa Rentals..... money will not be returned !!!

[Rosebud1949]

If you had a Villa rental booked earlier this year and were told you could changed the date, then you have to cancel as your government, Canada, Europe or UK, will still NOT allow you to travel, and / or the US government will NOT allow you entry , The Villages WILL NOT give you a refund.

QUESTION......So who is keeping this money, the owner, or the villages. Even a 50% refund would be a kindness in these very difficult times. If the villa remain empty you have still made money to cover the basics.

Either way it is bad business practice, and a sure fire way to make plenty of cash for no outlay. Perhaps both Owners and Villages can try thinking of what will happen NEXT YEAR... A friend who is 73 is $2350 out of pocket, and they are suggesting they re-book next year... you must be joking... we are not all millionaires.....some take 2 years to save that money.

[vintageogauge]

If you are allowed to change the date I don't see the problem, the borders will eventually open fully. I had reservations at Hilton Head for late March and even thought the resort closed due to the virus I was offered only an opportunity to re-book within one year, no refund.

[Number 10 GI]

If you had a Villa rental booked earlier this year and were told you could changed the date, then you have to cancel as your government, Canada, Europe or UK, will still NOT allow you to travel, and / or the US government will NOT allow you entry , The Villages WILL NOT give you a refund.

QUESTION......So who is keeping this money, the owner, or the villages. Even a 50% refund would be a kindness in these very difficult times. If the villa remain empty you have still made money to cover the basics.

Either way it is bad business practice, and a sure fire way to make plenty of cash for no outlay. Perhaps both Owners and Villages can try thinking of what will happen NEXT YEAR... A friend who is 73 is $2350 out of pocket, and they are suggesting they re-book next year... you must be joking... we are not all millionaires.....some take 2 years to save that money.

Is this a Villages owned property that is rented to experience The Villages life style for interested buyers, or is it a house owned by a private individual? I'm not aware of The Villages renting houses other than the experiencing The Villages lifestyle. What does the rental agreement say on the matter of cancellations or rescheduling? That is the governing legal factor.

Why would your friends lose their money if they rescheduled for a later date? Again, what does the rental agreement say? If the property is privately owned The Villages won't be entitled to any money.

[dnobles]

Did he rent trough Hometown property management or another company?

[davem4616]

I suspect that you may not have all of the information on this

If there were travel restrictions and one could change the date...that was the 'heads up thing to do'....that's what we did
with lodging and air travel...ya just keep pushing it out until you can get a refund or 'bank' the money with them

A small Inn that we had paid close to $2K in advance for a 4 night escape is not refunding the money that we paid and planned to stay with them this past April...but they're holding it in a 'bank' for us to use between now and 2023

I would have preferred to receive a full refund...but the fine print that I unknowingly agreed to when I booked early and received a discounted rate stated no refunds

[Sutty]

I had a rental booked for May, but because of the ban on foreign travel we were unable to take the rental, but the owner of the home has been fantastic sayIng they would work with us and we have moved the booking now to September and extended our stay, and if the world is still in turmoil come September then I am confident they will allow us to move it to next year, this kind of goodwill is why we will continue to rent from this couple many more time in the future, is about the bigger picture and a long term out look on both sides.

[Papa Muzzy]

We are no saints but when our renters had to leave early because of the virus we gave them a full refund. They were from Canada.
Why? Because it was the right thing to do. I'm a firm believer in what goers around comes around.

[thelegges]

If you had a Villa rental booked earlier this year and were told you could changed the date, then you have to cancel as your government, Canada, Europe or UK, will still NOT allow you to travel, and / or the US government will NOT allow you entry , The Villages WILL NOT give you a refund.

QUESTION......So who is keeping this money, the owner, or the villages. Even a 50% refund would be a kindness in these very difficult times. If the villa remain empty you have still made money to cover the basics.

Either way it is bad business practice, and a sure fire way to make plenty of cash for no outlay. Perhaps both Owners and Villages can try thinking of what will happen NEXT YEAR... A friend who is 73 is $2350 out of pocket, and they are suggesting they re-book next year... you must be joking... we are not all millionaires.....some take 2 years to save that money.

Op I read your post more than once. You are bringing up multiple scenarios. Is this a lifestyle, for $2350. Then it would be the developer, who is offering to change the date.
Is it a property management company, for a private individual? Then the property owner has no say on what happens to the $$ since they are under contract with management company.
Or is it an individual they are dealing with? Since it’s not you, info is second hand and not sure anyone can help you. Other than an offer was made to rebook, and did the person in question buy travel insurance?

[RonI46]

if you had a villa rental booked earlier this year and were told you could changed the date, then you have to cancel as your government, canada, europe or uk, will still not allow you to travel, and / or the us government will not allow you entry , the villages will not give you a refund.

Question......so who is keeping this money, the owner, or the villages. Even a 50% refund would be a kindness in these very difficult times. If the villa remain empty you have still made money to cover the basics.

Either way it is bad business practice, and a sure fire way to make plenty of cash for no outlay. Perhaps both owners and villages can try thinking of what will happen next year... A friend who is 73 is $2350 out of pocket, and they are suggesting they re-book next year... You must be joking... We are not all millionaires.....some take 2 years to save that money.

poor business practice on everyone.

[maryl]

The Villages or property managment should put the money that the people pay to rent toward next year rental it’s only fair
The villages has gotten to big and greddy and doesn’t care about its owners or the people that rent there all resorts and big hotels have accommodated there renters and that is why people go back

[Enhancer]

We had a Canadian couple a couple of years ago who had a family emergency and we refunded their money in full. Getting the sales tax back was a bit of a hassle but after a couple of months, that was settled.

[J1ceasar]

Poor business or a crapshoot? There are 13 million business and always another sucker.

[l2ridehd]

I had a tenant from the NY area who did not want to leave at the end of April. I let them stay until they were ready to go home at my carrying cost only which was $45 a day. But this is why the majority of my tenants are repeat customers.

Have openings for August through December due to cancellations from folks from Europe who were concerned about the travel. Gave one a full refund and the other a reschedule to the following year which is what each wanted.

Just treat folks the way you would want to be treated if you were in their situation. Will you get cheated sometime? Probably, but you will also get rewarded many times over.

[Clydles1]

We are no saints but when our renters had to leave early because of the virus we gave them a full refund. They were from Canada.
Why? Because it was the right thing to do. I'm a firm believer in what goers around comes around.
We had the same experience. Even though our signed agreement stated, no refunds, due to the current situation, the owner felt it was the right thing to do to return our money. I wasn’t expecting it but I will certainly rebook with them when the time is right. I’ll also refer them to others.

[Dana1963]

The Morse Syndicate doesn"t care. if they will not give a break on business closures due to covid why vacation rentals.

[Bill Harlan]

No standard business practice

[PJackpot]

Did you mean to say if you were told you COULD NOT change the date? “You could changed the date”, makes no sense.

[DIver0258]

Our standard rental agreement states no refunds unless we were able to rent the time slot to another party. We had cancellations for the entire winter season. We decided the right thing to do was give everyone a full refund. It just seemed wrong to keep the funds in this circumstance. One renter from Canada really needed the funds to assist one of their children that had a business struggling due to Covid-19. There is something to be said for doing the right thing!

[stadry]

We are no saints but when our renters had to leave early because of the virus we gave them a full refund. They were from Canada.
Why? Because it was the right thing to do. I'm a firm believer in what goers around comes around.

we would have pro rated & refunded the difference - either way, good show ! obviously they would prefer renting from you rather than us ;-)

[wsachs]

The Villages Hometown Management rents out homes that have been put in their portfolio of homes to rent. You can rent all year long, monthly, etc. I did that for years before I finally bought. We were never on a 'lifestyle visit'.

[La lamy]

We are no saints but when our renters had to leave early because of the virus we gave them a full refund. They were from Canada.
Why? Because it was the right thing to do. I'm a firm believer in what goers around comes around.

You are FANTASTIC Papa Muzzy!!! I lost 1/3 of my March villa time when Canadian government told us to come back ASAP. No refund offered. It added up to almost $900 loss for me.

[Bogie Shooter]

The Villages or property managment should put the money that the people pay to rent toward next year rental it’s only fair
The villages has gotten to big and greddy and doesn’t care about its owners or the people that rent there all resorts and big hotels have accommodated there renters and that is why people go back

You have jumped to a rather big conclusion without really having all the facts.

[Bogie Shooter]

The Morse Syndicate doesn"t care. if they will not give a break on business closures due to covid why vacation rentals.

:what:

[justjim]

OP, from your post it sounds like you are referring to a friend of yours who had a vacation home rented from Hometown Rentals. If you haven’t already done so, I would suggest you contact Hometown Rentals direct and get the information regarding their rental policy during the pandemic. Legally they may have no obligation to refund your friends money but perhaps they may allow (given the situation) to change his arrival date and come to The Villages at a later date. These are confusing “times”. Good luck with trying to help your friend.

[kendi]

Is this a Villages owned property that is rented to experience The Villages life style for interested buyers, or is it a house owned by a private individual? I'm not aware of The Villages renting houses other than the experiencing The Villages lifestyle. What does the rental agreement say on the matter of cancellations or rescheduling? That is the governing legal factor.

Why would your friends lose their money if they rescheduled for a later date? Again, what does the rental agreement say? If the property is privately owned The Villages won't be entitled to any money.

TV does do rentals. Villagershomes4rent.com

[Juliebythesea]

Travel insurance is inexpensive and would refund almost all of the funds
Did the Villages suggest this?

[fdpaq0580]

LOTs of potential variables need to be considered here.
We have a house and use a management company to handle it. In our case, the management company received requests to cancel due to covid. Our company asked us how we wanted to handle this. We believe in the Golden Rule and said to give them their money back.
Hopefully, they will appreciate this and re-book when they can and recomend our property in the future.

[theruizs]

TV does do rentals. Villagershomes4rent.com

The developers (the Morse family) owns a property management company that manages rentals for private owners, called TV Hometown Property Management. Not sure if they own any of the rentals themselves or not.

[CWGUY]

TV does do rentals. Villagershomes4rent.com

:ohdear: That site has NOTHING to do with the Villages Holding Co. It's a private business. There is a part of the Villages Holding Co. that does rentals..... Home Time Prop. Management. :ho: The OP has secondhand info. and is trying to make it 3rd. hand. :faint: And let's not forget the haters jumping in with NO information at all.

[JimmyDebbie]

We are no saints but when our renters had to leave early because of the virus we gave them a full refund. They were from Canada.
Why? Because it was the right thing to do. I'm a firm believer in what goers around comes around.
Our scheduled April tenants were from NY and chose in mid-March to not to come down due to things being shut down in The Villages. We didn’t offer a reschedule since we were moving permanently to our home this month. We also chose to do the right thing by refunding their rental fee for April. We retained the security deposit only. Plus, I’m thankful that there was then no potential chance that the virus was brought into our home from New York.

[Mikeodonnell73]

I agree with you 100%.

[claylayer]

I am so sorry to read this and I feel for you! We had rented a home for April directly from the owner. The lease clearly stated "no refunds" if cancelled. Obviously, we had to cancel. When I called the landlord, I was fully prepared to hear that we wouldn't get our money back. Imagine our surprise when we were refunded the deposit, full month's rent and the cleaning fee! The landlord was so kind and said that this was a unique time and that she wouldn't feel right about keeping our money. There are still good and kind people out there.

[Bolsadd]

We refunded our Michigan April renters I would check with the governors department I believe they have to refund it

[Rosebud1949]

Thanks for the variety of replies... Hindsight.....The friend should have the left the rental in place.. , if the situation changed and they got here good.....even if the UK visitor could not get here, they would still have lost their money anyway. At least this scenario stops the renter, or villages from making money out of a bad situation. Then they could not re- rent the villa. My friend is "not a sucker" as suggested. Victim of the virus, and saved for 2 years for this vacation. 50% refund would have helped. Thank you 12ridehd may book with you in the future...and you too Sutty !!! The final straw offering a DOLLAR check refund.. un cashable in the UK, in the renters name. Even though I paid the rental in US dollars from my account here in the Villages. Dana 1963 you are right !!!!

[Shell1234]

If you had a Villa rental booked earlier this year and were told you could changed the date, then you have to cancel as your government, Canada, Europe or UK, will still NOT allow you to travel, and / or the US government will NOT allow you entry , The Villages WILL NOT give you a refund.

QUESTION......So who is keeping this money, the owner, or the villages. Even a 50% refund would be a kindness in these very difficult times. If the villa remain empty you have still made money to cover the basics.

Either way it is bad business practice, and a sure fire way to make plenty of cash for no outlay. Perhaps both Owners and Villages can try thinking of what will happen NEXT YEAR... A friend who is 73 is $2350 out of pocket, and they are suggesting they re-book next year... you must be joking... we are not all millionaires.....some take 2 years to save that money.

Same thing happened to me. Rented March & April. Left March 23. They would not reimburse for April. Bad business practices in light of pandemic & The Villages ability to work with renter!!!

[Scorpyo]

We are no saints but when our renters had to leave early because of the virus we gave them a full refund. They were from Canada.
Why? Because it was the right thing to do. I'm a firm believer in what goers around comes around.

I gave a thumbs up on your response, however, after reading it a few times I keep getting stuck on the "We are no saints". Would you care to expand? That could be interesting.:1rotfl:

[Indydealmaker]

The Morse Syndicate doesn"t care. if they will not give a break on business closures due to covid why vacation rentals.

You are so uninformed.

[Indydealmaker]

Same thing happened to me. Rented March & April. Left March 23. They would not reimburse for April. Bad business practices in light of pandemic & The Villages ability to work with renter!!!

What did your Travel Insurance Company have to say about this?

[Bogie Shooter]

TV does do rentals. Villagershomes4rent.com

The Villages Developer has nothing to do with this web site..

[Pbthrockm@msn.com]

The right thing to do is refund the money. If they want to keep $100 for future advertising that would be even generous. Shame on all those that keep the money and users can not use due to the epidemic.

[JoMar]

The Morse Syndicate doesn"t care. if they will not give a break on business closures due to covid why vacation rentals.

So tell me all those business closures that got a break that were not renting from the Morse syndicate. Another troll post I assume.

[JoMar]

The right thing to do is refund the money. If they want to keep $100 for future advertising that would be even generous. Shame on all those that keep the money and users can not use due to the epidemic.

Easy to make that kind of statement when you have no data or experience in the subject. If you had skin in the game you might see it differently.

[Two Bills]

That is why I include 'Holiday cancellation' with my travel insurance.
Works at home and abroad.

[meme5x]

If you had a Villa rental booked earlier this year and were told you could changed the date, then you have to cancel as your government, Canada, Europe or UK, will still NOT allow you to travel, and / or the US government will NOT allow you entry , The Villages WILL NOT give you a refund.

QUESTION......So who is keeping this money, the owner, or the villages. Even a 50% refund would be a kindness in these very difficult times. If the villa remain empty you have still made money to cover the basics.

Either way it is bad business practice, and a sure fire way to make plenty of cash for no outlay. Perhaps both Owners and Villages can try thinking of what will happen NEXT YEAR... A friend who is 73 is $2350 out of pocket, and they are suggesting they re-book next year... you must be joking... we are not all millionaires.....some take 2 years to save that money.
As a villa owner who rents property when I’m not there.. just a FYI..I returned money I could have made.. feel better about it.

[retiredguy123]

If you had a Villa rental booked earlier this year and were told you could changed the date, then you have to cancel as your government, Canada, Europe or UK, will still NOT allow you to travel, and / or the US government will NOT allow you entry , The Villages WILL NOT give you a refund.

QUESTION......So who is keeping this money, the owner, or the villages. Even a 50% refund would be a kindness in these very difficult times. If the villa remain empty you have still made money to cover the basics.

Either way it is bad business practice, and a sure fire way to make plenty of cash for no outlay. Perhaps both Owners and Villages can try thinking of what will happen NEXT YEAR... A friend who is 73 is $2350 out of pocket, and they are suggesting they re-book next year... you must be joking... we are not all millionaires.....some take 2 years to save that money.
The correct thing to do is to provide a full refund. The Government is preventing the landlord from delivering the product that they advertised and sold to a customer. That product is the use of a villa during a specific time period, not some other time period. Suppose a car dealer sold you a car, and then the car was destroyed by lightning before it could be delivered. Would you expect to have to pay for the car? The landlord is a business selling a product. If the landlord is concerned about not being able to provide the product, then they should buy insurance, not the tenant. Also, the Government has already spent over $3 trillion to help businesses deal with the virus problem.

[Mr.Alaska]

[QUOTE=Shell1234;1768367]Same thing happened to me. Rented March & April. Left March 23. They would not reimburse for April. Bad business practices in light of
pandemic & The Villages ability to work with renter!!![/QUO






EMPATHY AND BUSINESS ETIQUETTE:boom:]

[Holpat39]

Some times the owner of a property will let The Villages Property Management handle the arrangements for rentals. Approximately 15 years ago my children let The Villages handle their property which I believe cost them 18% handling fee from The Villages with a lot of restrictions on how the home could be decorated. They chose to change after 1 year and began renting on their own only advertising in the Daily Sun and another internet site. They no longer use their home for a rental but prefer to leave it empty when not in use.

[cj740@comcast.net]

I had a tenant from the NY area who did not want to leave at the end of April. I let them stay until they were ready to go home at my carrying cost only which was $45 a day. But this is why the majority of my tenants are repeat customers.

Have openings for August through December due to cancellations from folks from Europe who were concerned about the travel. Gave one a full refund and the other a reschedule to the following year which is what each wanted.

Just treat folks the way you would want to be treated if you were in their situation. Will you get cheated sometime? Probably, but you will also get rewarded many times over.



I agree. The Golden Rule. Good for you.:ho:

[Suzieque]

You are FANTASTIC Papa Muzzy!!! I lost 1/3 of my March villa time when Canadian government told us to come back ASAP. No refund offered. It added up to almost $900 loss for me.

We left mid March also but did not ask for a refund (and were not offered one) since we chose to leave early.

[Carolyn Ramler]

We lost our April rental due to the covid 19 virus to what would have been 1st time renters in The Villages. Being from Canada, they had no access to enter the US. We changed their dates to same time next year. We will be out a month's rental now but it was the right thing to do and they were pleased. It was not anyone's fault they could not come. Also lost this year's Nov. Dec rental for the same reason. Canadians who have been told not to travel until a vaccine is available. We applied their payment to next year as well. Tough times for all. It is not what one can get away with doing, but do the right thing and it will come back to one in a positive way.

[big guy]

If you had a Villa rental booked earlier this year and were told you could changed the date, then you have to cancel as your government, Canada, Europe or UK, will still NOT allow you to travel, and / or the US government will NOT allow you entry , The Villages WILL NOT give you a refund.

QUESTION......So who is keeping this money, the owner, or the villages. Even a 50% refund would be a kindness in these very difficult times. If the villa remain empty you have still made money to cover the basics.

Either way it is bad business practice, and a sure fire way to make plenty of cash for no outlay. Perhaps both Owners and Villages can try thinking of what will happen NEXT YEAR... A friend who is 73 is $2350 out of pocket, and they are suggesting they re-book next year... you must be joking... we are not all millionaires.....some take 2 years to save that money.

I think you are confused about where rental money goes. The Villages owns some seasonal rentals and I have no idea what their policy is. We owned a villa that we rented. The Villages had nothing to do with it except check-in and an amenities card. If there was someone staying there we would expect them to pay the rent. If they departed early it would depend on the circumstances whether we gave a refund or not for the time not stayed. If they did not show because of an illness we would refund after we re-rented. If we lost a renter because of a quarantine such as we just went through, it's just the cost of doing business. We would lose the money just as the shops, stores and restaurants have experienced. Maybe the people who couldn't come because of the quarantine would want to put that rent towards renting for next year.

[big guy]

"The Morse Syndicate doesn"t care. if they will not give a break on business closures due to covid why vacation rentals."

You don't know that.

[Aqtlow]

On the positive notes , As was stated if I treat people like I wish to be treated then hopefully what goes around Comes around. And then the one that I like the best... Karma is a.bit_h. God will move mountains but I must bring the shovel.

[michaelUK]

If you had a Villa rental booked earlier this year and were told you could changed the date, then you have to cancel as your government, Canada, Europe or UK, will still NOT allow you to travel, and / or the US government will NOT allow you entry , The Villages WILL NOT give you a refund.

QUESTION......So who is keeping this money, the owner, or the villages. Even a 50% refund would be a kindness in these very difficult times. If the villa remain empty you have still made money to cover the basics.

Either way it is bad business practice, and a sure fire way to make plenty of cash for no outlay. Perhaps both Owners and Villages can try thinking of what will happen NEXT YEAR... A friend who is 73 is $2350 out of pocket, and they are suggesting they re-book next year... you must be joking... we are not all millionaires.....some take 2 years to save that money.


Agreed. We're out the same amount for our previous booking for the month of July. After this sudden flareup of cases both here in Texas and in Florida, we requested to cancel our booking OR re-schedule our booking OR at least credit us for a future booking but Hometown Property Management refused all requests. It's a pretty cold and unsympathetic response from a community of retirees who know all too well the health risks we're all facing at present. It's frankly unbelievable. I've no interest in further dealings with them.

[Girlcopper]

If you had a Villa rental booked earlier this year and were told you could changed the date, then you have to cancel as your government, Canada, Europe or UK, will still NOT allow you to travel, and / or the US government will NOT allow you entry , The Villages WILL NOT give you a refund.

QUESTION......So who is keeping this money, the owner, or the villages. Even a 50% refund would be a kindness in these very difficult times. If the villa remain empty you have still made money to cover the basics.

Either way it is bad business practice, and a sure fire way to make plenty of cash for no outlay. Perhaps both Owners and Villages can try thinking of what will happen NEXT YEAR... A friend who is 73 is $2350 out of pocket, and they are suggesting they re-book next year... you must be joking... we are not all millionaires.....some take 2 years to save that money.
You agreed to the contract so whats the issue? It said you can change the date. So? Change it. You cant hold the owner responsible for the restrictions of a virus. Why would you expect them to change the rules?

[Jayhawk]

Agreed. We're out the same amount for our previous booking for the month of July. After this sudden flareup of cases both here in Texas and in Florida, we requested to cancel our booking OR re-schedule our booking OR at least credit us for a future booking but Hometown Property Management refused all requests. It's a pretty cold and unsympathetic response from a community of retirees who know all too well the health risks we're all facing at present. It's frankly unbelievable. I've no interest in further dealings with them.


Providers (property owners) have expenses and if you hadn't reserved it, someone else who could probably would have. Why should the owner take the hit? What is the logic?

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[michaelUK]

Providers (property owners) have expenses and if you hadn't reserved it, someone else who could probably would have. Why should the owner take the hit? What is the logic?

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What "hit"? We attempted to cancel weeks before our intended arrival?

[theruizs]

Providers (property owners) have expenses and if you hadn't reserved it, someone else who could probably would have. Why should the owner take the hit? What is the logic?

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Maybe someone else would have reserved it, but they would likely be trying to cancel too. Some owners have been providing at least a partial refund, 50% for example. There may be a written agreement but there is no reason the parties cannot agree to something else. Hopefully the golden rule will be applied in most of these cases.

[JoMar]

The Villages or property managment should put the money that the people pay to rent toward next year rental it’s only fair
The villages has gotten to big and greddy and doesn’t care about its owners or the people that rent there all resorts and big hotels have accommodated there renters and that is why people go back

I think the OP said they offered to rebook which is an accomodation.

[Jayhawk]

What "hit"? We attempted to cancel weeks before our intended arrival?

The "hit" would be loss of revenue while still having carrying costs.

Still waiting to hear the logic on why the landlord, who invested his time and money, should lose out just so you can get a refund. Travel insurance could have saved you.