Complaint Review: Paradise In Paradise - Palm Beach Villas

The owners have been misleading in the promotion of this rental property, and have left facts undisclosed, as was evident on their web pages (as of November 2005 & thereafter).

http://westpalmbeachparadise.com

http://www.floridavacations.com/fv/19875.html

Upon viewing a 3 bedroom vacation villa on the Internet, I booked & pre-paid for the accommodation at 514 M St., West Palm Beach, FL, through Pay Pal (for a 14 night stay. One of the reasons I decided on this property was because the landlords had advertised on their web-site a gas barbeque (not there); laundry machines (not working); bicycles (not there); & a free shuttle to the beach (not available).

Upon my first night at the house in January 2006, I discovered that it was impossible to sleep due to the amount of noise caused by freight trains passing throughout the night only a few feet away from the vacation home. The house shook as though experiencing earthquakes throughout the night. The noise was so loud, that it sounded like the trains were going to come thundering through the home. In addition, construction work commenced each day by 7 am directly across the street from the property. Due to the construction, there was also a boil-water advisory in place during our stay.

Not being one to complain, & wanting to give the place a chance, I waited to see if perhaps I had experienced an exceptionally bad night. This was not the case. If anything, the train noise got worse and when my mother joined me 4 days later and also could not sleep during the night, I phoned the property owners to advise them we would have to seek accommodation elsewhere. In fairness to them, we proposed that we would remain 3 additional nights to complete one entire week's payment, even though this meant we would have to continue on with out sleep. At first, the owner, Jim, seemed to be agreeable & understand our predicament.

The next day, our phone calls to finalize our departure went unanswered. The following day after that, our phone calls were still not returned so we went to their door for a discussion. The owners were now taking the position that we would not be refunded any money despite our discomfort (not even the money owed to us for the second week). We weren't happy about the first week of vacation having been inconveniently ruined & then being penalized on top of that despite our warranted dissatisfaction. We had booked in advance with the understanding that a decent night's sleep would be possible, which it was not.

The landlord had not disclosed any information about the freight trains or on-going construction work. They did not provide the address to the accommodation until the full payment had cleared, which was one day prior to departure. Even if we had time to verify the location, train tracks near-by wouldn't have given us any indication as to the amount of noise & frequency of the mile-long trains at all hours of the night.

Paying in full for the first week was more than generous on our part, given that we could not sleep due to the outrageous amount of noise from the continual freight trains only a stones-throw away throughout the night & the construction happening in the morning.

We vacated the after the first week out of necessity in pursuit of a basic human need, sleep. We provided as much notice as possible & had ample just cause. In fact, we stayed longer than we wanted for their benefit onlyto make a full week's payment. This consideration was disregarded & was penalized.

The owners, Jim and Jacqueline Hayes made our vacation experience very stressful & wasted our time.

We want our pre-paid 2nd week money back.

Lillian
Greely, Ontario
Canada