In July of 2015, we began researching a vacation for New Years 2015-2016. After searching many websites, we found Luxe Vacation Homes and ultimately Kona (luxevh.com/home/kona). We had multiple conversations with JB ("reservation specialist") regarding the home. We were looking for something clean and modern with a great kitchen as we love to cook and prepare meals.
We also were informed during the conversation that the owner was in the process of switching one bedroom from a queen to two doubles, something that was very important given the make-up of our group. Lastly, and this was what really sold this home for us, we were told that by staying at this property, we would have complete access to all of the amenities of the JW Marriott Desert Springs (marriott.com/hotels/trav…). This included tennis courts, multiple pools, fitness centers, and many other awesome amenities.
After all of these conversations, and back and forth, we went ahead on July 30th and booked the home for 12/28/15-1/1/16, for a substantial price. We paid the initial deposit and were informed that the remaining balance would be due 30 days prior to our stay. We signed and returned the contract, received back confirmation and began to plan all of the outings in the desert during our stay. Plane tickets were booked for people coming from Pennsylvania and Kansas, and car reservations were made. On 11/5/2015, we paid the remaining balance, well before the 30 day period.
On December 4th, the train began to come off the rails. We received an email asking us to "review our stay at Kona". This was particularly odd since we weren't scheduled to arrive for over 3 weeks! We immediately emailed back and followed up with a phone call. We were assured by JB that this was just a system error and he confirmed that our reservation was absolutely correct in the system, no need to worry. The first of many lies we would be told.
On December 17th, we received an email that began with "I hope you are looking forward to your upcoming stay in the Palm Springs area." Which would be very nice if the next line didn't launch into some elaborate story about how the home was double booked and the other booking was actually made prior to ours and oh sorry, no stay at Kona for you! Good news though, there was another home available and even at a lower price for us to stay in! Let's keep in mind, this is two weeks before New Years, and only 10 days before we were supposed to arrive. This was the only home that had the minimum number of bedrooms for us to stay in.
Any guess on why it was still available at this point??? The home was not even close to the same level and in a completely different city with access to no amenities! We responded that this home would not work and listed a multitude of reasons. When we explained that we were not satisfied with this home, we were told that they were sorry, everything was booked since it was the holiday and they had been trying since December 3rd to find us something! They realized on December 3rd that they had messed up entirely and began looking for something but didn't bother to tell us!! What's worse, when we contacted them and confirmed our reservation was correct, they lied!
After much back and forth, with many more lies from them, the worst offender being Tim the "manager", we contacted a lawyer. We were instructed to direct all communication moving forward to their attorney Devon. After multiple attempts to reach Devon, both by email and calling Luxe, an internet search revealed that Devon didn't actually work for Luxe. He never did, they just had him on their website. He had no access to the email address they were forcing us to send emails to. More lies!!
This is the most dishonest, deceitful, misleading company I have ever had the displeasure of working with. DO NOT BOOK WITH THEM!!!#luxevacationhomes #luxevh #dishonest
Legal Eagle
Indio,#2Consumer Comment
Sat, June 30, 2018
Luxe is scrambling. They owe thousands to owners and have been banking on pyramid payments to dig out of the hole. If you have a home in the Luxe VH managment program beware. They are lying to guests who booked homes months ago. They say homes are not available because of circumstances beyond their control. They are lying and I have proof. I really feel for all the people who have holidays booked and will arrive to locked doors because Luxe failed to pay their bills. I was told today they have already lost one lawsuit but not yet paid. Many more coming.
#3Author of original report
Mon, April 04, 2016
There may be two sides to every story, but it is often easy to know which to believe when the lies continue to pile up. To keep it simple, we will address these in bullet points:
By take advantage of the situation, I suppose they mean salvage an extremly expensive vacation that wasy 6 months in the planning with three generations flying in from all around the country. Since LUXE waited over two weeks to tell us they realized they screwed up, we were left with virtually no options.
What is such a shame about all of this is that the people at LUXE seem to want to either bury their head in the sand, or hope that we will. Luckily in CA it is easy to resolve matters in Small Claims Court, which will be happening very soon. In fact, the paperwork has already been filed and thise business will be getting served very shortly. That is of course if we are able to every locate the owner to serve since he seems to be nearly impossible to find or contact.
Manager
La Quinta,#4UPDATE Employee ..inside information
Mon, April 04, 2016