It was my first time to book an apartment through the internet. I tried because I wanted to see how the local people in New York city and to save our time in New York to see more fantastic views in the city. All three of us live in this terrible place for three days, and it turned out to be a disaster and a nightmare in New York.
The first problem with them is money. They mentioned the early check-in and late check-out fee for $35 in their website as you can see http://wsvacation.com/faq.html. However, during the email exchange, they added late check-in fee in the email without being noticed. We checked in at 9:30 pm that night which is a quite normal check-in time in other place and they charged for $40.19 (including some tax). But do they really need to pay such a tax? After we arrived in New York, the wsvacation staff urged us several times when we were on the way although it was impossible for us to arrive before 9:00pm to avoid the late check-in fee. In their apartment, a young man handed the key to us and charged us for $670 in cash. I asked him whether I could pay credit card or check but he rejected and said they only accepted cash. I had to go to ATM machine and gave the money to him.
After giving the money, the wsvacation seemed to evaporate. No one ever picked up my call, neither Kate or the young man. Kate was also reluctant to reply my emails either. It made me start to reflect their behaviors in this transaction. From the very beginning, they hid much information in their website, like the location of their office, the tax rate in New York, the receipt, and so on. I had no clue how they got the amount. Upon my request, they told me that the tax includes 8.875% sales tax, 5.875% lodging tax and $4 NYC surcharge. But I doubted that whether they are qualified to charge the tax since they only accept Paypal and cash and refused to provide receipt.
Their quote of amount of money was very confusing to me and the price was unreasonable. It seems that they charged reasonably, but I have no idea how they get the amount and why I need to pay late check-in fee and the tax. Below is what Kate quoted to me:
The breakdown of your invoice is as following:
3 nights rent plus tax = $662.63
+ refundable security deposit: $250
- paid reservation deposit: $283.5
+9:40pm late check-in service plus tax: $40.16
Balance: $670
Please make sure the balance of the rest rental and the security deposit, totally $670, will be paid to our staff by cash at check-in on the first day you arrive. The security deposit $250 will be returned to you in full after check-out by paypal within one business day if everything is alright and nothing is damaged/missing and no defaults.
We have paid whatever was required but after all we only got $232 back and they gave the reason that we had to pay $50.19 late check-in fee which we have paid already. This really made us very upset and angry.
From their website, you will see that their apartments seem to be nice. But you will never know until you see them.They described it as tasteful decor, having space and privacy. However, the fact is that the apartment was unlivable. They said it could host three people. But it turned out that two of us needed to squeeze ourselves in a full-size bed and another of us needed to sleep in their sofa bed which was extremely poor and uncomfortable. There was no A/C in the living room, while there was no real curtains in the sitting room. The bedroom was extremely small, large enough to hold a full-size bed only. It was crazily noisy all day long: at night, the old A/C in the sitting room was noisy; from the early morning till night, the whole apartment was filled with noises from the street (bus stop was downstairs and people screamed quite often). The window was broken and could not proof any sound at all. The reason we stay in Manhattan was because we wanted to save our time in New York to see more of the city. But because of this place, every day we were lacking sleep and felt so tired.
Now the wsvacation is still advertising actively on the internet. But I want to report my experience and persuade these who are looking for a place to stay in New York avoid the wsvacation. If you want to enjoy your trip in New York, try to avoid wsvacation at all cost. Despite the all possible conflicts, their place was terrible to stay. My mum and I suffered from headache because of lack of sleep while my brother was back broken sleeping on their broken sofa bed. It is far from a fancy apartment that you expect!!! If there are five stars for the good service, I will give them negative five.
Please keep away from wsvacation, my dear friends! Searching the internet, I only found several complains on this website. I am happy that not many people got cheated by them, but I am hoping that fewer people will get cheated in the future! Please take my advice, otherwise it will turn out to be disaster for you!