FlipKey

Was renting my villa in Phuket through TripAdvisor/ Flipkey. Needed to cancel ne rental because my villa was being sold. Could not pay their cancellation fee online: their app was turning down my payment and systematically ask me to call their customer service. I tried to pay more than 12 times on different devices: mobile, ipad, computer. Same results. In the end spoke to their customer service. Asked me to give my credit card confidential code over the phone which for obvious safety reasons, I refused to do. Then asked me to make an international bank transfer: they were unable to give the proper bank details (no account number, no full name of beneficiary). In the meantime, they were not canceling the rental which mean that their client deposit was not refunded, and the client was prevented to make other arrangement.
In the end, they terminated my access to the app, ending a multi year relationship with no incident so far, for the non payment of a cancellation fee which I was very willing to pay if their system add allowed me to proceed online.
Useless. I would have rated them below 0 if it had been possible.
Owners and renters: avoid them!

Just spend the past weekend at a location in Hollywood/Broward County, Florida. The apartment was fully equipped, internet, tv, etc like you're at home. Beach was one step ahead, perfect location to forget all stress. Very clean and well maintained. The best part was that although we took food, beverages and some stuff for the 4 days, it was very easy to find restaurants and night entertainment close to the apt. No doubt we are going to repeat the visit cause me and my family are really satisfied. This is a 100% recommended place.

I found tripkey through trip advisor and at first it seems like a great site. You can find rental properties for less than what you would pay at a bed and breakfast. I was looking to stay at Carmel, CA or nearby in Monteray or capitola areas and they did have entire 4-5 bedroom homes available for what I could only get a single room at a B&B. I was close to estatic upon finding this out. Then here comes the part where tripkey is a next to useless website. I had to contact the owner myself and arrange the stay. They have this form you fill out and the owner is supposed to contact you but I never heard from anyone. I have no idea what happened or if anyone of them received my information to call me. How can you plan a trip without a secure confirmation? I think this site is good in theory but they need much more time to really get the owners on board for this to really work. I would prefer to just pay tripkey and have the home secured for my use. In the meantime there are better places to rent a home than tripkey.

Refund policy: Canadians beware!

Paid in full with Canadian credit card for a rental in Canada, which was cancelled by the owner two days later due supposedly to a calendar error. Refund received ok, but $150 less than I paid. Flipkey says because the money was converted to US and then back again to Canadian for the refund, they cannot and will not do anything. Amazon, Sears, and others seem to be able to handle this kind of thing correctly and fairly with their. Ca sites. Very surprising from a company like Trip Advisor with international aspirations.
Canadian (and other non-US) customers be warned! Book through a site where you can pay in Canadian dollars.

It's always useful to have another, good vacation rental resource. However, FlipKey does not seem to be this. The site doesn't have many updated calendars which makes it very difficult to reliably book a place. I would suggest they make more of an effort to better maintain their listings. Also, the UX is OK but lacks a way to easily "favorite" a property. And the messaging tool is poorly laid out.

This is a total scam! I deposited $1600 against rent, then they ask me for an additional $1000 as a security deposit. They promised to send the documents after I have done all of this. I did all that and now when I had to move, I am out $2600 and no place to stay. And the owner and their customer service both are ignoring me.

NEVER USE THIS SITE!

I am also filing a case of fraud against them. I will spread the awareness wherever possible. I want this company shut down.

I called this an experience but really I didn't even have the opportunity to experience anything. I booked a house in South Tahoe and received an email confirmation that I was paid in full and then one hour later I received an email stated that my reservation had been cancelled due to a safety risk because of the amount and the last minute booking and it would take five business days before my monies would be returned to me. I was furious not only was I out of place to stay but also out of $1321. 75 until when ever they credit my account back.

I hate to say it but they have gotten passed and lapped by Airbnb who quickly grew. Flipkey needs to do what Airbnb does which is provide an insurance policy or the homeowners AND assurances for the renters. They currently are not an escrow either like Airbnb.

Everything from the beginning was messed up. The owner didn't contact us with instructions on entering property. There was a for sale sign on property. The real estate agent told us it was not a rental and to notify police... so we did on Christmas eve... owner finally showed up after days of trying to reach him. The house was filthy we had to clean it. The refrigerator didn't work and we had to purchase coolers to keep our food fresh. It has taken me almost one year to receive my deposit and quite frankly I would prefer a total refund. I sent pictures of the filth but of course they didn't receive those. Tired of messing with it...
I don't think I will use them again.

I am amazed that any traveler would pay an exorbitant fee to Flipkey or any other travel site to book a vacation rental, when there are quite a number of other sites, Home away, VRBO, vacation rentals, to mention a few, that charge no fee to the traveler? I am an owner and found Flipkey to be the most difficult company to deal with, with absolutely no customer support, whatsoever. If one believes that he/she, as a traveler, is being "protected" by the website, you would be sorely amiss in this assumption. The website's only job is to make as much money for the corporation as possible. Period.

I have had a listing with Flipkey for 2 years, called to cancel and I have been on the phone for 45 minutes and still on hold. Very easy to create an account and have them start taking money out of your account, very hard to cancel. So 1 hour and 10 minutes and they would not let me cancel even though I created the account as the property manager. They said that they needed to speak to the owner. Again, you can create the account without speaking to the owner but not cancel it. Money is coming out of my account monthly, will just put a stop to it. No common sense on their part, It was my cell number, email and bank account on the Flipkey account. I even set up the security question? Anyway owners and property managers beware that the customer service is not on our side. Note: I was only going to cancel for a few months as we were booked. If anyone reads this from Flipkey, you need to review your policy, for we may not be back with our 2 listings.

As an advertiser on Flip Key I have noted that they send some 1/3 of fake clients for those who are under subscription pay per lead.

So you pay them for fake client and you do not know. I would avoid them to use in case you are searching advertising site. They are partial fakers and you will pay and for fake requests. Like in emails request where stands and this... " is your place good for yoga... :) And you get couple similar emails from time to time. Avoid them

Do not ever book anything using Flipkey. The worst company ever. They are currently in the process of assisting a very dishonest owner to keep in excess of $1100 for a property which I rented and had to cancel MORE THAN A MONTH before I was supposed to rent it. I spoke with the owner on the phone and she said she would issue full refund. Next thing I know, they are not issuing the refund because she changed her mind and she even told me that she got the cabin booked already with someone else for those dates! So of course I am going through my bank to cancel these unethical fraudulent charges right now. Very inconvenient. Incredible chutzpah! Shame on you, Flipkey and Trip Advisor!

Booked a week in FL for a friend's wedding. Our car rental fell through the day we were to leave, and I woke up sick as a dog the morning we were supposed to check in. After notifying the rental owner of our unfortunate circumstances, i received a text stating "ok, great." I then emailed him to see if he would at least refund the hold and pet fee amount (as my dogs never stepped foot on their property) and called and texted, and they couldn't even be bothered to reply. Try customer service? Good luck, it'll be 10 years before those people give you a straight answer. $1300 bucks down the drain, and saw a real crappy side of people in the process.