May 4
Posted on
Friday, May 4, 2012 in
commentary, TravelRatings have become unreliable. They are still helpful if you’re smart enough to weed out the fake reviews, but with sites like VRBO.com (Vacation Rentals by Owner) and now one of my favorite rental sites FriendlyRentals.com (I am not linking because I’m a bit peeved right now) purposefully NOT posting negative reviews, it’s a frustrating process to try to find a good place to stay and avoid a bad experience.
The thread to this Mendelson’s Musings blog post is full of responses mostly from renters of VRBO but also of property owners pointing to the fact that VRBO will upon request by the owner not publish a review by a customer, claiming it does not meet standards. Owners complain that since they pay to list their property, they should have the right to dismiss negative reviews since not all renters are honest people.
So I have become very suspicious of properties with only raving reviews or very few reviews at all. Surely, all places experience renters who do not think the apartment or house was the best thing since sliced bread.
My own experience:
- A vacation rental site that was not VRBO, I found a great 3-bedroom apartment in Outer Banks, North Carolina that was nothing short of exactly as expected and more. It was run by a management company – and I do like those because they have more of an interest in working with properties that receive great reviews. It’s their name on the line. In that case, reviews appear to have been an accurate representation.
- From VRBO, a gorgeous 2-bedroom apartment in Miami Beach – we put pretty breakables out of the way and left it in such good condition the owner said it looked as if no one had stayed there (minus unmade beds of course).
- From VRBO, a one-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn that had only great reviews, had many aspects that made it less than great, but the owners were so nice that I gave them the benefit of the doubt and merely suggested improvements for future visitors rather than posting these issues in a review. The issues were:
- instead of relying on them to turn on/off the heat (which was extremely noisy) upon request as there was no thermostat in the apartment, they should have two radiant space heaters – which would only cost $40 each) and would be more energy efficient.
- The porch light of the house across the courtyard in the back would shine straight through the kitchen window into the eyes of my daughter who slept on the inflatable mattress in the living room.
- A red light above the door in the master bedroom would blink constantly, causing me to put a cloth over my face at night.
- The bed’s springs hurt enough that I put a folded bath towel on top of the worst ones – the owners should have added a cheap foam topper.
Had I put these comments in my review, my review would probably have been denied. But the owner could simply write that these things had been addressed and show proof in updated photos.
Friendly Rentals.com – used them five times for rentals
I rented two apartments in Madrid and two in Barcelona from FriendlyRentals, one in Milan. Everything but the Milan rental I loved even if they weren’t perfect. I rely heavily on their reviews to make a decision, and was disappointed to find that they too do not post negative reviews. My Milan review is nowhere in sight and still has an average 9.1/10 review out of a measly 2 entries.
Here’s a screenshot of as much of my review as I could fit – obviously the scrollable text boxes don’t show everything I said nor do they send you a copy of what you wrote. Now I know why.
I also wrote about the gate to my wing being impossible to close quietly due to an industrial-strength spring. Every time someone would enter or exit, the gate would SLAM shut, making it difficult to have any length of sleep. Light came through the open entry into the bedroom and there was no way to block all light from the bedroom window, again a sleep depriver.
——-
I will write a solution to avoiding problems with these not-so-honest rental sites in an upcoming post. In the meantime, I recommend only book properties with lots of reviews – preferably some not overly gushing which is suspicious – and who don’t require payment all up front.
Feb 17
Posted on
Wednesday, February 17, 2010 in
commentarySo, I got my new mini touch-screen phone in late December, a CECT KA08.
Though it has 2.0 Megapixels printed on the back, it’s really 0.3 Megapixels. That’s pretty much the worst of it.
It’s much like my previous phone, though even smaller. Just shy of 2″ wide, 3 1/2″ tall, 1/2″ thick. the 0ne I bought is in pink pearl. The screen is almost 1 1/2″ X 2″. It has one button. It accepts up to an 8GB microSD card for music, photos, videos, etc.
In summary: I love it. Like its predecessor, there are some nuisances like being unable to go to the next SMS message. You always have to return to the list view and select the message you want to see which takes a little bit of time.
But this time, the phone does not freak out, deleting all my info and settings. It has retained everything for two months, has a plethora of features, and is tiny and cute. The screen doesn’t seem as sensitive as the one previous, and that means it’s then quite a bit worse than that of the I-phone. But I still look at the I-phone and think–though it’s thinner–that it’s just so freaking huge. I use little purses. I want my phone to fit. I love that I can select any MP3 on the phone as a ringtone.
I can’t wait to use it on my next trip. Till then, I’ve been enjoying its MP3 player, which offers a nice sound without the need for headphones.
I’ll have to take some good photos before putting them up to do the unit justice. Otherwise, you can just search in ebay for “KA08 phone.”
Sep 3
Posted on
Thursday, September 3, 2009 in
commentarySo intead of tweaking my new WordPress digs to look super, I’ve decided to start writing again. Shocking. I realize I’d forgotten to rant about Rome, so I’ll do that in the next post. Now that I have this nice, new, easy-to-use way to add entries, I’ll have no excuse not to share my latest findings with you. I have collected so many site URLs and waited for the right moment to package and post them, but I’ve decided I don’t need to. I can post a single site when I like, then add it to my various directories. No excuses! No procrastinating! I am finally free!
Jun 29
Posted on
Monday, June 29, 2009 in
commentary, SportsI tweeted commentary for the first time via my twitter i.d. as I watched the Confederations Cup final between Brazil and the United States and the third place run-off between South Africa and Spain. Tweeting about five or six times per half so it wouldn’t get crazy, I figure I might keep it up for other competitions.
Now on to the highlights.
- Bottom-of-the-barrel U.S. rockets into second place in group play beating Egypt 3-0 to move on to the semi-finals.
- Italy gets bumped off in an embarrassing 0-1 loss against South Africa, a great part of the reason the U.S. advances.
- Egypt loses in a hotly contested (at least by Egypt) group play match against Brazil 4-3.
- Brazil squeaks by on a questionably-called free kick to beat South Africa 1-0 in the semi-final while no free kicks are called in South Africa’s favor for similar and worse fouls during the crucial part of the game.
- The U.S. beats a too-casual Spain an impossible 2-0 using a power-in-numbers defensive strategy that proves to be a brick wall, and taking advantage of Spain’s conservative midfield and defensive positions to score on two of many breakaways won.
- Brazil beats the U.S. 3-2 after being down 0-2 at the end of the first half. But it really should have been 4-2 with a “ref didn’t see it” goal by Kaka caught in-goal by Howard.
- Spain wins most stylish uniform – part-royal, part-Star Trek. They also win most gang-bangable.
- South Africa wins most attractive crowd with their white-white teeth and their beautiful facial features.
- South Africa wins “most want to take an uzi to” for blowing those horrible horns throughout the games.
VRBO and Friendly Rentals don’t post bad reviews – shame on them!
Ratings have become unreliable. They are still helpful if you’re smart enough to weed out the fake reviews, but with sites like VRBO.com (Vacation Rentals by Owner) and now one of my favorite rental sites FriendlyRentals.com (I am not linking because I’m a bit peeved right now) purposefully NOT posting negative reviews, it’s a frustrating process to try to find a good place to stay and avoid a bad experience.
The thread to this Mendelson’s Musings blog post is full of responses mostly from renters of VRBO but also of property owners pointing to the fact that VRBO will upon request by the owner not publish a review by a customer, claiming it does not meet standards. Owners complain that since they pay to list their property, they should have the right to dismiss negative reviews since not all renters are honest people.
So I have become very suspicious of properties with only raving reviews or very few reviews at all. Surely, all places experience renters who do not think the apartment or house was the best thing since sliced bread.
My own experience:
Had I put these comments in my review, my review would probably have been denied. But the owner could simply write that these things had been addressed and show proof in updated photos.
Friendly Rentals.com – used them five times for rentals
I rented two apartments in Madrid and two in Barcelona from FriendlyRentals, one in Milan. Everything but the Milan rental I loved even if they weren’t perfect. I rely heavily on their reviews to make a decision, and was disappointed to find that they too do not post negative reviews. My Milan review is nowhere in sight and still has an average 9.1/10 review out of a measly 2 entries.
Here’s a screenshot of as much of my review as I could fit – obviously the scrollable text boxes don’t show everything I said nor do they send you a copy of what you wrote. Now I know why.
I also wrote about the gate to my wing being impossible to close quietly due to an industrial-strength spring. Every time someone would enter or exit, the gate would SLAM shut, making it difficult to have any length of sleep. Light came through the open entry into the bedroom and there was no way to block all light from the bedroom window, again a sleep depriver.
——-
I will write a solution to avoiding problems with these not-so-honest rental sites in an upcoming post. In the meantime, I recommend only book properties with lots of reviews – preferably some not overly gushing which is suspicious – and who don’t require payment all up front.