ComplaintsforBranch Hill Estate

• Initial Complaint

  11/20/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  My wife, dog, and I booked a dog-friendly Airbnb for Oct 20-22nd 2023. Branch Hill Estate was acting as an API extension and therefore had other specifics on top of Airbnb rules. This included a 39 point contract (attached) as well as a $500 deposit (note that they insisted on making it a personal payment). Saturday, my wife and I attended her Grandmother's 100th birthday party and as instructed in the house rules, kept our dog in the bathroom. Prior to putting him in there my wife removed the rug in question and hung it up on the shower to get it out of my dogs way. Sunday we checked out and received a damage notification from the manager stating our dog had chewed up this old rug (which had fused to the ground since it was so old) and that they would be taking $30 off our deposit. As frustrating as this was, it's our word against theirs so fine - losing $30 isn't the end of the world. I wrote an unfavorable rule due to this entities handling of extensive rules and for newcomers to be aware. Branch Hill read this review and deliberately decided to not only give me an unfavorable review but also to keep our deposit. However, counter to this Branch Hill Estates mentioned in the Airbnb chat that we would get $470 back. After a month and no deposit I requested the $470 via Venmo transaction. Branch Hill then proceeded to immediately delete their private Venmo account and instead open up a business account, rendering me unable to request my money back. I notified Venmo of the situation and attached the chat transcript. You can reach them at their support email for more details. The completely slimy and unethical business practices put forth by Branch Hill Estates is what prompted my actions against them. It was completely unfair and we have felt like victims of a scam.

  Business response

  11/20/2023

  The customer, **** ********** breeched the rental agreement when they allowed their dog to be alone in the rental property without a crate.  The customer signed(as they stated themselves multiple times) the 39 point rental agreement as required prior to choosing to stay at the property as they have stated in their complaint .  After staying they then have chosen to claim how unfair the rules that they agreed to were even though they agreed to them. Regardless, the policy that they broke and are upset about is the Pet Policy (specifically listed as "point"/section #9 in the rental agreement). 
  After this guest stated in writing that they didn't follow the rental policies in the signed rental agreement we proceeded to follow the remedy in place for that neglect as is agreed upon and stated very clearly in the signed rental agreement. 

  Unfortunately, he chose to try and disparage our business in a review on the rental platform they chose to book on and include many falsehoods. He continues to be upset that we are holding him to the rental agreement that he signed.  He became increasingly upset after he read the review of this rental platform that we left for him regarding the fact that he didn't not follow the rental policies in place and it resulted in his dog causing damage to our property. When the rental platform explained to him that he signed a rental agreement and there was nothing they couldn't do to force the return of his damage deposit he turned to the payment platform and this pattern has clearly continued with this "complaint" to the BBB. Even his claim that we cancelled out the Venmo account that he used and opened a new one is completely untrue and unfounded. We had to block Mr. ********* from this continued harassment on that platform due to his dislike of the consequences of his actions. This may certainly make it appears as if we "deleted" our account when in fact we did no such thing and continue to host thousands of guests every year across multiple vacation properties without incident. We continue to do business as we are instructed by our legal counsel and within the parameters of our legally binding contracts concerning the rental of our vacation properties. 
  Of course, he absolutely has the ability and right to have his opinion and can even make things up that are untrue as he has. We can't stop him from doing that without legal action. He can even waste time filing "complaints" through the BBB and attempting to get the booking platform to go against the legal contract he signed when booking his stay.  But what needs to understand is that he can't think that he can attempt to hurt our business and expect us to make an exception to the rules for him or work with him toward any other agreeable outcome just because he didn't like the rules and thought the rules shouldn't apply to him.
  Up until this point, we have very generously chosen not to pursue any further remedies from Mr. ********* regarding this continued harassment, liable and slander, but we are beginning to second guess that decision as these continued complaints full of untruths keep coming in and are growing weary of answering these "complaints" which are nothing more than an attempt to be able to get away with the issues his stay caused and the damages he has left in his wake.

  We will not continue to engage with Mr. ********* regarding these complaints and continued matter regarding his breech of contract as we have wasted more than enough time already. We appreciate the ability to be able to have another version of the events from this guest in writing, however, should we need this in the future for further legal action. 

  Regards. 

  Customer response

  11/20/2023

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ** ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me. 
  
  Regards,
  
  ******** *********
  

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