Oh connie I feel so bad that your trip was not a great one. 🙁 We still want to know every detail, the good and the bad, so we'll be anxiously awaiting your next report.

Oh my god I would have come un-glued on someone at the Budget desk. I mean literally. After spending thousands to get there saving money for a memorial vacation to only have this happen. My voice would of cleared out the airport in a hurry. Im sure I would of been visited by a security guard too. My suggestion Connie is to call AND write to Budget head quarters if there is one and complain big time and demand some money back.

lmcneil1125.......

I intend to contact Budget Customer Service...but I believe that the Budget in St. Thomas is independently owned and they just don't care whether we rented directly through the Budget webside and spend many many hours on the phone with them trying to clear things up. What I would love to know is how many people that have rented down there have had problems with that front desk.

There was another man in front of us that was so frustrated about his rental. Couldn't hear what he was saying, but he also had had it with this one girls attitude. We met alot of people who live down there that were very nice, but some of the islanders and workers are just down right rude. Keep in mind that husband and myself have been there before and we know how to be respectable.

We're rented many times from Budget, but that was in the states. Next time I'll either rent from Discount Rental or directly from our greeter, who also had cars availble. Believe me, it's worth more money to get better service.

Connie:

Wow.......sorry for your unfortunate experience.

We always rent from Hertz and have never had a problem (with attitudes or cars). I have always found them to be less expensive than all of the other rental firms both on and off the airport. We use our AAA membership discount. We always rent a mid-size vehicle.

As far as vrbo.com.......we've never used them because we own a property on STT, but I've seen a lot of complaints about the properties that are offered (on vrbo) as well as a lot of good comments.......so I guess it's a "hit or miss" situation. I guess it would have been nice to have someone "check it out" before booking.

I hope the rest of your trip was more enjoyable.

F.I.

Connie,

So sorry to hear your vacation did not totally turn out as expected. I do hope you had some good moments thrown in there despite the villa and the car rental fiasco!

Carole

Future...I did contact 2 of the people that wrote reviews about Wyndcliff Villa on vrbo.com. They raved about it. I'm going to do my best to warn other people about it. Daughter suggested I write a review on tripadvisor. They don't take the bad reviews and just toss them like vrbo owners can. I felt bad because I basically was the one who organized this trip. Don't get me wrong, we had a good time, but finding things like a old used bandaid under the bed and grubbs in the living room was just too much for me.

I agree with you 100%.

Connie,
Sorry you didn't read all the bad reports about budget before your trip. We had a reservation & cancelled because of the reports. Next time go with Thrifty. We had a great experience with them. And the horrible villa is everyone's worse nightmare. People can make anything look good on the web. That is why so many of us come to this forum for ist hand info! I also like trip advisor, you should write a review there.

Connie,
Red all three of your posts and was so happy to see that you filled us in on the villa and your stay!!! I would have loved to come and see you, but this month was a big month for weddings and I simply couldn't make it! I am surprised to hear about the villa, but then again when I saw it, it was many years ago and I was only there for an hour to do a wedding! I also didn't get to see the bedrooms! 101 steps to the platform deck below, right? Whew! That was a hike!
Sounds to me that you had some fun while here tho! I am soooo happy that I found you at the airport! I went down the line....are you with Connie? Connie anyone? Found you!!!! Budget was busy that day! Yes, Budget is privately owned and usually I don't encounter too much problems with them and I love Rosey who is a manager. She wasn't there that day.
Cocosmom, You recommended Thrifty......they are the worst company that I deal with!!! Yesterday, went to meet my guests at Thrifty. I walk in and ask if the Scott party has called yet. His reply " Mon, the power is out and we ain't got no phone"! They know the guests are here, they know they are waiting for a ride, they know the guests can't call them, so what would you do? GO AND GET THE GUESTS!!!!! NO, that is ok, I will go and find them and bring them to Thrifty for them! and that is what I did! I would highly dis-courage Thrifty for sure! (being an airport escort, I deal with ALL car rental agencies). My most HIGHLY reccomended? Amalie Car Rental! They will be there AT the airport UPON your arrival WITH your car sparkling clean, ON-TIME, EVERY-TIME, with a smile and this I guarentee 100%. You will NEVER wait for your car! Tho, I will be honest and say that they are more expensive. Next 3 in line that I recommend is Budget, Avis, Dependable, and then Hertz. Hertz is good, but cars are not allowed over to STJ- this is their only down fall that I can figure. Just my thoughts coming from this end of anyone's arrivals!
Back to you Connie, I am so glad I got to meet you ever so briefly! I am lookin' forward to your next trip, tho you probably can't even think about that now!!!! 🙂 Thanx so much for taking the time to write a report, I enjoyed reading it, the good, the bad and the ugly!!!!!!! Cheers!

Connie,

If you go to the vrbo Wyndcliff site there is a link to their reviews. Indeed there are only positive reviews showing because it is true that the owners can opt not to show negative reviews. However, there is a review counter, which currently reads "6 positive, 1 negative," so even though the negative review is hidden, at least potential renters know that someone wasn't happy. If you send your negative review, potential renters will benefit from knowing two renters were unhappy enough to send in a review. For many people, one complaint can be written off to difficult to please renters but multiple complaints suggest a problem property.

dntw8wup...that negative review was me. Of course, the owner denied it.

I contacted a couple people who had email addresses about Wyndcliff....they all raved about it, so I was confident that it would be a nice place.

The owner can actually reset it so it doesn't show a negative at all.

We've rented from vrbo for sanibel island for years off the same owner and it's been great. We also rented for Disney World once and the place was incredible.

I actually thing that the positive posts must of been from years ago or else they were friends of the owners.

If the greeter, at the end of our stay basically said the place needs alot of work and that the owner is closing it for 4-6 weeks to do some repairs, then somethings wrong.

I wrote a email to C-21 Sauder and they always returned my emails the same day. I wrote one this morning and I haven't heard a thing from them.

Just so disappointed that I made the wrong choice for the 8 other people.

Connie,

Now, I understand your post on my trip report. I haven't been able to read with trying to catch up at work. I am SOOOO sorry that you had issues with Budget AND your villa. I am glad you were able to enjoy the day on Born to Rhumb with Kevin and Andi on Monday. I too have rented (a lot) from VRBO and not had any problems, unfortunately it just takes one. It is such a shame when you have spent so much time and money to create the perfect vacation and you have people who don't care. I hope you have an Amazing Trip the next time you go (STT or somewhere else).

Cincy, you know what's funny about this villa problem? Every single time I contacted the villa agency (C-21) before we went, they got right back to me. When I sent them an email stating what was wrong with the villa and asking for my deposit sooner or later, I haven't heard back from them at all.

One of the biggest things in that villa that bothered me was that crack that ran from the Kitchen, through the Dining Room, straight through to the Living Room, Our Bedroom was directly under that floor and it made me so nervous that the structure of the house was compromised. We have had a structural problem in our home and it's been fixed, but we don't live on a 40-50 cliff. The house in dangerous and I feel sorry and scared for anybody that rents it.

Sherri...could you comment on this in any way?

Thanks....

Hi Connie,
As for the deposit part, the only thing that I can say is that the agency has to wait for any phone bills that may come in during your period of your visit, so this usually takes about a month and sometimes even longer as the billing period can actually end DURING someone's stay! I know this because it happened to us. We had a phone bill for one of our guests (large amount) which was deducted from the damage deposit. The following month we got another bill which ended up being for the same guests. When we tried the deduct that from the deposit the rest of that deposit had already been sent back to the customer. C-21 is a very reliable company that I know of and I see no reason to be concerned about getting your money's back, but they will have to wait until that phone bill come in.
As for the house condition, I don't know what to say. Getting the word out is the only thing you can do.

Connie,
Just wondering what time you got into STT. We arrived the same day as you at about 11:30AM. I stood in line at Budget while the wife retrieved the luggage. The belt must have been working because it only took about 10 minutes to get our stuff. On the other hand, at the Budget desk some late 20 - early 30 ish couple were not getting their way with the Budget lady. Every time she tried to explain something to the couple, he would interrupt until the agent refused to talk to him any more. It didn't help that he threw some bit of trash on the floor behind the counter. They failed to realize that although they had the money, she had the cars. This held up the process for everyone for about half an hour. When I got to the front of the line it took me 5 min. to accept the Taurus instead of the econobox I reserved for the same money. If you got in later you can thank the earlier customers for getting the Budget agent in a "good" mood.

Sherri...about the phone bill at the Villa.....The lines were dead, so we couldn't use the phone in the villa at all..

Bassman...we didn't get in till close to 3, so it wasn't us...but just wondering....did it happen to be the woman on the left as you're looking at the counter?

Bassman,

I know from previous posts that you were a regular visitor to STX and I think that this was maybe your first trip to STT? I think it might be interesting to prospective visitors to read a STT trip report from you. Obviously not looking for "duns" on any islands because of course they all have their individual charm and characteristics. Comparisons are pretty much impossible to make, but since you're a regular visitor to the islands, posters would probably enjoy hearing about your STT trip. Cheers!

Connie, so sorry to hear of your negative experience with the Budget counter AND the villa Wyndcliffe. You can probably get attention to this villa by the way you phrase your posts here on Vinow. For instance, a post with the words "DO NOT RENT VILLA WYNDCLIFFE" is likely to show up on search engines if someone enters the words: Villa Wyndcliffe.

I've had good experiences with VRBO, so I wouldn't hesitate to try them again.

Connie,
Since the phones weren't working, there is no reason that your damage deposit cannot be returned. Try contacting C-21 agian, if you have no responce again, let me know via pm and I will see what I can do for you!