FlipKeyReviews 138

Had a very bad experience with a condo that I booked in Miami, despite talking and booking directly with a Flipkey employee many months ahead of arrival. I first tried to book this condo online, but was not getting adequate answers or timely responses, so decided to phone Flipkey and ask if this condo was actually available. The Flipkey employee assured me that there was no problem, the condo was available and proceeded to book it for us. I told the Flipkey employee a second time that we were not getting full nor timely responses to our queries and I was worried that the owners would cancel on us or there would be some other problem, as they did not seem very anxious to rent this condo. Again she assured me nothing was amiss and not to worry. Unfortunately, one month before our arrival, the owner did indeed cancel (citing an apparent plumbing issue in the building) and we were stuck with looking for a new place. Flipkey could not be less helpful. Simply put: they were terrible. Each time we called, a new person dealt with our problem, and each time they called us, a new person called (must have been at least 10 different people including multiple supervisors). Each time we would repeat our story, and each time they would say they will call back. But never did the same person call back. It was always a new person. Flipkey did suggest a couple of other places that were obviously inappropriate - much too small for our family and not remotely of the same standard, but at the same price (or higher) as the cancelled condo. The lacklustre offering of a new condo and speaking to a new person each time was obviously an attempt to tire us out so we would give up. Eventually, we booked another condo in the same building through another company, which cost us at least $1000 more because of the late booking. Of note: the building had no plumbing issue, which had been the reason for the cancellation via Flipkey. I definitely will not book with TripAdvisor's Flipkey again, and strongly advise anyone looking to book a rental property to stay away from Flipkey.

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.

Booked a rental for the Month of March in Florida, on the beach. Paid in advance and received multiple emails confirming the rental and hyping how wonderful it would be. Arrived in Florida and attempted to get access info from the local property manager. They informed me that the unit I rented wasn't available but they just happened to have another nearby (not on the beach) that they could let me have instead. I had a car paid for the month and return flight at the end of the month. I was stuck and they knew it.

I notified FlipKey immediately and got emails and calls that I couldn't respond to. Punch line from FlipKey was that since I spent a night in the alternate unit, it negated the Payment Protection.

FlipKey's position that it was the property manager's fault and the property manager blamed FlipKey. Eventually FlipKey offered me a 10% refund. When I attempted to accept, FlipKey acted like they'd never heard of me and, by email, asked me to open a complaint file. They're brutal and wore me down.

Avoid them like the plague. Honesty is not in their vocabulary.

If you plan on booking via flipkey, holiday letting or tripadvisor it is all one company and if you try to cancel they will make it extremely hard for you to get your money back, I tried canceling after I booked by phone they said that no money will be taken for reservation but will just freeze it on my account because I said that I would like to find out some details first once I realized within 24 hours that its not good for me i cancelled it I received an email that its cancelled but on my booking review it wasn't asking an agent after being on the phone to them for about an hour they could not explain told she would put me thru to her supervisor she actually put me thru to the owner which does not speak english although it says she does on website when I called again they said they will call me back in a few min and never did that happened twice and still waiting

We received a notice from the owner they have cancelled our 2 bedroom 2 bath condo which we had booked months ago. They said they had double booked the condo with another site and failed to notice this. I have emails which I have sent to Flipkey (I finally connected via phone call for 25+ minutes I had with the Flipkey representative during which I specifically stated I HAD already booked my own condo due to the lack of response (I waited 6+hours for a response after sending an email) after the owner cancelled the 2 bedroom 2 bath condo. Because of the late cancellation I couldn't wait any longer for a response. Because Flipkey failed to contact me other than send me useless options of condos (AGAIN I specifically stated to the Flipkey representative over and over again that I had to book my own a 1 bedroom 1 bath -which was more money and I lost my trip cancellation money). If I were to cancel at such a late notice I would have been penalized a substantial amount of money.

After hours of searching for the perfect place for my friends and I, we settled on one and contacted the owner, thru a realtor, to book the house, According to the website, which was not very detailed in the description of the property, the rent was $1850 for a week and this was comparative to others in the area. The realtor then contacted to owner to confirm and the owner raised the price to $2750! We're talking false advertising here!

I used Flipkey for 5 years, until now everything has been good, now they restrict the user info from the owner that does not allow them to make sure the renter is a good choice and is not a criminal or scammer.

The proof is in the numbers, my accountant turned in my last 3 years rental numbers, they are below, this year flipkey didn't get nearly enough numbers to pay my expenses and now this property is costing me money in overhead cost.

Despite people traveling more, bookings are down a huge %. Below is the yearly rental amount.

2017- $39,094.78.
2016- $62,050.21
2015- $73,394.55

Numbers do not lie, do not recommend anyone list and pay for this service. I do not know why they are not getting any inquiries any longer (but they still have the hand out every year for me to pay them and for the customers booking fee) but they are no longer a good option for renting a vacation rental home.

Two complaints. First, I was unable to find the cancellation policy until AFTER I paid the initial deposit, only to find that the fees were ridiculously high. So I decided to stick with the booking but because of a family emergency, I missed the final payment date by 8 hours and Flipkey would not let me continue the booking without paying the cancellation fee. Unbelievable! And then it was nearly impossible to find a contact person to file a complaint with. I will NEVER use Flipkey again and will tell everyone I know to stay away from them.

Property Owners - DO NOT list with this company!
Just got off the phone with them and they DO NOT screen potential guests in any form. The only information they get is email and credit card information for payment processing.
You could potentially be inviting a person with a mile long criminal history into your home and do not know it.
On the other hand, AirBNB requires potential guests to fill out a profile with them before they can even request a date. You can see the person's picture, personal information, where they live and past reviews from other property owners. BEWARE!

Worst company ever! THEY LIE AND ARE NOT THE BEST. We have owned a vacation rental for four years, never withholding a damage deposit. We have a contract all renters must agree to in order to stay in our vacation rental. The client must agree to no smoking on the premisis or in the home. Our client allowed smoking in the home permenantly damaging the curtains and fabrics on the furniture. Costing us thousands and thosands of dollars in damages. We attemtped to retain our $300 damage deposit and Flipkey / Trip Advisor released the $300 damage deposit stating there has to be physical damage to our property. What does Flipkey think smoke damage is if it is not physical damage? Terrible company. I would rate them a 0 if I could. We get 100 times the business from a much better honest company. Do not give Flipkey/Trip Advisor your business.