Tahoe Rentals by Wells and Bennett Realtors — Local services in Tahoe City

Tl;Dr If you rent from this company, they will charge you a fee when they cancel your reservation, and then if you complain about it, they would rather just ban you from renting from them again rather than trying to resolve the issue. Absolutely the worst customer service response I have ever had in my life.

BEWARE: If this owner has to cancel your reservation, they will try to keep YOUR MONEY.

I rented a property managed by this company through VRBO. The company subsequently cancelled my booking due to the regional stay-at-home order, and is charging ME a cancellation fee. When I contacted them to discuss any possible options they gave none. They said they are a small business that is struggling during this time (COVID-19)... and I get it... but here's the deal: I invested in you. I assumed the risk to invest in YOUR business during this time. During a time when many people are not traveling, I chose to do so, and support your business.

This company could have used this opportunity to say, "Well, our hands are tied by the county, so we are going to have to cancel reservations. But we are going to do the right thing and give people their money back." Instead, they chose to try and scrape up some money by swindling their own customers. I would have had no hard feelings about this cancellation, and would have happily rented from them again. But charging the RENTER a fee when the OWNER has to cancel the rental (regardless of whether or not it's the Owner's "fault") is beyond ridiculous. Wells & Bennett had the opportunity here to do the right thing, and they didn't. I called to give them the opportunity again, and again they did not. So I would ask them; what's my incentive to rent from you again? What's to stop you from doing this again? Either Wells & Bennett thinks that they have an endless customer base and that they can throw people like me to the curb, or they place absolutely no value on customer service. In either scenario, I can't see why I or anyone else should ever give their money to such a callous and deceitful business.

After complaining about this, rather than attempting to resolve my issue, they responded by adding me to their "do...

I unfortunately had a very bad experience with this company. My family and I spent weeks searching vacation homes in Tahoe that we could rent for August 2021. After narrowing down the choices, we finally decided upon a place that was under the Management of Wells & Bennett Realtors. I paid the deposit, locked it in, and was happy that I could cross that off my mental checklist. About 2 weeks later, I was contacted by Wells & Bennett to say that the owners of the property are unsure of whether they will want to make the place available next summer. I am so disappointed, but I am more angry that I invested 10+ hours of planning into finding this place, only to have them turn around in less than 2 weeks and force cancel my reservation. Now I understand that plans can change, and this is especially true in the age of covid, but as a management company, part of the job is being aligned with the expectations of their clients so that customers aren't wasting their time. If a place shows available for rent, that should be immovable. How are people supposed to plan efficiently if dates can be cancelled on a whim? This event was even further compounded by the fact that the next 2 places which the family had chosen as viable vacation options are now unavailable for our chosen dates. So...

I had a very bad experience with this agency. I wanted to rent a house for a Christmas week and I requested a quote from Saturday for 7 nights. The lady wrote to me that I should move my dates and come on Friday. I told her that I cannot do that as it meens that my kids will miss school and I have to take an extra day off. In response she wrote to me that they are renting only from Friday otherwise I should go somewhere else. She didn’t proposed any other solution either like maybe coming only for 6 days. This is so rude and unprofessional towards the customer who wants to spend few thousand dollars. I think there will be lots of families with kids that couldn’t move their dates because of school. And the agency's unwillingness or undesire to recalculate the price shows that they are not as kids friendly as they say on the web site. Also, what the owner of the house will say when he will learn that he just lost a few thousand dollars. Homeowners, be ware whom you trust...