Agents Say Villa Rental Firm Owes Them Thousands

Travel agents are accusing Euro Villas Ltd., a Florida-based villa rental company, of owing them thousands of dollars in connection with a series of cancelled fam trips. The company is reportedly in the process of declaring bankruptcy.
 
Agents told Travel Market Report of multiple instances in which Euro Villas promoted fam trips to Europe, received full payment from the agents and their travel companions, then cancelled the scheduled trips and failed to refund the money, despite repeated requests.

A July 10 email from Euro Villas to an agent stated that the firm is “in the process of declaring bankruptcy.” Euro Villas, whose website indicates it is located in Naples, did not respond to repeated voicemails left by Travel Market Report.

A spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services said the state agency had received two complaints about Euro Villas. The West Florida Better Business Bureau’s website lists three complaints against the company.

July trip cancelled
Lori Iannuzzo, a home-based agent with Can’t Stop Traveling, in Satellite Beach, Fla., said she used a credit card to pay for a three-day Euro Villas fam to Iceland scheduled for July 4. The fam cost Iannuzzo and her husband $1,048 per person.

In June, just two weeks before the scheduled departure, she heard from Cornel Scor of Euro Villas that the trip was cancelled.

After one email to Scor about her refund, Iannuzzo heard back from Harold Maas of Euro Villas. He wrote, “We are in the process of declaring bankruptcy. I suggest you dispute the credit card charges with your bank.”

The Better Business Bureau’s website lists Harold Maas as president and principal of Euro Villas, a sole proprietorship.

Iannuzzo, a 20-year travel industry veteran, said she thinks Euro Villas was “originally legitimate,” and she has read positive testimonials online for the company. “I don’t know when it started to turn,” she said.

Out $8,000
Carla Keneson of Travel Machine in Lafayette, La., said she and three friends paid a total $7,897 to Euro Villas for an Italy trip that was scheduled for April but never happened.

Keneson, a travel agent for 18 years, filed a complaint with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services after Euro Villas cancelled the trip and failed to issue her a refund.

Keneson and her friends had sent Euro Villas personal checks in July 2012 for $200 each, as deposits on the trip, paying their balances by check in August. Keneson paid an agent rate of $1,843, while her friends each paid $2,018.

On March 26, Keneson received an email from Miriam Maas of Euro Villas saying the Italy trip would not operate because a Venice cruise that was part of the program had been cancelled by the cruise line.

Waiting for refund
Maas offered a full refund, according to Keneson, and Keneson has been trying to collect the money ever since.

“I could kick myself for not using a credit card,” Keneson said, adding that “Euro Villas encourages agents to pay by check.”

Euro Villas charges another 5% on the price of its fams when agents pay by credit card, according to Keneson and other agents.

Fighting for their money
Other agents told Travel Market Report that they had received reimbursements from Euro Villas. But some said their money was refunded only after a battle with the company.

Dixie Fitzpatrick, a home-based agent with Gadabout Travel in Melbourne, Fla., had stories about two separate trips that she had booked with Euro Villas, including one for a client.

Fitzpatrick signed up last November for a five-day fam to Prague for herself, her husband and another couple. They all paid by credit card.

One week before the scheduled departure, her husband went to the airline’s website to select seats, only to learn that the airline had cancelled the booking. The airline said the booking had not been paid for. Euro Villas blamed an air consolidator for a snafu, Fitzpatrick said.

Persistence pays off
Through sheer persistence, Fitzpatrick and her husband succeeded in resolving the issue with Euro Villas. “I fought with them for three days nonstop,” Fitzgerald said. “We bought our own tickets and got Euro Villas to pay us [both couples] back.”

It required the same kind of effort to resolve an issue related to a three-week villa stay in Germany that she had booked with Euro Villas for a client.

The client made a $1,000 deposit by check to Euro Villas. But before she paid in full, the client’s brother-in-law, who was in Germany, visited the villa and found that no booking had been made.

Fitzpatrick said she reimbursed her client the $1,000 out of her own pocket, and then “hounded” Euro Villas for a refund. She received her money a month and a half later.

“If it was just me, I would think it was mismanagement [by Euro Villas],” said Fitzpatrick, who has been an agent for 19 years. “But I know of at least seven to eight other agents” who had issues with the company.

Complaint filed with BBB
One agent, Deborah Hampton of with Savvy Travelers in Nashville, signed up with a friend for a Euro Villas fam to Paris that was scheduled for this past April. The trip was subsequently cancelled.

Hampton had paid a $1,000 deposit with her credit card—she is now disputing that charge—and the balance of $1,910 by check.

After the company cancelled the fam, Hampton began trying – unsuccessfully – to get a refund. She has since filed a complaint with the West Florida Better Business Bureau.