Our accommodation was great as we had 3 families. The pool was great to play and have fun with everyone. The spa was amazing. My 3 month old granddaughter loved her first experience in the spa. Her second time, she was so relaxed she fell asleep. Loved the open plan living. Loved being connected with everyone, no matter where we were. A few things need updating. A new umbrella is definitely needed. Especially when it go so hot near the pool. The smaller one also wouldn’t stay up. In the bathrooms there needs to be more hanging space for towels. One ladder is not enough in each bathroom. Especially when you have 12 people staying. Other than those few things. Our holiday was amazing.

I booked 3 weeks accommodation through Stayz and asked for a tax invoice so I could get reimbursed my almost $4000 outlay. Stayz/Vrbo support advised they don’t issue receipts other than for their service fee even though they are the recipient of my payment on my credit card statement. I was advised to contact the host for the invoice but the host refused to issue anything either. It’s a piece of paper, maybe 10 mins to whip up on a computer but too much effort apparently. Stayz/Vrbo is happy to take your money but there is no accountability and even less care factor. I’m not even sure about the legality of not providing a receipt in these circumstances. The whole experience and “service” model is disgusting. My issue was raised to the support supervisor but no one seems to communicate there and now I am receiving multiple emails daily asking if my issue has been resolved satisfactorily or telling me that I’m not responding to their emails. I certainly am responding to these emails as the issue has not been resolved at all. I’ll never book through them again or recommend them to anyone. Following this negative experience I booked accommodation through their competitor and was immediately automatically issued with a complete receipt. I can’t wait to complete this trip so I can delete my account and the app.

After booking and paying for accomodation in full, the host contacted me asking for a $200 deposit over PayPal to a strange account. Instantly I knew this was a scam and requested confirmation from Stayz that this is not normal and to cancel the booking. They told me to “rest assured” and to pay the deposit as this is a “most trusted property manager”. A quick google search of the hosts name returns no results and the number was fake and unreachable. Obviously I did not pay the deposit as I was certain it was a scam. Still I had no choice but to await check in details as Stayz would not cancel my reservation. The check-in details never came and the host became unresponsive after I refused to pay the deposit via PayPal. We had to travel 14 hours away from home to find out for ourselves that the accomodation was already booked out through another company. Stayz told us to find new accomodation in the vicinity. Unfortunately, there was nothing available for another 200km and we had to drive another 2.5hours just to sleep somewhere. I had to front all the costs and change our holiday plans completely due to Stayz customer service inability to listen to the customer. If they had just listened, this would have been prevented. On top of this, they are not offering to refund me for my booking as it was an “external third party reservation”, which is strange as I booked through Stayz . Imagine I had paid the $200 deposit via PayPal as they told me to? Overall, Stayz is a playground for scammers; scammers can do whatever they want and get supported in doing so.

Dear future holiday makers, please save yourself the hassle of booking something here, as I was mislead in May/Early April by a listing in St Kilda, Melbourne. The team essentially said, “Its up to the discretion of the owner/poster to decide if they will offer you a refund, we cannot guarantee anything. Please contact them directly.” This means that they have policies that prevent them from taking any responsibility for their clients’ mistakes/any issues which may arise. This company just doesn’t sit well with me. If you see reviews for the property, read all of them. I ignored the 1 stars for my property due to needing something last minute, and having a dog with me. Also ensure the communication for keys etc isn’t just a copy pasted link from another website, and that if there is parking advertised, that they ensure you will have it. I also ended up getting a ticket which I haven’t yet paid, because there was no advice on local area, and a tree covered a sign (I arrived at 11pm after driving 10hrs..). It’s just the little things. Just be careful.