Complaint Review: Luxury Villas Cape Coral Scammers Thieves Stole My Money!! DO NOT TRUST THEM - Cape Coral Florida

I booked a 14 day vacation at the White Crystal Villa from mid-June 2020 Michael Gschwandtner on the Luxury Villas Cape Coral website http://villascc.com/en/2014/09/villa-white-crystal/ on December 27th 2019 paying the deposit of $1671. 

With the outbreak of COVID-19, the US Government has stipulated: As of 16 March 2020, the deomostic flight restrictions on COVID flights across the USA. 

On hearing this news I emailed Luxury Villas Cape Coral at [email protected] on March 16th 2020 asking regarding the Covid-19 and their cancellation policy as this was an unprecedented global pandemic, yet I never received a reply to my email. I emailed them again on 21th April 2020 regarding a different matter and they replied as we needed the full address. Yet they still did not advise on their cancellation policy!

On Sunday 24th May 2020 we received an email from our airline informing us that the flights to Cape Coral had been cancelled due to the pandemic and the current US domestic government restrictions. 

I then received an email from Luxury Villas Cape Coral for the balance payment, they do not provide a phone number just email communication all the time and their poor grasp of American/English is dreadful! When I mentioned the government issue, they pointed out the Florida beaches were considering opening! And that we must pay the balance or lose all the deposit in full!!

Michael Gschwandtner of Luxury Villas Cape Coral informed us that the landlord Dr. Michael Schröder had just changed the regular cancellation deadline from 50 to 30 days prior to arrival, is this legal without actually informing us in writing, surely this is illegal? Therefore breaching their own contract.

Now I have requested that we keep the same dates but moved them to 2021, when the US government has reviewed the domestic flight restrictions and we are all safe to travel. This has been met with initial statements that we are past the 30 day period and Dr. Michael Schröder (landlord) and Michael Gschwandtner of Luxury Villas Cape Coral will not move the dates without any financial loss to our deposit of $1671!  If we want to move to 2021 we will lose 70% of the deposit even though it is the US government flight restrictions stopping us flying! Both parties: Dr. Michael Schröder and Michael Gschwandtner of Luxury Villas Cape Coral are acting fraudulently stealing and scamming me out of $1671.

On their website they state that Information about travel restrictions. Each tenant affected by the current entry restrictions will be contacted individually as soon as we have further information.  

I NEVER received an email from them nor did they reply to my requests for updates and information regarding travel restrictions!

After providing the email evidence that was sent March 16th 2020 which Luxury Villas Cape Coral claimed they did not receive. They then refunded 30% on June 1st 2020. Bearing in mind that their competitors have already contacted us informing us we can move over 2020 vacation dates to 2021 without losing a single dollar of our deposit.  The question has to be asked why was Luxury Villas Cape Coral so adamant that they needed full payment including the balance and told me that we would lose the entire $1671 deposit if we did not pay the balance. Scammers – thieves? 

In this unprecedented situation, we have had other vacation companies honour changes in dates without loss of deposit; this is a clear indication to avoid the thieves known as Luxury Villas Cape Coral.

I hope you learn from my mistakes and NEVER trust Luxury Villas Cape Coral or Michael Gschwandtner as they are thieves and scam artists, I have never met such an unprofessional and unethical vacation rental company having holidayed in Florida for the past 12 years! Luxury Villas Cape Coral are to be avoided unless you want to be scammed and have your money stolen, like I have!