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Fiascos and Fixes
Here’s what happens when things go wrong for travelers on the road, in the air, at hotels, and in vacation rentals.
The Travel Troubles category at Consumer Rescue is a collection of real-life stories about travelers who’ve encountered unexpected issues during their adventures. Each tale is dramatic but is a cautionary example, offering valuable lessons and practical advice.
The Travel Troubles section is meant to educate and empower travelers, helping them avoid similar issues and know what to do when things go wrong.
Travelers who encounter a problem they can’t resolve on their own should ask for help from our advocacy team. Our direct mediation service is fast, friendly, and always free!
What if you traveled halfway around the world only to find the vacation rental you booked on Airbnb is likely illegal? That’s the situation that confronted Alex Tarce when he tried to check into his Tokyo rental, and the host asked him to sneak in behind the doorman’s back.
What’s going on here?
Laura Fernandez just got charged $500 for stealing a stove from her Home2 Suites hotel room. However, this accusation has two big problems. First, she says there was no such appliance in the suite and second, she’s not a thief.
But the management of the franchised property didn’t let those little details get in the way. Two hours after Fernandez checked out of her hotel room, they swiped her debit card for an extra $500.
And she called the police to file a robbery charge against the hotel.
Now she’s hoping that Consumer Rescue can get her $500 returned and clear her name.
What’s going on here?
We’ve all heard the stories of air passengers getting banned from flying for aggressive and outlandish behavior. But Marko K. found a more harmless and unique way to get banished permanently by an airline. After threatening a mid-air starvation strike to protest the cost of airline food, he landed directly on Scoot’s no-fly list.
Marko’s tale serves as a reminder to travelers. Passengers who make any threats of problematic behavior – even benign ones – can end up banned from flying. No airline crew wants to be faced with an inflight situation that could force an emergency landing. So it’s vital that passengers resolve all of their complaints and concerns on the ground, not 30,000 feet in the air.
Evan H. made an embarrassing self-ticketing mistake on American Airlines that caused him to miss a business meeting. His time zone confusion led him to take a flight to Hong Kong that landed as scheduled but one day too late.
So why is he contacting a consumer advocacy organization about this blunder?
He says American Airlines did not inform him of the significant time zone changes (and date changes) involved in flying from Dallas to Hong Kong. As a result, he wants compensation of an undetermined value from the airline.
Have you ever wondered what the worst airline seat in the history of modern-day air travel looks like? Well, wonder no more! Aer Lingus passenger Matt Madrigal sat in it on a flight to Dublin.
Madrigal endured the dirty “seat” with no cushion and exposed metal for his entire transatlantic flight to Ireland from the United States.
Ouch!
His mom is furious with the airline’s treatment of her son. And she wants to know if our advocacy team can help.
This case underscores the importance of learning how to self-advocate in real-time. If you’re presented with a wholly unacceptable situation, it’s critical to voice those concerns at the time. If you don’t, you may endure unnecessary, unpleasant conditions that should have — and could have — been corrected immediately.
Editor’s Note: I first reported on this awful excuse for an airline seat in 2018. This article was last updated on March 14, 2023, as it moves to its permanent archive home here at Consumer Rescue.
Could a car rental company bill you for damage you didn’t cause — six weeks after you return the vehicle? As you’ll soon read, the disturbing answer is, “Yes, definitely.”
Hertz recently accused Akshay Ghalsasi of causing $600 in damage to a rental car he drove in January. But Akshay says he returned the vehicle in precisely the same state of disrepair as he received it.
He claims the rental car had a plethora of pre-existing damage, and he’s sure that the company knew about it. Akshay insists he has some powerful evidence that proves he isn’t responsible for the repair of the vehicle.
But unable to get anyone at the car rental company to review his photographic evidence, Akshay is looking for help. He hopes Consumer Rescue can deliver those photos to Hertz and get the car rental giant to drop the damage claim against him.
So what exactly do those photos of the damage on the rental car show?
Messy people, beware! Car rental companies will charge you up to $450 if you return a dirty vehicle.
Avis customer Bart M. recently found this out the hard way. Shortly after returning his last rental car, Avis notified him that the vehicle was excessively dirty. As a result, the company intended to bill him hundreds of dollars to clean the car.
Bart admits he left behind “some” garbage in the rental car when he returned it.
However, he says there is no way it cost Avis much of anything to remove that trash. He suspects the fee to clean the messy rental car is just an illegal cash grab.
Now Bart is hoping Consumer Rescue can convince the car rental company to drop its pursuit of the cleaning fee.
But just how dirty was this rental car?
Let’s have a look…
What if you locked yourself out of your Airbnb rental thousands of miles from home? Would your host or the caretaker immediately come and rescue you?
Xiamin Qi discovered the answer to both questions after she locked herself out of her Airbnb rental in Barcelona. Despite the host warning her about the self-locking feature of the front door, she says jet lag caused an oversight. That fatigue led Qi to walk out of the vacation rental and leave the keys inside.
Now she is asking the Airbnb host to refund $500 for her trouble. But is this a reasonable request?
As Marc Markowitz drives out of the Thrifty Car Rental lot in St. Louis, he has no idea that his whereabouts are being tracked. But when he returns the car, he receives an expensive surprise — someone was watching.
Thrifty Rental Car.
Can a vacation rental host refuse to refund your security deposit — no questions asked? I discovered the answer from one unreasonable VRBO host is, “Yes, I can.”
I have news for her: No, she can’t.
This story is another in our file of outrageous tales of travelers being fleeced by vacation rental hosts and franchise hotels alike. These owners are helping themselves to hundreds and even thousands of dollars of their guests’ money with little to no justification. And unfortunately, the cases are piling up at an alarming rate.
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