HostGenius

I write this review to help others understand and evaluate their needs clearly. To be succinct I will list the facts as I experienced them. Then I will briefly touch on the emotional trauma it caused me in 2022. My needs in April 2022: - A management company to take care of my furnished condo while I was overseas. Research: - I researched many Vancouver companies and landed on HG because I trusted the conversation I had with one of the main staff, COO. I am a person of my word, and believed that would be honoured back to me when signing on. I knew it was a young company, though the model fit my needs and I trusted them. - At the time the only model they used was to cohost my AirBnB account, and manage the property. That was all I needed. Experience: - Things seemed to go well for April and May. - I did feel like I had to remind them of a few things, though the main staff and COO was responsive and corrected any of the slack within a short amount of time. - End of May 2022, I returned to my condo to pickup some things and discovered that the current tenant was not in good form in my property. - I left, and reported it to HG. - During which time the company hired new staff as they were expanding rapidly, which caused me to have to repeat myself multiple times and pick up more slack. - I started to question why I was paying them, when I was constantly calling out the details I thought they were going to deal with, because that's what I was paying for. - I was out of the country again, and believed they would step it up as they promised. - I returned in August of 2022 thinking I was going to have a rest and enjoy some of the summer, though sadly I returned to damages which I spent 7 days of my own time and money fixing and resetting before leaving again. - I called HG to come and see the damages which they did not account for in past months. - Two staff showed up and made basic suggestions on how to fix things, and that they would set up a claim with AirBnB to charge the guests. - Nothing happened until I started to followup again a month later. - Damages; a completely wrecked couch, broken bathroom door, many missing kitchen items, surface damages/cooking stains to glass stovetop ( which takes a lot to damage ), bed frame damages, mildew smell that was disgusting, upholstery stains, shower tile stains, and beyond normal surface scuffs one might expect in a rented living space. - I was out of the country again in late August and told the staff to open up my AirBnB calendar to begin renting it, they acknowledged "yes". - I let it go and went on with my work believing they would do so, and again, pick up the slack after I had repaired and re-cleaned it all myself. - A week later as the Canadian Labor Day weekend was approaching, one of the highest vacation rental times in Vancouver, I saw that my AirBnB calendar was still blocked off. WHY?? - I immediately contacted HG, as I was loosing money and had been loosing rentals for that whole week previous. They did not correct their mistake until late September. - This is where it gets really ugly, as I was handed from staff to staff for 2 more months. Basically no one wanted to admit their mistakes or help me. - After perusing them for weeks, I was sent an email with a flat apology, and an offer to pay me $200 to cover the cost of a new couch, and $300 to cover the cost of thousands of dollars worth of lost earnings/bookings in August and September. - I did express myself to them bluntly, and they turned the tables on me, trying to blame me for all of the pitfalls. - Throughout many email exchanges they unconsciously admitted everything they denied... ultimately revealing they had done a massive company wide computer system change over and multiple accounts lost information in this change over. Thus, they dropped the ball big time costing many people a lot of money in lost earnings, because they were short staffed and expanding too greedily. - There is more... - I informed HF I was closing my account as of November 2022. - They protested and tried to charge me for leaving. I argued it and won. - I went through my account invoices and cross checked to the charges from them in my bank account, finding that I had been overcharged at random times. - I have pointed it out to them over and over and have yet to be refunded. - They lost a set of my fobs/keys. - I had to replace the key lock on my condo door, plus the fobs. - They have yet to refund me. - And the $200, and $300 offer they tried to bargain me with previously, went onto my HG account as a credit to their services. Not as cash into my account. - In December 2022 they credited my bank account with $133.00 as a payout for left over credit. Oh how generous. Emotionally: - For me personally, at the time, it was traumatizing. The tone they took with me after I called them out on all of their mistakes, was that of total corporate self protection, and I was no longer the friendly client they were profiting from. We were no longer cheerful communicators doing the Vancouver style of passive polite business. I was calling them out and they hid, and shut me out. The trauma triggered when it set in that I was paying for this. They had control of my property in the physical form. They had my keys, and bank account information. They had access to my assets and my investments... they had access to my home. This was totally frightening. I was not even in the country to step in and deal with it myself. and they knew it. See I've actually never hired a company to help me manage things, but I thought it would be a good idea and I could afford it then... was I ever wrong! I lost thousands of dollars worth of earnings. I lost time and energy. I lost my peace of mind. I felt totally violated and they didn't care. Outcome: In retrospect, I learned that I will never trust a company that does not have experience. It occurred to me that I was older than all of the staff, and most likely that none of them have actually owned their own property or ever had a real self owned mortgage. The maturity of how things were not handled has shown far more than the little amount communication that ever came from HG. I filed a complaint in December 2022 with the BBB of Vancouver, and nothing came of it. HG did not respond to BBB filing, and BBB closed the complaint. So that approach was useless. I continue to followup on the ongoing email thread about the final refunds they own me. People have suggested I sue them and that it sounds like they have resorted to illegal acts to cover their tracks and not refund people. They are not worth my time. I just want to be refunded for those outstanding costs and be done with it. My recommendation is to manage your own property and tenants. You will save more money and waste less time.