Northern Beaches Holiday Rentals
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SCAM do not book – Scam - Do Not Book I was one of the lucky ones who got my deposit refunded, and I subsequently canceled my Visa card. I believe this occurred after I threatened [Name Removed] with contacting the authorities, including Fair Trading NSW and Manly Police. In the past week, he has shut down his old website and launched a new one: https://arondegotardi.kinsta.cloud. Show details
Non-return of bond – The is a ZERO star review! It is a warning of a SCAM! I booked a property through Stayz, which resulted in all further correspondence with this company and Palm Beach Holiday Letting. Similar to the other reports, I paid the deposit and bond, the next payment was taken out of my account early, and I have not received the bond back. I have tried to… Read more
contact Aron four times, and other than him saying, " I will get on to it" he has never replied. I am still waiting for my deposit. I have reported it to NSW Fair Trading and the Police. Please do not be the next scam victim.
NORTHERN BEACHES HOLIDAY RENTALS IS A SCAM AND RUN BY SCUM – My partner and I wish we found this page before booking our wedding accommodation, for our own wedding ! The waste of breath that runs the northern beaches holiday rentals cancelled on us 3 hours before check in. Leaving us with no accommodation to our own wedding. You almost ruined our entire wedding. I hope you read this, I think you need to find a new area to work in.
Scam Rental! Refund only received after Manly Police became involved! – I booked a lovely, cliff property at Curl Curl for Xmas 2024 for 8 days. The property was available on VRBO, Airbnb plus Northern Beaches Holiday Rentals (also trading as Palm Beach Holiday Lettings). The cancellation policy was best on VRBO so I booked through VRBO who told me to pay the host Northern Beaches Holiday Rentals. Half of the total… Read more
amount was paid at booking on 1 Feb 2024 then without my permission the other half was taken 10 days later. I was surprised but decided not to chase it as I had a confirmed booking with VRBO. (Receipts from Palm Beach Holiday Lettings.)
15 days before we were due to arrive at the property, I received a phone call from [Name Removed], principal of Northern Beaches Holiday Letting, saying my reservation was canceled as the owner had double booked (even though I had paid the full amount 10 months earlier and I saw the property advertised on Airbnb then)
This was very stressful as I was flying in from USA with 7 other family members. I had reserved a good house early then I had nothing 10 days before arrival at Xmas.
[Name Removed] offered me 5 other properties but none were of the same standard or in the correct location. I found another more expensive property to rent, [Name Removed] agreed to refund my money plus the difference of price. He did refund the $2172 difference and told me he had also refunded the total rental amount, providing refund receipt from Palm Beach Holiday Lettings.
What does a receipt mean? Nothing as the money never came through. He assured me he had refunded the full amount and it was just taking time.
2 weeks later I found this website with identical stories and I realized I had been scammed On this thread I read about contacting MANLY POLICE which I did. Detective Tom Patterson and Constable Melissa McIntyre. I was informed that they have an ongoing file on him. I have also made a report to NSW Fair Trading.
I left a voice message for [Name Removed], telling him that the police were now involved and I would be taking legal action to get my full amount refunded. Amazing that he returned my call within 10 mins and the money was in my account within the next 15 minutes.
This guy seems to prey on international renters, renting out places that are not available and illegally taking the full amount without permission. He has the money early and it is very hard to get it back. My refund quickly happened once the police were involved.
I contacted the Airbnb host who said she was not aware of my situation even though he told me she had double booked. The house is still advertised on his website Northern Beaches Holiday Rentals plus VRBO even though the host only uses Airbnb.
Northern Beaches AVOID AVOID AVOID – I booked an expensive property in Manly over Xmas week from the U.K. in January 2024.The property was available on Northern Beaches (also trading as Palm Holiday Lettings), VRBO & Airbnb. The price was best on VRBO & so were the cancellation options so I booked through VRBO who told me to pay the host - Northern Beaches. Half of the total amount… Read more
was taken immediately & without my knowledge or permission the other half was taken 3 weeks later. I had a confirmed booking with VRBO so …OK.. I suppose.. 3 weeks before we were due to arrive the property is cancelled by Northern Beaches who say they’ve reimbursed my deposit, as the property is being sold & is no longer available. They hadn’t refunded me .Nor the other 50% they had taken without my permission. My booking was still “live “ on VRBO for my dates yet on Airbnb the property is still available?? The Airbnb host confirmed a booking had never been made for those dates & they hosted exclusively for that property so my booking had never been valid. Northern Beaches refused any contact or to refund my lost funds. VRBO were as bad and totally unethical. My credit card company reimbursed me but NEVER BOOK WITH EITHER OF THESE COMPANIES. One of them allowed fraud to operate on their platform with no care for the consequences to the guest making the booking. The other is just a crook.
Total scammer avoid – Scam!! The property I rented kept being removed from their website and advertised as still available on Airbnb and vbro, was not returning my emails when I wanted to know about travel arrangements 1 month out, so I got my Sydney based sister to call him. He does not have permission to rent the property, it is a completed scam, he did agree to… Read more
return our deposit but now 1 month out from our trip we can’t find anything nearly as decent for our family. So cross I didn’t check it out at booking but the website looks legit.
Following the advise of other reviews we reported this to the police, and they also asked us to report it on https://www.scamwatch.gov.au/report-a-scam
Fraud. Avoid. Avoid. Avoid – Can I give 0 stars? This company is a complete scam and is fraudulent. We booked a week long stay in a beautiful property. When it came to time to pay the final balance, something made us do a quick google - which led us to these reviews and we got worried. We had booked through VRBO, and everything looked legit (although interestingly we had paid… Read more
our deposit through his own weblink, not through VRBO). But given these reviews, we wanted to confirm if our booking was going to be honored before we paid any more money. Completely unable to get anywhere with VRBO, I had to investigate myself and discovered that the property was already booked for those dates to someone else through AirBnB. [Name removed] had double booked us. I told him this and he admitted he had double booked (and said it was a mistake, although clearly it was intentional) and said he would refund me. He initially said he would refund to the credit card and gave me a receipt looking like he had made the refund. 7 days later and no refund. I threatened to report him to NSW police if he did not refund us. He asked for my bank details (presumably to try to scam me again). We agreed to PayID and he has now returned the money, after the threat to go to the police.
The booking was originally made by my family member who is in the UK. There is clearly a theme here. [Name removed] did have permission to offer that property as one of his listings, but he had booked it to us at a price less that it should have been, and also knew that it was already booked. I believe he uses these properties as bait - you book, he cancels on you last minute, you have to accept whatever else he offers you. Thankfully we found out before my family arrived from overseas, otherwise the holiday would have been a disaster. The thing about this company is that it apparently used to be legit - hence why it's so hard to tell if you are being scammed! Like the other review, it I reckon it's some sort of Ponzi scheme, where he holds your money, delays giving it back until the final minute, then does so just before you take him to court, all so that he can keep getting away with it. I will be looking at reporting him to VRBO and fair trading.
Stay far away from this company – 100% do NOT recommend using this company. We booked well in advance of our planned trip and PAID, and they had terrible communication despite multiple attempts to get information. They then cancelled our accommodation while we were flying to Australia, so we literally landed and had no where to stay in a booked-out city. They lied and said there… Read more
was a problem with the accommodation. Reading other reviews it is clear that [name removed] is an absolute scammer. Avoid at all costs (because sadly, there will be additional costs to your holiday when you have to find last-minute accommodation when he screws you over).
Advertising properties he does not have the owners permission to represent, or that aren't available – He is advertising properties that arent available, or he doesn't have the owners permission to market. [Name Removed] the agent cancelled our property in Avalon just as we arrived at Sydney airport off a 10 hr flight. His story was the property had been let long term the day before. He got abusive when I said my Australian relative would contact… Read more
the properties tenants and ask them to confirm this. He then found us an alternative property, which later he withheld most of our deposit from . We had another property with him in Queens cliff, he cancelled giving 2 days notice, saying the occupant had broken their hip and couldn't move out. Fortunately this time we contacted VRBO who helped us find another property, but we had to pay upfront for another place before we got refunded for the property he said was no longer available. At one point he owed us several thousand Australian dollars. Luckily we had a solictor who applied a lot of pressure so we got it all back. I have noticed on both properties he never cancels with STAYZ or VRBO, he tries to move you into an inferior property without informing them , then you aren't covered by their insurance re returning the bond. I think he has a few top end properties he is claiming to represent, but doesn't, and I can only think he is keeping the money for the more superior property and putting you in cheaper property. In the meantime Our Sydney solicitor contacted the Queenscliff owner, they haven't had an arrangement with him to let the property in a while. Also the pictures he uses to market the property are fraudulent. They are from when the property was set dressed to sell it in 2015. Its been sold twice since then, and another building has been erected next to it that doesn't appear in his photos. So his photos are fraud alone. He falsely claims to be a member of the Real Estate institute NSW and Tourism institute NSW - our solicitor contacted them and they have said they will tell him to take it off his website. We also contacted Barclaycard to charge back the money we had paid for the property - which effects his credit rating. At that point he finally paid up. Barclaycard also said they have had a number of complaints from him. Put simply, he is a CROOK.
RENTER BEWARE OF RENTAL AGENCY! UPDATE – This company along with the seven other companies owned or operated (plus 10 companies that were dissolved) by [Name Removed] cannot be trusted. Thirty minutes before a 14 hour flight to Sydney, [Name Removed] sent an email cancelling our reservation. We had the same experience as a previous reviewer; no communication on how to access property… Read more
and other issues. He used two different company names on the receipts.
I have been fighting for three months to get my refund (as he had promised more than three times and still haven’t received it). This is obviously a common practice by this rental agency.
See following website for company names that have been created and dissolved under this name.
https://abr.business.gov.au/AbnHistory/View?id=34118890994
Further proof that these companies are one and the same. See attached photo (website at top of photos)
Disgraceful service -refusing to process refund and lying – Still waiting after 3 months for £3500 supposedly fully refundable deposit after cancellation. These pople just lie….been told several times it’s beenprocessed and had official looking receipts but it has not. They often ignore e mails. * finally, after nearly 5 months, and following my issue of a formal notice of demand, report to fair trading NSW and commitment to action via local court for a sub 10K debt, I have received my refund. Show details
Don't trust Stayz or Northern Beaches Rentals – Stayz and Northern Beaches Rentals are not to trusted! we booked a large home in palm Beach for a family wedding 13 months prior to the event. took our deposit and then heard nothing ; the week before tried to discuss early access (1 hour) for regional family members to get ready and heard nothing. eventually had a phone call THE DAY PRIOR to the… Read more
wedding so say our property had been double booked and we needed to select another property. selection was provided and we picked what looked good and suited our needs. AT NO TIME WAS IT MENTIONED THE "BOOK WITH CCONFIDENCE" CLAUSE FROM STAYZ WOULD BE NULLIFIED BY US ACCEPTING AN ALTERNATIVE ACCOMODATION FROM THEIR HOST. the house provided "Northern Light" had historical water damage and 3 out of 4 bedrooms had water coming in. 1 room was unusable. it should never have been in the rental pool! the smart lock keypad front door never worked (the cleaner was there and let us in initially) and our family members were locked out in the pouring rain upon returning home from the wedding; when [Name Removed] from Northern Beaches Rentals was contacted he was rude and unhelpful. luckily I had the key and was able to utilise this for the rest of our weekend. upon returning home Stayz would not assist in any way because we had accepted an alternative home and trying to contact [Name Removed] at NBR was very difficult. after several heated conversations and emails we were given a token refund (a very small token!) which took about a month and several emails and phone calls to receive. never again will we book through these sites!!!!
Unable to provide property and still no refund – Booked a 7 week stay the process didn’t really give much information about what to expect so I was worried about key pick up. More responsive just before stay but was called the Night before place had mould so couldn’t stay, alternatives offered didn’t work. So a positive I wasn’t sent to a mouldy house! Promised a refund. I believed the first… Read more
time I was told it was being processed, was suspicious the second time and the third when no money cleared I had to dispute on my card.
Currently in that process, they aren’t responding… if that doesn’t work I guess I’m off to small claims court for my $15k back!!
As you can imagine I don’t recommend. I’m already in a tough situation renovating and moving so stressful and financially hard. I just didn’t need this!
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Illegal practices of this company – Booked some accommodation with [Name Removed] and Northern Beaches Holiday Rentals back in February 2024, all was booked ok and deposit was taken. Two weeks later the remaining balance was taken from my Credit Card without consent. I have tried contacting this guy on numerous platforms multiple times and he does not reply. I booked my rental… Read more
through VRBO , they have NOT been helpful , even though this was booked via their site , they say it’s out of their hands due to payment being taken via a third party!!. We are now in middle May and I am still fighting to have £2.5k returned to me. Please , please take my advice and have nothing to do with this awful guy and his illegal business tradings.
Late Cancellation Without Explanation Then Lied – We booked an apartment on Manly Beach in May 2023 for dates in March 2024. This guy took our money and 48 hrs prior to us going to stay, he refunded all the money and claimed we never paid him. We ended up with no accommodation, and he made no effort to find us alternative accommodation. He has multiple trading names such as Palm Beach Holiday… Read more
Letting, Northern Beaches Holiday Letting, Northern Beaches Holiday Rentals, Port Stephens Holiday Letting and Port Stephens Holiday Rentals. He did the exact same thing on the same property the year before.
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Investigating further, I cannot find any proof that these are different companies and would not be… Read more