J and I have attended Lollapalooza in Chicago every year since 2007. Way back in October, I contacted the owner of a condo on VRBO to see if her property was available August 5-9 and she said it was. I had to confirm with some other couples and make sure they were definitely attending, so I said I'd get back to her around the first of the year.
I emailed her in January to confirm, and got no response. Sorta forgot about it (my fault) until mid-March when I sent another email. Finally, on 3/25, she said it was still available, but there was a new 5-night minimum. Fine, we'll stay an extra night, please confirm we have this booked.
No response for two days. Now, today, she says "Unfortunately the condo is available August 7-12, will these dates work for you?" NO! What the frack, lady?! I'm pretty sure you knew it wouldn't work when you said that it was available, UNFORTUNATELY.
It's obvious to me that she was stringing me along as a backup in case someone else who asked about the property (and is staying more nights) decided not to book it. She told them I wanted it, they bit the bullet and confirmed, and I get the shaft. Why else would it be available a week ago, and now mysteriously the first two days are booked? The 5th and 6th were in every single inquiry I sent to her.
Of course she never answered my questions about how to pay the deposit, so I have no recourse at all because she owes me nothing. I sure do hope she had fun messing with me all this time.
I am so pi$$ed right now. It's so late that all other 3-bdrm condos are booked and I have to scramble to find something. Just by blind luck, a 2-bdrm owner I contacted as a safety in case our friends backed out got back to me today, and since this woman was being so flaky I didn't turn him down yet. Maybe I can still snag that one... but we have 5 people. If someone doesn't drop out on us, our single friend is sleeping on the sofa.
I am a planner! I started working on this six months ago! THIS WOMAN IS KILLING ME! I guess I should just accept this as a good sign - if she's this bad when I haven't paid her, I can only imagine the stress she'd cause me if she had my money.

Re: LONG vent: I am about to cut a b*($#
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Jaime & Brent
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wow, unbelievable!
I'm still shocked when people act like this, I guess I want to believe everyone is going to do the right thing! I'm sorry, this sucks!
I agree with Jaime though, there should be a place to leave feedback!