belvilla.de

Potentially fraudulent, absolutely unresponsive to customer concerns, AVOID AT ALL COSTS!

Two weeks before my stay in Sylt, I received a message from Belvilla that I was to pay the tourist tax of €78 immediately, or my booking would be cancelled without a refund, and I would not receive the printed voucher necessary to gain access to the premises until I paid this amount. The deadline given for payment was about 20 minutes after the e-mail landed in my inbox! I paid the amount since I saw that tourist tax would indeed be due. On arrival at the premises, the local caretaker said I was to pay him the tourist tax in cash. I was confused since I had already paid this. I contacted Belvilla, and they (possibly someone else at the Belvilla office) confirmed that this tourist tax should be paid at the premises, not to Belvilla. I paid the caretaker in cash and asked Belvilla for a refund. This was met with radio silence, despite multiple attempts to contact them.I filed a dispute with PayPal, explaining the situation. After about a month, the case was closed, which I interpret to mean that Belvilla apparently claimed I had NOT paid the same amount twice.Belvilla had enough information via e-mail to see that they had made me pay the same amount twice, and someone in the office was certainly aware that the tourist tax payment should not be collected via the Belvilla office.I must say that the premises where we stayed was delightful, but that was due to the efforts of the local caretakers, not Belvilla. The Belvilla side of this booking experience was entirely awful.Avoid Belvilla at all costs.-------UPDATE (October 26): I have provided Belvilla with information about the booking and have documentation to back up my claim and evidence of their fraudulent behaviour – extorting a tourist tax payment under duress ("we will cancel your reservation without a refund if you don't make this payment in the next 20 minutes") and not passing it on properly, thus forcing the customer to make the same payment twice (once in advance, once on site) and then not refunding it. I have not received any follow-up from Belvilla and must now conclude that the office is acting in bad faith. I will amend this review if and when Belvilla refunds the amount. In the meantime, I'd also urge customers to treat other responses from Belvilla to similar complaints with caution. Just because they acted apologetic on this website doesn't mean they actually did something about it vis a vis the customer.-------UPDATE (December 2):In response to my previous update above, I received the following message:"Thank you for sharing your experience with Belvilla. We understand that you encountered issues with the tourist tax payment. Your concern is highlighted to the respective team. We look forward for a quick resolution to it. Will keep you updated. Appreciate your patience.-- Carl"No one from Belvilla has been in touch since that time. The company has fraudulently extorted a fake tourist tax payment from me that was never passed on to the party it belonged to and has never corrected the mistake. It is not unlikely that when you read other negative reviews on this website where the company responds and say they will look into the issue that they actually never resolved it and just count on people giving up.AVOID THIS COMPANY AT ALL COSTS.

Date of experience: Sep 08, 2024