My experience with Leavy has been probably one of the worst I've had when it comes to any rental, and in general, travel services I've ever used before. While signing up to rent my home for a few week was rather easy, the experience and service after that has been incredibly appalling. Here are the highlights:
1) One of the guests were a group of 10-15 students** (I've known my neighbour upstairs for 5 years and when I came back from my holiday they told me the story horrified). I have a flat with 1.5 bedrooms, so you can imagine.
2) These group of people were smoking inside of my flat and in the common corridor area.
3) Not only that, they also:
- broke my living room lamp
- bedroom bedside lamp
- burned my kitchen table with a cigarette
- stole several kitchen items
- stained my beige carpet
- broke my toilet brush
- broke an expensive glass flower vase
- used the heating 24/7 at an average of 35 degrees (I know that because I have a Nest thermostat); which led to the boiler loosing pressure and a huge energy bill
- etc. you get what I am trying to say
When I came back from holiday I seriously wanted to cry. It was heartbreaking to see my flat in that condition.
4) When I spoke to Leavy, the only item they came forward about (because it was obvious) was the broken vase. Everything else had not been brought up to me before I came back home.
5) Furthermore, when I tried to speak to them I got push back for every item. For instance, they said that they didn't think they had to reimburse the cost of replacing my kitchen table (which now had a cigarette burn) because it was still usable!! Another example was with some of the items that had disappeared from my kitchen. I have some designer cutlery; and while it's not ridiculously expense, it still not Ikea. Their response was that Leavy is not responsible for any items that are left in the house!!! I mean, what does this even mean? Can any guest just go to any of the homes rented via Leavy and steal anything they want? I was told I had to provide cutlery, so I did. I have many other examples.
6) After a lot of back and forth (during and after my holiday), Leavy agreed to reimburse me for some of the items that had been either broken or damaged. But by no means all of them. I'm now left with a massive bill which I'm having to pay out of my own pocket to fix all the left over items Leavy won't pay for. Which basically means that I have rented my flat for no money - as if I had made a few hundred pounds on this rental, I've now had to spend this money on fixing the house.
7) During my multiple conversations with Leavy, and since we couldn't reach agreement, I asked the person I was talking to if he could put me in touch with his line manager. He refused. Not once, but multiple times. He said he was the one making the ultimate decision, and that there was nobody else above him. I've never seen worst customer service. Really, Founders of Leavy, I would want to revisit this aspect of your service.
I'm writing this very detailed email because I wish I would have known this before I decided to rent my flat with Leavy. Please don't do it, unless you don't care about the way your home is going to be when you return.
