Warning against use of Turnkey Vacation Rentals to manage properties

[Paul368]

Hello, 

I have been a host for six years across two cities, and I wanted to put out some information about my experience with Turnkey Vacation Rentals in Nashville, TN. This company was a complete disaster for my listings, and I would never recommend any host use them. I have a TON of things to say, but I'll try to list the basic issues with their "service."

1. They advertise a "hands-off" and "worry free" service for absent landlords. It was anything but. They couldn't even handle basics like getting the lawn cut before it was 3 feet tall in mid-summer, causing mutiple terrible reviews. I had to check up their work constantly, and they showed no care at all to making sure guests had a good experience and would leave the listings with good reviews.

2. They similarly advertise high-quality vacation listings, but they were awful at basic things that give guests a good experience. Replacement towels and linens were of really low quality, and not maintained well, despite these expenses being charged to me. They didn't even try to use good products when they weren't paying for them! Again, no care given to providing a good guest experience, and the listing suffered for it. 

3. They never held guests accountable for damages or even apparent theft. Items went missing from the home, including a full bed frame. Curtain and bathroom hardware was pulled down and shoddily replaced multiple times, but no guests were held accountable for these damages, and I ended up eating the costs.

4. Becuase the reviews suffered so terribly, after buring through my old airnbnb reservations that were already in place at handover, they had one good month of revenues (when their listing was new), and then after that, reservations tanked. I had 3-4 days out of two months reserved when I finally fired them. Now I'm having to cover the mortgage at this house with no revenue coming in for two months wheil I wait to get a long term tenant in place.  

Bottom line, this company is unprofessional in many ways and not to be trusted with any property that is nice enough to be a good airbnb listing. Plus, there is no bond or deposit in place to ensure their care of your property or business reputation. Use their services at your own risk.  

[Sarah977]

@Adam1073  These guests said they already sent 2 emails to your company which went unanswered. Why would they waste their time emailing yet again? 

Damage control is not a substitute for good customer service, a concept many companies these days seem not to understand.

[Adam1073]

I appreciate your concern @Sarah977 as it does appear that our communication processes broke down in this case. We never want this to happen to any of our guests and understand the frustration this can cause. But over the course of handling more than 100,000 checkouts this year, we have experienced unique situations when our processes did not work as designed or could be improved. This does not happen often, but when it does we take it very seriously. I'm currently working with our team to investigate what happened, improve our processes and try to find a positive resolution for the guest.

Rest assured, we do not seek to find any substitute for good customer service, which is why we take this feedback to heart in our efforts to improve.

[Jean687]

I had a luxury property with Turn Key and agree with everything above.  They do not screen renters and do not oversee the guests or have anyone local that takes any responsibility for anything that happens.  It was a very bad experience.

JB

[Adam1073]

Hi @Jean687 -- I work at TurnKey Vacation Rentals and I'm sorry our service did not meet or exceed your expectations, which is always our goal. During the process of finalizing a reservation, we've implemented technology (including bank-level ID verification) that guests must pass in order to prove they are who they say they are. In addition, we do have local team members in each of our markets to provide personal attention to every one of our homes, and we have taken many steps to reinforce a culture of accountability. However, I do acknowledge that this was not your experience and would like to apologize again for this.

I realize that you have had communication with other members of our team, but if you could contact me at *sensitive information hidden* I'd like to look into your specific issues to see where we missed and to help us improve.

[Charles922]

Adam,

Do you still work for Turnkey? They mismanaged my account and stated that it wasn't available for rental for the 4th of July weekend, 2020. It was available and I lost the revenue for that time period. Turnkey recognized that it was their fault but refused to compensate me in any way. Do I have any recourse at all in this? If not Ill be canceling my account with them.

[Adam1073]

Hi Charles. Yes I still work for TurnKey and would be happy to look into this for you. Please send me an email including the name and email address on your account to reviewsupport@turnkeyvr.com so I can investigate. Thank you.

[Sharon1142]

My experience as well. Turnkey was a fiasco. 

[Nicole1981]

It's Jan 2020. Is the Turnkey VR pitch for managing your property what you and your guests get? Also what brand of toiletries do they use. A small detail but if you have a high end 5 star I'd like to know.

[Tom2450]

Was considering TurnKey for a new property in a popular vacation town. Thanks to this thread I will no longer be considering TKVR. Good lord. Not only the horrible experiences, but the piss poor response attempts by a blank account named Adam. Thank the Lord I googled Turnkey looking for exactly this sort of background on the company ... yikes. Thank you all for your postings. 

[Andrew1858]

Worst Experience Ever. Don't rent this property !
This property is directly under the main runway flight path of WPB airport. The big Boeing 777's fly very close over the property 18 hours+ a day. And there's also a train that goes by all the time a block away. We couldn't stay even one night. TurnKey Vacation Rentals, the booking agent/property managers, where unwilling to move us to another location even after escalating to supervisors. And they lied to us after the fact as well. TurnKey also emailed that they don't pay the cleaning people if there's a bad review for cleanliness..that's terrible. VRBO did come through for us to assist after all other efforts failed and we really appreciate that they are a responsible company for this misrepresented property. Love VRBO. We will never rent another TurnKey Vacation Rentals property again.
#don'tRentTurnKeyVacationRentals #TurnKeyVacationRentalsBadCompany

[Nancy1315]

Would like to add my communication nightmare just trying to get a question answered . I was quoted one amount but a higher amount came up when I actually booked. They absolutely could not follow email thread and did not return call as promised. Highly confused and unprofessional.

[Christian2261]

I've had a similar, completely negative experience with Turnkey. I had great airbnb success renting out my townhome in Destin, FL, an incredibly popular vacation spot. When I had to leave Florida for work, I needed a manager that would allow me to stay hands-off and focus on my job.

Turnkey quoted me 35, 40, and 45k as their low/med/high estimates for a year's rentals. I should've paid attention to the "too good to be true" voice in my head, but I signed with them anyway. After a year's worth of gross rental/price mismanagement, they managed only 19k in earnings for the year, to include 2k in total rentals in June. June in Destin, FL! I was left paying a significant chunk of the mortgage out of pocket.

Aside from the huge rental losses, similar to other posters here, customer service and basic rental management was also an issue. We asked them to get a quote for repainting the home, and the lowest they found was 7k. My wife found multiple local companies willing to do the same work for 3.5k. They replaced our furniture covers with completely non-matching colors, treated a friend of mine rudely while he stayed there... when I finally told them I was moving on, they told me to wait "a few days" for a guaranteed revenue offer. Three weeks later, while I should've been listing the home for crucial spring break rentals, they offered me 31 guaranteed. Couldn't even match their low quote, let alone make up for their huge revenue loss.

I'm posting this in the hopes that other property owners seriously reconsider before signing with Turnkey. Look anywhere else for management if you want to make a profit, or even just cover your mortgage.

[Harrison50]

We’re looking for your help. We paid in full (#BKG-486304) before the virus prevented us from traveling, but Turnkey won’t refund our money.  The credit offered cannot be used because some of our party live in Portugal, and the others travelled from East Coast and can’t return.  We asked for a refund less 10% deposit which is normal policy if we could have cancelled early enough and were ignored.  Lastly we offered to pay your full management fee  less the balance refunded, and were refused saying it’s “the right thing for everyone involved”. Please ask John, TJ and Jen to reconsider.  A credit is of no use to us.  No exception is made for those who cannot use the credit no matter how long it is extended.

[Rachael228]

I had an awful renting experience with Turn Key...

Worst. Experience. Ever. I first booked through Air B&B and the property was managed by turn key vacation rentals. Less than 24 hours before we were to arrive, I got a call stating they were cancelling my reservation due to the A/C not working. My husband and I had already packed and left to drop our kids off and were in route. After spending 2.5 hours on the phone with multiple turn key managers, David told us that we could stay in the same area for an additional $300 more than what we had originally booked for a month prior.

2 hours prior to checking in to THIS place, I got a phone call stating they were cancelling THIS reservation because "the home was not available." My husband and I were already at the house, and now had nowhere to stay. It took me at least 30 minutes and multiple representatives to get David (the one who canceled both times) to call us back. When he did finally call back, he stated there was nothing he could do but put us 15-20 miles away from where we had booked and were currently standing. The reason was because the homeowners were there! My husband used the code that Turn Key provided, and in walked my husband to the homeowners dog. They of course were livid with the situation, and they stated that Turn Key tried to do the exact same thing the weekend prior - that the house should have never been available to rent. However, on the phone, David told me that it was the homeowners fault - that they did not do something properly. I had asked David to talk with any other vacation rentals because he had to know someone in the business in the area that he could refer us to - he told me he knew nobody. He stated the best he could do was give us $100 credit for our troubles - WITH NOWHERE TO STAY. I asked to speak to his supervisor and he said there was nobody else that could help me. I told him that I would got to his other property 15-20 miles away from where we were if he comped it for his error. He stated he would not do that. I told him that I needed to speak to his supervisor because I did not feel that $100 was not appropriate for cancelling my first booking, then asking me to spend MORE money, then cancelling that booking for his error. He said there was nobody else that could do anything else. He told me he had a meeting to get to and that Martin could call me - and he just hung up. Talk about awful customer service!

Martin called within 30 minutes and we had the same conversation. He stated he could give us an additional $50 for our troubles. Again, my husband and I were still stranded and it was 2:30 in the afternoon.

This was the absolute worst experience I have ever had renting in the 30A area - I have been many times before but I can promise you that I will NEVER rent via Turn Key Rentals again.

[Matthew1137]

Avoid at all costs! Turnkey cancelled our rental in Florida even though I told them the COVID restrictions would be lifted before our 5/23 vacation date. They refused a refund, and I painfully accepted their offer for a credit. The restrictions were lifted, and I tried to use the credit. They said I had refused the credit option (not true) and lost it. They cancelled my reservation even though those dates were eventually allowed, refused a refund, then cancelled my credit. They refused to provide any of this in writing. The condo owners didn't receive any of the money either. The scam seems to be for Turnkey to keep the money, and void your credit without even telling you. I dare them to try to refute anything I have said here. Avoid Turnkey at all costs! I will update my review if/when something changes regarding my lost money.