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.  

[Crane3]

We were lured into allow TK to manage our vacation rental.  "Turnkey" and the account manager talked it up that they'd be professionally managing our vacation rental.   They use cheap sandpaper toilet paper , cheap TK labeled mini bars of soap and vials of shampoo and charge the homeowner $25 per stay for these materials.  

After months of fiascos, we fired them.  They send some new employees to do damage control but it was too late.  The account manager was non-responsive, flippant response to our complaints, immediately closed tickets that we opened.  They absolutely did not care about our property.  We arrived after guest move out and housecleaning to find the home in unacceptable state, basic instructions that were given to the account manager were never passed on to the cleaning crew.  Total lack of communication all around.  Our first group of renters got the place at a steal and then proceeded to trash our home.  DO NOT USE TURNKEYVR.

[Ruth888]

To all TK owners, we are thinking of using TK to manage our property in St. Augustine, FL.  The sales person to date has been straightforward with answers and easy to communicate with.  It is scary to see these reviews here and I am wondering if any of you have had experience with TK in our area?  Open to all comments, good and bad, thanks for your input!

[Sarah977]

@Ruth888  4 pages of horrible experiences with this company and you have to ask?  Sometimes we want to think that somehow things will be different for us, but not listening to strong warnings about something, be it a property management company, a tradesperson, or a scam listing that the guest knows is too good to be true, but is hoping isn't, is not generally a good idea, in my experience.

Of course the frontline person you are dealing with is apt to seem persuasive and easy to deal with. Then once they have you signed up, it will likely be a different story, according to what has been posted here. And, as you can see on this thread, they sent in a damage control person to this thread, long after the thread first appeared, to try to mop up the damage. As far as I can see, he did a terrible job- acted like these were just one-offs, when they obviously aren't, told disgruntled hosts and guests to contact the company, when they had already stated that they had tried several times and were ignored, etc. 

[Sharon1142]

I agree. Similar bad experience. Lies, broken promises, etc. Turnkey takes advantage of hosts and guests. 

[Jimmy-and-Dina0]

Terrible experience with TK.  I hate to leave bad reviews, but this company deserves it and then some. I booked a Lake Tahoe house for us and two other families for a summer trip. Absolutely horrendous experience during the entire process. A day after our confirmed booking was made, Turnkey started sending emails threatening to cancel our reservation if we didn't get in touch via telephone within 3 days to confirm some information. Tried literally a couple dozen times over the course of the 3 days to get someone on the phone, never with any luck. Calls, sent emails, text messages, and notes through the Airbnb platform as well, but nobody was able to talk to us and the emails saying they were going to cancel our booking kept coming. Started to panic! Finally, at what felt like the last minute before their auto-cancellation was going to kick in, I got someone on the phone. Thank goodness! They asked a couple questions, we agreed to the house rules, and then they said everything was fine, enjoy your trip! Fast forward two weeks - 2 DAYS BEFORE OUR TRIP with two other families, we got an email CANCELLING our house booking with no explanation whatsoever. Just cancelled, just like that. Hope you can find another place for 10 people with two days notice! This company ruined our trip for no reason. Beware, they might ruin yours too. I will avoid any Turnkey property like the plague.

[Sharon1142]

I had a similar bad experience hosting with Turnkey. There is no accountability, no honesty, no credibility. The cleaning service is a joke. Renters are not screened and they tear up your property and Turnkey does nothing.  I went to my home twice and had to clean it myself after the renters left—even though the renters paid a cleaning fee. The promises Turnkey makes are empty and never kept. I would NEVER list rental property with them. Any other company would be better.