FlipKey Reviews 

Encountered a problem with my rental, Flipkey's answer was prompt and accordingly. I recommend them.

I was supposed to have a guest arriving at my vacation rental shortly via FlipKey, but the booking was cancelled late yesterday, less than 24 hours before arrival, by their Trust & Safety Team. They initially sent me an e-mail saying the booking was cancelled due to COVID-19, but that made absolutely no sense as the guest was already in my city and had just made the booking a day earlier; there are currently no lockdowns in our area.

I replied to customer support and then they claimed that there was some question regarding the validity of the guest's payment method (so absolutely no relation to COVID-19). I found this odd since FlipKey originally sent an email saying that the guest had already pre-paid. If the guest had trouble paying then of course I do not want him in my home, but FlipKey never gave me any clear explanation as to why the supposedly pre-paid booking was having payment troubles at the last minute.

Later the guest sent me a message asking what was going on; he seemed to think I had cancelled the booking and was upset, and he ended up reserving a different property instead.

The worst part is that I had already paid for housekeeping services to prepare for the guest's arrival, so not only did I lose the original booking fee, but I was also out of pocket on housekeeping expenses.

Needless to say, I was not happy. I asked FlipKey if they could at least cover the cleaning costs since the booking was cancelled by them at the last minute, but they immediately refused, and then told me that they would no longer discuss the issue with me and I had to contact their legal team for further information. I did not appreciate this curt response.

I understand that it is not FlipKey's fault if a customer's credit card has issues, but they are the ones who confirmed payment and the reservation in the first place. Property owners do not take direct payments from guests, so FlipKey should take responsibility for fixing these types of issues. I also do not understand why they first told me the issue was COVID-19 but then later they changed the story to a credit card problem.

I asked for a phone number for their legal team, but they said they would not take calls with customers and they actually asked me to send an inquiry by postal mail! Yes, in the year 2020 they expect you to write them a letter.

I am very disappointed by this company. It is clear they do not care about supporting their property owners.

My family operates a vacation rental apartment that we advertise via various platforms including FlipKey, which is owned by TripAdvisor. FlipKey unilaterally cancelled one of our bookings and withheld payment that we were due for a long term booking that had been made six months in advance, was during peak travel season to our area, and the total value of which was almost $3,000. This occurred only two days before the scheduled booking and happened even though neither the guests nor we requested it. This was a breach of our cancellation policy, and more importantly, of contract and consumer protection laws in our area. Contacting FlipKey customer support to find a resolution was an exercise in futility: a real person never answered their customer service hotline so the only option for contact was email. They replied with template responses that ignored the questions asked and specifics of the situation; at one point they sent identical replies four times in a row. Each time a different customer support "executive" replied who seemingly knew nothing about what was previously discussed. It gave the impression that their customer support was intentionally designed to obfuscate, frustrate and pressure customers into giving up rather than find solutions. Finally someone from their customer support called me and admitted that their systems automatically cancelled the booking and withheld our payment in error but there was nothing they could do about it. When I pushed the issue further, they then moved the goalposts and said we had broken a clause in the User Terms of Service (which was a complete lie), so they would not honor the reservation / send us any cancellation payment. Eventually they just stopped replying to my messages and closed the case. Since all of this occurred only two days before the original booking, of course it was too late to get a replacement customer and we simply lost out on the booking. This is unquestionably the worst customer service experience I have ever had. FlipKey is an unscrupulous company that no property owner or guest should ever trust.

UPDATE: FlipKey replied; interesting that they ignored several emails to customer support but when a bad review is posted online for all to see, they suddenly have time to respond! Unfortunately the reply also ignores several key facts.

Again, neither the guests nor we had requested any of this; I had already been in touch with the guests to discuss rebooking for the future if travel became difficult, and this all occurred before Covid-19 was even declared a pandemic. There was no state of emergency and actually people were still traveling in our area, but we knew some people were becoming concerned so we tried to be flexible with all of our customers. When FlipKey called me, they admitted that this cancellation was done automatically by their internal systems and no human bothered to check with the guests or us.

Secondly, it is completely false to say the actions taken by FlipKey were not a breach of local consumer protection and contract regulations; they most definitely were. I pointed this out to FlipKey and they insisted that they were not bound by laws in our area, but only the laws of Suffolk County, Massachusetts, where their headquarters is based. I can promise that local regulators where our property is located do not agree.

Lastly, this comment is laughable: "Whenever we have contact with a customer regarding an ongoing issue, any member of staff dealing with the case has full access to the previous communication and notes on the issue at hand in order to provide clear information." If this is true, the staff obviously do not bother to read those communications because they regularly ignore questions and send template responses. Again, I received several identical, copy and paste replies that did not even attempt to address the questions I had sent. They actually had the nerve to send a template response that stated, "we recommend that you remain in communication with your guests through your Inbox to discuss the possibility of alternative travel dates in the future." That is EXACTLY what I had done from the beginning, but FlipKey totally ignored the communications with the guest and cancelled the booking anyway.

It boggles my mind that a company owned by such a well known, global brand like TripAdvisor will knowingly provide such lousy customer service. You only have to see the huge numbers of negative online reviews to know something is wrong.

Lucy from FlipKey, rather than admit things were handled poorly by your customer support team, you would rather make excuses and cheat small family business owners out of money. You should be ashamed.

This is a total scam! I deposited $1600 against rent, then they ask me for an additional $1000 as a security deposit. They promised to send the documents after I have done all of this. I did all that and now when I had to move, I am out $2600 and no place to stay. And the owner and their customer service both are ignoring me.

NEVER USE THIS SITE!!!!

I am also filing a case of fraud against them. I will spread the awareness wherever possible. I want this company shut down.

Has anyone been able to speak to a human at FLIP KEY (877) 354-7539? Southwest Airlines cancelled my flight to that country and REFUNDED my money. When I leave a bad review (1 star), FlipKey can finally call and leave a voicemail with no direct call back number. Situation still not resolved BR27669079. FlipKey keeps bouncing me to owner, owner keeps bouncing me to you. Wonderful game in these times. Southwest Airlines has refunded my money as they are not flying to that country due to COVID-19. Your website page does not provide all the answers. You say you can override May but your computer system is not designed to override JUNE vacations, SCAM.. Please its a computer , you just push a button. Closing down the reservation line so no one can contact you. FlipKey do the correct thing, be amoral and credible company in times like these..NO More GMAES.

Booked with Flipkey for the first time. Tried to cancel before my final deposit was taken only to be told on my account that I had to ring their 24/7 helpline.I was on hold for an hour before the line went dead. No help or support whatsoever. Appalling customer service. I have also lost my deposit because I am just outside of their 60 day cancellation period. No help or support for people over this COVID19. I stayed with the Villa before and the transition was easy. Use Flipkey at your peril. I Will be reporting them to trading standards.

I had booked through Flipkey for a vacation in Las Vegas. I waited until the week before to see if we could change the booking to November due to the coronavirus and me being diabetic and close to 55. All was well and then the property owner kept sending things like "Nobody else is canceling because of the "virus", "more people die from the flu than the "virus", etc. I got tired of her chastising me for wanting to be safe. She did not know the facts concerning my high risk of death if I were to get the "virus" nor did she care. I was called mentally unstable along with a few other names. Antonio Zen was the evil lady. She finally agreed to postponing, only to charge me $972 extra dollars instead of the $300 that was for the one extra night. I complained to Flipkey about the treatment I was receiving. I knew we would not get a refund but we felt something should be done to the owner because of the rude, disrespectful, unprofessional treatment I was receiving. After several phone calls, Flipkey gave us our reservation fee back, $267. Again, the money doesn't bother us. This woman/ owner was crude to me. She made many hateful remarks and I feel something needs to be done about HER.

I will never ever use this site ever again! Friends and I were planning a trip to state college, PA and booked a few months in advance. We had everything lined up and paid until the owner of the property demanded more money. We paid MORE money only to have the booking cancel 1 week away from our trip. We were then refunded and the other properties available were 4x our price range. I felt betrayed and as if the rug was pulled out from under me. This website is a scam and I will NEVER use it again. I’d also advice anyone thinking about booking here, to look elsewhere

While we do use Flipkey to reserve our stays it appears the advertised rates are always 40 percent below the actual cost. You see the nightly rate then add the rental fee, cleaning fee, damage fee, and tax. Now your true cost per night For a $300 a night house has increased by $200+. Why does Flipkey allow this to occur? Hotels are way more affordable again. Airbnb charges even more... I just want to know the real cost when I am shopping. This should be illegal to advertise a daily rate that is not even close to the final rate.

II am appalled at the lack of professional on the part of TA/Flipkey. I guess that I could call and speak to someone after being on hold for an hour. FlipKey/Trip Advisor has marked up my rates to the point that my property if found is totally unrentable. My weekly rate for that time frame is $3995 and they show $5300. The only owner fee is for $325 and they mark up to $431 and have a exhorbitant booking fee of $831. Totals over $7000 when it should be close to $5000. Maybe this is their way to either punish owners they do not like or push business to favored PM's.

First time using flipkey. Never again. The quoted price is not the actual price. After booking, I received a notification of an updated quote which increased the price by $300 to 'adjust for weekend rates'! A piece of advice flipkey. If you want people to trust your site, the price listed has to be the actual price!

Hi Sara,
You missed what I was stating , Flipkey does not allow free speech once a deposit has been taken, you can only communicate freely with both parties after final payment.

You suggetsed we use the In box to communicate and we did, the Welcome letter the owner is trying to send was still rejected.

VRBO, AirBnB etc.are better options due to allowing the sharing of information after a deposit.

You have a bad policy concerning sharing of information once a deposit has been made.

Not happy WE HAVE BEEN SCAMED, we booked and paid a deposit for a 37 night stay in Sliema Malta on 31 Dec19. We got a confirmation email for booking and payment of deposit. Then on 7 Jan 20 we got a message from the host stating that as she had not received a deposit she was canceling our booking. We sent proof of payment to the host CHARLOTTE G but today 8Jan 2020 she replied that she has now received other bookings for these dates therefore cannot accommodate our dates. She also said that WE NEED TO CANCEL our booking so the system will refund our deposit. FLIPKEY information clearly states that for us to get a refund in this situation the owner needs to do the cancelation. IF WE CANCEL WE WILL LOSE OVER $400.

THIS IS A COMPLETE SCAM AND CHARLOTTE G IS A VERY DISHONEST PERSON DO NOT BOOK WITH HER.

IT STILL SHOWS ON FLIPKEY THAT WE HAVE A BOOKING FOR THE DATES IN QUESTION SO HOW CAN SHE REBOOK THOSE DATES WITH OTHER TRAVELLERS.

I hope she is not SCAMMING them as well.

Avoid them at all costs. I have been cancelled 3 times by this company Exelente Est E on appartments I have booked in Tenerife through Flip Key(Trip Advisor).They cancelled the 2nd one and offered me another which i accepted then I couldn't believe it they cancelled that one quoting 'non profit making' they new this when it was offered to me. It was 5 weeks before our trip leaving us with no accommodation as it had all been taken unless you want to pay twice the price and have an appartment that was too big. They have no idea what is going on with the owners or agents of these properties. They are double booking, taking your deposit then cancelling quoting 'technical problems ' rubbish. They shouldn't be allowed to do this. We should be compensated for the stress this causes. Trip Advisor blame computer problems but are useless and powerless to do anything about these agencies. They offered to help find new accommodation but none was available at the size, location and price we had before. You book early to get the accommodation that suits you.
NEVER AGAIN.

OWNERS BEWARE: Apparently this company isn't smart enough to accept an EIN in place of a SSN for owners.
They are refusing to release a payment for a booking in early December. VRBO and AirBnB had NO PROBLEM using our EIN. Use VRBO/HomeAway or AirBnB instead. Avoid FlipKey/TripAdvisor if you want to be paid!

Called up pet-friendly places, up pops FlipKey. I go to check out vacation rentals...that are linked to the pet-friendly page, determine and itinerary and then check the amenities: Low and behold...the rental said NO PETS! So watch it! Flipkey is not accurate about pet-friendly places..and there's no contact info that I could find to point out the problem. Will not book through this outfit!

Confortable house, owner very responsable and resolve problems inmidiatly. Matress need to be changed, sofa in one bed is very uncofortable to sleep, other than that it is a nice place to relax

Just like everyone else on here, super disappointed with my first experience with trip advisor and flipkey. Found a place that was avail, tried to book, it was not avail so request got denied, flipkey kept the $3660.00 for the monthly booking tied up and kept running me around telling me it would go away, or finance department wasn’t open, just one excuse after the other. Even had American Express call them and they got the run around. Still have a pending charge on my credit card and have been in the phone with 5 managers at flipkey so far, all promising me they will fix this issue just to wake up in the morning and have to do it all over again. It’s like Groundhog Day with Bill Murray, same story to a different manager and no resolution every time. I am on the road right now and have lost 3 other rentals because I could not access my credit to book through another site. Flipkey has not asked or offered anything to make up for the extra $1500 all this has cost me and they won’t because this company has no customer service, no system to be able to handle the thousands of complaints they have about their system, and clearly no will to fix the problem, change the policy, or satisfy the customer. I’m just another customer they have lost for life and here to make sure no one makes the same mistakes I did! Save yourself some time and stress and avoid any site using flipkey wherever you are traveling in the world. Stick with Airbnb where you get approved then charged and not the other way around

As you see below, they respond with the same excuses and scripted lines and do not address the issue at hand all. This is a fantastic example of their customer service hard at work. Not sure how they can be happy with managers that don’t get anything done let alone be happy that I’m talking with them. STAY FAR FAR AWAY FROM FLIPKEY. Spent today on the phone again with no resolve and more excuses.

Flip key rentals through trip adviser is a waste of time, a pain in the butt and insufficient in serving customers. We rented through flip key a place in Cape Town South Africa;

2.5 weeks before we were due to arrive—-After contacting flip key and telling them that the owner wouldn’t respond the owner wouldn’t respond the owner wouldn’t respond finally the owner of the rental casually told us “there was a problem with the downstairs neighbor who is extremely noise sensitive and if we made too much noise in our vacation that would be a fine imposed.

We called flip key and we demanded that we get out of that agreement because we were not going to spend our vacation tiptoeing around!

Flip Key then told us they had to wait for the owner to approve the release of our deposit which was bull because this was an inappropriate and absolutely gut wrenching pain in the butt experience.

flip key should’ve been able to just take the bull by the horn’s and return our money.

What they did was stall, causing more stress and totally denied what a customer deserves.

I will never use them again!
I would never recommend them!
I think they’re full of bull.
and I think that people should know about evasive and unsavory business practices.

We rented in Cape Town other times and had no misleading inappropriate treatment by any other company. Airbnb was good.
Just forget flip key—it's my opinion that they suck suck suck suck .

And after reading this some one on the staff will probably send me a “very nice apologetic” email and... I’ll tell them to shove it.

Had the worst experience with this company, we supposedly booked a vacation at Elizabeth Gabriel's hotel in Province Town MA in Aug. 2019 and when we got there we found out that the room had been double booked. Now, we had planned for this vacation for almost a year, found the time to free ourselves together for few days, traveled 3 and half hours to get there and what we found ? The room is reserved by some one else. We got stranded there, it was Labor day weekend, every single motel/hotel is solid booked. My wife's having such a hard time digesting this, was extremely upset and mad and disappointed. The hotel owner was nice enough to offer us one free night and luckily they had one empty room for that night. Flipkey by TripAdvisor refunded my money after many phone calls and refused to compensate us for all the trouble and waisted time and aggravation, refused to even give us couple free nights some where at the Cape.
My advise to you, make SURE that your booking is confirmed and it is for you and not some one else, even better, do NOT do business with this company at all if you want to avoid the heart and head ache.