Christian Oliveira

Lamentablemente, es una plataforma que no ofrece garantías a los clientes y de la que uno no se puede fiar para organizar un viaje. Nos cancelaron la reserva por "avería" un par de semanas antes del viaje, y lo único que ofrecen es el reembolso (obvio, ya que no se va a poder disfrutar del servicio) y que el cliente busque otro vehículo, algo que ya no es posible con las mismas condiciones (precio y características) debido a la poca antelación y a ser temporada alta.

Al contrario de otras plataformas de reserva entre particulares como Airbnb, Yescapa no hace nada por salvaguardar a su cliente, así que no volveré a utilizar la plataforma por el riesgo a quedarme sin viaje a última hora.

Igualmente, le dimos otra oportunidad y volvimos a reservar otro vehículo a través de Yescapa, que resulto ser la peor experiencia que hemos tenido con un servicio de este tipo en todos nuestros viajes. Lamentablemente, no podemos recomendar YESCAPA ya que a pesar de intermediar y cobrar por ello, ofrecen un pésimo servicio de atención al cliente y protección en caso de que algo vaya mal.

(Reply: HE doesn't address their bad help publicly, generic answer).
We have been Home Exchange clients and users for more than one year, and after 10 exchanges, we have our first bad experience as hosts. Our guest generated several troubles during the stay and the experience dealing with this with Home Exchange as a platform is being terrible:
1. They damaged our sofa (a big grease stain) which is not reparable, forcing us to buy a new sofa
2. They hosted more people that agreed (the exchange was for 4 people, and there were at least 7 people using the house and the shared pool of our community)
3. Our house was left in a deplorable cleaning state: the mats on the outdoor lounge chairs were completely filthy, covered in charcoal stains and footprints; one of our refrigerators smelled overwhelmingly of seafood, and upon checking it, we found seafood leftovers in the freezer; the window tracks on the outside were covered in ash from the barbecue; several kitchen utensils (pots, lids, etc.) stored in their respective cabinets were covered in grease and/or food residue.

This was a 16 night stay, and they didn't communicate any of these problems to us, we just found out when returning home. When confronted about the sofa stain (the first thing we found out and the one we were worried the most) they admitted it although not in a friendly way.

When we found out the rest of the issues, we inmediately contacted Home Exchange (there is 10 day period for this), as we thought there were many infringements of the rules and monetary damage that we need to cover. Unfortunately, the treatment we received by the Home Exchange customer service has been horrible:
1. Even if we sent them everything requested (invoices, pictures, screenshots of the conversation with the guest acknowledging the damage, etc.), they didn't trusted us and were not empathetic with our situation, where we are clearly the damaged part of the exchange.
2. The guest continues using the platform without any problem after breaking several rules (both our house rules and Home Exchange Code of Conduct)
3. Home Exchange markets itself as offering guarantees for both parts (host and guest), and that if something happens, there is a security deposit as well as they can cover damages up to certain amount (100.000€).
4. Once we sent everything they requested (invoice of the old sofa, invoice of the new sofa, invoice of the try to repair the old sofa), they started offering as a solution to request a small part of that amount to the guest, without taking into account some of the invoices. Appart from that, they have been confusing the amounts, and offering completely incoherent and contradictory things (first they mistakenly confused the price of one of the 3 parts of the new sofa for the full amount, and offered to request that full amount to the guest; then they offered to request 60% of the value of the old sofa; now they are offering to request 60% of the value of the new sofa). Also, in the beginning the didn't want to include the amount we paid to try to fix the sofa, but they did after publishing our case in several facebook groups.
5. They have been slower and slower to answer, every new email is shorter, they ignore things we ask about or request, and the answers are generic and probably generated with AI.
6. They have official facebook groups, where they do not allow to publish this kind of feedback. After trying to publish there, they denied our post but assigned our case to another person, who called us and offered to ask the guest for some amounts that were denied by email. Again, this was only after putting pressure on Facebook with our case.
7. It is more than 40 emails at this point, where they mistake our name, ignore our requests, don't put enough attention to the files we send so they confuse the amounts and invoices and repeatedly use incorrect amounts, and still don't offer a proportional solution to the gravity of our case.

It is important to understand that up to this point, they are just negotiating/debating the amount of money that Home Exchange is going to ask the guest to pay; it is not even Home Exchange the one who will pay this amount. It's been one month, we already had to pay all the money from our pockets to buy the new sofa, and they are not empathetic nor treating us with enough care and attention.

We love the concept of exchanging homes, and started using Home Exchange because several friends recommended it to us (they all had good experiences with their exchanges) and we were relaxed as the platform offers safety and guarantees in case something goes wrong. That was our case also, as the first exchanges were all good. But as soon as things go wrong, we clearly see there is no real help from Home Exchange, and they are not on our side to protect us and offer a reasonable solution.

Mi caso concreto fue una simple cancelación de un vuelo que me obligó a comprar otro, y me correspondía la diferencia de precio pagada por el nuevo billete. En otras ocasiones que me ha pasado esto, lo he gestionado en minutos con la compañía aérea sin ningún problema, recibiendo el dinero en pocos días.

En este caso fue con WizzAir, la compañía no respondía o no quería pagar, y de ahí elegir Reclamador. Algo que debería ser unos clicks con WizzAir para cobrar esa diferencia de menos de 300€, se convirtió en perder un montón de tiempo enviando un montón de información a Reclamador para que lo gestionasen, tardar casi un año y medio en resolverse y al final cobrar menos de un 70% del valor que me corresponde.

Agradezco que existan sites como Reclamador, ya que en caso contrario probablemente estaría perdiendo tiempo luchando con WizzAir, pero como consumidor este modelo me parece un desastre y súper injusto, ya que al final no recibo lo que me corresponde e igualmente he perdido dinero en un viaje cuando no debería

Although the service works great and it's useful (in case you need to recharge your phone urgently and do not have access to do so in any other way) the fees are extremely high.

Here in Portugal, I paid 52€ for a recharge and the final amount I get is 45€ (that's 7€ fee!)

Edit: recharge.com replied that I've been refunded, but that's not the issue here. I've refunded because there was a difference between the announced amount that was going to be recharged on my phone and the actual amount I received, that ALWAYS happens and that, after complaining, I got a refund (0,75€).

This doesn't change the fact stated above: you pay a 7€ for this service (52€ to get 45€) which is excessive. I only use it when I have no other alternative.

We wanted to try with the housesitting experience for the first time, offering our apartment in Madrid in exchange of our pet caring during two weeks.

After checking several websites, we found Trusted Housesitters the best of them mainly because of the reviews, so we were able to choose wisely between the different people that suscribed to our offer, as there are reviews verified by Trusted Housesitters (other websites put you in contact with the person and he/she sends you references that you cannot really know if are true)

We will repeat for sure!