TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Question: "40Weeks SXM Vacation rental & Conciergerie"

Does anyone have any experience with the subject rental agency?

https://www.40weeks.fr/

Thanks in advance.

sorry, no

I realize this is an older thread, but just last week we had a HORRIBLE experience with Gilles, the owner of the agency. In November we booked a VRBO property that he manages, for Jan/Feb 2025. A price was confirmed with the booking. We then asked to see the property while on the island now, and again confirmed the price. Five hours after confirming the price the second time (which was the same price confirmed in November), we received a message from Gilles saying oops, I gave you the wrong rate and it should be 50% higher!! I said WTH and he said he made a mistake and asked me to cancel the booking so we could discuss a “new” price. I refused, so he cancelled our booking. Luckily we have lots of time to find something else…. but it certainly won’t be with him.

Good luck dealing with VRBO. They make it impossible to contact them for this type of issue. If anyone knows how, please let me know.

The owner of the villa we stay at uses 40Weeks to handle booking and payment. Never had a problem.

As for the problem mentioned above, I guarantee the property manager didn't want to cancel the booking from his end because VRBO dings property owners pretty hard for that. That's why he wanted the renter to cancel - it won't affect the property's all important ranking on VRBO. Sometimes booking more than a year in advance can present a problem for property managers because owners may decide to change rates for an upcoming year, which may be what happened there. In that case, the property manager has to do what the owner wants, and the owner may have decided they can probably fill the booking that far in advance at the higher rate, so they tell the manager to just cancel the booking. It sucks if you're the one who booked, but it might not have been the manager's doing at all. There's nothing VRBO can really do about it either, since they are basically just a listing agent too. The only thing VRBO can do, which I am sure they did, is lower the ranking of the property based on the cancellation.

Thank you - both of you. I do appreciate the feedback, and Lucky13 you are most likely correct. Fortunately we found another opportunity for a new villa from the wonderful property owner we've been renting from for years. That owner is Veronique Fassel, and she is FIRST CLASS all the way, and her properties are too! We've stayed at her: Villa O, Villa Pinel, and Casa Del Sol. Have booked her new Villa Coco for May.