Sundance Concierge

The way a company handles itself during the Covid-19 event will define if they live or die when the world gets back to order. Vacation Candy is a bottom dweller. They sold a few nights at a Marriott timeshare to me through VRBO (another company that won't make it) in the month of April. I'm a longtime Marriott Platinum Elite and I have family members that own Marriott timeshares, so I'm well aware of the lengths that Marriott is going through to waive fees, allow owners to bank their weeks, etc.
Vacation Candy can write their waiver of responsibility all they want at the top of this Revdex.com website, but they are responsible. They are the agent. You can't pass the buck and say the owners aren't giving the money back. Why do the owners have the money already anyway? I contacted them well over a month before the reservation and they alluded the money was gone already. What about the portion Vacation Candy keeps for their role in renting the units? Where's that money?
Vacation Candy rented me a unit at a resort that is closed and kept the money. Marriott gave the owner their week back, so they suffered no loss. The only thing that will happen is the unit will be re-rented and they will double dip. Shameful, greedy and pathetic.

I would give them zero stars. Our situation is literally the same as everyone else’s below. I first contacted VacationCandy on March 23 for our Hawaii vacation on April 11. Flights from the mainland were being cancelled, non-essential travel was prohibited, and the governor of Hawaii declared a 14-day quarantine in addition to asking people not to come to the islands. As we got closer to our check-in date, VacationCandy stopped responding to my emails and there is no way to call them. I now doubt they ever contacted the owner in the first place even though I provided them with specific reschedule dates for April 2021 to expedite things and cut back on the back and forth. I requested for the owner’s contact information and it was never provided to me. The night before our check-in date, the resort confirmed that my reservation was still active, meaning the owner hadn’t informed Marriott that I wasn’t coming anymore and essentially lost the chance to rebook that same reservation for a later date. We just lost $3400 even though Marriott gave owners the flexibility to rebook. It is sickening that VacationCandy would defraud customers during a pandemic and I will certainly never do business with them again. I disputed the charges with my credit card, which is what Marriott suggested I do at that point. DO NOT use this company. There are other timeshare rental platform companies who have refunded renters the entire cost of their timeshare rentals during this pandemic, but VacationCandy won’t even let you rebook. They will not even respond to your emails and will claim to have passed along your contact information to the owner, who is supposed to call the renter to rebook but has no incentive to do so. It is a flawed band-aid to the problem and my guess is they’ve now lost a lot of customers.

Awful response to what is happening in the current COVID environment. Aruba isn’t even accepting visitors so how could anyone expect to pay for the balance of their payment that is due at this point. Offered to “help” rebook, but NOT RESPONSIVE AT ALL. We said that we’d like rebook Summer 2021 (they had reached out saying that was an option), but still haven’t heard anything about the dates we requested and if owner was approving. We also said that we’d pay balance 90 days prior to new arrival. Only said, non refundable and if not paid by due date that we’d forfeit deposit. Well, global disaster is not referenced in their contract, so perhaps they are completely out of line with their contractual obligations. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY.

Ditto
Made reservations through Vacation Candy/VRBO for condo at Marriott Barony Hilton Head Island SC in February for 4/12/20 - 4-19/2020 stay. Several emails from me to VC due to pandemic. They tell me refund is not an option. The only option I have is to rebook with restrictions. Must rebook 120 days prior to stay. Must complete stay by 12/16/21. Cannot guarantee same resort and would be based on Marriott’s availability. AND will need to pay an asinine rebooking charge of $99. I received an email from Hilton about my Marriott reservation indicating I could let them know within 24 hours prior to arrival if I wanted to cancel due to unprecedented pandemic. I shared this with VC and they said this did not apply to my reservation. My only option is to rebook...but only if Marriott has availability. So disappointed. Out so much money. Don’t want to do any further business with them. Is there any way to get a refund???

Same experience as others. I reached out to VacationCandy about 1 month before our vacation. Given the COVID-19 crisis, I wanted to see my options to reschedule or receive a refund. As stated by others, my vacation was booked at a Marriott Westin villas. Marriott was providing refunds. VacationCandy was initially responsive to my emails, but has now gone radio silent. Our vacation was to start this past Saturday. The last email from VacationCandy said they are waiting to hear from the owner, but I have heard that a few times.

I fully understand that this is a small business and the travel industry is in dire straights. I hope to hear from the team soon.

I have also started a dispute with my credit card company for 1/2 of the charge. The other 1/2 was made too far away to have a dispute.

I reserved a condo in Maui through Vacation Candy for April 12-19 2020. The location (Westin Kaanapali) is now only open to owners and therefore we cannot go. Vacation Candy has been highly unresponsive to communication and will not refund our costs (nearly $4000). I have submitted claims to insurance but in this situation the travel agency should refund costs.

We booked a Spring Break vacation through VRBO that is managed by Vacation Candy. We started trying to cancel this reservation, and request a refund, on March 13 when our schools closed and my husband was forbidden to travel out of state because he is a healthcare worker at UNC. 3 weeks later, we are still trying to get a refund and Vacation Candy emailed today with 2 possible but unacceptable options: rebook with date and location limitations WHICH THEY WILL NOT PROVIDE FOR US TO REVIEW or a 37% credit to use another time at any Vacation Candy resort. We have to tell them by today since we were supposed to start our vacation today. We asked a week ago for them to outline the terms of rebooking and they still have not done that but now they want a same-day answer.
Not only is this company not abiding by VRBOs guidelines for COVID-related cancellations (which are poor enough already), but they are additionally showing poor character in a time of global crisis. They keep telling us that the original reservation is non-refundable. We understand that. We are asking for an exception under these enormously unprecedented times - and there are other companies that are doing just that. They may keep their money now but they will lose our future business and probably many others' as well.

We booked through this Vacation Candy online travel company in January 2020, prior to restrictions related to COVID-19 pandemic. We were scheduled to travel from March 21-28, 2020, but were unable to, as our government closed our borders, and restricted all non-essential travel. We have been attempting to cancel this reservation due to this, yet have not received any replies back from this company.

The same experience during the COVID-19 time as the other reviewers stated below. Given all the limitations imposed at state as well as at federal level, Vacation Candy stopped answering to our request to provide proof that they have communicated with the owner of the room we have booked, and that the owner indeed did not want to reimburse our funds.
Our feeling is that Vacation Candy did not try to get in touch with the owners and make the case for us, their customers, that a refund is the right thing to do. Especially when families are now in need of their money. Especially since no customers will be able to travel to their vacation destination.
We were planning to file a law suit (Small Claims) at the court in the jurisdiction of the owner, but now since we realized the duplicity of Vacation Candy we will file the suit at their Park City, UT jurisdiction.
If other customers would like to file a class action suit against Vacation Candy, please contact me at: lawsuit @ runbox. com

Like all below, this company is a scam at best and deserves zero stars. We had to cancel due to flights/ COVID-19, worked with Westin owner services who were wonderful, got the codes to issue a refund but couldn’t process as we weren’t the “owners.” Vacation Candy refuses to link with the owners to get a refund, all form emails as responses and complete nonsense to no feedback. This company is nothing short of a front and stealing from people who deserve better. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY.

This company is refusing to offer refunds for a vacation rental despite numerous attempted email and phone contacts. The business is unresponsive and is intentionally stonewalling attempts to mediate the situation. The company claims a non-refundable policy, but I have in writing acknowledgements of force majeure clauses which have been triggered and allow for a refund.

Same experience as Joanna. We originally contacted them on 3/8/20 with concern regarding our condo unit rented at Hilton Hawaiian Village in Waikiki starting on 4/5/20-4/9/20. This was the early on-set of COVID 19.
As things have gotten way worse including our flights being cancelled, we have tried to continue contacting them; however, they are no longer being responsive. You cant reach them on the phone, and they are not returning emails.
The hotel says itself on the page they are refunding all reservations - and also recommends people do not come or reschedule their stay due to the 14-day quarantine in effect.
The airlines are at least letting us reschedule at no charge - which we would've accepted here instead of a refund, but they are not even offering that up.
We paid ~$3,200 for our condo that I guess we are just flat out going to lose out on. They say they have tried contacting the owner which is complete BS. Why would they even send all the money to the owner before the stay was even completed? They are either lying or incompetent to have a business practice like that. My guess is its the former.
It makes me sick to think that we are going to lose out on $3,200 in a time like this. I feel we have been violated and robbed. I can only hope karma finds the owners of Vacation Candy, as well as the owner of our condo unit.
PLEASE DO NOT USE THESE GUYS AS YOU WILL RISK BEING OUT THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS.
Below is the email they sent us back on 3/8, Now since it has got way worse since then, they don't even respond.
Hello Gregory,
Thank you so much for your call today. It was a pleasure speaking with you. We just wanted to follow-up on what we discussed in regards to your unit. VacationCandy has a non-cancelation and refund policy regardless of the circumstance. The reason for this is that the unit reserved is provided by an individual timeshare owner and not the resort directly. VacationCandy's policy is in accordance with the rental agreement executed with the individual timeshare owner. A refund of monies paid is enforceable only if the agreed-upon rental is unable to be occupied due to a force majeure event that renders the resort uninhabitable (e.g., war, riots, earthquakes, etc.). Cancelation of the virus would not qualify as the resort itself is still accepting incoming guests. Each situation is unique, and to say that a potential scenario will or will not be eligible is something we are unable to guarantee.
As we discussed, we can re-list the reservation on our website, at the price you booked, to attempt to find another guest who might be willing to rent it. If we are able to find a guest who does want to re-rent your reservation, you would be issued a refund at that time depending on the price it re-rents for. If the guest re-renting your reservation books lower than the amount you booked, you will be liable for the difference. If no guests show interest in booking, you will be liable for the full reservation amount.
Please let us know if you have any other questions or concerns.
Best,
—
Alejandra
VacationCandy Crew

I would also give this company 0 stars if I could. We had a trip planned for April spring break with our daughter. My husband and I both work in healthcare and due to the current CoVid-19 situation, we knew that travel would be an issue. We reached out to Vacation Candy on March 12th.
Our response was to keep checking back and if the Marriott changes their cancellation policy they may be able to work with the non-refundable policy for your trip. We hav emailed twice since this time and keep getting the response that due to the high volume of calls and questions about their cancellation policy that it will take weeks for them to get back to us. Another response said that they are working with owners, but many of them are "elderly" and are not good at responding to email. I am surprised by this answer. If they are savvy enough to put their property on Vacation Candy, I am betting they are savvy enough to check their email, where I am sure they are notified someone has purchased their week. On March 21 the state of Hawaii announced mandatory 14 day quarantine for all travelers coming into the state. The Hawaii governor has also asked that nobody travel into their state to visit at this time and the Marriott hotel will only allow owners and International travelers to stay at their hotel. We understand that our reservation was non-refundable given weather, etc.. That being said, a pandemic is a very different issue and concern.
Almost every single company out there, including Delta airlines, VRBO, and many others, are doing the honest and prudent thing by refunding customers for their vacations. I received an email approximately a week ago stating that the people who typically are making reservations are working hard to resolve this issue, yet when I call their contact line, all you get is a message with a hang up at the end. I am appalled by their lack of integrity. This business should be reported and sadly, I will never use them again.

I had a reservation booked with VacationCandy during the Covid-19 pandemic. Despite a mandatory cessation of non-essential travel as well as a 14 day quarantine period issued by the state of Hawaii on March 21, VacationCandy refused to refund or reschedule the reservation.
They have had very minimal contact with me, mostly by automated email response. They do not answer their phone. They purposely discontinued their Facebook and social media pages during this pandemic.
They are beyond unprofessional and as far as I am concerned fraudulent. Do not book with this company.

We too would give this company 0 stars if we could. We kindly have been communicating with them since 3/11 asking about policy during COVId-19. Just requesting to be postponed at this time because we live in Illinois we’re we are in quarantine. Also all flights have been canceled. Lastly the resort has also encouraged us to cancel as full amnentities are not available at this time. We have little ones, one with a compromised immune system due to a chronic illness. Again, just asked to postpone our trip. Today we learned they cancelled our villas in AZ and we’re fully credited and we have heard nothing. I have fully paid and have received no communication on what this means to our family, who works very hard to take our kids on vacation. I’m beyond disappointed to be taken advantage off during a pandemic when both VRBO policy and the Marriot policy is full refunds right now no questions asked. I would NEVER recommend this company.

Vacation Candy is refusing to refund customers who are legally prohibited from traveling during the COVID-19 crisis. Vacation Candy is referring customers to the owners of the units. However, customers' contracts are with Vacation Candy NOT with the owners. There will likely be a class action lawsuit as Vacation Candy cannot force customers to illegally complete contracts.

I would give this company 0 stars if I could. Due to Covid-19 I started expressing concern for my booking via phone on 3/12. The man I spoke with said keep checking back, if Marriott changes their cancellation policy we may be able to work with the non-refundable policy for your trip. On 3/15 I emailed and told them my son was ill was a respiratory illness and was advised not to travel for 10-14 days. We were scheduled to go to Maui on March 22. On March 21 the state of Hawaii announced mandatory 14 day quarantine for all travelers coming into the state. I understand that our reservation was non-refundable. However, almost every single company out there including VRBO are refunding folks for their vacations. For Vacation Candy to not even agree to refund their fee that they took off the top is appalling to me. Also the fact that they strung us along claiming they were doing the "best we can, but it will take several weeks" is unacceptable. At this point I doubt they even contacted the owner of the unit to find resolution. I last heard from them on 3/20 despite emailing them back on 3/20, again on 3/21 and again this morning on 3/22. Calling them leaves me with a voice message and a hang up. Will NEVER use them again and hope others won't either.

Our trip was for March 14th to March 21st. We were unable to make our trip due to corona virus. Everyone in our group
is 70 and older and we felt it was in our best interest to not make the trip. We were told that we would not be compensated
anything. We have used Vacation Candy for the last 2 years but will not use them again if we do not get some resolution.