Warning - Fraud and Unsafe
Submitted: October 24, 2012
Stayed: October 2012
Please be warned - if you would like the experience of being homeless in a foreign city then this is the place for you.
We stayed in 2010 at the Rue de Pierre property - and had a good time. There is a club on that road so there is a lot of bass until 4 am but other than that fine. So in 2012 we went back to Brussels and stayed in the Bouchers apartment.
His website says they take credit card (and this was how we paid in 2010) - but when we showed up they demanded cash only. This should have been the first flag and it was - but the marathon was that weekend so everything was booked.
Things in the apartment didn't work (heaters, outlets, the shower faucet), and as the Bouchers apartment is on top of vitamin travel agency, often smelled of smoke as the woman who runs the apartments for Xavier smokes on the first floor.
We again tried to make the best of it.
The way the Bouchers apartment works is that you need a door code to get into vitamin travel then you use a key to get into the apartment. Mid way through our stay, THEY CHANGED THE DOOR CODE WITHOUT TELLING US.
So we came back from dinner at 10pm on a tuesday night and couldn't get into the apartment. Frantic, we called Xavier repeatedly - no answer. We wandered around grand place hotels which were fully booked - and finally convinced Novotel to rent us a room for 6 hours at 180 euro.
We packed up our stuff the following morning and left as we did not feel safe. Xavier's response? We could have the value of one night - in HIS apartment. So because of his negligence we were out 100 euro.
And when I pulled my records related to the agreed upon price I discovered that the cash they demanded was 40 euro more than the agreed upon price.
Rent by night is a fraud, scam, and ultimately unsafe. Don't know what changed between 2010 and 2012, but for your own safety reconsider renting from these people.
Helpful votes: 7/8
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