"Find an alternative to Wimdu. It is one of the most ridiculous companies I've ever made the mistake of using. I booked an apartment in Munich for 8 people only to have the host say that they 'upgraded' us to another apartment. After days of asking to see the new place, I finally get photos and the 'upgraded' place is terrible and only has one bed. Horrible host! Later when I told her that there is absolutely no chance that we were going to stay there and asked if the original apartment was still available, she said “you will not find anything better” and that we should cancel.
But when I contacted wimdu about the situation and to get my 2100 dollars refunded, there is complete silence. No phone number and no one to talk to. And it's been weeks and I sent multiple emails. In the meantime, we booked a new apartment through airbnb.
All of a sudden, Karla, the host asks if we are ready for our stay. WHAT? She told me to cancel! At the same time, someone from Wimdu finally contacted me and told me that Karla never said the apartment wasn’t available, that she wanted to upgrade us and that the original one was available for us the entire time. It was like they were teaming up against me to make me feel like I lost my mind. I pointed out the multiple parts of our conversation where Karla said that we need to cancel the apartment. They twisted it so that it sounded like I made an ultimatum for an early check-in or would cancel. At this point, I was tired of Wimdu and the host and the back and forth emails and asked multiple times to cancel. It never happened.
When you call Wimdu, you get an answering machine. There is no real person to talk to. There is no customer service. This whole website is a scam. Do not use it. I made the mistake of using it and threw $2100 dollars in the trash with no remorse on Wimdu’s part. There are plenty of apartment rental companies out there that are good and trustworthy companies. Wimdu is NOT one of them.
Moral of the story is to run far away from Wimdu and their hosts and their apartments so you don’t end up losing significant amounts of money.
"

"This a WARNING for all the potential hosts that post their listing on Wimdu!

This company has a very unfair policy together with bad platform for managing your rental. They are practically a bunch of stealers!

They forced an "instant book" on my listing, I never turned this option on. When I got a reservation and tried to cancel it, there was no option to do so. You always have to contact their Support for that.

If you cancel within the 24 hours, you pay only 5% penalty fee. BUT, since you cannot cancel it yourself, you have to wait at least 2 weeks, until someone from support will get back to you.

Then you have to pay 20% from the potential reservation price, which they took from me.

All my emails and complaints have been ignored.

There are many great platforms for running your business, stay away from WIMDU! "

"These people have tried to take a commision for a booking for our B&B and we have never heardof them before and are fully booked for the period concerned. Their subsequent e.mail to us says they will take 11 euros commision from the booking but if we do not accept within 4 hours a negative point will be put against our profile - which they have stolen from our website.
Basically these people are muggers!
When we complained, Wimdu told us we had asked them to represent us in 2011, but they will take down our profile in 2 days. 5 days later our B&B is still shown on their website. If, as they say, we registered with them iin 2011, it means 4 years have gone by with no bookings. If, as we maintain, we've never been in contact with them before last week, they have stolen our details and tried to blackmail us into honouring a booking they took without any knowledge of whether the room was available or not.
Either way, I suggest that nobody books with them as you will be risking your money needlessly."

"NEVER book with wimdu!! I booked on wimdu but the host did not replied to my booking. Before I booked I contacted the host how wrote that the apartment is free. I got an e-mail from wimdu that they refound the money because the host did nort repiled. Now I am waiting for 10 days to get back the money from wimdu. This was the first but for sure the last time when I booked on wimdu. "

"Don't book via wimdu. The first thing they ask is you to pay, even when it's not confirmed you will get the appartment. And if you get confirmation you will receive a message that the appartment was double booked, so they cancel. And they don't refund, even if the cancellation is not your fault."

"My experience with Wimdu
I booked accommodation in February 2015 through Wimdu in Malta for the summer. The price, Eur 250, was blocked on my bank account. In early May 2015 my host cancelled my booking. I followed Wimdu’s instructions and immediately contacted the Support Team– actually several times because apart from automatic replies I haven’t heard from them. My first e-mail went about 10 days ago, my last 5 days ago. (The website says they have a 24/7 support service, and that they take cancellation by host very seriously.) My money has not been refunded, no help has been offered, no contact has been made, whatsoever. None of the telephone numbers /e-mail addresses found in various databases on internet work / are answered.
What Wimdu does is OUTRAGEOUS! They are a bunch of THIEVES!
I am contacting the European Consumer Center.
"

"Appalling, unethical company!

Beware of WIMDU’s supposed "guaranteed satisfaction" policy.

Their response time is slow: if you strike a problem you need to wait until they respond to your email. This can take over 24 hours.
If you ask for a refund due to inadequate standard of accommodation, you are told to contact the host and obtain the refund yourself. If the host is genuine there is no problem but you have no protection if this isn't the case. WIMDU does not accept any responsibility!
Please be aware of these issues before you book.
The biggest problems with this company are:
A. They have a no-refund policy - if you are not satisfied with the standard of accommodation, it is up to you to arrange a refund with your host
B. If they choose not to respond to your emails there is nothing you can do and no way you can contact them. There is no emergency hotline you can call if you are truly desperate.
NB. Interestingly enough, if you have a negative experience, you are not given the opportunity to “rate” your experience on the site.
"

"I was a host, until my account was deleted because of a violation of the terms & conditions. No reason was given other than that (I had a lot of great reviews and great satisfaction with my places).
The deletion of the account is one thing, but this occurred on a friday and I had guests coming that had booked from wimdu.
Their stay was cancelled by wimdu and no notice was given to either them or myself. They stayed the period and I found out later my account had been stopped.
Upon informing the guests (after their stay) that the booking had been cancelled; they got in touch with wimdu in order to get a refund (at the minimum) only then to have their account deleted due to "suspicious activity". Now Wimdu keeps the money without releasing it to either party, even though we had both fulfilled the requirements set forth by the terms and conditions.
Very bizarre and unprofessional from wimdu's side..... Not recommended to anyone for any reason whatsoever"

"Wimdu does not protect guests when something goes wrong. I had a bad experience with a host where I had to leave early and find last minute accommodations elsewhere, due to inappropriate behavior of the host. They site would not give a full or partial refund for the night I did not stay in the room, even though it is clear the host acted very inappropriately (yelling at me and insulting me). The site should protect its users - that's partially why we pay the large service fees. I will never use that site again, and you shouldn't either! You won't be protected from problems like this."

"I booked a Villa in Marrakech advertised as Spacious Moroccan Villa + Garden. It was completely wrongly advertised I made full payment in advance when we went there we found it completely different and a dump we checked out straight away just stayed there for hour or two.
Later I send a message to owner through Wimdu. I request my refund and wrote a review about villa after 3 weeks Wimdu came back offering less then half what I paid on condition if I change my review about villa. I refused to do that as I do not want others to suffer the way I did.
I will never use this website and try my best to aware others not to use them intact AIRBNB is much better more professional to book similar sort of properties. I booked with AIRBNB million times better then Wimdu.
I am trying to save others like me its not easy when you go on holidays as we all look forward to our holidays and found out you are been coned and lost money."

"I went in Madrid with a friend to give a surprise to my boyfriend. We chose an apartment for 4 people (1 double bed and one double sofa-bed) as we didn't want to sleep together. Also, we wanted an apartment with terrace as my friend smokes and I don't. When we arrived, we saw that the sofa-bed was really small (for one kid). There was no terrace, only OUTSIDE in the entrance there was a passage. (Wimdu took off this characteristic after our complain). The two indispensable needs were lies. We felt swindled. We complained to the company, who did nothing but keep all our money. We didn't stay there any night. DON'T USE WIMDU!!! NO RESERVEIS EN WIMDU!!!"

"Me and my fiancé had a very pleasant experience when using Wimdu for our Berlin trip.

The accommodation provided was extremely well located, the host was very nice and helpful, providing us all the information needed and the price was definitely lower than all the hotels (few were still available during the fashion week) in the surrounding area (Mitte - city center).

Also the customer support was very responsive and informative when we sent an enquiry, helping us to find the best deal in town.

I would recommend this site to my friends, and I think I will definitely use it again in the future.
"

"We booked the condo at 5005 Collins Ave Miami Beach via wimdu.com for year-end vacation. According to the property ad it was supposed to be 2 bedrooms and 2 baths condo: http://www.wimdu.com/offers/4QFO9P0G. When we arrived at this location it turned out the apartment is 1 bed room plus a small den and 1 bath. In addition, the condo at our arrival was extremely dirty and full of mold: https://www.icloud.com/photostream/#A65oqs3qWOwep, and Internet and a TV were not working. We called the owner the same day we arrived and asked where is the second bedroom and bath is in this condo. The owner said condo never had a second bedroom but den and has only 1 full bath, and the legal description of this place proves that. In regards to dirtiness of the place and Internet not working, the owner said the condo was cleaned prior to our arrival and Internet was working before. We were not satisfied with the owner response and called wimdu.com customer line, expressed our displeasure with the situation, and requested our transfer us to a comparable 2 bedroom place in the Miami area. Windu.com representative said that there are different international interpretations of what 2 bedrooms/2 baths are. This is all despite the fact that the condo was located in the US, owned and advertised by the US resident, and rented to the US citizens. Furthermore, due to mold infestation my son got sick staying overnight at the place. We had to visit an emergency room Dec 23 that confirmed that my son has an episode of dust mites allergy. I informed wimdu.com and the owner of the property of this accident and further inquired on my family transfer to a different location. In a followup email wimdu representative informed us that the cancellation of the rental agreement is justified. We were still asked to pay for two nights we stayed at this condo, and wimdu.com refused transferring us to a different location. Our request to offer us a discount on the accommodation fee was declined as well Stay away from Wimdu.com services, misleading ads posted on this site and this particular owner"

"Ripped me off!
Seeking a vacation rental in San Francisco, came across one that was pretty perfect. You check the dates to see if it's available, and if it is, you click on a "book it". Here in the US when you give a hotel your credit card, they at least wait until you arrive to actually charge it. Not Wimdu. I actually received an email from the credit card company very soon after, wondering about the "unusual" charge of over a thousand dollars. Alarmed, I cancelled the reservation immediately, just about 24 hours after making it.
Wimdu has decided that, as it says on the 265th paragraph down in their terms and conditions (which do NOT appear on the "booking" page, you can click 'em though) that I still must pay them a 12% fee.
When you push the friendly, green "complete booking" button, there is a "service charge" added (which does NOT say "nonrefundable).
I have contacted them several times, trying to explain how us 47-percenters save for YEARS to try to be able to afford just one vacation. They are very sorry but "it was in the terms and conditions."
There are plenty of other booking agents that do not charge any fee, and there are plenty more that, if you cancel after just 24 hours, will refund ALL your money.
Avoid like the plague!"

"WIMDU SUCKS!
Awful company, with a terrible website and just a clone of many others, with loads of bugs and technical errors. Ghastly customer services, poor response, bad telephone manner, poor telephone connection, bad treatment of customers. I can imagine poor staff training and lack-of direction in every way. False promises, No after support for the host, poor treatment to the host after sign-up on the website. Up to ten days of waiting for the money to be un-blocked after making a reservation???? l. I didn't get paid until 6 days after I hosted my apartment and the tourists had already checked out. Charging my credit card on mistake on a booking I never made?? Last minute cancelations and no support, you could be left stranded in the middle of Gaza, wimdu would not care. My advice is to stay way clear of this company. I have had really bad experiences for the last 8 months as a host and a traveler.
There is another website called airbnb. Amazing in everyway. amazing customer service and support, much more user friendly, bigger selection etc. When wanting to book your next short term rental sheet far away from wimdu.
Wimdu just sucks plain and simple."