Wimdu
Reviews and Complaints

Don't trust them and don't waste your money. Choose more reliable and responsible services.
I needed to cancel my booking. You may say that it's nothing special, especially if I cancel it within 24 hours, many booking services have policies like this. But Wimdu doesn't, it's different. I had no idea that they were going to keep twenty percents to themselves! And it's only because I changed my mind and canceled within a couple of hours before 24 hrs! No, thank god I have my money now, but I didn't expect them to steal some of it. Appalling.

I rented an apartment in Munich through Wimdu for this summer. I paid the full rate for the four days by credit card on March 20, 2015 (1, 805.40 Euros which at that time equalled $1, 964.62). The apartment was listed under the name "Attractive, Near to the Oktoberfest" and was advertised to have 3 bedrooms, air conditioning, and a washer/dryer. When my husband, our four grandchildren (ages 11 through 16), and our adult kids (the grandchildren's parents) arrived at the address we had rented (Landwehrstr. 40 in Munich), Roswitha (the landlady) met us telling us that there was no "energy" in the apartment and so she had two other apartments to divide us into. She promised that it was being worked on I said we would try this for one night. It did not occur to me at the time to ask to visit the apartment we had rented because i had no reason to disbelieve her until I thought about it later. She put the family of 6 in a one bedroom apartment where a light outside their window went on and off all night and no one got any sleep. The apartment was very small, had one bathroom, and was hot. Munich was in the high 90s (Fahrenheit each day we were there). She put my husband and me 4 floors away from the rest of our family in a room with two cots (not beds, cots). The room was so small that we could not open our suitcases without putting them on the cots. There was no air, one window, and no air came in there. We also were awake all night. The next morning I found Roswitha had texted me around 6:30 AM saying that someone was coming to work on the apartment. I texted her that we could not stay in the apartments any longer and that we would be looking for a hotel. I also texted her later that day asking if it was fixed yet and she did not respond--not in email, text or phone call. We spent hours looking for another place. We walked the streets and went into every hotel we came to---August in Munich is a very busy tourist season and we were a large group. We needed 3 to 4 rooms to accommodate all of us. Finally the family sat down for lunch in the basement of Rathaus where it is air conditioned and I stood outside in the sun and heat where I could get phone connection for over an hour having AMEX find us a hotel. We ended up in a hotel far enough outside the centre of Munich that we had to take two taxis every time we went to dinner, to the train, to the old city. We had to rent 3 rooms and we had to pay for laundry since we had not brought as many clothes because we had rented a place with a laundry---which we did not get. Our total bill at the hotel was over $3, 000 for the rooms alone. The laundry was $200.
I had continued to contact Roswitha by text and email and told her I would be in contact with her and Wimdu as soon as I got home to get a refund for the three nights we did not have the apartment. Although I believe she should refund the entire amount because she did not give us the apartment we had paid for, I am not trying to be unreasonable. The refund of the three nights is what I am requesting.
I contacted Wimdu and Roswitha on line as soon as I got home (12 August). Roswitha did not respond until I put a review on her website. Her response was full of untruths and half truths and said I was at fault.
I contacted Wimdu again on 21 August when I had not received a response. I only received a response on 20 September after I had put a review on their website. And the response was largely a letter sent to all complainers. The response from Wimdu was that because I had not contacted them the day I arrived, I could no longer receive a refund. Hmmm. I was still trying to negotiate with Roswitha during that time.

I should be but am not asking for my money back for the first night when we did not get anything near what we had rented. I am asking for the three nights after that when we could not use the space we had rented. I also am not asking for any reimbursement for any of the extra money we had to spend (and it was sizable) because Roswitha did not give us the apartment we rented and paid for.

I won’t advise anyone to book the apartment through the company www.wimdu.com. I have registered and paid the deposit, but due to my personal circumstances I needed to cancel the booking. I made it 3 weeks before the first vacation day. I received the email that I would get money back within 7 days, but I waited 2 weeks and got nothing. The company scammed me. When I called them, the rep told me that the card was duplicated and wouldn’t get money back.