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Rentline - out of business?

Way to Russia Talk Lounge Forum Index -> Way to Russia Feedback

Author	Message
belgian-brian Just Starting Joined: 01 Aug 2005 Posts: 2	Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2005 11:39 pm    Post subject: Rentline - out of business? I booked an apartment through Rentline.ru (after seeing them in the waytorussia.net site). I paid the first night immediately with my credit card and received confirmation that the payment was made. But, that was two weeks ago. Since then, I've heard nothing. No apartment confirmation, no e-mail, nothing. Two different e-mails (after the initial order) also produced nothing. Todday, I have asked the payment company ("assist.ru") to cancel the order and refund my payment. That's was just today, so I haven't heard from assist.ru (wasn't expecting an instant response anyway, but I will monitor it closely). So, if you deal with Rentline, good luck. I strongly suggest you start a dialogue before paying money. I more strongly suggest you do business with someone else. Leaving for Moscow on Friday and looking forward to it... Now if I only had a place to stay.... BB
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overseas_expat VIP Joined: 11 Jan 2005 Posts: 741 Location: Moscow	Posted: Tue Aug 02, 2005 11:01 am    Post subject: I was looking for accommodations in St. Petersburg on Rentline. Found a couple of places that I liked. But there was no information on availability and you had to make reservations, hand over your credit card number, and than play a 24 hour waiting game to get an email from them telling you whether or not the room was available. No way. What kind of goofy system is that? I want to know if the room is available BEFORE I book it, not the next day. And I'm not randomly giving out my credit card information to unknown Russian online services that I can't contact. Nyet. I didn't use them. It seemed like a bad 'reservation' system to me. I'll go elsewhere. But in a way it's typical Russian thinking. They have something they presume everybody wants, so they figure you'll do it their way just because you are so desperate for their product. Well I'm not desperate and I don't like their way and I'm not giving them my business. Rentline, welcome to the real world of western commerce. Wake up.
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belgian-brian Just Starting Joined: 01 Aug 2005 Posts: 2	Posted: Wed Aug 03, 2005 12:10 am    Post subject: The problem with hindsight... it always comes after the fact! I thought that I checked the web pretty well for people complaining about the company. And I was lulled into comfort by the way to promotion on the waytorussia site. In hindsight, the system seems crazy, but it has worked for me with other apartment providers. Beware or Rentline.ru! And waytorussia.net - reconsider who you support on your site. Rentline.ru can ruin your reputation also... BB
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Marina Just Starting Joined: 25 Aug 2005 Posts: 1	Posted: Thu Aug 25, 2005 2:43 pm    Post subject: rentline Hello, I work in Rentline and I would like to explain a little bit how the system works. When a you order an apartment online, no money is charged from your credit card. A sum of money in your credit card is temporarily blocked, so that you can't withdraw or spend it, and we can take it off your account within the next 2 weeks (pre-authorization). However, we never charge you the deposit until we confirm that the flat is available and receive a final confirmation from you. If a flat you have ordered was not available and your reservation wasn't confirmed, nothing is taken off your credit card and the sum of money that has been blocked should be made available for you again by your bank.
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lisah Just Starting Joined: 07 Oct 2005 Posts: 8	Posted: Mon Oct 31, 2005 12:08 pm    Post subject: rentline.ru after initially having a lot of trouble contact people at rentline- e-mails were bouncing back, we finally we able to get in contact with the marina at rentline. she has been our saviour here in russia. they have made all the arrangements for our apartments as well as contacted the landlords to meet us at our arrival destinations or ensure they are there to give us the keys. at waytorussia they have also helped us with train tickets, visa qestuins as\nd just about everything else there is, i highly highly recommend their services. in fact one night they worked until 9pm to get us a train ticket to petersburg the next day. their service is excellent!!!
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overseas_expat VIP Joined: 11 Jan 2005 Posts: 741 Location: Moscow	Posted: Mon Oct 31, 2005 12:19 pm    Post subject: To Marina: You should check the Waytorussia Feedback Forum. There's a nice pile of complaints about Rentline.ru in there. And I stand by the evaluation in my previous post. Read it again. You will see that I strenuously objected to giving out my credit card information for a room that couldn't even be confirmed at the time I handed out my credit card number. There is no way I would do business in Russia with an unknown online 'company' who took all my credit card information and then sometime LATER got around to telling me whether or not I had a confirmed reservation. Absolutely positively--NO WAY. I made other arrangements.
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Rick Moderator Joined: 04 May 2005 Posts: 854 Location: Касабланка	Posted: Mon Oct 31, 2005 1:25 pm    Post subject: I agree with you on that overseas. If i hand over my credit card info it is not for having it put in some companies (potentially insecure) database without at least having my reservations confirmed. Whether the company itself is trustworthy or not doesn't even matter to me in thsese cases.
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waytorussia Frequent Guest Joined: 17 Mar 2010 Posts: 14	Posted: Mon Oct 31, 2005 9:12 pm    Post subject: RentLine doesn't store credit card information. It is stored by the secure processing system Assist together with the biggest Russian bank Alfa Bank. RentLine operators can't even access the credit card number, so the concerns about security have no grounds. Regarding the reservation process -- all companies work in this way. First, you make your booking, make a payment, and then your reservation is confirmed. What is called "instant reservation" is not instant in most cases. For example, WebResInt -- the hostel & apartment booking provider for Lonely Planet Guides, Ryan Air, etc. -- charge you 10% and only then sends the information to the hostel / apartment agency. They then confirm the reservation. The difference with RentLine here is that RentLine tells you things how they really are: you pay, we check availability, reserve, confirm. By the way, with WebResInt once you paid their 10% you have no way of getting it back. With RentLine you still have a 2-week period (if it's not less than 2 weeks before arrival). Most of the problems arising with RentLine is because the landlords take long to confirm reservations. But of course it's all Rent Line's fault and you're welcome to contact the landlords directly. Only in the latter case don't be surprised if you're asked to pay the FULL amount (instead of a deposit) upfront or being told 3 days before arrival that the apartment is not available (which happens, although not too often and not with all landlords), or having to move in a dirty Soviet-style apartment.
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overseas_expat VIP Joined: 11 Jan 2005 Posts: 741 Location: Moscow	Posted: Mon Oct 31, 2005 9:56 pm    Post subject: WTR, I accept your explanation but I still don't like their system. I'd rather take my chances with a "dirty Soviet style apartment" than get sucked into the abyss of having to fix an ugly case of credit card fraud, from overseas no less (been there, done that). This is Russia. Taking care with credit card information is wise indeed. Rentline could alter their policy to confirm room availability BEFORE they demand your credit card iformation, not after. Simple fix. If Rentline and landlords can't get it together, they can do whatever they want, but they won't be getting any of my business.
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Rick Moderator Joined: 04 May 2005 Posts: 854 Location: Касабланка	Posted: Mon Oct 31, 2005 10:10 pm    Post subject: Dmitri.. i don't think there's a reason to get angry because we don't understand the business culture. Judging from the replies in these threads Rentline is reliable. Still i think that explanations like yours and Marina's are necessary for many of us for this reason. Russia is still weird and largely unknown for most people, including many expats and people like me. The way reservations are handled proves to be weird and hard to understand for people from outside Russia, so extra care is necessary to ensure their trust and confidence in the service.
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waytorussia Frequent Guest Joined: 17 Mar 2010 Posts: 14	Posted: Mon Oct 31, 2005 10:43 pm    Post subject: Yes, I agree. I'm not at all angry, we are using this information to improve the way travel services are represented on this site. In fact, we're in the process of acquiring RentLine.Ru into Way to Russia family and it will be transformed into a purely information resource (like our guide is) with the reservation team who will help people process their requests but will not actually accept any payments. All money stuff will be going on directly between the clients and the landlords and there will be a variety of payment options. You will even be able to pay in cash in you want. We will give all the information about the apartments (if it's shit, we'll say it's shit, if it's good, we will recommend it), and from time to time get special deals for our readers from landlords. By the way, RentLine.Ru doesn't take any payments for already 2 weeks, this is the first step.
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waytorussia Frequent Guest Joined: 17 Mar 2010 Posts: 14	Posted: Fri Nov 04, 2005 9:11 am    Post subject: We are happy to announce that the new apartment reservation service is available to Way to Russia visitors. RentLine.Ru - which was previously providing the apartment listings for this site - was acquired by Way to Russia and the model was changed to transform it from a booking agency to information resource. The operators will be providing information about apartments (unbiased and independent) while the actual payment will be made directly to the landlord. We believe this model is closer to our concept of Way to Russia as an information resource. If you would like to learn how the new Way to Russia Hotline apartment reservation service works, please, go to http://apartments.waytorussia.net/index.php?page=termsofuse We also welcome you to leave your feedback about this service to our Quality Monitoring team at http://waytorussia.net/OurTeam/Feedback.html or by calling +1 888 819-0016 (extension 0).
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