Geez! Glad you are taking it up authorities and your credit card company. That is a major misrepresentation!

How did you find this rental? Is there anyplace on line that you can warn other people?

What a terrible disappointment. A waste of your money and your time.

I hope you can get some compensation, at least but i'll be interested to know what your CC company says. The one and only time we had a dispute with a hotel we were told they do not issue refunds anymore with hotel disputes because of the potential for fraud on the consumer's part. This was about a 12 years ago so things may be different and since yours wasn't a hotel it may be different rules.

Wow...what an amazing mis-representation ! If it was a VRBO or Homeaway you have protection from them as well when you rent. Also you can leave a review that is scathing enough to stop anyone else from renting. So far we have had great luck with VRBO. Will be interested to hear the rest of this story. So sorry it was so bad. c

Is there a comments section on his rental page? Posting a pic will say a thousand words.

We did find the house on lakehousevacations.com,
http://lakehousevacations.com/page-7659.html.
I've emailed them, but have not heard back.

He also advertises it on mylakehouse.com -I put a Google Plus review on, which I believe shows up when you click on the map link on his page.

In my reading, I've discovered that vrbo, home-away, etc., many of which we've used in the past, actually don't handle negative reviews very well. Since the homeowner is the one paying them, they all give 'right of refusal' to the owner for negative reviews. Good to know, though a bit late.

I did find 1 other bad review here:
http://www.fyple.com/company/mylakehouse.com-vmqzms/
THIS LAKE HOUSE OWNER IS A THIEF!!!!!!! I put down a deposit to rent out this lakehouse for the weekend of September 14-16th of this year, and he called me the day before to let me know he double booked me with another family and offered to give me my money back. He has yet to give me my deposit back of $256, and he has been ignoring my calls, emails, and certified letters. We are truly disappointed in the lack of professionalism and honesty with Dan Gable. PLEASE DO NOT RENT FROM THIS MAN!!

It took a fair bit of digging to find that, and of course I found it only AFTER the fact, even though I had really tried to find bad reviews prior to our arrangements.

Yesterday, I also found that he was advertising on the Dallas Craigslist, so I posted a SCAM warning there.

The credit card company has been very supportive verbally thus far, but nothing really happens until I complete their paperwork, which was mailed out Friday. In the meantime, I'm assembling my documentation.

Hmmmmm, just went on his page, and I think he has somehow disabled the maps link which would have shown my bad review....Didn't know someone can do that. Any ideas as to how to make certain other people get this info?

Here is a link that might be useful: My Google Plus Review

If you place a review right here on GW with his name and rental location it will show up in searches for a very long time! Do we have a vacation forum?

Sorry you had this happen to your family.

Excellent idea chispa! I just posted under Family Vacations here on GW....

Best, post this on Trip Advisor. You are allowed to complain and give bad reviews.

ellendi, I tried to post it on TripAdvisor, but since it isn't already listed as a business on their site, I had to submit the business name for approval. I've done that, and hope to receive an email back giving me the green light.

Can't believe this guy told you you'd be able to boat--where?

Good luck with Tripadvisor, attorney general, and cc. Don't know if you could do small claims court?

I'd find out where the guy works and print out your complaint and photo for his boss, who might want to know there's a cheat and liar in the company.

gsciencechick -I wondered about small claims court too, but am wondering if I'd ever really collect? And we'd incur even more expense because we'd have to drive there and probably need a night's hotel, meals, etc.

kswl -he's in business for himself. Some kind of web design, though it seems really small. A two-star rating, no shock there. I think his main business is renting this place out....

I've been renting from VRBO for years and have never had a problem. After communicating with the owner and before committing to anything, I do some serious internet sleuthing using the owners name and address, look up the property on Google Earth and even property tax records. If I find anything even slightly fishy, I move on to another property.

I'm so sorry this jerk ruined your vacation. Hopefully you can get your money back or at the least, some retribution. Good luck!

That's right; you'd incur travel. Your best recourse might be the cc.

You could also try the BBB.

kellyeng -me too! That's why I'm so determined to get my review out there so that others can get the information. I don't claim to be the best internet sleuth, but I think I'm fairly adept, and I couldn't find ANYTHING negative prior to making the arrangements. I have since found the one bad report about a family he double-booked, and never returned their 50% deposit. Part of the reason I posted this here is hoping that others might find some more dirt on him....

gscience -forgot about the BBB! I'll try that too.

edited to say that I just completed the BBB complaint process.

This post was edited by bestyears on Mon, Jul 8, 13 at 10:24

I'm sorry that really sucks! Glad you were able to get at least 1 day of water fun though.

I would make sure if you can to include the web address in all the reviews and as man keywords as possible that somebody may search on so when somebody does a search they will find your review. I'd say web address, the house address, property manager's (owners) name, and then just state the facts as I'm sure you have so far, but just to avoid any potential slander issue.

lyfia, everything I've posted I've included the information you mentioned, but when I do a google search, the only thing that really comes up is my Googlemaps review -what am I doing wrong?

You could try adding html tags if the areas where you write a review allow you to add html yourself. That is what the search engine crawlers go and look for when indexing stuff. It may also take some time for them to find the info.

OK did a search on html search tags and meta tags and here is one site that came up.

Here is a link that might be useful: Search tags - Beginners HTML

That's horrible. When I Google "mylakehouse.com" I do get a poor BBB report as the last hit on the first page. I would definitely make a report.

http://www.bbb.org/dallas/business-reviews/real-estate-rentals-by-individuals/mylakehousecom-in-quinlan-tx-90400789

He looks all booked for July. Do you think it's bogus or is he really that busy ripping off other people?

Based on the website, it looks nice. If the lake is low, photos need to be updated with some sort of "heads up" that the lake level is low. Also, the reviews end in something like 2009. Maybe that is the last time the lake was at that level? It seems the only updates are the calendar/bookings.

We are at the opposite here in our region. We have had so much rain, the smaller lakes and rivers are FULL.

I see your review on google+ & fyple.com along with the other people he ripped off.

When I say he, I'm referring to Dan Gable of Quinlan TX and owner of MyLakeHouse.com.

You can leave another review here:

http://companies.findthecompany.com/l/27482032/Mylakehouse-Com-in-Quinlan-TX

Also, try to add a business on Yelp:

http://www.yelp.com/search?find_desc=&find_loc=Quinlan&ns=1&ls=5e17ce2fa487980a

Unfortunately, I didn't notice that the testimonials on his website were all 2009 and earlier. That should have been a heads up, but I just randomly clicked on a few and all were great -I overlooked checking the dates.

I have already posted a review on findthecompany. I thought I had done one on Yelp too, but couldn't find it, so just did another.

I called the Sheriff's office this morning to see if they would be interested in taking a report. They said they don't handle civil issues, just criminal, and referred me to the Justice of the Peace, where I've logged a call. Coincidentally the Sheriff's office told me that Dan Gable called them out to the property yesterday (wouldn't tell me why, but I'm surmising there was some kind of stink with the people renting it...), and they noted that the property is not even close to what it is being advertised as.

I think the bookings are legitimate.... unfortunately. Very frustrating to be sitting here wishing I could warn people...

I just googled: mylakehouse.com review

This page came up on the 2nd page, 5 down. I think the more you give search terms, the closer it comes up to the top. At least, I think that's how it works . . .