A friend and I booked a 2 bedroom apartment with Yellowstay in the the St. Germain area of Paris on rue des St. Peres. I was horrified to discover a bed bug infestation. Never having experienced bed bugs before and being very jet lagged it took a few nights to realize what was going on. On our last night at the apartment, I awoke from a fitful sleep at 3 am, turned on the light to inspect the bed, and had my suspicions confirmed when I saw 2 different types of insects crawling about the sheets (one closely resembled a photo and description of a typical bed bug we later saw on the internet).
As disgusted as we were, we realized such infestations can occur even in well maintained accommodations; what was unacceptable though, was the utterly unprofessional and immature response to our complaint by Yellowstay staff including the manager who we primarily dealt with. This response greatly added to our distress. Intially it was suggested that we were the source of the infestation (though we%26#39;d flown directly from home), that our trustworthiness could not be assumed, and that we would have to supply photographic evidence of the bugs before any reimbursement would be considered (we%26#39;d already paid in full for a week). We were also ridiculed for being %26quot;afraid of little bugs%26quot;!! In the end (having lost most of our day contending with this situation) we were transferred to a hotel in Montparnasse. The Yellowstay manager refused to reimburse us for our remaining nights so we could find another place on our own. The nightly rate at the hotel was less than the apt but we were not reimbursed the difference despite our request. Though very responsive when initially seeking our business, when we tried to contact Yellowstay staff following the transfer they did not respond to our emails and voicemails; when occasionally we did reach our contact person on the phone, the line would mysteriously disconnect after we introduced ourselves. The cost of the rental was to include use of a phone in the apt, but this remained unconnected until our last day.
I would never use this company again because of their lack of decency and professionalism.
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Georgina15,
How horrible. That is one reason one should always check out the reputation of a company before using them, this site is invaluable for that.
Anyone thinking of using %26quot;Yellowstay%26quot;only has to do a search on this site to see your post, and hopefully they will think twice before using such a company.
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You%26#39;ve got my sympathy. How utterly horrible and frustrating !!!
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Hello,
Whew how horrible. Bad enough you had the problem but to get no satisfaction!
It is a shame to let them get away with this. You might consider trying to contact someone in the French government. I dont know who maybe someone on their tourist board. A friend had a problem with her rental in France (not Paris) and somehow she got satisfaction by going to someone in the government and was eventually given a refund. I have a feeling that there are controls and regulations on rental companies and the government would like to know about this.
Does anyone on this board have a suggestion on how to at least make a formal complaint and maybe get some satisfaction?
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Georgina
Thats just an awful story! Afraid of little bugs, they apparently never met a bed bug, me neither but I slept in a hotel ones where they had fleas int he bed, they were jumping around and biting us all night, it was awful (and then we had fleas for about one week! , occationally jumping on us) and I guess bedbugs are quite the same! I think its just terrible that you get that on a trip to Paris, I think the company should feel ashame and Im glad you enlightened us here on the forum! And Im certainly not afraid of bugs, used to live in the tropics so I have had scorpions, bats (long storry, it got inside the mosquito net, vampire bat, i dont know who panict the most him or me), frogs, lizzards and all kinds of insects (not biting ones) and I would never complain about that on a hotel, beacuse they are just impossible to keep put, but bed bugs! ARGH!
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How awful!
You should write a review on their website, I just saw one which says it is not clean.. (I hope it is the right one as the name is paris yellowstay)
…yellowstay.com/luxurious-apartments-paris-4…
And then if you speak and write French, you could send a letter or an email to la DGCCRF (Direction Générale de la Concurrence de la Consommation et de la Répression des Fraudes)
www.minefi.gouv.fr/dgccrf/courrier/index.html
…gouv.fr/dgccrf/…location_saisonniere.htm
…free.fr/p/…dgccrf_dccrf.html
Good luck :-)
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I brought bedbugs back from my last visit to Paris. It is an expensive and disgusting process to get rid of them. Any hotel, no matter how well maintained, can get them from tourists. The first thing my exterminator asked was, %26quot;Have you been to Europe in the past year?%26quot; You should unpack outside your home and take your clothing right to the laundry, while spraying your luggage and bagging it up in black plastic garbage bags.
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Reading bed bug stories makes me feel really paranoid. The last time we stayed in a hotel I kept getting up in the night and looking for them. I%26#39;ve heard they are having a problem in New York City right now. I suppose it can happen anywhere. It certianly would put a dmper on your vacation though.
Be sure to put a reveiw on Slowtravel websited.
Thanks for the head%26#39;s up.
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Sister, I hear you! We also had a terrible experience with Yellowstay back in February 2005. At least we had no bedbugs (!) but when we landed and called the number we were supposed to call to have someone come meet us, they said %26quot;We don%26#39;t have you down for having a rental!%26quot; This was after having spent the previous 3 weeks in near constant email communication with them. Talk about scaring the pants off me....with little kids in tow! It finally got sorted out, but we had to stand out in the cold banging on an iron gate before a building super finally let us in. There was no phone, no cable, the electricity was turned off mid-week for non-payment (egads!), the kitchen sink was falling through the counter, the bathroom shower was broken. Go and do a search of %26quot;Yellowstay%26quot; and you%26#39;ll find my comments somewhere..... you%26#39;re not alone!
Anyone that is considering Yellowstay....beware!
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While in Nice this past march I got bit up big time by bed bugs. I know what they are, because I had the same problem while on a missionary trip to Mexico. I%26#39;d expect it there, but Nice. NO.
I really suffered too. I had them all over my ankles, shins and arms. Thank God someone in our group had topical antibodic%26#39;s. We also had a Doctor with Us and when He took a look the bites on My arms He was alarmed. Ah, I got over it. But I will never forgive that Hotel. Those dirty dish rags, with crumbs and mayo that%26#39;s the worst kind...
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Dear Georgina,
Thank you for posting your review here, but as i am the manager of yellowstay, i need to add some further information..
There was indeed an infection of bed bugs in your apartment. This happen. This is the first time for us, thanks to our professional cleaning service (Grennelle Service which is delivering towels and linens in major 4 star hotels in Paris), but it happens. When you contacted us, I came to the apartment and took some pictures to learn what it is, to learn if we need to desinfect the place, to learn if there are some risks for you. It took 20 mins, then i told you that you need to move, i can%26#39;t be desinfected for tonight, i called from the apartment an agency (france-hotel-online.Com) to book the best hotel we could find available, (fashion period in Paris: Sept, 18th to Sept, 25th). It took 2 hours to find you 2 rooms in a 4 star hotels @ Montparnasse, which all inclusive (agency fees), was more expensive than the apartment nightly rate. That%26#39;s why the %26quot;difference%26quot; could not be refunded to you.
Moreover, i did not refuse to refund you, i told you to choose between being refunded, and choose a hotel by yourself, (i didn%26#39;t recommand you this solution as Paris was really full, better to leave this to travel agencies which have connections.), or to leave us look for you and come back to you with some suggestions. This is what you choose and we did it right away.
You can be sure that you won%26#39;t find that efficiency in any %26quot;owner rental company%26quot; in Paris which represent major of our competitors, yellowstay is preparing and managing its own selection of apartments to garantee theirs qualities.
Once again, i am really sorry that this misadventure happened to you.
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