Dharma Home Suites JC at Exchange Place

WARNING!!! One of the WORST rental companies I've ever had to dealt with. There is a reason why their 5 star reviews on google are from FIVE YEARS AGO. Definitely things have changed with this company. First, the property manager didn’t even showed up on time to complete the payment on the first day as coordinated. We had to follow up to pay and she didn't even respond till the next day. Second, the unit were invested with ROACHES. They even sent infestation to manage the roaches weekly. Third, they gave us a unit that did not look like the image of the pictures on the booking. That's how I know they rented out this unit deliberately even knowing the place was infested with roaches. Seems like this was a backup/old unit maybe? Personally, I've been travelling abroad for 5 months, I am exhausted, and jetlagged. A lot was also happening personally in my life when I was staying in this unit. My fiance had just proposed and I had just been reunited with my family after not seeing them throughout covid. As you can see, my week was busy and we were barely in the unit. Day by day as we stayed longer the unit got worst, I managed to meet more of the other residents on this unit (aka ROACHES) and noticed all the stains in the walls and blinds, even the kitchen had burnt stains on the cabinets. That's when it hit me the unit pictured when booking was not even the unit we were currently staying in. When I finally got fed up after seeing the third roach on the 10th day being in the unit, they managed to move us to another unit. Of course, after many mental break downs, I requested some type of reimbursement for the stress I dealt with staying in the messy, dusty and filthy unit. I also had to take many hours off work to move our stuff to the other unit and manage the calls in between meetings. They told me they will have management call me back- after every single call. After 10 days they still haven't called me back, and this is me following up calling every single day during work hours to see where they were at in regards to taking responsibility with this issue. Apparently they refunded $200 back to my account. WOW, $200 is not even worth a night's rate. At this point, I am boiling. Finally, 5 days before the time I am supposed to check out, they finally managed to put me through with a "manager"- different than the property manager. THE AUDACITY of this company baffles me. This manager manages to tell me that they can now increase the reimbursement for the hassle and infested unit they have given us the first time to $350 (from $200). ARE YOU KIDDING ME? He told me that it was because I stayed put for the first 10 days in the unit with no complaints and that it was my "CUSTOMER RESPONSIBILITY" to complain right away. Since I didn't complain right away it was my fault that I put up with it and that it was not their responsibility to make it up it in anyway. To them all that mattered was when I finally made the call, they worked the whole day to clean up a new unit for us to move into (mind you, this unit also had door issues, where the door from the bedroom to the living room did not close). WOW, what type of answer is this!?!!? Let me put this into perspective for you, the monthly rate we were charged for is $6,600. This issue still HAS STILL NOT BEEN RESOLVED. It has been mentally exhausting dealing with them. Believe me when I say I've cried after many phone calls with them. It’s a dead-end of fake apologies and "we'll call you backs". Please do yourself a favor and skip this whole nightmare, go with another short term rental company. There are many great ones in the NYC area, such as blue ground or churchill, etc. Until this day my issues and concerns have not been acknowledged and they definitely did not have the best response and customer service. Everyone customer rep you talk to will apologize and say the same "safe" sentences over and over again. They are definitely trained for this. Seems to be reading off a script.

Initially as a family of 4 were supposed to stay at Dharma suites JC at exchange place in July. However, due to covid , we weren’t able to travel to nyc . I cancelled it in early June, it was free cancellation . I contacted them , they said they will make the refund within 30 days, then in early July, after the 30 days expired, I contacted them again , they said they will do the refund within 30 days again, so I waited again , until early August, they still haven’t made the refund back to me. I contacted them again, and this time they said they will refund to me within 14 days. So in mid August , the refund hasn’t arrived yet. I contacted booking.com to assist , then they told booking.com they will refund within 30 days again, which just expired yesterday( another 30 days since mid August ). I don’t know what’s the reason of delaying the refund , or I hope they will play it fair and make the refund soon, I will definitely continue to chase because of the principle , and the amount isn’t small, a total of USD860! So , pls be careful booking them, it only takes minutes for them to charge us the deposit but if it happens you need to cancel, you will need to chase , chase , chase , chase to get your money back , or there is a chance they won’t pay you back at all !!!!

I booked this property via Hotels.com. I booked a 2 bed apartment which accommodates 6 people, however when I received my confirmation it stated its only booked for 1 person. Bizarre, why would I book a 2 bedroom apartment for 1 person. I contacted hotels.com who advised they would contact dharma & get this sorted, 2 weeks late I'm still chasing dharma & hotels.com to sort this issue out. Hotels.com are blaming Dharma & vice versa. Dharma have advised they cant cancel ad its now to late however had they contacted hotels.com back in time then it would not have been an issue. Dharma also said to change it to 6 adults the cost will now increase, which I don't agree as I booked for 6 people. If there's been a error between dharma and hotels.com they should take responsibility rather than making the customer chase them both. I asked for them to cancel without charge to myself as its there own faults or amend without no extra cost. Both companies have continued to play the blame game and are not assisting me at all, they have caused undue stress and the service has been the worst I've experienced. I spoke to Victor in the reservations department from dharma who told me to tell him the issue before passing me through to a manager, after explaining he then didn't put me through to a manager and 30 minutes later put down the phone on me. I will be contacting citizens advice and will ensure this matter is resolved in my favour either way as its not acceptable that neither company want to take responsibility. The trip is 2 weeks away now and I'm more worried and stress thanks to the dharma team and hotels.com team. I will update and add more to this review when I receive a response if I ever do.