My first bad experience... The unit was fine, but KBM manipulated us into keeping the reservation by promising a refund then refusing to honor it without us signing an NDA with a monetary breach provision that surpasses what many folks make in a year! If you prefer to deal with honest and fair businesses, steer clear of KBM.
Details…
KBM reached out to us 2 weeks before arrival and said the lanai would be inaccessible (being painted). They gave us 3 options – keep the booking w/a partial refund, stay at another KBM property, or get a full refund. We chose the partial refund. Our refund was conditioned ONLY on us keeping the reservation, and we received no additional materials from KBM prior to arrival. A few days after arrival, I contacted KBM to get the refund. Now they were refusing to honor the promised refund unless we signed a NEW AGREEMENT. The agreement contained a confidentiality component indicating that if anyone would “publicly criticize” KBM, that we could be in breach, and the "breach of this agreement with liquidated damages equal to" an amount that surpasses what many folks make in a year! Egregious! The KBM people I spoke to insisted they do this with ALL refunds. I am writing this review roughly 3 months after our stay and haven’t received a refund. I refuse to sign because 1) this was not the original deal KBM promised and 2) this would place a huge burden on our entire family. I would have to guarantee the performance of every individual in our party to that agreement (including in-laws). We wanted a vacation – NOT a chance to take on this level of risk!
What KBM did makes me wonder… How sincere and unbiased can the reviews about KBM be? If all refunds require the reviewer to say nothing negative about KBM (or potentially be in breach), what motivates the reviewers? I have no direct way of knowing what motivated the reviews, but I do know what we experienced and have shared it here freely.
When it comes to spending allot of my money on a family vacation, these kinds of headaches KBM created are exactly the kind I want to avoid. I’m saddened to see that VRBO allows these sorts of practices on their platform.
If VRBO is reading this review and would like to review this case, I can forward all documentation – including communications (email, voicemail) that occurred off-platform and the NDA agreement itself.