[ 2012 ] Smovac Travel

[Robert D]

Smovac Travel has 26 rental ads on Myresortnetwork and none for sale. Has anyone heard of them before. Wonder if they're renting exchange weeks?

 

[obrianel01]

Beware of smovac travel, dont use!!!!

DO NOT GIVE MONEY TO SMOVAC TRAVEL. we tried to rent a villa from them, and Joe was so flaky to talk to, couldnt write up a contract correctly, messed up all the paypal stuff. And finally after we paid our balance in full, we didnt hear from him again and is not changing the reservation number he gave us into our name.

I keep calling members services and the hotel and he has changed the reservation name, but into someone elses name not ours and there is nothing we can do as far as the villa goes.

Weve called him and emailed multiple times and he just stopped responding after he got paid.

were currently opening a grievance with paypal to file a complaint against him.

 

[jsmolda]

Smovac Travel

Everyone that has ever used Smovac Travel has always received their vacation rental as agreed in the rental agreement, signed by both parties. This complaint is unjustified and I am asking that individual to write a retraction. I believe that emails were deleted inadvertently and thus the communication regarding the "Guest Confirmation" was not received or they were in their spam file. I will also ask this individual to clearly state if they did not receive the unit size and dates at the resort for the rate quoted. This would be news to me, since I have never not kept my end of any agreement. If anyone else has used Smovac Travel and would like to share your experience, we would love to hear from you.
Sincerely,
Joe Smolda

 

[Robert D]

Mr. Smolda, can you tell us where you get the inventory that you rent. You have a lot of listings on Ebay at low prices. Do you own all of these weeks or are they exchanges from Interval or RCI?

 

[jsmolda]

Bogus Complaint from obrianel01

Still waiting for a retraction from obrianel01...I would appreciate an explanation or a call to find out what their complaint could be?

I can be reached at any time.

Thank you,
Joe Smolda

 

[DeniseM]

Everyone that has ever used Smovac Travel has always received their vacation rental as agreed in the rental agreement, signed by both parties. This complaint is unjustified and I am asking that individual to write a retraction. I believe that emails were deleted inadvertently and thus the communication regarding the "Guest Confirmation" was not received or they were in their spam file. I will also ask this individual to clearly state if they did not receive the unit size and dates at the resort for the rate quoted. This would be news to me, since I have never not kept my end of any agreement. If anyone else has used Smovac Travel and would like to share your experience, we would love to hear from you.
Sincerely,
Joe Smolda

Joe - while you may defend yourself, which you have already done, you may not post your phone number and website on TUG, nor solicit recommendations on TUG. That is considered advertising.

Please note that you are responding to a post from Jan. 23, and obrianel01 has not been back since then, so they have not seen your post.

I recommend that you contact the poster DIRECTLY to settle your issues.

 

[Robert D]

Still waiting for a retraction from obrianel01...I would appreciate an explanation or a call to find out what their complaint could be?

I can be reached at any time.

Thank you,
Joe Smolda

Joe, I'm still waiting to hear where you get the inventory that you rent. You have a lot of listings on Ebay at low prices. Do you own all of these weeks or are they exchanges from Interval or RCI?

 

[pacodemountainside]

Joe, I'm still waiting to hear where you get the inventory that you rent. You have a lot of listings on Ebay at low prices. Do you own all of these weeks or are they exchanges from Interval or RCI?

I am a causal renter and probably do things different than Mega guys/gals.

When I get an inquiry I am happy to provide proof I own what I am renting and then request 50% cash before getting guest certificate.

Why don't you have a couple buddies ask for proof Joe has. If he refuses to provide or reservations are II or RCI then you have made your point!

 

[riv1964]

Just wanted to add I recently rented from Smovac travel and had no problems at all. Was concerned at first because I found the ad on Craigslist but then I read other Tuggers post there. Would rent from him again. So far, I have use Red week, Tug, Ebay and Craigslist to find rentals. My family is spoiled, no one wants to go back to a hotel room!

 

[Robert D]

Riv, was it an Interval or RCI exchange that he rented to you?

 

[theo]

Fwiw, I've communicated with Joe Smolda on several occasions in recent years; his overt assertion to me was that he owns a lot of points within a particular system.
I will leave it to Mr. Smolda whether or not he chooses to elaborate further and / or openly reveal for himself which particular system that may be; I won't do so here.

If Mr. Smolda's assertion is accurate (I will likely find out for myself, since I will be trying to arrange for a very specific week / location rental with him for CY 2016), he is certainly free to (legitimately) rent out weeks that he has reserved via points that he owns within that particular system. There are certainly others here on TUG who do just exactly that --- even as a dedicated (...and prohibited?) commercial business, some of whom openly and routinely describe their m.o. in considerable detail.

All I can say (...so far) with any real certainty is that Joe Smolda has demonstrated to me at least a very clear and thorough understanding of the reservation process and timetable for the particular system in which he claims to own points. I fully intend to attempt to proceed with a rental from him and, at the risk of appearing immodest, I believe that I cannot (and will not) be likely to ever get successfully scammed or deceived in a timeshare matter. If Mr. Smolda is not completely on the "up and up", I can and will certainly ferret that out. Frankly, my impression so far, although as yet unsubstantiated, is that both he and what he is doing are both completely legitimate.

For the record and fwiw, I would never participate in the (...prohibited by both RCI and II) practice of exchanges being rented out for personal profit and I would not ever choose to take the risk of being on either end of any such renting of weeks which were obtained via "exchange".

 

[riv1964]

Robert,
I don't know if it was RCI or Interval. I rented a Starwood property and it was a Starwood confirmation. Does that help?

 

[DeniseM]

Robert,
I don't know if it was RCI or Interval. I rented a Starwood property and it was a Starwood confirmation. Does that help?

If you rent an RCI or II exchange, you get an RCI or II Guest Certificate.

If it was a Starwood confirmation, it wasn't an exchange.

 

[riv1964]

Thanks Denise,
I've learned a lot from you!

 

[Nlflower]

Smovac Travel has 26 rental ads on Myresortnetwork and none for sale. Has anyone heard of them before. Wonder if they're renting exchange weeks?

I used them a few years ago for a rental in Florida and had a great experience. I would rent from him again without question. He handled everything quickly and efficiently. Our rental unit was fabulous!

 

[taterhed]

WOW. talk about your Dinosaurs. Thank goodness somebody jumped on the forum this morning, registered and posted this response to a 3 year old post.

The suspense was killing me!

 

[chapjim]

WOW. talk about your Dinosaurs. Thank goodness somebody jumped on the forum this morning, registered and posted this response to a 3 year old post.

The suspense was killing me!

His first and only post. How much stock should we put in that post?

 

[taterhed]