WhimstayReviews of whimstay.com

I do not recommend this booking company. The terms and conditions were not presented in a clear or transparent manner, and key restrictions were effectively hidden until after payment was made. A customer should be able to understand material conditions before committing financially. That standard was not met here. Transparency should not require digging, guessing, or discovering terms only when a problem arises. Read their BBB complaints before booking

Please don't waste your time and money with Whimstay, it's not worth the headache. I booked a beautiful condo in Mexico for next summer and was immediately emailed by my host trying to double charge me. I figured it was a mistake, so I emailed the host asking for clarification as I had paid through Whimstay. No reply. I received another email several days later again asking for payment from my host. No reply when I followed up. I then turned to Whimstay "support" and did not receive any answer for an entire day. At this point I was panicked as I had invested a significant amount of money in what seemed like a scam. Despite doing nothing wrong, following Whimstay's instructions to contact my host, and contacting Whimstay "support" through FOUR DIFFERENT METHODS they would not refund my service fee, just the stay itself. So now I'm out $80 because Whimstay didn't properly vet a host who is SCAMMING people. This is totally unacceptable and also insane. I've told all my friends to not book with Whimstay either.

I booked a property through Whimstay, then canceled within their stated 24-hour window (all well documented through their own messaging platform). They ignored it. No acknowledgment. No action. No response until much later, when a rep finally replied asking, “How can I assist you today?” By then, the 24-hour clock had passed only because they failed to respond. I repeated my request, and they are now using that later timestamp to justify keeping nearly 10% of the booking. This is indefensible. Their own system shows: A timely cancellation request No response before the refund cutoff An auto-reply after the window had closed A refund denial based on their own internal delay This is not a policy issue. It’s a customer service failure, and a dishonest one at that. Avoid this platform if you expect basic accountability or fair treatment.

I booked a stay for two days for $200, and then on the day of my check-in, I was sent a random email demanding a $150 deposit. I knew nothing about this deposit until a few hours before my check-in. That’s when I realized that all of the reviews talking about this place being a scam was true. I asked for a refund, and the woman I spoke with was incredibly rude and disrespectful and hung up on me. They sent me an email stating they have canceled my reservation and issued a refund, but will not send me a confirmation. This place is a scam. You’re better off paying a bit more for a hotel. Never again.

Cancellation policy sucks

I had a very disappointing experience with Whimstay. They market themselves as a platform for great last-minute rental deals, yet their cancellation policy is the exact opposite of what you’d expect — no refunds if canceled within 30 days. This is not in line with industry standards, as most travel companies and hotels allow cancellations up to 24 hours before check-in. On top of that, property details are not clearly disclosed at the time of booking. In my case, I only learned after completing the reservation that the unit was on the third floor of a building with no elevator. This made it completely inaccessible elderly guests traveling with me. I had no choice but to cancel, and despite the lack of transparency, Whimstay refused to issue any refund, citing their rigid 30-day policy. Overall, this company feels misleading both in its advertising and policies. I would strongly caution anyone considering using Whimstay — their practices are neither guest-friendly nor aligned with industry norms.

I had $5000 in my account and I had a credit card w a $25,000 limit. I tried booking a $1700 rental -both cards were refused, when I called customer service, I got 0 help. AND got locked out after that. I went to kayak found a better rental, same location, hit pay and got an immediate positive response. So for the same money I got a better room, from kayak! I had never heard of whimstay before, I’ve used kayak a lot in the past. I’ll choose kayak from now on!!!!!!

Unfortunately, I cannot recommend Whimstay. My wife and I were happy to find an alternative to airbnb and vrbo for booking a stay on our honeymoon, but we will look elsewhere in the future. Our host was dismissive before our stay, and completely unreachable while we were at the rental. The listing was not as described, had no heat, and didn’t lock. We had to leave in the middle of the night, and after a long email thread Whimstay won’t reimburse us the $150 we wasted on their untrustworthy host, because the host won’t reimburse Whimstay. What a lousy company! I wonder how many people have been scammed already. Whimstay offered us a $50 credit towards our “next booking”, as if we would ever consider booking through this company again. My wife and I are pursuing legal action against the host, who was completely unreachable for the duration of our stay and never responded when we told him about the lock and heat.