n October, I booked a 4 night stay with this business, I communicated directly with the owner Mr Johan Lantz of Stockholm. We had a pleasant communication and agreed upon the terms with one exception, the cancellation policy. I asked Mr Lantz to provide me this information because of potential cancellation due to work obligations. My request was ignored, shame on me for not persisting, in good faith I provided a very expensive deposit $250 Eu $352. This was to be our 25th anniversary celebration. Due to unforeseen health issues, I had to cancel this complete Greece trip. The notice I provided to Mr. Lantz was 90 days from the reservation date and my cancellation was not due to business but to a health issue. When I requested the refund I was refused and Mr Lantz indicated that his policy was clearly stated on VRBO. I went to VRBO which I had not returned to since finding his apartment. It indicated that deposit refund was >6weeks a 30% penalty, 4-6 weeks, a 50% penalty and <4 weeks a 100% penalty. i challenged Mr. Lantz who then indicated that I actually owed him money as that penalty was for the FULL amount, not the deposit. The whole thing was ludicrous. I booked 8 months early and provided him 3 months’ notice on cancellation, plenty of time to rent the property and he refuses to refund any of the deposit. A very poor and questionable business practice. The office of tourism states on their website that full refunds of deposits MUST be made if reservation is outside of 4 weeks.

A greek specialist on trip advisor indicated that perhaps Mr. Lantz had violated rules indicated by the Department of Tourism.

I have maintained all documentation relating to this incident.

After filing of this report, Mr. Lantz refunded the original 250Euro which equated to a shortage of $30 but I accepted the money. It is unfortunate that this drastic method had to be taken to recover a good faith deposit.