We were scheduled to stay at one of Charlaine’s rentals Nov 8 th through the 20 th . Just before our vacation Hurricane Sandy hit the New Jersey/New York area. We called Charlaine leaving a message on her voice mail and also e-mailed her regarding our concerns about going on vacation at this time. We did not hear back from her for 4 days at which time her reply to us was:

"Hello,
Both you and your spouse have reached out to me starting over a week before your reservation and in the middle of a crisis. Feel free to cancel if you wish.
Charlaine" this is a direct quote.

After much research and information gathering as we could do from California, and considering we got no information from Charlaine, we felt it best to cancel our trip (this was to be a family vacation with our daughter in school in NJ and our son recently returned from Afghanistan --- it was not an easy decision). We still did not hear anything from Charlaine for another 2 days after we cancelled. At this time she said everything was fine and she was holding our reservation---too late for us as we had cancelled our flight and other arrangements we had made for the trip. Bottom line is, Charlaine REFUSED to consider any type of refund. Even after we cancelled she said she was holding the space for us and had turned down offers of twice her usual rental fees for people displaced by Sandy. We were very disappointed in the way she took advantage of us and the situation. She said everything was fine in Jersey City when in fact it wasn’t. Her flat may have been rentable but the area was not suitable at that time for tourism. It would be like coming to San Francisco after an earthquake---

One would think that in these circumstances you would reach out to your clients with assurance as soon as possible. We heard nothing from Charlaine until we cancelled. She may be a great host but she is not an honest person.