This is part one of a two-part, review of Wimdu.com. I was provided with a voucher for the purpose of reviewing their services during my stay in Lima, Peru. All opinions are my own. Click here to read part two.
After traveling around the world for 15 months, I was certifiably burnt out on hostels. The lack of privacy, the noise, the revolving door of new personalities.
The final straw was a Colombian girl who tried to rob me blind while I was at staying at a Medellin hostel. After that, I immediately found a room to rent through a friend, and spent five relaxing months with an apartment I could call home.
Now that I've turned traveling the world into a full-time job, I'm looking for ways to balance the need to keep moving, with the desire for creature comforts, privacy, and the security of my belongings.
What's Wimdu?
Wimdu is a new, short term apartment rental site that connects property owners around the world with holiday and business travelers. They invited me to try their services earlier in the year, however I wanted to wait until I was traveling again.
Today I'm leaving the mountains of Huaraz for the beaches of Lima, where I thought it'd be fun to give Wimdu a try.
This is the first time I've used an apartment rental site, so I'm curious to see how this turns out.
I've been couchsurfing for five years, but as much as I love that community, I'm increasingly interested in having a private place to call my own, whether that's for one week, or one year.
The Search Process
Earlier this week, I began scouring Wimdu's listings for apartments in Lima.
Getting started is as easy as entering your destination, preferred check-in and check-out dates, and number of guests in the search box on the home page.
A simple way to search, and a clean design, made the process of reviewing apartments a pleasure.
The results are displayed according to recommendations, however you can also sort them by price and distance (from the location you entered).
I sorted by price, and then used additional filters in the left column to further refine results.
For Room Type I selected “Entire Home/Apartment”, for Neighborhood I picked the trendy “Miraflores” and under Amenities I checked “Wireless Internet”.
The results update accordingly, and there's a little Google map in the upper left corner with numbered markers that correspond to the available properties.
From this view, I began checking out the individual properties. As always, titles play an important role, and I found myself gravitating toward an apartment entitled “Jacuzzi with ocean view”.
Sweet!
Apartment Listings
As you can see in the screenshot above, you get all the vital info nicely laid out for each listing.
A tabbed horizontal navigation lets you see an overview of the apartment, made up of photos. By the way, is that a rooftop infinity pool I see in the bottom right?
The Calendar tab is a visual display of the apartment's availability. The Map shows where in the city it's located, and the Amenities tab is self-explanatory.
Along the right side, you've got the price, and some basic info about the property, and renters' policies.
Below the property details is a Host box which indicates the owner's response rate, and a field where you can type your questions to him/her. If the owner puts together a good listing, you probably won't have many questions.
Further down, there's more space for additional information about the apartment. For this property, the owner mentions a tax is not included in the cost, the need for the renter to inspect the apartment upon arrival (for damages), and the amount of the required security deposit ($150).
The Booking Process
After reviewing a bunch of similar apartments, I ultimately settled on the apartment in downtown Lima with the rooftop jacuzzi.
When I clicked the “Book It” button, a pop-up appeared with a default inquiry written to the host inquiring about the availability. I think this is optional, as I didn't get the pop-up on at least one other property for which I clicked the booking button.
I sent the message, and heard back from the host via a message in the Wimdu system confirming the apartment's availability for my preferred dates.
Wimdu's messaging system doesn't allow you to include contact information in the messages until the apartment has been booked and paid for. I'm guessing this is a security feature.
With the green light from the host, I was then able to book the apartment. I was happy to see PayPal as a payment option, in addition to major credit cards like Visa.
Again, the easier a site or service can make my life (in this instance, the payment process), the more likely I am to continue using them.
Once the payment was made, I received another message from the host. We each had a few questions for one another, and we set up a time to meet at the building where I'll provide the security deposit in exchange for the keys to my one-week bachelor pad in Lima's most popular neighborhood.
So far, I've found Wimdu's site and service easy to use. The next test will be when I go to meet the host, get the keys, and check out the property in person.
Will it live up to the photos in the listing? And just how nice is that ocean view from the rooftop jacuzzi?
Stay tuned to find out.
31£ (roughly $50) a night for a furnished apartment, in the nicest part of town with jacuzzi and pool with an ocean view, not to mention no need to sign a 6month contract, isn’t terrible. It’s way above what I’d pay for an apartment but after being on the road Couchsurfing and “sleeping” in hostel dorms I could see this being a great option for location independent entrepreneurs to spoil themselves for a week or two.
Yea Kevin, it’s more than I normally pay for a night’s accommodation too. So far in Ecuador and Peru, I’ve been paying $10 – $15 night average for private rooms in hostels.
But, if I enjoy the apartment stay, I might consider doing it as a splurge every now and then — maybe for a week, or weekend, depending on where, costs, etc.
No question but from time to time there is nothing better than spoiling yourself for a week. I see a lot of work getting done and good content ahead!
Hi Dave,
We’re on the last leg of our RTW trip…in New York – and used an identical service – Airbnb.
The place didn’t quite live up to expectations (the online sales pitch dragged us in!) but it’s still working out well. NY is not cheap (even for a hostel) so this worked out a fair option, even for hard-up travelers!
Good luck with yours!
Ben
Hey Ben, I know Airbnb is the biggest of these sites. I’m curious to see the apartment I’m renting — leaving the hostel in a few minutes. I can’t hold it against the listing website if the property owner is able to make their place look really attractive online. I think that’s normal, whether selling houses, or renting rooms.
One thing I forgot to ask was whether the apartment was smoke free. That’d be a deal breaker for me, so crossing my fingers.
Thanks for sharing your experience!
I always prefer short term rentals to hotels or hostels. This looks great, I’ll definitely check it out the next time I travel. Thanks for sharing!
I’m still getting use to the idea. Being in an apartment the last 5 days has put me back into expat mode, where I feel like I have all the time in the world to explore, when I really only have two weeks (that I’m giving myself).
It’s also a bit isolating since I’m traveling alone, but I do like the privacy, and comfort.
I’m sorry to say, but as a host, my experience with Wimdu so far has been terrible. While the guests that have booked my property were very nice, and enjoyed their stay, and paid Wimdu for booking my property, Wimdu has not paid me! After an email, in which I asked if the reason I did not get paid was because 24 hours was on Sunday (Wimdu promisses to send the money to the Host 24 hours after guests check in), I was told that they were sorry and I will receive my payment. Since I still did not get paid, I followed up on the phone. There, I was told that Paypal does not work on Sundays. Excuse me?? I was also told that I should send an email, since the phone support is custumer support, not payment support. hmmm…. After another day passed, I still did not recieve the payment.
So I searched the web and see that there are more complaints from the hosts who have not been paid, more freequent since April.
When posting a property on their website, we do not agree to just hand over our properties, for free, while they collect the money. We expect to be paid.
It takes a minute to send a payment though Paypal.
As mentioned, this has been a terrible experience.
Hi Ella, thanks for sharing your experience from the host perspective.
Well, Wimdu is the most incompetent company I have dealt with. I still haven’t gone to my holiday to france but it is making me more and more vervous each day. I’ve paid over £600 just to find out the day after the booking that there are lots of additional charges. Today I saw that the website has been further updated and a compulsry cleaning charge that was taken from me is not on the website anymore. I’ve called Wimdu, wrote to them 3 times in the last 11 days and nothing back from them. They are just incompetent.
Hi Jhorna,
What are the additional charges that you weren’t aware of before?
Well, when I booked the apartment, there was only basic information available and ticks on amenties. I asked the host question regarding beddings and sheets and asked if they were provided and he said yes. SO I made my booking and after the booking I was sent addition info stating that there is additional costs on bedsheets, towels and I had to sort out my own cleaning products although I was charged for the cleaning. I made my initial query stright away to the company and after 3 written queries and 100’s of phone calls, they are stating that there has been no such update of the details and all the information was available to me on the time I made the booking. As a compensation, they have given me 25 euro worth of wimdu vouchers. I haven’t made my trip yet but after this is over, do they actually think that I’d book with them any more??
I don’t know, but maybe you’d have better luck talking directly with the apartment host once you arrive. It sounds like part of the problem is with them, and either their change in policy, or the misinformation you were initially given.
Be very very careful. I (stupidly) entered my credit card number to (I thought) hold a vacation rental. They charged my card RIGHT AWAY, so I cancelled the reservation somewhere around 24 hours after making it. Now Wimdu claims they are keeping 12% of the total as a fee.
They claimed it was in the “terms and conditions”, which is about 12 pages long. NO where on the “complete booking” page does it say, if it turns out you don’t like the host, even if you cancel we’re keeping 12%. Now I’m out $134. I begged and begged but they have politely told me several times they’re keeping my money.
Here in the US hotels do indeed take your credit card number but don’t charge you until you actually show up.
Started listing on Wimdu after AirBnB was subjected to new tax demands by our lovely government. If ever I’ve disliked an organization, this would be it.
1. CONTROLLING
If AirBnB is that cool older sibling who trusts you to know what you are doing, Wimdu is that nagging one who is consistently looking over your shoulder to make sure you’re responding to every single inquiry and punishing you with leeeeengthy politely-written essays – oops, emails – and the deactivation of your listings if you’re 1/ not, or 2/ declining, even if a male is requesting a stay in a space with the heading “all-female.”
I know when I receive a Wimdu message. My inbox has this cool way of notifying me with a message with the heading “New message on Wimdu.” I think it’s called an “e-mail.” It even contains a snippet of the incoming message if I click on it, which I do to see if it’s another male hoping to get lucky and score a stay in the female room before bothering with logging in to respond and whatnot. I don’t need big brother Wimdu to get all up in my face with a 3-page letter every time I don’t respond or decline someone. Either I’m full or am considering long-term residency applicants so don’t have the space for short-term stays at the moment. Stop needing to look over my shoulder at every turn.
2. INCOMPETENT
Twice now, I’ve had calendar blocking issues. On dates that had never been touched on Wimdu. Marked as unavailable. Thing with dates marked as such is that you can’t click on them on the otherwise interactive calendar. So you can’t change them to, well, available. Tried five times with refreshing plus five more on the drop-down calendar submission form below it to no avail – the screen didn’t even register that any information had been submitted for review or otherwise. So I relinquished to contacting support.
Two days. It took two days to clarify that the calendar was not interactive and, hence, could not be changed on the host computer end. Wasn’t the description above clear enough? You tell me, readers, you tell me, because Wimdu support obviously wasn’t getting it. And after the two days:
“Please give me the exact dates, price and minimum stay and I can [change availability] for you.” Dates not available had been specified in the email you just responded to. Dollar amount listed on all available dates on the calendar. Minimum stay, none, as it has always been in my default settings.
Did I mention that I had two separate guest reservations on standby waiting for this process to be completed, which I made clear several times in communication? Both ended up booking with us via a different service provider. Did I also mention that I’d had a similar issue on AirBnB last year but it was a glitch from my calendar updates rather than an “out of nowhere” unavailability, and AirBnB took care of it as soon as I contacted them?
The worst experience ever!!!! We have booked an apartment through Wimdu and just a day before travelling we received an email from them that due to some unknown reasons our booking has been cancelled. Tried to call their call centre for over an hour before I finally got through just to hear that they will investigate the matter but they can’t help me resolve the problem. Tried to call them next day for an update without the success. Ended up travelling without having the accommodation booked and had to spend our first day of holidays looking for a room! Very stressful experience overall and will never use them again!!!!!!!
I actually had a nice experience with Wimdu – everything went without a glitch until i arrived at the apartment. The host was not present to do the check-in and i tried contacting him, and after that i contacted Wimdu and got a quick and efficient reply. The problem got solved on the spot, as the agent on the phone with me contacted the host and in the end i had a very pleasant stay. I feel comfortable in booking with Wimdu as i know i can contact them when needed.
I used Wimdu several times already. Beginning of this month I booked for my next holidays in October. Always worked fine, super easy-friendly, and what I love the most – they always give me voucher after I review my last stay! (obviously it is a marketing strategy) but I don’t care, I still get the discount!
Our disastrous experience with Wimdu
We have been cheated by Wimdu: we rent an apartment in Reykjavik for 4 people, two nights, in June 2016. We were unable to check in there. The host address was incorrect and the contact telephone was not registered (checked by local police). Wimdu charged immediately, but the host gave no sign of life ever, despite our repeated attempts to contact him, to discuss the details of check-in. Wimdu has not wanted to take any responsibility despite being the only money and communication managers with the host. We tried to inquire in the area about the apartment but nobody knew anything, neither the police. We had to find an alternative accommodation and the next morning we contacted Wimdu via its website, several hours before 24 h indicated by them as a deadline to pay the host. The service customer only serves to pretend they have, because they do not solve anything. Their excuse was they had already paid the host. This service is diffuse and they give preset answers, without capacity for solving problems and taking care of the quality of their offer, (they still are offering the same apartment). It seems they do not have any interest in keep customers. Wimdu is like a web of contacts that you do not know how many are real.