A Malaysian woman took to Facebook recently to share her terrible experience after finding out that she was supposedly scammed by an owner of a homestay in Penang. For those wondering, the homestay is called Rumah Warisan Penang.
The post was shared by Syasya Sofian on the Facebook group “Hotel Review Malaysia”. She booked a stay at the aforementioned villa with her family members directly through a phone number displayed on Google. Syasya also clarified that she has read the reviews online, which was mostly positive.
“This will be the first and also the last time my family and I stay here. Although the villa is spacious and can fit up to 30 people, we’ encountered many problems such as aircon leakage, bathroom smelling like urine, water running slow, and mosquitoes in the house. They also have a swimming pool facility, but the place was not elderly-friendly. My mom fell down, and injured herself there,” the FB user remarked.
As if that wasn’t enough, Syasya revealed that the homestay refused to return the RM200 deposit which had already been paid when she checked in. “The person who came to hand us the homestay key told us that the deposit money will be refunded to us on the day we check out of the place. I was also given a few options to make my payment. However, the person on duty said that they only accept cash,” she wrote.
In her lengthy rant, Syasya revealed that when she and family wanted to check out of the homestay, the person who handed them the key refused to return the deposit that had been paid. She explained, “The person accused that we broke their mop. I told them there’s a CCTV in the homestay, we can see who’s at fault.”
“All of a sudden, he claimed that the CCTV was not working, when in fact he just said that it was working when they found it. They said we needed to pay RM180 to replace the broken mop. What kind of mop has a top-tier price like that?” the woman questioned. “After I scolded them, they agreed to refund the money only after the housekeepers finished cleaning the rooms.”
The woman was once again left infuriated after the villa owner claimed that they have transferred RM150 to Syasya’s “uncle/father” named Shafqat (as seen in the screenshot shared on the post). “They’re twisting the story, and they still refused to return our money. We’re just asking for our deposit money back. We asked them nicely, but yet one problem will emerge after another,” the Ipoh woman added.
“You can search Rumah Warisan Penang. They’re currently available for booking on Agoda. Actually, there have been a lot of complaints from people regarding this deposit issue. It’s okay, I’m going to show them that I’m willing to make them go viral. They thought I can’t do it. They think they can make a fool out of me. Sorry, you got the wrong person,” she concluded her lengthy post.
At the time of writing, Syasya’s Facebook posting has garnered 1.2k likes on Facebook. Scrolling through the comments, many advised her to file a report about the case to the authorities.
