I have emailed the owners of the house I had rented, but have not heard back as of yet. I also called my CC company. I will have to dispute the charges. I made this reservation quite some time ago, so I hope I things will work out. Also, thanks to MarMarGal for posting this because I would never have known of the closing.
I've had a couple credit card disputes in the past. I made sure I kept good records of my attempts to settle the problem with the vendor (names, dates, times--you'll need this info). I called the CC company and rattled off my problem and filled them in on my communication with the company. Each time I did this, my credit card company immediately made a chargeback on my account (after listening to my side of the story) and forwarded me the dispute paperwork.
They contacted the company about the dispute to tell them about the problem and apparently asked them for their side of the story. I forwarded the dispute report back to the CC company the day I received it with the story on my attempts to settle with the vendor (names, dates, times, etc).
I've always gotten my money charged back...mainly because the vendor tried to rip me off and I had documented evidence (names, times, dates) that I tried to settle the dispute.
This case may be a bit tricky if the vendor skipped town with all the deposits or filed for bankruptcy, because the credit card company may not have any future revenue they can dock from the vendor to settle the dispute. In one case I was lucky to receive a sizable chunk of money returned due to a service contract dispute, then 3 months later the vendor went into bankruptcy. Had I not gotten my money out under the wire, I would have to join the conga-line of creditors lined up for pennies on the dollar.
Keep good records on this situation...if the credit card company won't chargeback your account, and the company hasn't filed for bankruptcy...you might want to consider filing a report with the sheriff.
