Th group Sophistic Home manages properties in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic and when I say manage, I use that term loosely. I would never entrust my property to them. I’ve rented a property from them and they are rude, arrogant, to a long time to respond to normal request like how to gain access to the unit, and try to apply additional fees and are so very bad at this business.
Though the advertise on platforms like booking.com, watch out because someone from Colombia will reach out to you.they will move you off the platform. Yes, that is correct, someone from Colombia will contact you about renting an apartment in Santo Domingo. Then they will try and charge you additional fees for “using a platform” and using your credit card. On top of this, their customer service from Colombia, Alejandra, or Emily or whatever their name is now, well they are almost incoherent.
These business practices are very poor, platforms like booking.com and Airbnb, project trust in a world full of fraudsters. In addition, they provide some guarantee of economic solvency and insure that if fraud is happening that short- term renters will only be inconvenienced and not out of pocket hundreds or thousands of dollars. With Sophistic Home a renter that is moved off the platform will not have an economic guarantee. I understand why their units go for months without being rented.
Update, so I pushed this, and followed the directions that I received for payment through Paypal, which I followed and then received confusing messages through booking.com and WhatsApp.
This is the response that was sent in WhatsApp.
Followed up by a response on booking.com:
I am really not sure what the problem with this group is or perhaps they are trying to scam me twice, keep posted for further follow-ups of renting through booking.com in the Dominican Republic.
