I had to use Rentio as a renter of an apartment, and the experience was so humiliating that the only way I can regain my human dignity is by writing about it.
Renters usually experience it via the website mytenantprofile.be or its French or Dutch counterparts where one can book a visit to an apartment or make an application to the landlord. The first sign of troubles ahead is that the website pushes the renter to provide the identity of the previous landlord while this should rather be discouraged, be it only for privacy reasons. But the real problems start when renters apply to multiple agencies.
The website does not make it clear, but it saves the first application and reuses it for the next. I have not found a way to adapt my profile to the second application, so I clicked the link to delete my profile, waited, then tried to create my profile anew just to be greeted with the message "Perfect, you have already used our service. We can reuse your data" and then when I try to reset my password via SMS, it announces "Too many requests generic error message" and an invitation to contact the support by email. I believe they break a few laws by not deleting my personal data and our Data Protection Authority should look closely into them, but I will follow this up in a different story.
Luckily, I had the phone number of the realtor, so I could call her, explain the problem and submit my application via email while waiting for Rentio support to fix my login issue.
Rentio support never replied to me, although alter the realtor contacted them, they fixed my login issue within 20 minutes.
Naturally, when I logged in, my all my data was there, as if I did not click the "Delete my profile" link.
The procedure moved on with the landlord accepting the application and Rentio issuing invitations to sign, to create a rental deposit and to pay. And there were a few more red flags:
- The rental deposit is made in France, as if we don't have Belgian banks.
- While displaying the payment information in the Rentio mobile app, its developers disabled copy-paste, which effectively pushes user to manually re-type the name of the payment institution, the 27 character of the French IBAN and the reference code. This is blatantly hostile and perfectly exemplifies the total disrespect for non-paying users.
I have to be fair to Rentio. Realtors are their clients and they do get added value in the automation of the otherwise tedious workflows.
However they way they treat renters is both illegal and disrespectful. The illegal behavior must be stopped and punished. The disrespect is a more delicate matter of business relationship but I am sure the public can make them change for the better.