Al & Brenda's Country Cottage

Review: Good morning,

I wanted to register a complaint about AL and Brenda's Country Cottage. This past weekend my husband and I stayed there at Cabin One. To say the place was filthy was an understatement. The microwave had food particles in it as well as the fridge. The fan clearly had never been cleaned and there was dust and cobwebs on every service including the table to eat at. The floor was cover in debris and the couch smelled moldy. What was most upsetting was Brenda's reaction to our concerns.

She came by on Saturday morning to collect final payment in cash and my husband voiced his concerns. She did not offer to correct the problem but instead said pay me my money or get out. It was clean enough for her. She also accused my husband of upsetting her when he was nothing but polite. We chose to stay only because we were four hours from home and it was my birthday weekend. The fireplace was not working also and she said her husband would be by to fix it. We asked her to please not have him come by as we were not comfortable having someone there. Instead he not only came by but walked right in which is very inappropriate.

We understand that it is a cabin but we do expect when we pay over $300.00 for the weekend for it to be clean. We were basically told that we were in the least expensive place in town and they never wash the windowsills? Brenda was very rude and I would not recommend them at all. I worked in hotels and this is not how you treat your guests and a filthy place is no excuse.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions.

Business

Response:

We received a written notice of a complaint filed on 10/2/2015 two days ago because thecomplainant used the wrong mailing address. She had the correct address on the contract shehad signed a copy of which is enclosed. We would like to respond to a very troubling complaintregarding a customer’s claims.First of all, we lowered our regular published rental rate as she indicated that it was her birthdayweekend by waiving our normal pet fee for her pet dog resulting in a $26.16 savings. Sherefused to pay our required damage deposit even though it is specified in the contract and shehad been reminded about it by email. She asked to pay cash in order to save the additional 4%credit card fee. To accommodate Ms. H, we agreed to meet her at the cabin between 8 and 9pm on Friday 9/25/15 to collect the final payment. They called at approximately 10:30 pm andsaid they would not arrive until 1 to 2 am since they were delayed. We assured them that a keywould be available and the lights on. We asked Ms. H if 9am or 6pm would work to meet for thefinal payment. Ms.H said she would be up due to the dog so she chose 9 am. My wife had acommitment on Sat morning that could not be rescheduled so arrived at the cabin promptly at9am to find no one stirring. After knocking several times and then preparing to leave, Ms H’shusband answered the door in a not so friendly manner and immediately began complainingabout the condition of the cabin. My wife apologized to this man who seemed to be trying tointimidate her with his body language and facial expressions. She asked specifically what wasdirty and could not find dust or dirt where he indicated using a paper towel as a wipe. He saidthey had opened the windows upon their 2 am arrival and noticed dirt on the window sillsbetween the window and screen. My wife apologized and explained that the outer window sillsand windows do not get cleaned each week. He demanded that my wife set a time to return andclean window sills and windows. He knew of her prior commitment and that returning untilmuch later would not be possible. She told him that I would be returning later in the afternoonand would look at the fireplace. After about 20 minutes the paper towel was still completelywhite. We believe Mr. H knew that my wife would miss her commitment and kept workingtowards that end. My wife did not want to miss her train so she gave them a choice of payingthe balance and the damage deposit or finding lodging elsewhere. There seemed to be notalking to or reasoning with him even when she offered to simply forget the balance due andallow the couple to leave. As a board member of the Cook Forest Vacation Bureau, my wife isfamiliar with and suggested other accommodations in the area that they might feel were moreappropriate but the couple said they planned on staying.I was at the Denver airport boarding a flight to Pittsburgh when my wife told me of the problem.I told her I would stop at the cabin when I arrived home to take care of any remaining problemsincluding the fireplace. At about 5pm EDT on that Sat., I knocked on the cabin door severaltimes and did not walk right in. Ms. H was there and said everything was ok and not to worryabout repairing the heat. Mr. H was not available. The main heater had been turned off; Isuspect by them and the pilot light had not been relit. I took care of that in about 5 seconds,took a brief look at the fireplace, and told Ms. H I would have to repair it at a later time. Sheonce again said everything was ok and not to worry about the fireplace.We have been in business for over 17 years and have a large repeat business. We keep avisitors’ journal at each cabin where guests may record comments concerning their experiencesand we have dozens of entries from very happy people. We have always gone above andbeyond what would be normal to accommodate all of our guests. With my wife serving on thelocal vacation bureau board and myself serving as president of the board of managers for anAspen, CO condo property, we are fully aware of what good customer service is. We have arequest in our guest contract asking that should anything regarding the cabin and its conditionneed attention, that we immediately be notified. The implied intent is to correct any problemsor oversites before they become problems and we have always done just that.While we are extremely concerned that Ms. H and her husband were not satisfied we feel thattheir statements concerning our property and how they were treated are unfounded.Also included are copies of Ms. H’s original email contacting us about the availability of a cabin, acopy of the contract containing the balance due and the amount of the damage deposit due, andseveral copies of entries from our cabin guest books.