Jennifer F.
Yelp
My family and I traditionally spend the first week in January together, coming from all parts of the country. There are usually 12-14 of us, so planning takes some skill. :)
This year, in our search for the perfect cabin (found on Homeaway.com), we stumbled across Hidden Ridge, and put in a request for a quote. Someone named Mary emailed me back the following day with a quote of $2500 for our requested dates. The email directed me to call them, or go through their actual website versus staying on the Homeaway site, which I did, after conferring with my family to make sure this was the cabin we wanted. I entered the information and was informed I would receive a phone call to get my credit card information to actually make the reservation final. And I did get a phone call, within a few hours.
I did not get the name of the person whom I spoke with, but she quoted me a much higher price than Mary had. When I questioned that, she informed me that Mary was new, and quoted me incorrectly. She informed me that they would 'work with us' to correct the problem, although she didn't actually offer anything except whatever she stated the 'correct' price would be. She conferred with her manager a few times, but again, they were 'willing' to 'work with us' by doing nothing to rectify the problem. I was given multiple excuses as to why they couldn't honor (or even meet me in the middle of) the original quote which I had, in writing, in my email, FROM their company. I asked to speak to the manager twice, and it wasn't until I asked the third time that I was passed along to the manager. She really only reiterated what the agent had told me, so that was an effort in futility. Both were fairly pleasant to speak with, they just didn't much care about the problem their company had caused.
The original reason was that Mary was new. Then the reason was that the owners didn't have that cabin booked over New Years yet, and they liked to hold it open in case people wanted it longer. Then the reason was that it wasn't booked over Christmas yet, and so on and so forth. They wanted $800-$1000 more from us, which really just feels like Bait n' Switch. Perhaps there's a reason the cabin wasn't booked over the holidays.
I do not like shady companies, and I do not like that shady companies can continue to operate unchecked. It's why I am grateful for social media, and the ability to share experiences so that other travelers don't run into the same issues we did. Our family thought we'd found the right place, and were preparing to move forward in the many other details of such a trip, and we're all rather disappointed that this process happened the way it did. So, buyer beware, even if you get a quote from these folks, pay close attention to be sure that doesn't change once they've 'hooked you'. We simply won't do business with companies who behave this way.