Jeff M.
Yelp
Over the past 10 years or so, my partner and I have stayed at many, many cottages and cabins while on vacation. We have never left any negative reviews on any of them as we were always very pleased with the accommodations and excellent service we have received. After staying at the Maple Ridge Cottages we felt obligated to share our experience so that future travelers may be able to make an informed decision for themselves. We sure wished we had read such a review before booking our stay.
We stayed at the Maple Ridge Cottages for 5 nights through the Pines Motorlodge during May, 2011. When we arrived at 2:45 PM to check into our cottage, the office was closed and locked. I had to make a phone call in order to talk with anyone working at the Pines Motorlodge. I spoke with Rob and he said that the cottage was not ready and he would call us as soon as it was ready for us to check in. At 4:15 we returned to the office, but it was still closed. Again, I called Rob and he said he would check and call back immediately. Over thirty minutes later, after not receiving a call back, I called again. He then said that we could come by and check in (all of the other cottages were vacant during our entire stay, so it seemed unusual that the cottage was not ready upon our arrival.) I was a little surprised that Rob never returned my calls but, in his defense, we were a little early for check-in. A return courtesy call would have been nice, though.
Upon check in we were informed that the cabins were well over 2 miles from the office in a remote location. A major factor influencing our choice of the Pines Motorlodge was because the reviews said it was a short walk to town, so we were somewhat disappointed to find out that they were located so far away from the town and the office. When we arrived at the cottage we discovered they were across from, and next to, 4 huge warehouses, some of which were Marine Storage. In fact, the parking lot for the cottages is shared by these warehouses. The front views from all the cabins are of these huge, ugly, rusty, old warehouses. The location was extremely disappointing as the description on the web site reads, " a tranquil woodland setting perfect for relaxing and enjoying the area's lakeside atmosphere." There is no lake within view or even within walking distance. The woodland setting was more of an "industrial setting." Since some of these warehouses were used for Marine Storage we were awoken very early in the morning two days by the noise of large trucks moving boats in and out of these warehouses. Not a real "tranquil, woodland setting enjoying the lakeside atmosphere", more of like sharing a huge parking lot with a trucking company. The pictures and video on the web site for the Pines Motorlodge were cleverly taken at angles in which these huge eyesores were not visible, so they were quite an unexpected surprise when we drove up to the cottage.
On a positive note, the cottages themselves were extremely clean and modern. They had everything necessary in the kitchen to ensure a comfortable stay, including all utensils, dishes and cookware. The furnishings were beautiful and the rooms were very clean. The rooms even had ceiling fans which were a nice touch. The only negative about the furnishings was that the wicker love seat and chairs in the living room were very uncomfortable to sit on while watching TV. Since there is no other seating you are forced to sit on this uncomfortable wicker. The small TV has only a handful of local channels with no cable, so not much to watch anyhow.
After 3 days we wanted to swap out our towels for fresh ones, so we took a ride to the office and arrived there at 6:00 PM. Again, the office was closed and I had to call Rob. He asked if we could wait until the next day for fresh towels as he was out shopping at Menards at the time. He said if we couldn't wait he would drop some off at our cottage later in the evening. Since we wanted to use them right away I asked him if there were any housekeeping staff that could provide us with some fresh towels but, once again, no staff were on the premises........very frustrating.
As previously mentioned, the service was also disappointing as the office was closed several times when we went there for support, but it was off season. We are guessing that if you visit during the peak season, hopefully this would not be a problem. Just be aware that the office is inconveniently located miles away from the cottages.
The Pines Motorlodge strives to be "groovy" but, in our opinion, they fall quite a bit short of this adjective.
Next time we visit the area we would definitely stay at one of the other several beautiful cottages with a better, more scenic location.
