A Terrible Experience
Review Submitted: February 5, 2009
Date of Stay: July 2008
Our experience at this rental home was just awful. It was, by far and away, the worst vacation rental experience that we have ever had.
To start off, the owner failed to provide the washer/dryer that had been advertised on the website (for some unknown reason, the washer/dryer was locked behind a door). As we were traveling with a number of children, this was a big inconvenience. However, when we called the owner to ask him to open the door, he became EXTREMELY angry at us and actually started shouting at us on the phone -- yelling at the top of his voice. It was really shocking. He was so angry that we decided to drop the subject of the washer/dryer altogether, accepted the fact that we would have to live in dirty clothes and dry off with dirty towels, and hoped to avoid further contact with him for the rest of the trip.
Then, on the day of our departure, the owner unexpectedly arrived before we were due to leave and began stalking the property, both in the front and the back of the house, as we were packing and cleaning. It was very uncomfortable. When my wife tried to approach him and shake his hand, hoping to smooth things over, he refused to say a word. He appeared really, really angry.
Several weeks after we returned, the owner suddently announced to us that he was not going to return ANY of the huge refundable deposit that we had paid to rent the premises (the deposit was a significant percentage of the actual rental cost, a lot of money for us). He claimed that he was not obligated to do so because he had found 3 cigarette butts OUTSIDE the house. He also made the fantastic claim that he had to hire cleaners to clean the house FOR 14 HOURS at a truly unbelievable cost (again, we are not allowed to state the cost he quoted us but it was larger than you can imagine). Since we cleaned the house beautifully before we left (mopping, sweeping, putting away all clean dishes, etc.), we were shocked and asked the owner to provide us with a copy of the alleged cleaning bill. Curiously, he refused to do so.
To this day, he has kept the entire refundable deposit we paid. We never got it back.
I am still upset about what happened because we spent so much money to rent the place, and we had looked so forward to the trip. I would never rent this place again and I would never recommend the place to anyone.
Owner's Response: ***
The reviewer has submitted a review which is significantly biased, and in most cases simply untrue.
Unfortunately this New York group was interested in drinking, partying, smoking, and trashing the property, both physically, and in this review. Truly our worst experience with guests in 4 years hosting family's in Jackson.
The truth is, during the past four years, we have successfully hosted over 30 rental weeks at the Jackson Estate vacation home. We would be happy to provide references / reviews (in addition to those featured here) which more accurately support the vacation experience at the Jackson Estate.
The house and the vacation experience are wonderful - we rent up to 8 weeks per year only and it is fully rented each year. Upon arrival you'll be checked-in by our property host, find a roaring fire in the fireplace (in season), chilled wine, flowers, appetizers, food in the oven to get you started and suggestions for restaurants and activities in the area.
We want our guests to have a great time during their visit, and believe the warm check-in reception is a nice surprise and a great way to get your vacation started.
We care about our guests and their experience in Jackson and appreciate your time reading this response.
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Helpful votes: 11/15
marks the location of the property in White Mountains
