Owners were very nice and accommodating, but the place is old and infested with bugs.
Submitted: April 11, 2013
Stayed: April 2013
The owners are SUPER nice, but I am confused by the other reviews. We have stayed at other VRBO homes and I am just perplexed. It is in a nice state park. Inside is old.
Apparently, there is a stink bug problem in Maryland? But when we entered the house, there were dead bugs everywhere..... on the windowsills, stairs, carpets, lamps. Things were falling on my head. Thwey were bugs. We spent the first day of our vacation cleaning out the dead bugs. That was very frustrating b/c they were obviously EVERYWHERE.
After our daily outings, we would return to find 20-30 LIVE stink bugs in the house again. Some in the beds. Our young 3 children cried every night b/c they did not want to go in the beds and sleep. Everyday,for 6 days, we would return to find LIVE bugs crawling all around the house in our beds, food, ceiling, lamps, clothes. We would DAILY clean the house of bugs. I just couldn’t understand how we were expected to live like this.
Obviously, I gave my husband an earful when we got home. When we came home and unpacked, there were live stink bugs that had followed us home to CA.
Maybe the this cottage was better maintained in the past. Our experience was quite contrary to the other reviewers. I hope that it is brought back to its glory days.
Owner's Response: We have been serving guests now for over 10 years as innkeepers. Our guests have enjoyed their stays, especially the ones who return every year. We have enjoyed being hosts and admit this is our very first bad review. It also appears that both our experience and the experience of our guests was not positive. Starting with expectations...
Meeting the expectation of our guests is important, however we cannot help our guests who choose not to read our listing prior to their visit.
• We are located in a forest next to parkland. Nature makes its way into our world. Certainly the issue was not to the extent mentioned in this review, however nature clearly was not the guest's goal of this visit.
• As with the main house, the guesthouse was built from repurposed materials from the 1790s with wonderful inlaid wood paneling and antiques, updated with modern conveniences. It is old. In 2008 we won a heritage preservation award for which we are very proud!
• We respect the privacy of our guests and will only enter the unit if requested. We hope our guests respect our property in the same regard. With this policy, we do not offer daily cleaning and laundry services for our guests during their stay.
• We offer a generous allotment of internet service to equal to 4G per weekly guest stay to permit guests to keep in touch.
Our recent guests:
• Arrived during a heat wave and experienced bugs flying in through open doors.
• Stated they were phobic about nature and so we offered removal of these specific insects after their arrival, yet they declined our offer to remove them (during any time in their stay).
• Expected daily cleaning and laundry services as in a hotel.
• Used more than 11G of internet downloads, exceeding the allotted amount of 4G although we alerted them after this amount had doubled; they expected this overage usage to be acceptable to us.
• Left items all over the unit when departing; in the dishwasher, on the floor and surfaces; left overflowing garbage onto the floor; generally a mess, and definitely disrespecting the property.
• Failed to follow instructions of leaving the property in ‘as found’ condition, rather, left the house in “filthy” condition, as stated by our external cleaning crew.
As innkeepers, we respectfully request that you consider this review in the company of so many others who have recently and positively reviewed this property.
Helpful votes: 3/3
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