IDYLLIC ARTIST'S HOME ON CATSKILL CREEK-FALL GETAWAY HOT TUB - POOL

Six of us stayed at the house over MLK weekend. The house is spacious and has a great fireplace and a good sized kitchen. If my review were on the house alone, I would give it an average rating. The reason for the low rating is our interaction with the owners.

To start, the contract contained very odd restrictions (eg, do not raise the thermostat above 72 degrees or you may incur charges) and required us to pay an additional cleaning fee and VRBO insurance on top of a security deposit and the rental fee. We spoke with the owner, Judy, about the contract, but she reassured us that she was not as intense as the contract would lead one to believe and she would not nickel and dime us.

When we arrived, we were met with numerous signs instructing us that we were guests and were forbidden from opening certain cabinets and entering certain areas. It was the opposite of welcoming. One shower didn't have hot water and we had trouble getting the hot tub warm enough, but generally our stay was fine.

Before we left, we followed the multi-step instructions (including: stripping the beds and bringing linens to laundry room, emptying all trash cans and bringing the main trash can down to the street and making sure the hot tub was fine). The dishwasher had not cleaned our dishes from the night before, so we had to leave dishes in the sink to meet the mandatory 11:30 checkout. We had paid for additional cleaning services so thought this would not be a problem. Wrong.

Soon after we left, Judy called (she called us repeatedly after our stay had ended) and said we may be charged because the housekeeper stayed late to wash dishes. Further, the housekeeper had told Judy that a strap on the hot tub was broken (although she did not know if we broke it or if it was broken before we arrived), so this might also result in charges. Eventually Judy became convinced that it was us (presumably because she still had our security deposit). Initially, she wanted to charge us to replace the entire cover ($400), but after we resisted, she came up with her idea of an elegant solution. She decided she would charge us $150 to fix the strap.

Needless to say, we were incredibly frustrated. We spent multiple hours on the phone with her and responding to emails and frankly felt held hostage by the fact that she was withholding our deposit. We will not return.