Great Outdoor Cabin Rentals — Attraction in Pigeon Forge

Unnecessary Inconvenience

We arrived on a Wednesday night to find the cabin in disarray. Cobbwebs were hanging everywhere. One imparticular, was in the vaulted ceiling area. It was at least 2 feet long. There were cobbwebs over the sink, around the curtain. Trash was dispersed all over the ground when we walked out onto the deck. We went to cook dinner. Dishes, utensils, pots and pans were nasty. Dust was all over the walls. It looked like this house hasn’t seen a cleaning crew in months. Multiple lights were out all over the cabin. There were lights out in the kitchen that made it hard to cook at night. We went to eat dinner and pulled a chair out from under the table. One of the legs fell out of the chair. We found a total of 15 wasps between killing them and the ones that were already dead. Stinkbugs were everywhere and flying around.

Thursday morning, my mother went to take a shower in the upstairs bathroom. My wife woke me up to water pouring through the ceiling into the downstairs bathroom floor. After looking at the ceiling, you could see where the wood was stained from where it had been leaking for a while. We decided that we would not use the upstairs shower. We all took showers in the downstairs bathroom.

We found a couple of wasps on Friday morning. My father killed them. I called around 5pm to let the staff know that we were having problems. They told me that the water coming through the ceiling was from “not having the shower curtain fully in the shower”. My mother said that the floor was dry when she stepped out of the shower. They sent a maintenance man out to look at the shower. He said, “It was the seal on the floor and it needed to be re-caulked”. He removed the drain screen and inspected the drain. He turned the shower on. We walked downstairs to find water pouring through the ceiling. He told us he could fix the shower, but that we would not be able to use it for 24 hours. I showed him around the cabin at the problems previously discussed. He left us a can of wasp spray to use in the house to kill wasps. I showed him the chair. He took it with him, and they did not bring us another one. We’re having to use a cooler we brought as a make-shift seat. He said he would contact the manager and let them know. I told him that I would be down to speak with them Saturday morning.

I rode up to the Great Outdoor Cabin Rental office Saturday morning. The lady at the desk greeted me. Unfortunately, I did not get her name. There was another lady sitting over in the corner sipping coffee. I told them we were staying in the “Great Escape” and asked if the maintenance man spoke with her about our problems last night. She said yes and instantly had an attitude. Not to mention, the lady sipping coffee chimed in as well. They told us that we should have reported everything the first night. I tried to explain my side of the story, and they kept cutting me off. They told me that we could move to another cabin. We brought 2 car loads worth of groceries along with bags for the 5 days we were here. We did not want to move because we were already settled in. It is not our place to move out of a cabin that should have been spotless when we arrived. We were on vacation and away from the cabin during the day. Plus, all of these problems did not occur on the arriving day. Another family walked in as I was leaving. They told the ladies that they haven’t had water for a day….

On their website, it states they have an A+ rating with the BBB. Upon filing this complaint, I noticed it has dropped to an A-. They need to update...

Terrible customer service, we stayed at the secluded bearadise cabin, which btw is not secluded you have two very close neighbors. Hot tub smelled like mildew for the half a day we had power, towels smelled horrible and there’s no washer and drying, which wouldn’t of matter to me at all since we had no power like the whole time. There ended up being a snow storm, which hasn’t happened around Christmas in 25 years! And when i checked the weather the day before it had said there was just going to be less than 1” of snow and 50 degrees. The power went out and we froze for 3 days with our 5 month old trying to keep a fire going with just some wet sticks from outside because they do not provide firewood, still did nothing. We weren’t able to leave because the roads were frozen over and very steep from cabin. Finally got to leave the day before checkout and i sent them a polite message asking for a refund for at least that last night we weren’t there since there was no power, no heat, no water. They never responded. So i called the next day and the lady i spoke with who claims to be one of the managers said “ i warned you about the snow storm when i gave you the code for the lockbox.” That was a complete lie, she just told me the code and that was the end of our conversation. If she would of told me that i definitely would not of stayed up there with my 5 month old and two dogs. As i tried to continue to talk to her about getting a refund for just that last night i wasn’t there she kept interrupting me not letting me talk at all just kept saying “ you’re not getting any kind of refund it’s not our fault.” Kept calling me a lair saying we were fine up there obviously cuz we stayed. It was 8 degrees in that cabin if the roads weren’t iced over we would of left as soon as the power went out. She also kept saying how they sent me a policy saying they don’t do refunds and don’t provide firewood. I never received a policy from them. Only thing i received was a list to complete like cleaning instructions before leaving the cabin and directions on how to get there. Nowhere in either of those emails said anything about what they provide and didn’t and nothing about refund policy. This was our first family trip and my sons first Christmas and it was completely ruined. If she would of actually told me about the storm when we checked in like she claims to of had done then we would of stayed somewhere else and not risk my son freezing to death and running out of his formula. Oh also when we called asking if they could find out information on when the power will be back on she just said idk when it will be back on. Then i asked if there was anyone like an emergency line to call and ask for supplies or help to get out of there and she again just said I don’t know. Don’t you think if you’re staying in an area you’re not familiar with the company should be able to provide you with some information? And other cabins i have stayed at not this company provided firewood since they have a wood fireplace and know people don’t just keep firewood in their trunks and who has the space with all ur luggage. Just wanna add of course i do not blame them for the weather and power outage but some more information would of been great. Especially since she wanted to claim she warned us about the weather but absolutely...

Customer service was something to be desired. Good customer service is not provided unless it is written in their policy. We arrived at the Bearway to Heaven cabin around 2:55 pm. Knowing it was prior to the 3 pm check-in time, we called the office anyways to see if we could get the access code. At that time we were informed that the previous occupants checked out late at 1 pm and they have not received confirmation from the cleaning crew that the cabin was ready. The cleaning crew had awoken the occupants, who thought they had reserved that day as well. The staff was non-apologetic for our inconvenience and did not have a time frame as to when our cabin would be ready since they did not know where the cleaning crew was. When questioned all they could do is refer to the peak season policy that states: While we will make every effort to have your cabin ready on time, there could be a slight delay in check-in during Peak Season - YOUR PATIENCE IS GREATLY APPRECIATED. Our cabin would have been ready by 3 pm if the previous occupants didn’t check-out late. Therefore they checked out late since it was ‘Peak-Season’?? We had just traveled over 5.5 hours with a 110lb Akita, who was more than ready to get out of the vehicle, so we had asked them where we were supposed to go. They said nothing – guess they didn’t care, not their problem?? We couldn’t waste time walking around or grabbing a bite to eat so we drove to the office which took us about 20 minutes to get to. It wasn’t until we arrived at the office did the lady, who took our call, try to contact the cleaning crew to find out when our cabin would be ready. Obviously we were less than thrilled to have learned that the staff was aware of the late check-out situation and never bothered to give us a courtesy call to inform us there will be a delay on our check-in time. When we continued questioned them on the courtesy call they said that is not something we do and we will need to look into revising our policy. Wow…..wasn’t aware that a policy needed to be stated to provide good customer service. There were two ladies working and they didn’t appear to be all that busy. I understand circumstances happen that are uncontrollable, however, the staff was well aware of the cabin not being ready for us at 3 pm when the previous occupants left at 1 pm and the cleaning crew had left the vicinity. Furthermore, in their experience, it is rare that people check-in at the actual check-in time so they automatically assume that no one will check-in at 3 pm giving them more time to prepare the cabins – no courtesy call needed. Other than that wonderful lift off, the cabin was okay but a few things worth mentioning that was not mentioned to the office since we already experienced superb customer service. There was a tacky For Sale sign in the yard. It had dust in the corners of the floors and on the ceiling fans. There was a bottle of lotion and food particles found under the couch. A few of the bulbs did not work throughout the cabin. The outside deck desperately needs repaired along with the fans and the hot tub had a wrapper floating in it. And if you are looking for a cabin that has lukewarm water and very little water pressure, this is definitely the...