Fairy Bay Lakehouse — Hotel in District Municipality of Muskoka

Following a rather gushing (suspiciously gushing) email from them, we did expect great things for our 2-night stay. On arrival, the location really looked wonderful, and we were greeted by Amit, the “General Manager”, who took our bags to reception. There, he was quick to say that we could upgrade our room at an additional $100 plus tax per night. We were shown the original room, which was cold and smelled of damp, and then what can only be described as a palatial suite (Bear Cave room 202 - billed as “The Enclave” on their website). Initially impressed, we went for the latter. ||Amit explained that the reception was not manned 24/7 but we could WhatsApp him if there were any problems. On reflection, I am glad that we used this method, because it serves to provide fully documented exchanges regarding the awful state of the suite and our efforts to get the issues sorted out.||Here is a copy of the start of the WhatsApp chat:||Hi Amit. Just to remind you that you promised to replenish the coffee pods, etc. We also have a number of issues that need to be resolved. The dishwasher was full and we had to empty it. Door blind in living room doesn’t work. One of the bedside lamps doesn’t work. There was old food already in the fridge and one of the kitchen drawers. What shall we do with it? There is only one large towel in the bathroom, and we will also need another roll of toilet paper. In terms of cleanliness, the floors are very gritty and need a good clean. Worst of all though are the stains on the bed linen. And, to be honest, the linen looks like it hasn’t been changed since the previous occupants. All causes for concern that need your swift attention. Thanks.” ||Needless to say, we couldn’t bring ourselves to sleep in the bed on the first night, so we slept on the sofas.||He profusely apologised, and promised to fix things. Some he did, some he just ignored, and some he just got wrong. There were also other issues, which I’ll get to later. But the rest of the chat focused on chasing him to fix many of the issues described above. And given that we effectively only had one full day there, it came as a shock when he WhatsApp’d us on that day to ask if we could let the housekeeper in to clean the room! It was around 10am, and we were already miles away at one of the parks. We declined his request, but somehow the housekeeper gained entry. He, of course, was on a day off, and we never saw him again. However, we did occasionally see a relatively clueless young woman at the reception desk.||It certainly is a stunning location, but the accommodation was in a sorry state of cleanliness and repair. Other issues were:||* Dirty microwave oven with food deposits|* Bedroom window that refused to close, and let in cold air|* Smelly tea towel draped over the kitchen tap|* Dirty cleaning cloth just left on the work surface|* Dirty utensils and trays on the barbecue.||It’s such a shame that this beautiful location was spoiled by the state of the accommodation and the poor management of this place. We paid five-star prices for one-star service. We asked for a refund of the additional payment for one night, but never got one. ||And one final important caveat. The photos on their website don’t really tie in with what you are going to get, so be careful. For example, “The Enclave” is billed as “two-bedrooms offers a king bed and ensuite washroom”. There is only one bedroom that we saw, and certainly nothing that can be called an en-suite. Perhaps it is elsewhere - external to the Enclave? And going via the Booking dot com website is similarly confusing with consistently excellent reviews. Contrast this with Trip Advisor reviews that paint a much more...

We stayed at the Fairy Bay Lakehouse for two nights in June. Property is on Fairy lake, with a small beach, floating dock with chairs, and canoes, kayaks, and paddle boards. It’s a beautiful lakefront property. The room was clean and updated with a heated mirror (really nice!) No one was there to greet us upon arrival. Owners are not on the property; there is one maintenance man who is extremely nice and busy. No breakfast either, a few snacks left in the room. Our room was on the basement floor. Beds and pillows were comfortable. Only one very small night table. Windows in the room had the hand crank removed which was a shame because the air was fresh and it would have been nice to sleep with them open. When we asked why the man answered it was because of mosquitos ( which didn’t make sense since there are screens on the windows.) The real downfall of the property was the abundance of Canadian Geese poop and feathers on the property. When walking down to the beach we were on high alert as to all the landmines. Also, an abundance of feathers littered the lawn. It looked like a goose had been run over by a lawnmower, there were so many feathers. The geese flocked the beach around 8 pm. There were about 100. I feel if the owner were on the property this would not be a problem as there are solutions to keep the geese from flocking. It’s seems this is a money making investment rather than a true bed and breakfast labor of love. We took the kayaks out one day and it’s a beautiful paddle around the lake. Sitting on the dock was relaxing and enjoyable.

All in all, very quiet and peaceful, the area is beautiful, but next time I will skip Fairy Poop Lakehouse and go with another accommodation where owners have more interest in...

We stayed at the Fairy Bay Lakehouse for two nights in June. Property is on Fairy lake, with a small beach, floating dock with chairs, and canoes, kayaks, and paddle boards. It’s a beautiful lakefront property. The room was clean and updated with a heated mirror (really nice!)|No one was there to greet us upon arrival. Owners are not on the property; there is one maintenance man who is extremely nice and busy. No breakfast either, a few snacks left in the room. Our room was on the basement floor. Beds and pillows were comfortable. Only one very small night table. Windows in the room had the hand crank removed which was a shame because the air was fresh and it would have been nice to sleep with them open. When we asked why the man answered it was because of mosquitos ( which didn’t make sense since there are screens on the windows.)|The real downfall of the property was the abundance of Canadian Geese poop and feathers on the property. When walking down to the beach we were on high alert as to all the landmines. Also, an abundance of feathers littered the lawn. It looked like a goose had been run over by a lawnmower, there were so many feathers. The geese flocked the beach around 8 pm. There were about 100. I feel if the owner were on the property this would not be a problem as there are solutions to keep the geese from flocking. It’s seems this is a money making investment rather than a true bed and breakfast labor of love.|We took the kayaks out one day and it’s a beautiful paddle around the lake. Sitting on the dock was relaxing and enjoyable.|All in all, very quiet and peaceful, the area is beautiful, but next time I will skip Fairy Poop Lakehouse and go with another accommodation where owners have more interest in...