Tiny Village Ottawa River — Hotel in Laurentian Hills

GET YOUR POPCORN AND SIT BACK FOLKS! Oh and also BEWARE.

Google asks for a score on rooms(campsite) - we never ended up staying this year due to HORRENDOUS customer service. We have been camping at this location for over 10 years, and "Ryan's/Tiny Village" has decided they dont care for their loyal customers any longer- BEWARE!! You'll likely be treated the same if they mess up your reservation. Google asks for a score on Location and service - FIRST ATTEMPT (Dana books us at the shelter that was torn down. We drove 5 HOURS altogether WITHOUT getting to camp. Including pulling my mother 2 hours out of her way to switch vehicles with us in Petawawa (an attempt to make camping easier) and picked up my niece at the same time.

Its worth mentioning that this mistake was heavily blamed on Dana. We were told over and over that she was away for surgery months before and it was her fault-I suppose management doesnt communicate with their employees as the entire Shelter 2 site we were booked at had been torn down months prior. If Dana didnt know then thats fine, why when Carter called me at 5 pm to confirm what time we'd be arriving at S2, did he not tell hs there was a mistake and offer a solution because we WOULD NOT HAVE DROVE THERE! Nope, instead he tells us to call Juan when we arrive-new informationn as we were originally told we dont need to see anyone that evening, just come into the office on Aug 12th for paperwork.

We arrive at 9:30 pm to find the site gone and Juan encouraging us to leave as he doesnt want to deal with my parter who is upset. Keep in mind, at this point we had spent $1000- if not more -on food, the site, camping supplies, a new tent and had 2 children, 2 vehicles we'd arranged and were being turned away from our only vacation planned this year-it was devastating. Juan gave us a refund and we left-arriving back to Ottawa by 12 am. The next day I call for a goodwill gesture as I realize the stress in my household now, is not worth the $138 we paid for camping that was refunded. After ALOT of deliberation, we were given 3 free nights but had to work around their availability. We finally find a weekend that works for everyone-Aug 25th weekend. The friday evening we try to leave afterwork and my step son basically has an anxiety attack (if you can picture that on a 10 yr old outdoorsy kid) because hes scared to go out there incase it happens again. So I called to tell them-we lost the 1st night. The following day, we go to leave and my passenger tire is COMPLETELY flat. Not the campsites fault but as it took nearly 24 hours of scrambling to find tires/wheels for my car (and another $600 down), we tried to leave again, by this point it was Sunday Aug 27th so 1 night left. Upon leaving and attempting to drive there, the tires weren't fitting right, were actually rubbing significantly with the weight of the camping stuff and would have destroyed the tires and done damage to my car had we continued to drive.I call the campsite and explain and ask if they would give us even 1 night still during their down season because at this point we have spent nearly $2000 on trying to camping-just insane. Carter tells me he'll talk to management and I received a voicemail afterwards saying "yah uh no, ok bye".. I strongly suggest you DO NOT BOOK HERE. There are better placea that will treat you with respect. We told them how stressed we had been, we were respectful with them and even told them upon calling after their first screw up that we wanted to give them the opportunity to fix this before I come on and leave tbis review. That was them fixing it. We still havent had any vacation-we able to return some things but are still about $1300-$1500 in the hole from attempting our annual camping trip since RYANS turned into "TINY VILLAGE" and seemingly zero regard from the staff or management here.

OH and last year at shelter 5, where we were suppoaed to have water, there was none. By day 2 Juan (now a manager) came to fix it. He even had the audacity to tell us S2 did have hydro but the sites...

Overall the stay at the riversedge dome was a 3/5. The dome itself needed some major TLC to the structure as during heavy rainfall when you don't want it to rain inside it was leaking in quite a few spots evident by the brown staining throughout the dome in various seams and seals. The LVP wasn't installed very well and many of the pieces were either coming up or broken. The amenities outside the dome were however well built. The outhouse with the toilet was very nicely built and and sink/shower were also well built.

Points to sustain: The location itself was superb. Privacy was clearly a priority for individual groups. The access to the beaches, canoes, and water activities as well as hiking trails could not be better balanced. The whole area is dog friendly provided you leash your dog and respect eachothers space. The water and beach areas were very clean and well maintained.

Access to running water, electricity and a clean bathroom were certainly major bonus points for a quaint place in the woods.

The staff were very nice and tried to accommodate and see reason with any of our requests. For example we had taken the canoes out later in the day due to rain covering the majority of the day they were more than happy to have us hold the paddles and safety equipment overnight and take it back the next morning instead of having to check back in in a couple hours just before they close up for the night.

Points to improve: The quality of the dome construction was extremely subpar. The skylight that is meant to display the forest around you was incredibly dirty and clearly hadn't been cleaned in a long time.

The floorboards were coming up everywhere probably due to the infiltration of water from all the holes in the dome. As well as some boards having multiple holes in them.

The price when factoring in the condition of the dome was excessive. 700$+ for a 2 night stay in a leaking dirty dome is not something I would personally consider fair. Not to mention that for dry firewood (if it's raining a lot) costs 12$ for about 7 pieces of wood. AND doesn't...

Let me first say, my family, my friends and I have been going to the campsite for a couple of years now and have had nothing but good times and great memories. We have stayed at several different sites all new including two of the Tiny Homes on the Ottawa River, on the beach and at the Rivers Edge Dome. I have started planning my vacation and will be booking here again this year. Let me say the improvements to the park over the past couple of years have been tremendous and I understand that it is still ongoing. As with every park there is always upkeep and maintenance required but the major improvements over the past two years are staggering between the glamping sites, upgraded hydro in the park, washroom and shower facilities, etc and I’m told each year more improvements are being planned and made. I say this because my family enjoy the outdoors, my kids enjoy the freedom and safety of the park, the huge beach area as well as the available store at the entrance of the park. I don’t normally write reviews but when I see reviews that people have left using names of people that don’t even work at the park, or complaining about things they say they weren’t told about that if they actually read the site and camp information, everything they need to know prior to booking and getting to the park is there in the descriptions, rules, regulations and booking guidelines. They have no one else to blame but themselves. It makes me wonder if the reviews are true? That aside, questions I had were answered quickly and at no time were my family or my friends disappointed or treated poorly. We have camped and glamped for many years now and if I could give this park and the efforts that the new management are putting into their sites, they and the Ottawa River Park deserve and 10 out of 10. If people have personal life issues, don’t take it out on someone else. Looking forward to staying at Tiny Village Ottawa...