Good Dog! Vacations at Big Valley Resort — Hotel in Hamilton Township

Let me start off by saying that I am a practicing doctor and I value my paid time off. My family and I vacationed there recently and it was by far the worst experience of my life and there is no exaggeration. Initially, they made a 'mistake' by sending us a letter that stated we will be getting a three bedroom cabin, yet to find out on day of arrival that they can only give us a 2 bedroom unless we paid more, although it was clearly stated on their letter otherwise. After discussing this w/ RCI, they ended up giving us the 3 bedroom. Upon entering the cabin, the furniture was noticeably old, the place was freezing, the place smelled of smoke, the water was disgusting and smelled of sewage, two of the oven tops were not working, and the WIFI was NOT working. When we called to complain, the staff was very rude and said that they will send someone to add more chlorine to the water because it had too much sulfur and that the WIFI was being worked on. We had to ask for the maintenance guy to come TWICE to chlorinate the water, but we just gave up and took quick showers in the nasty smelling water. When we tried to call the office, they were not available until the morning. Upon our departure, I specifically called and asked for a late check out and the lady at the front desk gave us until 10 AM when check out was at 9:30. The reason why we requested the later check out was to clean the place up by sweeping, doing the dishes, etc so we wouldn't get charged a cleaning fee. I dropped off the keys at 10 sharp and came back to pick up my family from the cabin and we took around 10 minutes in loading up the car and taking out the trash (which we had to drive down the street and drop off, since they said they would charge for any trash bags left outside). We thought we ended on a good note, until I received a letter a week later stating that they took 150 dollars from our deposit for late check out, cleaning, missing HDMI cables (when there was only 1 that we did not even use and I saw there, which we did not take) and for batteries for the remote (which we did use for our alarm clock). When I called to ask, the lady at the front desk was so unbelievably rude, upon further discussion, she just hung up the phone. I called back w/ no answer, was re-routed to another lady who was even MORE rude!. When I asked to speak w/ the manager, she hung up AGAIN. I called back and she said for me to never call back or otherwise she would call the police for harassment?? I can not believe the way she talked to us. My wife called the place back a day later to discuss the 150 dollars, the lady at the front desk yelled at her and hung up again, when she called back she said write a letter to them but the money was not going to be refunded and she called us liars and said we left at 11 AM. Totally unprofessional and disgustingly rude. I have never experienced anything like this before in my life and the only thing I can do is write this long post. I urge anyone considering this place to look somewhere else. Last but not least, I forgot to mention, that when I arrived and they admitted to a mistake about the number of rooms, the manager gave me a free 1 week RCI for their mistake. When I tried to obtain this later, RCI said that it was unable to be used. When my wife tried to speak to the lady about this, she just said sorry there is nothing she can do. Totally sad experience for myself and my family. We were all very disappointed, will NEVER EVER consider going back to this place and will advice everyone I know to never consider this disturbing place.

As a reply to the owners message below... You are trying to undermine my intelligence by stating that I may be mistaking your place with a neighboring resort. You guys are the worst people I have ever dealt with and although it's been a year, I am not over what you guys have done to me and my family. Yes I did stay in your worthless resort. I documented everything and took pictures of everything, so please don't try to lie to people to avoid them from seeing this...

We had an idea to do something special this christmas. With a little searching found Big Valley Resort, a dog friendly place? This place will be perfect, we go nowhere without our children or our 2 teenage daughters.

We believed their well designed and missleading website and booked the week around Christmas. Good thing we booked well in advance because it took 2 weeks of unreturned emails and phone calls to get someone from big valley to correct our reservation dates.

Upon arrival to Big Valley I went to survey the fence on our chalet's private acre of land. This was done very quickly beings it was only the size of the chalet. I spent more time picking up dog poo from previous visitors. I thought nothing of it, since we do so on dog paths at home. We put the children in the "pen" and took our baggage inside. Their website states newly renovated chalet sleeping 6. Yes, it had "beds" for 6 and are as old as year it was built 1980. The bedspreads were U-haul moving blankets. The kitchen was not renovated, Dated appliances. Oven smoked when you turned it on. One burner of stove didn't work the other 3 were questionable? Mismatch bunch of pots and pans, silverware that taste of metal when you ate with. A dollar bottle of dish soap with sign on it "Do not discard", really! The master bath shower doors were Rusty and off their tracks allowing water to go all over the floor. Black mold in all corners of shower enclosure. Don't turn on exhaust fans or it will pop your ear drums? 1 roll of AP paper per bathroom. They have a fireplace with wood on the hearth that you are not to use, you have to buy it or bring your own? The seating in living room not comfortable at all. The glass of the sliders were filthy of dog prints on the inside and windows above sliders haven't been cleaned in a LONG time. We let our dogs in and they "hit" (concentrated sniffing)on a bunch of different places in the house, Indicating a previous dog accident. We understand that dogs get nervous in new surroundings and may mark new territory. Nothing that warranted contacting the resort because dogs stay here. We should of! Because after our departure, we were contacted by management quite nastly that we "trashed" the place and our dogs are not house trained! We have never been contacted ever about how we leave a place we stay at. We usually get any security deposits back immediately and are commended on how clean it was left. Hard to do when the cleaning supplies here consisted of a broom, dust pan, an aged hand vacuum and bottle of dish soap. We never found the mile long walking trail, pictured on the website? There is 63 acres of nothing, except an occasional dynamite explosion from construction site next door we experienced on Christmas Eve day. It's a nice gimmick, claiming dog resort. Unfortunately you need alot more then a plastic baby pool and an elaborate fence to make this concept reality! For the price we were charged including extra fee for multiple dogs we were extremely...

First time we decided to spend vacation at the Poconos with our dogs. When we looked at Google, it came up suitable for our needs. On 12.22, we rented for five nights. So when we came, it wasnt chalet. What we reserved. Our Chalet was claimed to be remodeled. But look at the photos provided, it was definitely not that. It was disgusting. Only one burner worked, freezer was rusty, couch had stains. Shower head had dirt and mold over it as well as rust besides pressure was very hard. Mattresses were terrible. Day before we should've checked out, we asked when someone would come to check the place and us out. No one responded. Accused us of breaking the stove and damaging the place. Clearly not as shown by the photos we took when we got there. Terrible service, one family member stayed home to watch the dogs the entire time. Before we came, they claimed there was a snow storm so the huskies had plenty of snow to play in, but there was basically no snow. This was told only two days before we came after the supposed "snow storm". We cleaned the entire place, dishes, sweeped. Probably left it in better condition than we came to see our first day. Yet owner said we trashed it. Real review, we stayed here. Check the photos. We've rented from other places before with our dogs and never had an issue.

I love to reply this dishonest owner.first all pic was posted is 100%legit they have date and the time.second the owner mention for extortionate which is very funny, we don't ask any portion of money back ,which we should ask by the way and claiming people using reviews to get money so total lies.also I find very funny they claiming they have thousands people stay there and only 73 reviews ,uhmm I want to know why.after we left and give them negative satisfaction paper which comes with our paper folder ,then everything start.we wasn't planning to have anything to do with nasty place and ever comeback but we let other people to dont get screw over they dishonest advertising. Also pay attention to all negative reviews they have and disregard, they comments saying this person dont stay there..this pic was taking there ,in the place, we also take video of this place so accusing innocent people and make them a criminal is not...