Dollywood Cabins — Hotel in Pigeon Forge

My stepmother had the best intentions when she booked one of these cabins for our family -- members of which live hundreds of miles apart, from Mississippi to Pennsylvania -- to gather over several days after Christmas and before New Year's. She booked the stay more than five months in advance, and we all incorporated the stay into our holiday plans. In the months leading up to our trip, we reviewed the website and marveled at how lovely the "luxury" cabin would be, and anticipated how relaxing it would be to stay there. Boy we were disappointed when the top dollar my stepmother paid had gotten us a disgustingly dirty, messy and, frankly, dangerous cabin. When we entered the cabin after an hours-long drive, we found dirty floors; dirty windows; disgusting bathrooms with what looked like moldy caulking around each of the bathtubs; loads of dead and live bugs; an upstairs closet loaded with all kinds of tools and materials for doing renovations (odd, since it was clear the cabin wasn't well maintained); chipping/peeling paint, and more. My father and grandmother, who are very well-versed in this sort of thing, looked down from the back porch and saw that the footings for the porch were bowed!! This wasn't just a matter of aesthetics, this was a HUGE safety issue given that the cabin was perched on the mountainside! My stepmother, crestfallen that the stay she had envisioned for all of us (and for which she shelled out thousands of dollars) was dashed, was determined to have the cabin company set things right. So, after driving hours to get to the cabin, we went back to the rental office and explained how what we saw in the cabin was very different from what we had been sold through the website/advertisements (and, again, for which they had been paid thousands of dollars!) But the cabin company made things worse. It was the day after Christmas. They told us they had no other cabins available. They strung my stepmother along, telling her they might be able to refund a portion of her money, but a manager -- who was not on the premises -- would have final say on that. The manager, it turns out, was on the premises, but REFUSED to talk with my stepmother. When my stepmother retold how filthy the cabin was, one of the maintenance workers who was in the office mentioned that our cabin was the worst one they managed. When someone in the office said they'd have it cleaned for us, the maintenance worker responded: You can put an earring on a pig, but it's still a pig. (FYI, the rental company didn't own this cabin, rather they rented it on behalf of the owner. It seems this is one way the rental company assuages its own guilt.They tell themselves it's OK if they rip off unhappy renters since they don't actually OWN the shoddy cabins they rent. How unethical.) While my stepmother and father were in the office talking with the cabin company, I, my fiance and my grandmother were in the parking lot searching Google and making phone calls to find other options for lodging. We were trying to do this while my stepbrother and his wife were en route from Mississippi -- a roughly 9-hour drive, so that they wouldn't have to stand in a parking lot with us when they arrived. Frankly, at this point, we were worried we'd spend the night sleeping in our cars.) My stepmother is a Navy veteran. She and my father run a nonprofit organization that involves veterans and horses. They're not uppity people. But when they spend hard-earned money on what they are told are luxury accommodations only to find mold in the bathtubs, paint peeling from the ceilings, dirt on the floors, etc., they know they're being ripped off. At the very least, they wanted some of their money back. In the end, the cabin company said they would return some of the money. My stepmother, not wanting us to sleep in our cars, decided she'd see if the cabin company made things right, and planned to follow up with them later. It's been 10 days since we checked out of the cabin, and the company is still giving her the runaround. Save yourself the hassle, don't rent from...

DO NOT STAY HERE THE CABINS ARE AWFUL THEY ARE TERRIBLE PEOPLE. Dollywood Park however is amazing and the people there helped us out so much. When we purchased the cabin we got "Length of Stay" tickets, a pass good for as long as you stay there. We purchased these on the 23rd, checked in the evening of the 24 at which we got our packet and were told the tickets would be ready with scanning the bar code at the park. We went into the park at 11am the 25th. Upon getting to the park, after much scrambling at desks the hosts tell us our tickets have been VOIDED and refunded to the card. We have a child with special needs so you can understand how disappointing that was in that moment after standing for an hour. Finally the supervisor comes over and finds out that someone from the Cabin Office voided our tickets at 10:38am. We were on our way to the park at 10:30am! Once they called the cabins I overheard them asking them to send an email with tickets to allow us to get the deal, since the park IS NOT AFFILIATED WITH THE CABINS and they do not sell the same deals to their customers. Finally after the supervisor herself was frustrated she was wonderful and gave us FREE season passes. The next day upon coming into the park, we paid for parking and then mentioned the cabins at which point he said "wait! You're staying in the cabins? They didn't give you a parking pass? It's free parking" So finally after this we went to the cabin office again to ask about a refund of some sort and also to get our Parking pass we also were not given, we were met with "oh yes I heard about your situation. You see there's actually TWO offices, and your tickets were at the other office. So the employee was misinformed and made you a new packet" The only problem with that is how did they make a new packet if my father walked in and first asked if he was in the right place, to which he was met with "yes I have your packet right here" to which was already packaged. That does not add up. Once we pointed this out we were met with a "She was having a bad day" from the manager I assume. After all this we were refunded our Hot Tub fee (WHICH WE NEVER USED DUE TO THE DISGUSTING SEWAGE SMELL OUTSIDE EVERY NIGHT) and the pet fee "for your trouble". $95 refund for something that cost us $1200. Oh and were informed that we were not actually refunded our ticket prices, because the money goes to the park and is "stuck in limbo meaning we the cabins have to pay for it" how are you paying for it if you're still taking the money from us? Also not trying to get something for nothing, but the park insisted the season passes were "on them" because of such a huge screwup. This all sounds so incredibly sketchy that honestly I feel like they're stealing tickets from people to sell elsewhere or something. How do you mess up this badly? They even mentioned "oh this isn't the first time it's happened this summer you aren't the only ones" except I distinctly remember the park saying they had NEVER had a situation like this before. Oh! And after all this they told us "we normally give 15% off to take off your next cabin you book next year, but for you guys, I think we can get that extra 5% off and give you 20% off your next stay :)" really? WOW FIVE WHOLE PERCENT MORE AMAZING RIDICULOUS DO NOT STAY AT THE CABINS YOU ARE BETTER OFF PAYING THE SAME AMOUNT FOR A RESORT OR ANOTHER CABIN NOT THROUGH THIS COMPANY In addition to this issue: Old balcony patched together with drywall screws Don't know if the hot tub works due to the SEWAGE SMELL from the septic tanks being I barrack in the evening We're promised a mountain view to be told "no you got the "wood side view" (A BUNCH OF DEAD TREES). We don't have a mountain view, but boy when it rains we get a RIVER VIEW from the drain pipe flowing down the hill. We will be contacting the credit card company as well as Tennessee Tourism so they are aware of the shady business that is Dollywood Cabins. Again, the park was amazing. Every person at the theme park is kind and great to kids with disabilities. But the...

Angels Abode was the worst cabin my family & I have stayed in, yet it is the most expensive cabin we have ever rented. We have stayed in Dollywood cabins many times before & were happy with the accommodations in the past. When it comes to Angels Abode, the online photos were very misleading. We went through dozens of pictures of cabins to find one that looked like it wasn’t right up against another cabin. Every outdoor picture of Angels Abode was strategically taken to make it appear secluded. It was not. We were surrounded by other cabins, specifically a row of them to the right. You could talk to the neighbors on the next balcony. When we first arrived it was obviously not the type of cabin we were hoping for. Aside from the proximity to other cabins, there were major problems with the floors. There were gaps in the floors of the loft bedroom, which allowed you to hear & see into the main floor bedroom below it. Parts of the floors were lifted so that you wouldcut your foot open walking at night & did not meet the other boards. When we called the front office to address these issues, the person we spoke to was very dismissive. Said that’s just how those floors are. That is NOT how those floors are supposed to be. That is not how ANY floors are supposed to be. We asked for another cabin, but there were no others available. We were stuck & all they could do was send someone the next day (Christmas Eve) to “have a look” at the floor, but said it was unlikely they could do anything to fix the floors. We said not to bother & decided to make the best of it. As the days went on there were additional problems we discovered with this cabin: -Poor plumbing. If someone took a shower or bath in the middle floor bathroom, water would leak into the bottom floor bedroom next to the bed. If someone took a bath in the big jacuzzi tub in the loft, water dripped into the kitchen. Toilets were often blocked & we had to plunge them, or would not flush properly. The flusher on one toilet was hanging off. -The dryer was an issue. It took running the dryer at least 4 times to get 1 small load of towels or clothes dry. The dryer also squeaked the entire time it ran, which was all day since it had to be run so often. & you could hear the sound on the top 2 floors. Most nights we did not have face rags/wash cloths because there were only 6 in the cabin for my family of 4. We would have to wash them every day to have enough. -No oven mitts or pot holders to take food out of oven. -No extra toilet paper or paper towels. Only the 1 on each roll. Had to restock for ourselves. -No laundry detergent. & we had to do laundry constantly because of the dryer & rag situation. -Trash was overflowing. They did not pick up the last time we called. We understand that some of these may seem like minor inconveniences, but some of them (like the floors & plumbing) are more than minor. We payed thousands of dollars & got 2 weeks of subpar living conditions. And when you are paying to be in the comforts of a “luxury cabin” (which is what they claim to be online) you expect & deserve better. Tried to contact customer service twice since checking out and almost 10 days later, still no response. I guess once they get your money they can care less how...