Hilton Vacation Club Laurel Crest Pigeon Forge — Hotel in Pigeon Forge

We had a HORRIBLE experience here. It's going to be a long read:

Upon check in, we were told that we were getting a "newly renovated" room. Which sounded promising, until we arrived at the unit. When we walked in, it smelled damp. It was clear looking at the floor trim that the unit had some sort of water damage (probably why it was renovated see picture). We didn't really care much and started unpacking.

Then, while trying to cook our dinner in the oven, the smoke alarms started sounding. Even though there was no smoke. After about ten minutes it finally stopped. 5 minutes later they sounded again. this happened three times and we were forced to unplug the smoke detectors.

While unplugging the smoke detectors, we looked over at the vents in the ceiling and noticed that the were covered in BLACK MOLD. Furious now, I chose to call guest services at this time because we have two little kids and my wife is currently pregnant, the last thing we want is to be exposed to black mold.

I asked to be moved and to be upgraded for the inconvenience. We were told that there were no upgrades and no rooms to be moved to. So we were stuck in this room, luckily it has a fireplace so we tried to use that to heat the room so the mold spores were blowing all over the place.

When I woke up the next day I was sick, and so was my 2 year old. We thought maybe coincidence but we both got better within 24 hours of leaving... So it's pretty clear the mold is what made us sick. We didn't get offered to move until our third day, which was the last day of our trip.

Then we get to the "owner review". Which of course we all know is a sales attempt. I have no issue with it, the gift card is nice. The reason I mention it, they made my wife go look at the Hilton upgrade that she said no twice to, claiming "well it's part of the tour".

She wanted information on how to sell the timeshare and of course, getting that information is basically impossible. We still don't have an idea of how to do that. The guy mentioned something about having to pull credit to do it which makes absolutely no sense. The cherry on top is that the same employee flat out lied to her and told her there's no such thing as a soft credit pull and the only people who will tell you there is such a thing are car salesman (I work in finance at a car dealership).

After everything was all said and done, all we got for compensation was one nights worth of points (which we didn't want), and free tickets to wonderworks (which was actually nice because it got us out of the unit). Those points by the way expire in 2 months, and we will not be able to use them.

Believe it or not, there's more that I don't feel like typing as to what happened. Phone calls never returned, "I'll talk to my boss" conversations that never happened, it's just unbelievable.

I'm all ears if anyone from Bluegreen would like to reach out and try to make this right.

Clean the mold out...

We stayed in the newest updated building and it was very nice, obviously a lot of detail put into it, judging by some of the before photos online. Was very impressed with the aesthetic. The amenities were nice and the grounds were well kept. It was a close drive to all the major attractions. We would definitely return in the future.

However, a couple of things that kept me from leaving a 5: Both the sleeper sofa mattress in our lock-out and our guests' lock-out unit both had crusty stains on them. Very unfortunate as they were obviously so new. I wondered why they didn't have a fitted spill protector that stays on the mattress instead of just the cloth fitted cover in the bag with all the other sleeper linens. It would certainly save every other person who opens it over the next 5-7 years from having the first impression of "yuck!" Some debris inside the bag with the sleeper linens and a (what I hope was) lipstick stain on the master bed sheets led me to question how well they had been cleaned and caused me to feel the need to spend extra time inspecting the bedding at the end of the day before I was ready to finally get into it. While the landscaping and parking lot were well kept, there was some trash in the stairwell and sub-level walkway outside our unit that never moved the whole time we were there. Also heavy cobwebs on all the chairs on our porch, like no one had checked out there in a long time. Not the biggest thing but something maintenance might want to fix: the switch that turns the fireplace bookcase lights on in unit 2102 will turn the TV off. I can only assume it's a fluke. Either way, very strange.

Again, over all a good time. I do recommend it and it's very likely we will come back at some point. I was hoping to have submitted these couple concerns via a private survey instead of publicly airing them. I'm not trying to bash anyone, but I do like to make sure issues get addressed when I see them, not just for my next visit but also for the sake of other visitors, especially RCI guests whose feedback will influence ratings. At other Bluegreen locations they were quick to reach out post-stay, but I have not received one from...

Rated a 1 because of booking shenanigans. Was using my brother's deeded week since he was not going to use it. I called a couple of days before to make sure everything was set. I gave the lady his deeded unit number and told her who I was. She said all was set. Got there, got the keys without looking at the unit number. Went to his deeded unit. Key did not work. Looked at the number on the key holder. It was another unit at ground level. Thought maybe brother gave me wrong unit.Went there and got in OK. Called him and he assured me he gave me correct info. Went to the office and they gave me a phony baloney excuse. They did offer to move us but said brother's unit was occupied. We had already moved our stuff in and declined. So in two days it went from being all set to us not being given the correct unit. I don't like dishonesty. The unit we got was the same size. Well furnished with towels, tp, etc. Wife wiped down the counters. The wipes turned brown. The unit where we stayed being 6 ft below ground level had a view of... you guessed it .. a dirt bank. The unit above us creaked when the occupants walked. Running water sound was loud when they showered. The mattress on the bed needs to be rotated because the head was headed down hill The single bedroom unit is approximately 31 x 14. l. Not much larger than an RV. Tiny bath. The bathroom sink counter was several inches lower than standard with a tiny bowl. Also a very low toilet. Used brother's week with the idea that we may purchase a week. Decided that Laurel Crest would not be suitable. Did I mention I confirmed the unit number a couple of days before and Laurel Crest pulled a switcheroo. I did, but worth mentioning again. We enjoyed Pigeon Forge and stayed on the go so fortunately we were not in the...