Paradise at Black Bear Hollow — Hotel in Pigeon Forge

During the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend, I booked the “Bear Mountain” cabin for my wife and I and two of our children and their families with Black Bear Hollow Cabin Rentals in Townsend, TN. We stayed with them the previous year and had a wonderful time and found the property to be clean, comfortable and everything that we were looking for in a family vacation rental so we decided to book with them again this year.

We will NEVER stay with them again!

Upon arrival at the cabin we found that the power was out to the lower level of the cabin, we called Mark Tisch (owner) to inform him of the problem, Mr. Tisch asked us to reset the breaker and got off the phone…he neglected to mention that the panel was outside the cabin and we spent the better part of an hour trying to locate it. With this done, power was restored and we began settling in for our weekend. When we tried to light the gas fireplace however, it would not light. We searched for the pilot light and were unable to locate it and once again called Mr. Tisch. He was very surly this time around and told us that all we had to do was light the pilot, when we explained that we were unable to locate it, he reluctantly and rudely said he would send someone over, told us that he had never had any problems with his rentals and suggested that we had somehow caused this when we turned the power back on for the lower level. When Mr. Tischs’ partner arrived to fix the fireplace he was arrogant about the problem like he was going to show the idiots how to light a fire…until he realized that he couldn’t find the pilot light either! After a few phone calls, he learned that he was going to have to disassemble the fireplace to light it, which he did, but he came off that it was somehow our fault that it wasn’t lit in the first place!

The final straw came some hours later when we started noticing a strong sewage odor. Upon investigation, we located the problem. The main floor toilet was leaking on to the bed in the lower level. We called Mr. Tisch again, and got even more of an attitude from him, but he sent his partner over again to investigate. When his partner arrived (we never did catch his name) he stopped just inside the door and commented how bad it smelled. He commented that they had never had this many problems with one of their cabins before and asked us to show him where the problem was, when he saw it, he offered us fresh sheets! Nothing about the wet brown stain on the bed, just fresh sheets! He tried to tell us that it must just be water leaking from the roof since they had so much rain lately. When we told him to watch what happened when we flushed the toilet he declined and changed the subject. He called Mr. Tisch again and had the audacity to tell him that the smell wasn’t bad despite his comment when he got there about the smell! Then we were asked if we could just double up in the other rooms and not use the downstairs…nothing about fixing the problem of raw sewage leaking in the house. We had a 3 year old with repertory problems and a 1 year old infant with us, and they expected us to stay in those hazardous conditions! We told Mr. Tisch that we wanted to move to another unit or to have our money back as we would not say in that cabin. He told us that there we no other cabins available and refused to return our money and again accused us of causing all of these issues ourselves!

We left that evening and were able to find other lodging at a hotel in Pigeon Forge and were able to salvage some of our weekend, but we will never stay with Black Bear Hollow Cabin Rentals or recommend them to anyone that we know. That was without a doubt, the worst customer service that I have ever experienced. No apologies to us, blaming us for the issues despite the fact that the cabin obviously had not been checked prior to our arrival to make sure it was ready for guests and to expect a family with children to stay in a cabin with raw sewage in it is...

Stayed in the "over the rainbow" cabin for the week after Christmas. 11 occupants.

Let's start with the good. Fantastic view from the porch! Clear view out over the valley and most of the light from nearby pigeon forge is blocked out. So great viewing of the stars at night!

Plenty of room for all guests. All had their own bed and nearby bathroom.

This place is in need of a renovation and update!! It's just worn out and tired. Here is a small list of issues we faced

Not a single usable knife in the kitchen! Lots of knives but none will cut anything.

2 pool tables are unstable. Cue ball is noticeably dented and has holes. Only 3 cues l, all battered, and only 1 has a tip. No chalk anywhere.

Air hockey table could fall apart at any moment. Constantly shifts. side panels are bowed, LEDs are out, pucks are worn out and only float on one side.

Upstairs shower leaks to the kitchen. The book covers this and they say it's the shower curtain. I barely fit in any of the showers as they are 3x3 size. I'm 6'2“

Theater. Nice sized tv. All the seats are for children lol. The speaker literally fell off the wall. The surround system doesn't work, and wasn't even hooked up.

6 ceiling fans haven't been cleaned in quite some time. Literally caked in dust on the blades.

7 main windows need to be...

What a wonderful spot for a memorable family vacation! We stayed at the Bear Ridge cabin the 2nd week of September, 2014. Myself along with my wife, daughter (13 1/2) and son (9 1/2) were totally relaxed in this mountain cabin. The inside was extremely clean and furnished with beautiful pieces...the kitchen was wonderful to work in. We ate 3/4 of our meals there because it felt like home and was a great place to hang out. There was a nice deck on the back of the cabin with a really nice hot tub that we enjoyed 3 nights in a row. The deck area also had a nice gas grill that I used to cook steaks on. Both bedrooms were large and once again included very nice furnishings and decor. Quiet evenings in the mountains...couldn't have asked for more. It's within 20 - 30 minutes of Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge - when you take the scenic drive through the mountains - and even the little town of Townsend, TN where the cabins are located offered some nice stops along the way. (we had a great lunch at the Campfire Grill and also enjoyed Capt'n Daves Wood Carvings) I highly recommend this cabin and the owners were quick to respond to emails, so if you have any questions I wouldn't hesitate to ask them. We're from Central IL which is about 9 hours from the Gatlinburg area, but I hope to return here...