The Lodges at The Great Smoky Mountains — Hotel in Pigeon Forge

We were booked this reservation through a time share seller which once was Grand Crown and is now Capital Resorts. We will never go back or recommend anyone to stay here. Maybe certain cabins are designated to certain time share sellers but I don't believe this to be the case.

We immediately phoned the office within 10 minutes of our arrival to request a different cabin. 1.) The hot tub did not work and at over 50 yrs old I was looking forward to this after our long drive. 2.) The refrigerator had a odor worse than dead fish. 3.) The cabin was very outdated. 4.) There was no Wi-Fi 5.) The TV in both bedrooms as well in the living room were very small 6.) The mattress on both beds is in dire need to be replaced. 7.) There are roaches in that cabin!!!

I could continue but those are major issues or at least they are to us being seasoned travelers we are quite aware they are not acceptable!

Issues # 1 and 2 were the initial reasons for requesting a different cabin within 10 minutes of arrival, we had not brought in our luggage and felt as if our request would not be a problem, it was not during the "busy season" most schools had already started for the 2018/2019 school year. However we were told there were no vacant cabins at all she would send a maintenance person to check on both issues.

Maintenance personal arrived and had found a breaker inside of the hot tub fuse panel itself had been thrown due to the water level being to low because it had been left on by the cleaning crew, it was not digital so he had to remove a panel off of the front of the hot tub to turn the breaker back on and stated he would leave the panel off so when it stopped heating during our stay my husband could turn it back on. Safety was a huge concern for me at that point. He also stated as far as 2 of the 4 jets goes they were broken and could not be fixed, the hot tub was old and needed to be replaced. Problem #1 Not fixed

He then opened the refrigerator door and as well smelled the same old stale dead fish odor we smelled and stated maybe it had been turned off and the door left closed it should clear up. Problem #2 Not fixed during our entire stay!

Although we had enough points to cover our stay we were still required to attend what should only be a 90 minute face to face with a representative of Capital resorts to allow him to try to convince us of buying into their timeshare program even deeper than we previously had.

He introduced himself and asked how our stay was over at the cottage, we had told him what kind of cabin we were in and all of the disappointing factors that came with it.

After he learned we were not going to invest any of our money back into that company and the reasons why he said to us

"Do you know all of the resorts pay hundreds of people to go online and write great reviews about their hotels and cottages and most have never stayed with them including the resort where you are staying" "They do this to make a bad review not look bad because people will think it's just a few bad review out of all these good ones".

That is OK. At least I know I have done my part submitting a honest review to warn those who go thinking they are going to be staying at a 5 star resort when actually they would be more comfortable in the cheapest hotel in town that doesn't even advertise!

Also during our stay we paid close attention to those cabins to the left and right of ours as well as across the street, they were all vacant and remained vacant during our...

The 2 bedroom condo was very nicely finished, the copper tub was beautiful and all the furniture was nice, as were the vaulted ceilings. The appliances were new and the copper farm sink was also awesome! BThe major negative for the room was the floors were sticky and the carpets were filthy. Our youngest crawled around on the floor for 15 minutes and his knees, hands, and feet had black stuff all over them. It’s as if no one every vacuums the floors or cleans the hardwoods. The water pressure in the shower wasn’t very good, either. The worst experience came when a lady called me about viewing their timeshare presentation and promised us $150 in cash to do so. She told me it would take about 90 mins and could go on about our day if we weren’t interested. The initial salesman was bad. He insinuated that most people couldn’t actually afford the trips they do take. He kept saying you would only get a great deal if you purchased today...really trying to lay it on thick. He also used his “Christianity” but didn’t recommend going home to pray about it. He said they had a “prayer deck” on the side of the building. This guy is fake and not a good person. Then we were sent to our personal sales assistant. I was very skeptical of all the claims. Apparently skepticism isn’t allowed. He told me he sensed some skepticism from me and i said I’ve actually got a lot of it. He asked me to elaborate. I asked him if they were a member of the BBB, to which he said yes. I had already looked it up and saw that they weren’t. They had 320 complaints over a 3 year period. Then he asked me what kind of car do i drive to which i replied a Chevy. He responded by saying well Chevy gets complaints. Apples to Oranges...customer service to something that is mechanical. After 2 hours into the scam, i told them we weren’t interested. He kept pushing and i told him we were told it was a 90 min presentation and then we would receive our gift. He proceeded to tell me that it was a MINIMUM of 90 minutes and asked if i knew what minimum means... At that point i was done with the insults. It wasn’t the first attempt he had made since i made my skepticism evident. I got up and told him he should keep his insults to himself and that’s when some guy came over and said “that’s it! No gift! Get him out of here!” I then spoke to a “boss” who told me the same thing and told me he’d keep me there 4-5 hours if he chooses too...but it was a MINIMUM of 90 minutes for the presentation. They even threatened to call the police because i questioned their ethics in the way their presentation was handled. They had 3 guys standing around me, trying to intimidate me, which actually made me laugh. I asked them if they would like me to call the police for them since i clearly wasn’t doing anything wrong. This is clearly a tactic they use to keep from giving gifts to people that don’t choose to buy their scam. I would never, ever purchase anything from this pathetic excuse for a company. Overall a complete disaster of an experience. The funny thing is that i was doing research during the entire presentation and I kept coming across horror story after horror story. This is a poor company that isn’t endorsed by the BBB. I would skip any invitations to see their presentation in exchange for a...

First off we went there to actually buy into a time share, family is everything to us and having those special yearly vacations had been a driving point for us to get into one. We took the plunge in December and it’s has been literally one lie after another. We were literally promised the world just being phone call away to get there. We were handed an offer after a somewhat high pressured sales meeting where the man speaking insinuating that we cost them 500 just to show up. When we came willing and wanting , we were not there just for any freebies. My wife and I looked over their proposals and decided the one they were heavily pushing on us was just a bit too out of budget for us and after some hesitation they went into a back room and came out with another proposal. After a brief discussion between the wife and myself we opted in to buying the second one. Approximately 17,000 for this one which was more then affordable for us. After we returned home we were to be contacted for a weekend stay with them at the Lodges for their new owner workshop. Well that never happened and it took me driving 5 hours to get our log in information from the one salesman they wouldn’t give it to us over the phone. So we had our purchase finally after about a month and a half had our log in but no clue how to use the services. Tried calling the owners services and was hung up on twice, called interval international and was pretty much laughed at but the people on the other line saying our “points “ wouldn’t get us nothing anywhere. We were told we couldn’t make any bookings until our deposit cleared and we attended their workshop well the deposit cleared without a problem but the workshop never happened. Then we receive a letter in the mail stating they mistakenly sold us an “unavailable property” and instead substituted another. Without contacting us prior they simply changed all the paperwork and signed in our absence. We tried several times to get things worked out threaten to sue for breach of contract and lying about everything. Was told by several staff members they would make this right, that never happened. After several more phone calls of aggravation speaking to this person that person, given dead phone numbers that were not even in service they offered us a 7 day stay in June at the Lodges as long as we used our points for the year. They would put us into a three bedroom lodge to try and make things right. We accepted but still wanted resolution to all the issues we had stated to them numerous times. Then we were booted from that room and time til this week Sept 1-8, in a ONE bedroom lodge for us and our kids. What kinda time do you think we had, seeing as we left 2 1/2 days early from this “vacation” with 6 kids my wife and myself in a one bedroom that is only outfitted for 4 people with one bathroom, one shower (no tub) and one bedroom and a pull out. Four of our kids slept on air mattresses some vacation huh? Not only that but the lodges has no amenities no pool, two gas grill and a couple chairs in a gravel parking lot and a corn hole game on the sidewalk. All we want is for this to be made right we feel like failures to our kids as we bought the salesman’s pitch and promises and told our kids how great the vacations would be from here on.... yeah didn’t think...