The Highlands at Sugar — Hotel in Sugar Mountain

We stayed in a 2 bedroom townhouse style unit, 100A. We had 4 adults and two young kids and stayed for a week in late June on a timeshare trade. Here is my detailed review - I'm a pretty particular person. All in all, I would stay here again for the good value, location, and views - but I would not stay here in the summer with the lack of AC.

First the good: -Location was near the top of Sugar Mountain, with gorgeous views especially of the sunset, and two nice balconies. Very close to lots of stuff to do - Roan mountain, tweetsie railroad, grandfather mountain, linville caverns and waterfalls/gorge, gem mining, restaurants, ski slopes. -Our unit was one of the renovated ones. This meant we had a nice kitchen and very nice bathrooms. -Staff was helpful and responsive especially when we had a toilet overflow situation. -Parking was very easy. -kids loved the pool and there was a gameroom. -we discovered a hiking trail at the end of a no longer used unpaved road, which led to the ski slopes. -Lots of space, with 2 bedrooms that had king size beds and a pull out sofa both in the living room and in the loft. Two bathrooms (the master bath was huge) and a large kitchen. -Washer and dryer were very useful. Kitchen was fairly well stocked. -good wifi and cell reception.

Now the bad: -The whole place is rundown. Pool and hot tub were dirty, super old, cracked, stuff broken, etc. Game room and common areas also extremely run down with broken games, etc. I know they are in the process of renovating but wow, it needed it like 10 years ago. -While the kitchen and bathrooms were updated in our unit, and the balconies appeared to be new, the rest of the unit was very run down. Most of the blinds barely worked. Every time I tried to open/shut the master bedroom blinds they started literally falling apart. The vertical blinds to the upstairs balcony had missing slats and other fell when I opened them. The blinds in the loft area had a cord that was all frayed and you had to reach up really high to grad a spot that wouldn't break when you used it. Incredibly the whole thing came crashing down out of the brackets on my arm one time when I opened them - this was a heavy 4 foot blind. The screen doors didn't shut properly. There was still an old stove in the renovated kitchen and 2 of the 4 burners did not work. Many outlets did not work. The carpet was unbelievably worn and you could feel soft spots in the floor beneath. Two wood panels that hid electrical, etc fell down for no reason. Tile around the fireplace was seriously cracked and chipped. Sure, the kitchen and bathroom renovations were nice- but seriously, I don't need granite countertops and fancy flooring in a vacation unit - why didn't they use that money to fix the falling apart things? I laughed at my partner when he insisted on bringing a tool kit, but we actually ended up using it multiple times. -No A/C, which I knew beforehand and didn't think would be a problem as it didn't get much hotter than 80. Well, the upstairs got HOT. There is no ceiling fan in the upstairs master, just two small windows. There were two box fans in the unit, and even with running fans in the windows to get the cool night air, most of the week was around 80 and the room never cooled below 75. You really had to leave all your windows open, which was a problem when people used the grill in the common area immediately adjacent to your unit, or the chain smokers on the balcony next door. If you are sensitive to smells or aren't used to leaving windows open (I'm not), don't stay here during the summer. -The place was dark. There was an odd lack of overhead lighting in the bedrooms. All the lamps had very dark shades. -The living room TV worked but it had a weird picture and something wrong...

Run far away. This will be a long detailed review of our nightmare stay at this location. I will list the pros and cons and then explain more at the end.

Pros: *Unit was spacious and clean *Beds were comfortable *Location to Sugar was convenient

Cons: *We had multiple times during our stay where we had no water. When we called the main office they said, "Oh when the units are fully booked we have water pressure issues". I repeat we had no water. *TVs were out and didn't come back until about 9 PM the second night *The kitchen had one frying pan, one pot, and one saucepan...no cookie sheet and very few cooking utensils. *Fireplace had a sign not to use it (which was not advertised) *Pool looked dirty so we didn't venture in it

Here is the full story. We got a late start so knew we would not be there while their main office was open. We called and they told us how to get access to the lock-box. We retrieved the keys and went to our unit. Unloaded and headed to dinner. Come back finish unpacking and putting groceries away. My husband turns on the tv to relax and we have no channels. Not ideal but not the end of the world. I go upstairs to take a quick shower. I get in get soap in my hair and the water runs out. At this point I check the sinks upstairs and we have no running water on the 2nd floor. I go downstairs to the second bathroom. They have water but its a trickle. I jump in and get the shampoo out of my hair and figure I will call in the morning as we were all tired. The next morning I call and report the lack of water to which they respond, "Oh when all of the units are fully booked we have water pressure issues" and blamed it on their water supplier. I get that they may not have control over this but at the same point if you know its a problem don't rent all of the units out. Also there is a difference between low pressure and no water. We head off to snowboard for the day and come back to our unit. Take the kids down to the pool/hot tub. The pool looked nasty, mold and or mildew growing on the rope and it just looked like it hadn't been cleaned in awhile. The hot tub was fine. Go back to the unit the kids and husband take showers while I cook dinner. The kids and husband all say they have pressure issues with the water. I go to shower around 8 PM and there is no water in the entire unit. So once again I call the front desk and they once again they tell me that they have water pressure issues when the units are fully booked. I repeat that I once again have no water. There solution was to go shower at the pool. We head out the next morning to snowboard for the day. Come back and my son goes to wash his hands and the water is on but brown/orange. At this point I was beyond done and we went home early. They never offered a refund even though we have videos of the fact we have no water. They kept blaming it on their supplier. So we spent nearly $500 on a unit that had no working TVs and no water on more than one occasion. It's bad when I had better experiences with showers...

This place has so much possibly/potential. It is located on towards the top of Snow Top and the views are incredible! Unfortunately the townhouses are in extreme disrepair. They are working on revitalizing the units and expect to have the renovations completed in approximately two years. However, in the meantime the delapiated units are still be rented out to poor unsuspecting people! My 15 year old daughter and I came up to NC for her Spring Break expecting a relaxing vacation. It was anything but that. We arrived at night and were unable to see the exterior of the buildings. Upon entering our unit the frame on the door was half way off. The part that holds the chain for security lock. Then I noticed the wood where the deadbolt slides into was rotted and not secure! I got out my travel tool box and repaired the door the best I could with the bent nails. Woke up the next morning to the reality of a dirty kitchen, rotted wood, warped floors and feeling like the unit was tilted. I went to the office and requested a different unit. Showed Michael pictures so she could see what I was talking about. The next unit appeared to be better. Until the sun went down. The heat in the kitchen and living room did not work, there were dead flies all over the window sills and behind the couch. The glass doors did not lock so they did not close all the way. That night high winds were howling through the mountains and our townhouse! Woke up to snow on the carpet the following morning. Oh, the fireplace also was useless as it had a note on it not to use due to safety concerns! Maintenance came and basically told me the heating fixtures were old and he couldn't fix them. Gave me a portable heater that did not make much of a difference. So once again we repacked and loaded up all of our stuff for another move! The third unit was warm and we were safe. When I spoke with Charles, General Manager and Board Member, I asked why they are renting the units when they are aware of the issues with all the townhouses. His response to me? One word....revenue. That was it for me! My week is being redeposit with RCI, I am spreading the word everywhere I can to warn other families and we checked out early today instead our planned departure date on Saturday. So sad that our mom and daughter vacation turned out to be a nightmare, but at least I can spare others from...