Mt. Baker Lodging — Local services in Area H (Cultus Lake/Columbia Valley)

This review is for the management company and not the home.

A group of friends and I rented cabin #7. We shouldve first known how poorly this company operated based on the fact that check-in is at 4pm and their office closes at 5pm. Luckily, I arrived at the cabin at 4pm while my girl friend that made the reservation got the keys. Even though I could not enter the cabin, arriving before night fall allowed me to access the road AND access the condition of the cabin. Again, there were signs of mother nature's recent arrival - broken trees on the road, branches all over, etc. The cabin was not unkept but it did appear that it needed to be cleaned up from the winter storm. So when we saw that there was a broken deck rail and other maintenance issues, we didnt freakout. It appeared that someone (I assumed the property management company) did try to clean up the broken deck by piling all the wood rail pieces to the side and under the deck. Though the rental agreement states that you should immediately notify the property management company, there is no service (cell, internet or tv) at the cabin, and by the time we wouldve gotten to the office, it wouldve been closed.

Fast fwd to 2 days after our trip. The girl friend who reserved the cabin and put her CC down for security informs us that she was charged (without notification) ONE THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS. She attempted to contact the company, only to be repeatedly diverted to the Owner, who is never available because he is checking in on the rental properties. I find this reason acceptable but only if the available staff is competent and aware of all operations. If the Owner is NEVER available to call a customer or receive a calls, then why bother even having other staff. Speaking of the other staff - they will hang up on you and stop answering the phone.

After a day, Owner informs my friend that the charge was for the damage that someone made on the rail on the deck. He said that he filed a police report and that a carpenter came by and said the damage was well over $1000. She asked how he knew it was from our party and he said it was monitored, so she asked if there were cameras and he said yes. She asked for a copy of the police report and the footage of this happening this past weekend, and he said he will provide it after the police review it. He said if we saw the video we would clearly know who it was that was kicking the railing.

So here are the grave diggers: Yes, the rental agreement states that the cabin is "monitored". However, you cannot legally video record anyone with out their consent. There was no indication that we would be recorded at any time (not on agreement or signs at cabin). There was no cameras. Again, there is NO service of any sorts at this cabin. There is no hardwired CCTV. The only means of "monitoring" would've been human or via satellite. Neighboring home with straight view of aforementioned deck rail, is also a rental and not permanent resident. The next morning, my friend called again to ask for the police report and footage. Nothing. So she called Whatcom County Sheriff and guess what, there was NO POLICE REPORT FILED.

So these incompetent and unprofessional scumbags made up a story to corner us into ignorantly pay $1500?! Did they think she wouldn't notice the charge on her credit card and ask why?! Did they think they could make up a story about a nonexistent camera to scare us into paying for something we didnt do?! Did they think they could THREATEN us with a false statement that they filed a police report?!

After all these revelations, my girl friend left a message to the Owner indicating all these facts to be THE TRUTH. And guess what, she magically receives an email receipt that reversed the $1500 charge. No explanation. No apology. Nothing.

Homeowners, please do not hire this company to represent and manage your home. DO NOT RENT FROM THIS LYING, DECEITFUL, CONNIVING, MANIPULATIVE,...

TL;DR... #37 Snowline Lodge Condo. Listing was inaccurate on Airbnb (and as of right now, still is) and when confronted, Mt Baker Lodging responded with anger and hostility. Fought and fought and finally got Mt Baker Lodging to concede and to provide a refund.

Also, there was quite a bit of water damage above the shower with, what appears to be, mold (see pics). Also provided views of the bathroom not included on Airbnb listing that show a very janky pad lock and wire on the bathroom sink. Also, let this serve as proof of my reservation in the scenario that Mt Baker Lodging responds with a "We don't have any matching recent reservations."

Full Story... My partner and I have been using Airbnb's to take long weekends where we work remotely on Friday and then vacation over the weekend to get a little more away time. After searching Airbnb, my partner and I selected a Mt Baker Lodging property because it advertised with access to Wifi and it has great proximity to Mt Baker Ski Area. It was a budget property (#37 Snowline Lodge) and we didn't expect much, but we did require internet access because we planned to work remotely Friday and then ski the weekend. There was no note or warning explaining that Internet access may be spotty or fail on the Airbnb listing. After making the 2.5 hour trip to the property on Thursday evening, we spent 2 hours trying to connect to Wifi with no luck and ended up driving the 2.5 hour trip back home since the lack of Wifi would prohibit us from working the next day.

We returned to the area on Saturday to ski and drop off the keys. We called the office on the way there in hopes of resolving the issue directly. The woman on the phone treated us with hostility and anger, explaining that the Wifi works perfectly and that she uses it daily. She told us we were wrong and hung up on us. When we dropped the keys off at the office however, another woman we spoke with said this is an ongoing issue and that guests are warned before their stay.

Once we were home, we wanted to clear up this conflicting advice. After exploring the Airbnb listing we confirmed there is no mention of ill-functioning Wifi or other disclaimers (and as of right now, there still isn't). We were able to also find the listing on the Mount Baker Lodging site. There it explains the Internet is “Subject to Failure,” warning that no refunds will be administered for faulty Internet. Because we booked through Airbnb, we were not made aware of this issue before our trip.

What we hoped would be a relaxing vacation became 10 hours spent in our car and zero nights spent in the condo. Due to the inaccuracy of the listing, the rude response we received from Mt Baker Lodging customer service, and that we did not spend any nights at the property, we requested that Mt Baker Lodging please provide us a full refund for our reservation. We thoroughly documented how the Airbnb listing was presented in case they required additional justification. After a lot of phone calls, Mt Baker Lodging conceded and said they would provide a full refund. So far, they have provided only about a 3/4 refund.

I regret not writing a review on Airbnb to warn others of these issues (This is literally the first review I've ever written). I just wanted to let it go and hoped they would fix their error. They haven't. Airbnb users, forgive me. If you have Wifi issues after booking through Airbnb, check the Airbnb listing vs the Mt Baker Lodging listing for any Wifi warning or lack thereof. Document the listings and be ready to argue with an angry Mt Baker Lodging...

This company did indeed host a very nice looking cabin and responded to my questions in the weeks leading up to the stay there, but they had zero compassion for our situation when we rented with them. We had scheduled 3 nights for 9 of us (6 coming from out of state just to be at that cabin) that happened to fall during the time of an unprecedented heat wave in the area (daily temperatures registered over 105F) that was declared an emergency by the weather service within a day of our arrival. The cabin does not have air conditioning, has just one ceiling fan, and is nearby only a handful of restaurants and stores. It was even hotter there than nearby Bellingham, so to cool ourselves off since we were otherwise stranded at the cabin, we drove there. Several restaurants and facilities were closed in the area of the cabin due to the heat wave, leaving us nowhere to even eat out locally, so we had to cook in the kitchen making the place even hotter. We were unable to go hiking, or be outdoors anywhere really when the cabin began to cook with the heat, though we closed all the shades. We brought our own fans, and I called them to ask for other aid, especially since we had one asthmatic person and two young children, but they didn't respond to that. We asked them and Airbnb for a refund or credit so we could afford to go elsewhere that was safer, but both refused due to the host's cancellation policy. This company seems only interested in making money from their guests and preserving their property, and yes, they're responsive about how to be a tourist in the area, but not kind or considerate about the guests unexpected needs whatsoever. They charge a cleaning fee of $125 and despite that ask that we start a load of laundry*, take out all of our trash, (their bin remained mostly full even after we called and asked that they empty a bit of it out so we can put the trash outside as it became full quickly) and threaten they would charge us $50 if we did not do as they asked. Though the company advertises half-off a third night (we didn't know they offered this until we arrived after paying full-price and saw the flier they advertised), they did not even offer that as a discount, insisting they owed us nothing, though we paid full-price for all three nights. To make it worse, the hot tub we tried to use (because it finally cooled off to 70 degrees outdoors in the morning, and we were crazy enough to try to jump in and at least feel the bubbles to make use of the place we'd paid so much for), was not functioning. They came to fix it after we gave them a call as a courtesy (we know what it's like to be a property manager). And as a last offense, they left us a bad review on Airbnb, despite us doing all that they asked that we do upon checkin and check-out, saying they'd never rent to us again, without reason, signaling to future Airbnb hosts that we are somehow bad guests. sigh. *regarding laundry: their towels smell terrible; I thought it was just my own, but when I asked the others in my party a day after we left a day early, they all confirmed how awful their towels smelled as well. This is likely due to the fact that the owners require the guests to do the laundry in a very small capacity washer as a part of check-out. Packing this washer with all a few towels would make for a very inefficient washing process, leaving the towels dirty. I highly recommend going elsewhere, and definitely stay somewhere with air conditioning in the month of July, even though it's...