Big Bear Vacations — Local services in Big Bear Lake

We have booked a big bear trip with our family of 16 to celebrate Christmas the last several years and our experience this year with our Cabin itself AND the property management company, Big Bear Vacations, was terrible. We arrived to the house a little early (about 3pm) and found that there was nobody there so assumed we’d be able to check in early since every other year we’ve gone they allow us to check in if it’s ready. When we called they told us it’s not ready and that the contact says 4pm so we need to wait. Nobody showed up to do anything in that hour that we sat there and waited, so they apparently made us wait just because. When we walked in the entire house smelled like fish. We had to air it out and spray perfume ( there was no room spray or candles in the house). We got everything unloaded and unpacked and around that time 3 men knock on the door and tell us they’re the cleaners and they need to come in. We told them no because nobody notified us they would be coming and they were all dressed in regular clothing. No uniforms or anything to show us that they’re cleaners. They claimed that somebody send them pictures of stuff that was missed in the house. It wasn’t us who sent the pictures so we were very confused and told them they couldn’t come in. Once we started settling in and using stuff in the house we realized the house was not as pictured whatsoever. Everything was old and falling apart. Everything was filthy. Baseboards were covered in dirt and hair, the carpets looked like they’ve never been vacuumed, showers had mold in them, sheets and pillows smelled like they weren’t washed. It was beyond disgusting. We had been there several hours when my husband went upstairs to check out the loft where our small children ( ages 2-7) were playing, and he found a PACKET OF COCAINE under the mattress. We called the property management company and they offered to send new sheets. What?! How does that help. Not to mention the mattress he found it under was disgusting. Clearly if they would have washed that bedding they would have seen the cocaine but it became very obvious to us that they didn’t wash or clean anything in that house. The table out back was covered in cigarette butts. We had to clean them up before we could allow our kids to go outside. The railing in the loft was so loose if someone leaned on it, it would likely break and they would fall down 10 feet to the living room. The bunk bed was falling apart. When my 6 year old rolled over on the top bunk the entire bed would shift and rock bath and forth. Upon leaving the cabin and pulling the sheets off we found that the master bedroom mattress had blood all over it. When we spoke with Big Bear Vacation about all of this afterwards and sent them all of the pictures of everything that was wrong and dirty in the house, we got the run around and they stated that they tried to send somebody to clean the home but we turned them away. So apparently the 3 strange men were sent by them and they planned to clean an hour after our promised check in time. Not okay! They acted like they would see what they could do to get us an appropriate amount of our money refunded back to us for the lack of cleanliness and all of the trouble. But never received a phone call back. They held us off for a week by saying the people that they needed to talk to were sick and we just never heard back from them. We have had so many amazing cabins and property management companies that we have dealt with in big bear, but this company is a joke! If you book a cabin steer...

THIS COMPANY WILL NOT ALLOW ME TO POST REVIEW ON THEIR WEBSITEAfter looking through pictures of 2193 Soaring Pines with my family we decided to book it. Our trip was a few weeks ago and we were more than disappointed. When we arrived at the home we contacted them to see if early check in would be available as no one was at the home. They refused so we waited. When we first walked in the home it smelled like fish. We had to leave all the doors open to air it out for hours and even that didn't help. After unloading the cars 3 men showed up to "clean" the house, with no warning from the company and with children in the house we turned them away. We didn't want random men in the house when it was supposed to be cleaned and ready to go by check in time. A couple hours later we opened the pull out couch and found a tiny baggy of drugs. When I contacted Big Bear Vacations someone called me, sounding very intoxicated, and simply offered for someone to come and pick up the baggy of drugs. I received a call from the Director of Housekeeping apologizing and asking me what she can do and she offered to pay to take the kids out to do something fun. We declined as we already had plans for the night. She didn't contact me the rest of our stay to check up on us or try to rectify the situation. The following are things that we encountered as a group during our stay:

-spoon left on the deck that looked like it could have been used for drugs -several drawers in the kitchen are broken and fall out as soon as you open them -carpet and rugs looked very dirty -baseboards covered in dust in the bathrooms -mold in showers -trash can in spare bedroom full of someone else's trash -trash can in bathroom full of someone else's trash and a water bottle on ground -faucet in master shower was broken -dust flying out of shower vent -dirty diaper that didn't belong to us under the couch -sconces over stove covered in grease and caked in dead gnats -packet of cigarette butts in fountain in the backyard where the kids played -cigarette butts on top deck -coke can in yard -dried blood on mattress in master bedroom -railing in the loft was very wobbly -bunk in one of the spare bedrooms was unstable and wobbly -grout in the tile was disgustingly brown -blinds in one of the spare bedrooms had a broken slat -wood post in yard was knocked over and nails were sticking out of it.

At the end of our stay I contacted the Director of Housekeeping with our concerns and requested compensation for all of these issues and the house not being ready to stay in and she agreed that compensation was appropriate and would contact me after speaking with her boss. In the past few weeks my husband, my sister in law, and I have all gone back and forth with the Director of Housekeeping where she has lied and said she called me when she didn't, lied and told my husband that during our initial call she offered for us to stay in a different house (which would have cost us most of our first evening) and did not, has justified the fact that the house was not clean by saying they sent a cleaning crew after check in to clean the house, etc. The final straw was when they offered my husband a maximum of a $500 refund with the understanding that we don't post any bad reviews. No one learns if we don't post so we declined the $500 and here I am posting this review in hopes that they truly learn from this experience and if they haven't learned to save you from...

We checked in around 2:00pm on a Friday and left at check out at 10:00am on Sunday the weekend after Thanksgiving. The cabin location was fantastic. It was on the South side of the lake across from the observatory and just left of Gibralter Point. There were no cabins between us and the water, so it was like our own little personal bay where we could get out and enjoy the weather and take the dog for a walk. The neighbors were nice and the area was quiet.

The cabin fit the 4 of us fine - 2 adults sharing a bed and one bed each for the 14 year old and 8 year old. Each room had two beds (1 queen and 3 Fulls)and each room had an attached full bath. Hot water was quick to turn on, but the kitchen faucet was hooked up backwards, so we thought the sink wasn't generating any hot water until we tried the cold side. No big deal.

The only reason we didn't give 5 stars was for 2 reasons. The first was the heater in the room to the left of the front door when you walk in would make a loud bang each time the heat kicked on. We only noticed it after we got back on the first night and turned it on before bed. It got down to 30 degrees and we kept the heaters on around 65. Every hour or so, it sounded like a gun shot which would wake us up. We didn't get a lot of sleep the first night, since we didn't turn it off as we weren't sure how cold it would get. It turned out that the blankets were enough so we didn't use the heater on the second night then let the fire go and turned up the heater in the front room a little.

The other issue was the bathroom sink in the same room was easy to clog and would take a couple of hours to drain. Since the sinks are so small, you could only run the water for short bursts which was a little annoying. Had to be careful when using it, or it would over flow.

Aside from these 2 issues, everything from the check in process to the check out process was smooth and the people were friendly. As stated earlier, the location was great and access to the village and down town was easy and not too far, although it was an extra busy weekend due to the opening of Christmas season and the tree lighting ceremony. Traffic was a major issue with cars backed up all down Big Bear Blvd, but that's not Big Bear Vacations fault.

Overall it was a pleasant experience and we would definitely do it again.

P.S. Although it isn't reflected in the review, it should be pointed out that the free WiFi was really slow and unreliable. Speed tests showed it was between 600Mbit/s - 1MB/s and the connection dropped a few times. Since the area had good 4G reception though, we just used that to check emails and things. While we're at it, the TV picture was pretty bad too. We didn't go to Big Bear for the free WiFi and basic cable though, so it really wasn't a big deal. Just thought it should be pointed out in case some one has a limited data plan and uses their phone a lot.

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