Heartland Cabin Rentals — Local services in Gatlinburg

We rented cabin fever, it was disgusting! When we got to the cabin, it was missing a blind, which when we called heartland, they called the owner, who said that they were aware of it, from the previous renters. That it was1) on order, why wasn't it fixed before we got there. I'm sorry, but the other blinds just looked like walmart blinds. 2) the ceiling fans were wobbly & made noises, we were afraid to use them. 3) the hall light to the upstairs was broken, 4) no steps for the hot tub, to get in & out of. 5) the couch had stains, 6) No dressers in the bedrooms, no lamps nor stands in the downstairs bedroom. 7) dust so thick on top of the fridge. 8)the table on the back deck was so disgusting, we did not sit out there at all! 9) the banister in the back was wobbly, 10) there was a smelly carpet rolled up and put in the closet on main floor in bedroom. 11) there were rocks on the pantry shelf, 12) the downstairs light had no shade, was just exposed! 13) the bbq grill was so disgusting that it should've been sent to the garbage. Need I go on! This cabin never felt warm & welcoming, very little pictures on the walls, nor decorations. We called heartland and told them all of this & the owners of heartland told Jordan(their employee) to tell us that they would refund our money. We said & where would you like us to stay on a last minute notice. The money wasn't the issue, heartland could've offered a discount, moved us to a better cabin at no cost to us, etc. Not once did they call and check on us. We left early in the morning and came back late, just to avoid being in that disgusting cabin...the staff member Ashley was rude & just kept saying that we record everything and that when I called, I was ticked & she gave me attitude, so I gave it back & hung up. She as much as sent me the recording, which she couldn't just stop & let it go, I in return said to her, I don't care about your recording, I know what I said, that I didn't lie about it, that the recording was true, that I had nothing to hide. BTW, we did call a bunch of cabin rentals, but they were all full, so we had no choice but to stay. As far as the broken light and fans, we called as soon as we seen those when we arrived, which was a Saturday, the repairman didn't show up until Tuesday evening. He was very nice, he said that the light, someone screwed a screw right through the wire, wow!! He was able to fix that, he fixed the ceiling fan in the main floor bedroom, which BTW, he said thatthe screws for the fan blades were so loose, that those blades would have come off & could've hurt someone. He checked the fans downstairs & said they both were going to need new motors, that he was going to let heartland know. So as far as our experience with heartland, it was aweful & we will never rent from them again. For the amount that we paid for this cabin, we should be refunded in...

When my wife and I planned our trip to the area, we were excited to go hiking and experience the Smokey Mountains; however, when we arrived at Cozy Mountain Hideaway (CMH) late on a Monday night, both of us found CMH to be warm and inviting, not to say the AC wasn't working well, it was more than adequate in the 90°F heat.

Having been overcome by how peaceful we felt at CMH, we suspended our outdoor adventures until Thursday afternoon.

While at CMH, we thoroughly enjoyed the two person outdoor hot tub, which was located inside a screened-in porch on one of the two neighborless sides of the home. We also enjoyed the indoor double-wide/two person jacuzzi tub. What a great place to relax, read, spend generous amounts of quality time with the woman I love, and do "other things" together.

Oh wait, the wrap-around-porch is outfitted with a porch swing and two rocking chairs facing the woods—Brilliant!

For how secluded CMH made us feel, I was thoroughly surprised to be greeted by reliable Internet, not to mention the added bonus of 15/5 Mbps download/upload speeds.

We never once turned on either television; seriously, it never once crossed our minds. The peaceful nature of all that surrounded us was sufficient to hold our attention for our entire stay.

When we finally left CMH we used the Gateway to Fun pass to go whitewater rafting with USA raft and zip lining on 4.5 miles of cables with Legacy Mountain. Both were a blast! We highly recommend paying extra to ride down the Pigeon River rapids in the smaller raft, which is termed, "The Extreme Ride." Don't let the name fool you; what this really meant was that we were able to work more closely with our guide to have a more personalized experience. All the people in the larger rafts spent a lot of time watching us have more fun, ha! My wife in her own words was, "nervous" about her first whitewater rafting trip, but "had a blast" and "was really glad we chose "The Extreme" ride."

The bed: We both found the bed to be comfortable. I suffer from chronic neck and back pain and didn't have any issues sleeping.

It would have been nice to have a cutting board available.

Why only four stars?

1. While very comfortable to lie down on, the couches uncomfortably pushed our heads forward when we sat on them. We were unable to sit on them for an extended period of time. I and my wife are 6'5" and 5'8", respectively, so feel free to take that into consideration.

2. At night, the dining room, living room, and the area surrounding the pool table were dimly lit. We believe the interior wood walls played a big part in this; the lack of lighting could easily be remedied by using brighter bulbs (LED perhaps) in...

The agents are polite, but you'll unfortunately be talking to them a lot. I've been to Gatlinburg several times over the past few years. It's one of my wife and my favorite spots to get away for a while. This was our first experience with Heartland Rentals and things seemed pretty easy prior to our arrival.

They do require that everything be paid in full two weeks prior to arrival which was different than our prior experiences but was fine.

When we arrived we were told that our reserved cabin was no longer available. There had been storms the night before we got into town and the power had been knocked out. We were given two choices on what to stay in instead. There was no discussion of compensation or even a larger array of options to alleviate the disappointment, but we received a cabin nonetheless.

The cabin we ended up getting (from the two we could have) was far away from most of the things we'd wanted to do, but we made do.

On the final night of our stay, the electronic code they provided did not work. We called the office, and it turns out the batteries in the lock had died and that resulted in us being locked out of our cabin. Heartland did call a locksmith, who arrived to get us inside within an hour. Unfortunately, they also instructed the locksmith to cut a new key for the lock. While I understand this is something that needs to be done, it was a shame that this had to be done on our vacation time when we'd already lost more than an hour of our final night just trying to enter our cabin.

Again, Heartland made no offer to compensate us for the trouble even though the lock had died because they did not check the batteries after they had brought the cabin under their management per their agent.

I understand that things happen, but to have several things happen with little to no regard for your customer's satisfaction or time and absolutely no effort made to set things right financially means I cannot recommend this rental outfit. The cabin was beautiful, and while my wife and I will be returning to Gatlinburg, we will not be visiting a Heartland property again

I shared this review with Heartland prior to posting to any public website, and they sent me a hasty reply about how they're sorry to hear that I won't be coming back but that they don't offer any type of refund or compensation and that, while we were locked out of our cabin for one night, that we had several nights we weren't locked out. It would appear that a functioning entryway into your rental property is not something that should be assumed when visiting a Heartland rental property and that a 75% success rate for you getting inside should be considered a...