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Hightower House
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| Link ID |
140
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| Title |
Hightower House |
| Web Address |
http://www.homeaway.com/vacation-rental/p128797 |
| Complaint |
On 7/14/09, my family and I traveled 6 hours to Hiawassee, Ga. for our annual family vacation with two other families. Upon our arrival at Hightower house, we were greeted by spiders, cobwebs and a musty, mildew odor. The spiders & cobwebs were everywhere. Every doorway had cobwebs blocking them. The ceiling of the downstairs staircase had spiders crawling on it. The master bath tub had spiders crawling in it & the jacuzzi jets had mildew surrounding them. Two of the showers had mildew stains on the bottom of the stall. The entertainment center, as well as other pieces of furniture downstairs, had what appeared to be mold on it. The couch had white stains on the cushions (I don't want to know where they came from). We tried contacting the owners but were unsuccessful. My wife began e-mailing & calling several nearby cabins & hotels for vacancy, meanwhile I ran around the house with a broom to brush off the spiders & cobwebs. About an hour or so later, we received a call from the owner. He seemed as if he was in disbelief of the condition of the house, claiming that he was there 10 days prior. His first question was "Is the dehumidifier on?". He continuously commented that "this is hard to believe" and then it turned into "these things are to be expected in the mountains" and then it turned into having to go next door to get a witness to verify and report back to him. The neighbor agreed about the situation and also stated that perhaps the housekeeper forgot to clean. She called the owner in front of us and made these comments. Later on (after beginning the dispute process) the owner claimed that she did not agree with the situation. Luckily we took various photos and had others take photos. The neighbor called the housekeeper. The housekeeper stated that she cleaned the house several days ago. We pointed everything out to her and she was speechless, repeating "I don't know what happened". We requested she clean everything including towels and purchase mildew & mold odor remover for the carpets. During all this, our children and dog are sitting outside because my son is an asthmatic and could not tolerate the odor. The housekeeper requested that we dry the laundry because she needed to go home and cook. We had to leave our son with friends (they were also vacationing in cabins nearby) due to the odor still being in the house after the cleaning. Unfortunately all the nearby cabins were unavailable (Georgia Mountain Fair in town) and the hotels would not accept pets. Several things were listed in the advertisement that were either not available or not working. On the third day, after a day at the beach, we came back to a hot house at 4pm. We called & e-mailed all emergency numbers with no immediate success. Around 7:45 that evening we finally received a call. The owners said that there was nothing that they could do, due to being in the mountains, there is not a 24hr service available. I disputed with them and stated that if that was the case, I would go somewhere else and send them the bill. The owner asked if we could stay with one of our friends until someone could come out tomorrow to repair the unit. This obviously was not possible otherwise we would have left the first night. After relentless disputing back and forth they finally found a service that would come out that evening. The repairman showed up around 10:30 to do a quick fix and would be back tomorrow to make the proper repairs. I explained this to the housekeeper and she said that she would be busy and could not come over to unlock the door for the technician. She insinuated that I stick around and wait for him. I was shocked at the suggestion. They all seemed to fail to realize that we are paying to be here and it is our family vacation! She then suggested leaving the door unlocked. Again, not a solution to the problem. Our vacation nightmare has come to an end after 4 very stressful nights. Not only were we inconvenienced but we had to impose on our friends familly vacation as well. Once we arrived home, I e-mailed the owners. I explained to them that our vacation was a nightmare due to the experiences in the house. We experienced discomfort and embarrassment at their expense. I reminded them that I held up my end of the agreement on everything and even left the house in better condition than upon my arrival. They not once called or e-mailed us to follow-up on the issues that occured in their house. Their response was that my photos were exaggerated, my inconvenience was minimal, some photos were of areas that are not part of the guest area (the closet in the downstairs bedroom), they had to pay a "substantially increased call-out fee" for the AC repairman and that our 6+ hrs outside waiting on the AC to be repaired was not a damper on our vacation. We feel that their approach to the situations was unprofessional and exhausting for us. Not once did they offer compensation for our troubles. I paid $854 (which included a $250 deposit) to be miserable and have my family separated during our annual FAMILY vacation. I have photos, phone & e-mail records, invoice for the AC repair with time and date stamp, and other evidence documented by friends. |
| Geographic Category |
United States
United States > Georgia |
| Keywords |
Hightower House Hiawassee Ga |
| Date |
Jul 26, 2009 |
| Reported By |
Martin Savarese |
| Email |
send email to Martin Savarese
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