Several years ago, my husband, Tony, and I were looking for a nice play to stay during Hall of Fame…read moreWeekend. I reached out to the Cooperstown Chamber of Commerce and learned about a place called A Comfort Woods Guesthouse. The cottage looked wonderful and the owner, Rick Kugler, was well regarded by the Chamber.
We enjoyed every minute of of our stay. Rick was wonderful to work with and we fell in love with the cottage. Rick said to let us know if we ever wanted to stay again and he'd be happy to have us.
Early last year, we did just that. We prepaid in full for a reservation July 27-30, 2018. Even though our stay was more than a year away, it felt good to know our lodging was taken care of.
Last October, I received an email from Rochelle Hulslander, who informed us she was the new owner. She asked me to confirm the details: that we were renting for Hall of Fame Weekend 2018, that we only were renting the smaller half, and how much we paid. I emailed back immediately.
After a month I thought it was odd I didn't hear back so I emailed again. And again. And again. No reply after four emails. Tony kept saying not to worry; Rochelle is aware of our reservation and is still getting her sea legs following the purchase.
Finally in April, with less than four months to go before our vacation, I told Tony try to get a hold of Rochelle. No response to his email. Finally Tony called and left a voicemail. No response for six days. Then finally . . . an email appeared in my inbox. To my horror, Rochelle had no intention of renting to us. She allowed her agent, Patsy Soules of Cooperstown Accommodations, to rent to someone else!
"I apologize for the delay in getting back to you but until your husband called yesterday, I didn't realize you had been emailing me as the emails were going to my spam (and I never, unfortunately, bother to check my spam folder).
When we took ownership, [Cooperstown Accommodations] took over the renting of A Comfort Woods which is why it is no longer on TripAdvisor and Booking.com. One of their policies is to rent out houses and units by the week only and not on a nightly basis. Therefore, they have rented out the house for the week that is included in HOF weekend. It is, unfortunately, not available any longer.
I apologize for the confusion but that is their policy....we do not rent it out personally since we took ownership. They handle everything in regards to renting and deposits and payments."
For months, we tried to reason with Rochelle, but it's no use. Rochelle has now changed her story and says she never received any of my emails. She now says she has no "proof" we paid or even made a reservation, even though she's the one who contacted us in the first place.
Rochelle, if you didn't lie about not getting my emails, why didn't you try to contact us again, even once? You could have said, "Hey, I'm going to rent to someone else, I need to hear from you." You admitted to my husband it never even occurred to you to do so.
I wonder if she is an exception, or if all of the owners represented by Cooperstown Accommodations are as dishonest, incompetent and uncaring as Rochelle Hulslander.
Luckily we have found alternative lodging and will do our damnedest to enjoy this vacation. But believe me, we're going to pursue the hell out of this. We've discovered there are many avenues of remedy for people in our situation. Stay tuned.