What a terrible experience! Vacationers Beware! There are a ton of places to stay in Middlebury or Shipshewanna - this is not it!!!
The owner is extremely cheap and the included breakfast is a hodge podge of awful casseroles. No omlets, scrambled eggs, waffles, pancakes or other items expected at a B&B. This place may be acceptable for a couple in lieu of a regular hotel but is and awful B&B and is not prepared to handle a group.
After 10 years of attending family reunions of 15-24 people, this place is a joke. The owner babysits and nickles and dimes for every scratch and marks up alchol by nearly 300% if you need to order a bottle/case. As this was a New Year's outing, he charged $550 for alchohol that retails in the store for less than $200. Please note, YOU MAY NOT BRING YOUR OWN ALCOHOL FOR CELEBRATIONS!
After emailing weeks before our visit that 14 children under the age of 4 would be onsite, he left out all collectibles and then charged over $300 for damages. Our group spent over $4,000 for 3-days - you think $300, a less than 10% discount would be wash to guarantee a return visit. In addition, we left a small box of things, he said he'll send it back but charge our credit card for shipping - what horrible business on a $4,000 weekend!
Please see the email the owner sent to the person who planned the event. Mind you, she couldn't sleep the whole time out of the stress of him hovering over every move - she went home early. Vacationers BEWARE!
"It was great to meet you and your group. It sounded like you had nice time. We enjoyed all the people in your group and it was interesting to see all the special dishes.
I know you weren't feeling really well and had some trouble sleeping. Hope you are back to normal by now.
We have a box of things that were left by your group. Most appear to be toys and decorations. What would you like us to do with these? Usually guests ask to mail things back and we just charge their credit card.
We discussed some of the broken items and damages with the people who stayed over to Tuesday. They didn't really seem to know what to do. I told them I would email you and then we could handle it from there.
Here is the list of things we have found so far:
1. Several Department 56 or Snow Baby figurines missing or broken. Value is tough to determine, because most are from collections that are retired. There are 5 specific items that Adrienne found and I would put a replacement cost of $20 each if we can find them. Total $100.
2. 3 Keys missing (2 for Log Cabin and 1 for Lonestar). Value $15
3. The piano music holder is cracked. Estimate to repair $50.
4. One jet in the Hot tub was found under the cover. The jet is broken. Value is $25 to replace. There is also a 3 inch tear in the cover. Total cover cost would be over $200 to replace. Estimate to repair would be $50. Total of item 4 is $75.
5. Rocking horse in game room leg broken. Estimate to repair is $25. (This is a family present from grandparents to our kids about 20 years ago.)
6. Remote control for the DVD player in the Gathering Room missing. Value $10.
7. The small train that was in the Gathering Room is missing 3 or 4 train cars. So, it's essentially a total loss. Estimate of $50 to replace.
So, the total of all the above is $350. As per the agreement we are to charge this to your credit card. I wanted to let you know about it, so you would know what the charge was for. I hope that the rest of your group is helpful in dividing up the damages with you.
This was a learning experience for us and we are certainly willing to talk about future visits. Thanks for all your patience and help in organizing this weekend.
John" read more