Dorothy Perelman and Carl Farona are the people behind Private Lodgings. They are each long time Cleveland residents and have encyclopedic knowledge of real estate in Cleveland. They manage the rental of our furnished Cleveland home when we are away during part of each year. Consistently they find us people who take meticulous care of our property, pay the rent on time and honor our house rules. Unlike more corporate property managers, Dorothy and Carl take a personal interest in finding the right guests for us. They could almost be considered match-makers! We are delighted with their personal touch which creates a high level of professionalism within their company. read more

The worst experience we ever have had dealing with an owner's agent. We saw an ad for a nice house in Cleveland Heights for $2,500 per month and inquired. Dorothy from Private Lodgings showed us the house and repeatedly told us the rent was "the same as the last tenant, $1,500 per month". She said the owner wanted more than a 12 month lease, but would check if he would accept a year. We thought "great deal for a nice place." When we went to sign the lease the rent turned out to be $2,500. We figured Dorothy is a little more than just flaky, so she just made a mistake. Any, the lease would be for 9 months, not 12. We should have taken notice we were dealing with incompetence and fled at that point. We signed anyway, got the keys and moved in. We called Dorothy to ask about the time frame for completion of work on the master bath shower stall and to see whether anything could be done about the standing water on the patio (it does not drain properly). She went crazy, calling us aggressive, complainers, etc. Two hours later we got an email from the owner of house stating that he would not rent to us. Later in a phone call he said repeatedly that Private Lodgings screwed up badly and he would have to deal with them. The end result is we relied on Private Lodgings authority as agent for the owner, signed a lease, paid the first month's rent, made a considerable security deposit payment and moved all our possessions in to the house. A day later we had to rent a moving truck, find a hotel to stay in and storage place to hold our possessions. We are out thousands of dollars because of their absolute incompetence. Run, don't walk, away from these losers. read more

I have been working with Dorothy Perelman and Private Lodgings for over a decade. Dorothy goes beyond normal good service, she provides great service and truly cares. Many tenants are new to living on their own or have moved from distant locations. Dorothy not only searches out the best locations for their living arrangements, but also often helps them to learn the neighborhoods and helps with identifying good shopping, restaurants etc. I have never had an experience where Dorothy has not put others first. Highly recommended! read more

Dorothy Perelman from Private Lodgings has managed the rental of our single family home in University Heights for over 10 years. She has been no less than outstanding in every single way! She, and her business partner Carl, have provided the following services for us: advertising and showing the property, screening and securing tenants, overseeing standard maintenance of the home (e.g., minor repairs, painting, carpet replacement), and overseeing major repairs of the home (e.g., roof repairs due to ice storm damage), among other things. Dorothy has strong relationships with local contractors which results in her being able to secure fair rates from honest companies. Moreover, she seamlessly handles everything from start to end of the process, which has been extremely helpful for us given that we live out of state. She is conscientious and reliable in everything that she does. Moreover, she is a kind and generous person who takes personal pride in providing good service and maintaining our home. She is easy to reach via phone or email and is always willing to help in any way she can. She maintains ongoing contact with our tenants in a proactive way to insure they are satisfied with the property and to address any issues quickly. While she has managed our home, we've had two wonderful long-term tenants, and I credit Dorothy's careful screening process and hands on approach to finding good tenants for the limited turnover. We would highly recommend Dorothy and her company Private Lodgings to anyone who is looking for a property management company in the Cleveland area. She's absolutely wonderful to work with! read more

WORST LANDLORD EVER! I don t know how anyone could give this woman a good review unless they are one of the potheads that rents from her. My roommates and I had one terrible experience after another with Dorothy until she had no choice but to let us out of the lease. She came into our house without notice, when I complained about people smoking pot she told me it wasn t a big deal, and she was very difficult to get a hold of. One month, she accused my roommate of not paying her rent. She told her that if she didn t get her portion of the rent, we were all going to be evicted that day, so my roommate left work and drove over to write her a second check. Later that day, Dorothy tried to cash BOTH of my roommate s checks! When we confronted her, she told us that she was just going to keep the second check for the next month... When we first moved in, the guys who lived there before us still had a lot of their stuff there, so even though we paid the security deposit and first month s rent, we couldn t technically move everything in until a month later. I felt uncomfortable knowing that at any time those guys could just come into the house that first month. The house was never professionally cleaned before we moved in even though the lease said it would be. I never got back my security deposit from her even though I have an email saved from her saying I could have it back. STAY AWAY FROM THIS WOMAN. SHE IS CRAZY!!! I've never had any issues with my past three landlords. I sincerely think that Dorothy has to be on drugs or just have some mental issues because she constantly lies and breaks her end of the lease. If you want a landlord who lies to you, tries to steal your money, and comes into your house without any warning at all times of the day/night, go right on ahead. If not, try Montlack Realty. They are amazing! read more

Dorothy Perelman, of Private Lodgings, managed our single family home in South Euclid for 6 years. Being out of state owners, we depended on Dorothy and her business partner, Carl, to interface with our tenant whenever necessary and to facilitate maintenance projects, both large and small. From the very beginning, and throughout our entire history with Private Lodgings, Dorothy took a personal interest in making sure our beloved home was cared for and kept in excellent condition. We trusted Dorothy as our authorized agent when it came to dealings with the city and in getting the best bids on any work that needed to be done on our property. She and Carl were always easy to get in touch with and readily available to take care of things for us. Before we sold the house in March of 2015, they took on the task of coordinating all the renovation work that needed to be done in order to list the property and were our intermediaries with the real estate agent. We couldn't have done it without Dorothy and Carl! In my experience, Dorothy's integrity, honesty, professionalism and solid work ethic are without question. She cares about her clients... property owners and renters alike. If we were ever to have rental property in the Cleveland area again, we wouldn't hesitate to hire Private Lodgings to care and manage them for us again. read more

My husband and I have been tenants in three different properties managed by Private Lodgings/Dorothy and Carl. We have been very pleased with each property and have always elected to stay with their management company when we've moved because of their friendly and efficient service. We've lived in both a house and two apartments under their management and each was clean, freshly painted, and ready to move into when we were told it would be. If a maintenance issue has arisen, both Dorothy and Carl respond quickly and appropriately and help always comes ASAO. Communication is easy; both managers are available by email, text, or phone and I've never waited more than a few hours for a response - often the response is within minutes! And they always let us know with enough lead-time if routine maintenance will be performed (i.e. the exterminator, etc). I have recommended Private Lodgings/Dorothy and Carl to friends and colleagues as well. read more