I contacted Rich Waller at McDonald Real Estate Professionals here to help line up a place to stay…read morefor a family vacation in the Adirondacks. The area is beautiful, and we had a great trip, notwithstanding the accomodations. Rich assured me that the house would be in perfect condition for our visit. We agreed to pay more than we wanted based upon this committment.
The house we rented was on Forbidden Forest, which is just north of the town of Bolton Landing. It sits on a hill overlooking Lake George, and even had a large teepee, which the boys loved. However, when we showed up, the house was a disaster. It was obvious that the house had not been cleaned. There were dishes throughout the house, the carpet was dirty, the towels were dirty, etc. The worst part (so we thought) was that my wife found two sets of dirty mens underwear, one on the night stand and the other in the restroom. We took a deep breath, cleaned the house, and decided we would not let this affect our vacation. That night, when we got into bed we found crumbs in the sheets. So we now stay up for another two hours washing the bed linens. Not a deal killer yet, but extremely underwhelming.
Next day, we come home after a full day of picking apples and bike riding. Again, I emphasize that the area is beautiful, and a great place to have a family vacation. The power to the television and computers is down. We called the house caretaker, he is very responsive, comes over and figures out the electrical switching and we are back in business. But we are scratching our heads at paying nearly $400 per night for a dirty house which is having electrical problems.
Next day, we do an epic hike up Cascade Mountain, have a great time touring the Olympic village of Lake Placid, and return absolutely exhausted. To a house with no hot water. We call the caretaker, who comes over and tries to fix the hot water heater. He thinks he has it fixed, but it immediately goes down again and will not restart. At this point, my wife is livid. We are all exhausted, covered in sweat and grime, and freezing from a very cold shower. Did I mention that we are paying nearly $400 per night for a dirty house with faulty electrical and now no hot water?
I call Rich Waller the next morning to discuss these issues. I also call the caretaker. The caretaker is very apologetic, tells us the furnace and hot water heater are desparately in need of cleaning, and the owner has workers out at the house the entire next day (the day we planned on relaxing around the house). Rich apologizes and says he will get with the owner to "try to work something out". We're leaving the next morning, and we do not hear back from Rich. So I drop the keys off at McDonald Real Estate's office and try to reach Rich again. No luck. We try later in the day when we get to NYC. No luck. I'm trying to confirm they received the keys (no one was at the office when we dropped them off), and to see if he has spoken with the owner.
We fly back home the next day, I finally reach Rich in the afternoon and he states that the owner is willing to knock $50/day off the rate, and won't budge. They send a refund check, and won't discuss further. In fact, they accuse us of making this up. Notwithstanding that the caretaker has been out to the house three times and witnessed all of this. As I mentioned, the area is beautiful, great place for a family vacation, and we encountered many friendly, beautiful people. However, the response from McDonald Real Estate and Rich Waller left much to be desired, and I would not recommend staying at the house on Forbidden Forest unless you can confirm that the house has been cleaned and that the utilities are in good working order.
