August 2026 - "Treehouse of Disappointment"
Celebrating 17 years of marriage, chose to spend $291 to book the treehouse - loved the pics, reviews were good, both of us were looking forward to the quaint and cool campground vibe. What should have been a fun and unique experience, instead was a huge disappointment.
Throughout our time on the property we used the "text this number if you have any issues" which the booking instructed us to do... more on that later.
Arrived at the property at around 4:15. Trouble began immediately, as it took 3 different door codes and ten minutes going back and forth via text to get through the front door.
Once inside we explored a little, unpacked the cooler into the mini fridge, and were excited for our special night. Next issue began when I noticed on top of the microwave was a restaurant style tub with dirty dishes in it: all covered in food. Ew. Texted the number, woman came to treehouse to pick up the dirty dishes - while she was on the way I opened bottle of champagne and grabbed a glass off of the shelf of "clean dishes". This glass was covered stem to stern in fingerprints. When housekeeper arrived, she apologized and began to take the tray away. My wife asked her if the bed sheets were clean, considering the dirty dishes, and pointing out as well a bunch of fingerprints all over the sliding glass door... (our overall faith in the cleanliness of the treehouse was certainly in question) She said she hadn't been the one to clean this unit but they were for sure clean. Ok.
In the time it took for the housekeeper to arrive I said, smiling to my wife, we should just watch some tv... just reset the experience and not let the shortcomings so far ruin our anniversary.
Tried to connect to Netflix, but the WiFi for the tv was at 1 bar and would try to open Netflix then time out and fail. Hmm.
The housekeeper when asked about this said the treehouse had "extenders and you might need to connect to the Pineola WiFi" then gave us the password. Fine fine I'll do that - I reset the internet on the tv, connected to the proper WiFi network and STILL - 1 bar that was as good as zero. No local tv channels or streaming would be working apparently either.
At this point we had experienced problems entering the unit, 2 different failings with unclean dishes, dirty glass door, and no access to WiFi - in the span of 40 minutes.
Also, the loft to the bed area has a ladder that does not connect up top in certain places and rests on a carpet on the floor that could certainly slide - this is a disaster in the making for some poor guest so please be careful if you decide to stay on the treehouse.
We decided to leave and go to a hotel 20 minutes down the road and try to salvage our evening/anniversary . We unloaded the fridge and drove to the front office which was closing soon. The person behind the bar was nice but ultimately not in charge of anything on the property- she contacted the property manager and informed him we were having issues. The property manager is the ONE good thing that this property has going for it - (Terry, ty for trying, I wish you had an owner with faith in your decision making...)
Running out of room in this review - to conclude, that evening Terry over the phone said this was not the normal experience, and we'd be receiving a full $291 refund (which was all we wanted) and he went one step further and offered us a free night at a later date: Wow! We felt heard and looked forward to giving the Pineola another try, The owner however - (via text always)- at first said no refunds, then refunded $100 and after 2.5 weeks of me calling every three days to say this was not sufficient (as Terry had promised us a full refund which ultimately made our decision to leave the one we chose to make) offered us a 191 dollar credit to stay again at the property. We hope the owner has a change of heart, and backs up his property manager: ultimately cannot see us giving this place another try...considering cleanliness and customer service are not priorities.
Will be posting on every possible review site in the hopes to get the owners attention - similar reviews found on Facebook- not just us seeing this treehouse for a false advertisement of unique and cool stay. read more