My husband booked the Premier Queen Suite #12 for a Labor Day weekend getaway. I'm 7 months pregnant and the trip was meant to be a babymoon of sorts with our 5 year old Shepherd/Retriever mix. He booked the suite because we planned on bringing food and using the kitchen to keep our costs down, by avoiding eating out more than we needed to. He also liked that it advertised a direct view of the lake.
The positives - The view is spectacular, the cottage we ended up with (I think it was one of the Deluxe Queen Cottages) was super clean, the beds were new and very supportive & the kitchenette at least allowed us to store the food we brought and eat breakfast during our whole stay. Although the view of the lake was not a direct one, we still had a partial view that was enjoyable in the mornings over coffee & breakfast. Even though we ended up eating out for lunch and dinner, the area is relatively inexpensive. As we're from MA, we're used to paying a lot more for meals out.
The negatives - Immediately upon arriving to the property (after 4+ hours on the road) we were told that the reservation we booked a month earlier was not pet friendly. This was particularly frustrating as the description via the online booking system states "Pet Friendly" for the Premier Queen and I even called the week the reservation was made to confirm this was accurate and was told we were good to go, to just bring our own blankets (which we were happy to do). I don't want to get into all the specifics of the communication that took place between myself and the owners, as it wasn't a very pleasant exchange for me - especially after being on the road so long and being a first time customer here. Bottom line, I was stressed out and anxious that we were going to be turned away because of a mistake that was not ours in the first place. I understand sometimes people are caught on an off day, I've worked in customer service & sales for over a decade myself and know it can be particularly trying during holiday weekends...therefore, I'm willing to give Kirk & Clover the benefit of the doubt in this instance. However, instead of getting what we originally booked we were switched into one of the other cabins that are "Pet Friendly". I can't really tell now if there was a price difference between the suite we originally booked and the cabin we ended up with. From what I can see on the site (looking at future bookings) if there was a price difference at all it looks as though it was around $10-20/night. Kirk & Clover were also kind enough to waive the $25 pet fee as far as I can tell on our receipt. However, it does lead us to believe that we ended up paying for something we didn't really get and without knowing better at his point we just have to cut our losses.
I think my advice going forward would be to try your best to communicate in a kind manner to your guests, especially first timers. I'm sure we aren't the only ones traveling a great distance to stay in this area and to have somewhat of an unpleasant initial impression just starts a trip off on the wrong foot. I'm glad everything worked out and we were able to be accommodated, along with our dog but I know we did everything we could have done beforehand to avoid the misunderstanding in the first place. Perhaps having the same "Policies & Restrictions" literature on all rooms isn't the best way to go for the online booking, as it confuses guests on which rooms are indeed "Pet Friendly". I'd also suggest to those booking with the intent on bringing a pet to call ahead and have whomever you're speaking with pull up your specific reservation and confirm all the necessary details...although I think we did this to the best of our ability, perhaps we could have been more detailed ourselves. Overall, we had a good stay, we both love the area and hope to come back again soon.
