Mainecabin.net

Bitter disappointment-​inaccessible
My friend and I selected this vacation rental so that our dogs could run freely in the woods and we could be away from it all. We live in NY, and the pace is fast for 51 weeks of the year. Unfortunately, we were unable to leave for the cabin on the planned date, as one of my dogs became critically ill and passed away. After losing my soul mate, I really needed the promised tranquility. So, we decided to drive up a few days into the rental period. My friend and I have vacationed in this area for the past 5 years, and we are familiar with the unpaved access roads to some camps. The proprietor of property #136 619 assured us that we could get to his cabin in the car (we gave him year and model) that we told him we were going to drive. This proprietor really misled us. He could negotiate the icy, hilly, private road, but we were totally unable to do it. He said that we had to be going 20 mph to get over the hills but, «I know you. You will only go 16 mph, and you will be sliding back to the bottom of the hill.» Indeed, this happened 3 times, with the car bumping into the snow & ice barriers on the sides of the road. We decided we could not stay. The proprietor gave back ¼ of the rental price, and he did that very threateningly: «get in the car and I will give it to you, he said. Take (amount) or nothing. Your choice.» This rental property was truly beautifully situated. It is a very compact, simple home, but its location is serene and sunny. I so wished we’d have been able to stay, but we City Girls just don’t enjoy this kind of struggle. Not only was the road icy, but the area around the house was, too. It was unsafe for two senior women, and it would have been unsafe for my deceased, blind dog, had he been there. I think this proprietor needs to figure out what he can do to more appropriately advertise his property, be reasonable as far as determining the road negotiability by people without a 4-​wheel drive vehicle, and curb his temper when he is asked to refund money for a rental that did not come to fruition due to his misrepresentation of the access road as safe. It was safe for him, but, it was not for us. I am so sad, and I am so disappointed. I really needed this vacation to have been peaceful and restorative, but it was pure h*ll.

«BEWARE!!: Dishonest owner! «
The worst part of this experience was that the road was simply not passable by my car. I had told the owner exactly what kind of car I had and its condition. It turned out that the road has two steep hills which were completely iced over for most of the ½ mile to the cabin. This is a completely private road. Getting down the hill was a trial, but I was able to accomplish that, tho I needed help moving the car when I got to the cabin, which was completely iced over in front of the cabin. Of course I careened from snowbank to snowbank on the sides of the road. But getting UP the hill was impossible for me. The owner gave me detailed instructions (make sure you go no less than 20mph going up the hill) which turned out to be only usable by a person experienced in driving up that hill. Worst of all, when I asked the owner to put down more sand, he refused. He had spread sand on the road the way you would sprinkle salt on a steak. Definitely not enough for anything! The cabin itself is basically a shack, measuring about 250 square feet in total indoor living space. There was a working telephone, but no cell service at all. However, it was surrounded by extremely slippery ice. We could have stayed in the cabin, but the problem with the road and the extremely nasty attitude of the owner made us afraid we would be stranded. And even though the owner was able to drive the car up the hill, my car bottomed out several times and it was probably responsible for the transmission fluid leak I found shortly after leaving there, requiring emergency repair on my car. Going down the hills, my car careened from snowbank to snowbank as well. Then, when we were leaving, after spending only 1 hour there, Mr. Peterson refused to refund more than a small amount of the total rental payment, which we had already paid him before seeing the road or the cabin. He was very nasty and basically did nothing to help us at all. In short, don’t rent this place, mostly because the owner is a ripoff. It seemed that he had had this problem before and is experienced at ripping people off.