This was actually my first time staying at the Serengeti home at Pine Lake. I've stayed at a different home on the property before, but not this one. We booked this cabin to celebrate my birthday, so I was really looking forward to a relaxing weekend. Unfortunately, it turned out to be quite stressful instead.
The house itself is gorgeous, no complaints there. But the condition it was in when we arrived was rough. The mattress cover in the master bedroom had pumpkin seeds in it, and the sheets throughout the rest of the house just didn't look clean either, so we ended up washing every single sheet and mattress cover ourselves. We also didn't have enough towels. There are 4 bathrooms in the home, and we were only given 4 washcloths for 5 guests who checked in the first night, with 4 more guests arriving the next day. The towels we did have were still wet, some with what looked like mold on them, and some of the washcloths in the master bathroom drawer had long straight black hair on them too.
On top of that, we ran into a bunch of maintenance problems the whole time we were there. We had no water pressure Thursday evening, so we couldn't even wash dishes after dinner. We later found out this was because the well was low, which was also why the washing machine wouldn't drain properly. The water pressure issue was resolved by Friday morning. The dryer needed several cycles just to dry a small load. There were ants coming out near the stove. Blinds were missing in one of the bedrooms. The shower in the master bathroom backed up while we were showering. There was long straight black hair on the bathroom floor that wasn't ours. Then Saturday night the oven died in the middle of cooking dinner, so we couldn't bake the potatoes or the Brussels sprouts we'd already prepped. We ended up wasting both food and money without a fully working kitchen. By checkout Sunday, the dishwasher wasn't working either.
Housekeeping did step up and refunded our cleaning fee, which I appreciated. But the front office response wasn't great. Someone dropped off a few towels and some chocolates the next day, which didn't really address anything. When I called, they told me I had already been given 5% back. I've yet to actually receive that, but honestly I think we deserve so much more than that. It was disappointing, and it didn't feel like they took accountability for everything we went through.
I'm only writing this review now after calling management multiple times asking for a callback with a resolution. Each time, I'm told someone will call me back, but no one ever has. I want to be clear I was never rude on any of those calls, just trying to get someone to follow up.
Serengeti could be a really great property, it just needs some real attention before it's booked out again. I'd hold off renting it until management gets these issues sorted.