on gorgeous Great Pond (lake), great for families!

Sarah I am so glad you and your crew had such a good time. Thank you for the thoughtful review.

After last year we stopped renting to groups of 8 adults but knowing this was for a graduation, I kept this rental. The complaints started from the intro email and the fact that the house amenities were not read at the time of booking. It’s uncommon for linens to be included in camps in this part of Maine. There’s no laundry here so I can’t provide linens. She was put off by this. I explain in a 15min video about the cottage how to work things, what is and isn’t provided, what to pack, etc. That includes the fact that we leave condiments for our guests and if there’s any booze left over it’s for the next renter should they want it. It’s one shelf of the door of the fridge with condiments. Also my children have food allergies so there’s certain frozen things I keep in the freezer that can’t make the trip home. It was 1 frozen pizza, a pint of ice cream, and a loaf of bread. It is our cabin, and yes my hairbrush sits face down in a metal bin not just hanging out in the counter. I provide shampoo, conditioner and body wash in the shower and the razor has a cover on it. The tooth brushes that were out were 100% unused. There were complaints the fan was on. We had been there and it was 94° the day we cleaned and left. I didn’t want it to be stuffy for my renter so I left the fan going all week to help. I asked multiple times for pictures of the cleanliness complaints and they were never shared. I did try to get my cleaning lady to come but it was prom night for her daughter, otherwise she would have. This is why I offered a full refund, because I couldn’t get a cleaning person at 5pm on a Friday night and I am 3 hours away. My sister and I cleaned, she’s a neat freak, I know what renters expect, and just based on the tone from earlier in the week when the welcome email went out, my spidey senses went off. I had even installed a new shower head for them that has a removable wand, knowing it was a special occasion and they would be getting fancy for graduation and need shaved legs which is harder in our stand up shower. Even Sunday night I got messages about how to work the TV even though it’s in the video or they could have logged in with their own accounts. I’ve previously rented out our cape house for 5 years and this cabin 1 year and I’ve only ever had one other renter like this in all that time. I now have phone discussions with all my renters before they go and the ones I’ve had so far are completely ok with the things this renter had issues with.

Ariel thank you so much for your thorough review, it is super helpful. I was just up this past weekend and installed blackout honeycomb shades in both upstairs bedrooms. We are going to replace the downstairs mattress cover and add a thick pad. Dad and my teenager never complained so I didn't realize. Unfortunately the linen thing (which is in the listing, but might not be obvious) is hard without having a washer dryer up there. Our cleaning ladies already spend a few hours so to add linens on every bed or the outdoor furniture would be too tight for our turnarounds. I wish I had known it was an issue for you because upstairs I have an emergency stash of linens. I'll add some more to the stash next time I'm up. I also filled up all 4 water bottles when we were up this past weekend. I don't know why the electrical seemed possessed when you were here but it was fine for us this past Thu - Sat, didn't have to reset the filter at all. That can really depend on the lake conditions, same with bugs and when they hatch, we had none all weekend and that window that our handyman fixed was sealed solid. Thank you again for staying and for helping me improve our cabin accomodations!