Gorgeous Saratoga Lake House with Dock

Unfortunately, the guest failed to properly follow proper booking procedure and failed to follow house rules regarding pets. The listing is clear regarding pets which requires prior arrangements and owner approval. We are very pet friendly and welcome your pets. However, proper screening is necessary. They had 2 unregistered dogs that were allowed to run free and entered onto a neighbor’s property. The neighbor’s friendly Golden Retriever is not a barker except maybe if a strange dog enters its property which may have occurred in this situation. We attempted to resolve the situation in an amicable manner but the guest did not want to pay the fee for their dogs. The property is meticulously maintained and updated on a regular basis. The listing states all the terms and the property offers everything in the listing and more. This guest is merely lashing out as a result of having to pay the regular pet fee. We look forward to having you as one of our many guests.

Thank you James. Would love to see you again. Enjoy your summer.

Our top priority is for our guests to have an enjoyable and pleasant stay. We offer one of the most beautiful private properties on Saratoga lake. Regrettably, this guest failed to comply with the house rules limiting the number of occupants to 8 which was made clear prior to him booking the property. The occupancy limit is clearly stated in the headline description in the listing, in the property description and the rental agreement included in the listing. This could not be any clearer. He was seeking to obtain free housing for 5 people. While he claims there were 10, the actual count was 13. The guest was contacted and it was explained that the house can only accommodate 8 people due to the number of beds, quantity of linens and dinnerware, dining capacity, overall seating capacity, trash removal capacity. Under the agreement, his reservation could have been terminated. Every attempt was made to work with the guest to arrive at an amicable solution. An agreement was reached where the extra guests could stay for 2 days at an agreed upon per day charge. Three of the guests stayed an additional 2 days and the remainder stayed for the entire 7 days of the reservation. The guest was contacted after departure and asked how he wanted to deal with the extra charges. He has never responded. Additionally, prior to booking he inquired about having 13 people and offered to pay an additional $xxxx (email excerpt from the guest after being notified of the 8 people limit “I would be willing to offer $xxxx extra for the week to accommodate our request. If not, we would hope then to find a second place very close by for the extra 2 people to sleep for those”). In the end he was actually charged less than that. In the end he got what he originally wanted and appeared to intentionally ignore the maximum occupancy of 8 people from the beginning. Despite over occupying the premises, it is apparent that the compromises made to avoid the inconvenience of having the extra guests leave, has gone unrecognized by the guest. In response to claims regarding the property: Guest registration is a common practice. There is no exposed plumbing other than the chrome drain to the pedestal sink. All showers, baths, sinks and toilettes are Kohler products installed when the house was constructed. There has never been a doorbell. Air conditioning ran 24/7 during their stay. There is no unfinished construction on any of the stairs. There is a classic 1966 Bonneville in one of the car ports, all other vehicles are personal and located on the rear lot which is not included as part of the rental. There is an external security camera for guest and owner protection which monitors the road side entrance area. No false claims with respect to trash. The trash receptacles were removed from the curb and not returned when the guest departed. This resulted in it not being picked up by the removal service and was excessive due to the number of occupants. The amount of trash was nearly 2 times the norm. We were not aware of the dog issue and it is not clear who the dog was. However, the neighbor owns a beautiful, friendly Golden Retriever who rarely goes beyond its own property.