<i>&quot;ask if she was going to make me pay the $50 cancellation fee and she claims she has no choice, it's the banks charge&quot;</i>

What a liar! I can respect their (the lodge) claim of a cancellation charge but to blame it on the bank? Ask who their bank (that micromanages their business) is; I'm sure they'll not answer.

I don't believe her either, especially when she now claims she told me about the $50 cancellation fee before I booked (she ABSOLUTELY did not, I would have waited if I had known that).

I just posted an account on Tripadvisor, but it doesn't show up yet. Does anyone know how long it takes before they post a review?

Oh, Nina.... make the call to the AG's office immediately. They absolutely cannot do that.

My comments about it being a &quot;rip-off&quot; place are even more justified with some of the additional comments. High end resorts and expensive well touted places are not exempt from ripping people off.

I can't figure out whether to praise them for their honesty in admitting they have no operating capital and must wait until someone else books, or to scorn them for being so stupid as to admit to that -- as well as to ask you if it is a financial burden for you, when clearly it IS for them.

Check out their website - seems they are in dire need of employees this summer as well.

Hi, I just wanted to update everyone. I received an email from the innkeeper telling me that she refunded my deposit today. She also mentioned in her email that she had seen my &quot;blog&quot; (her words), and asked me to please tell everyone that she refunded the deposit. I told her that of course I would let everyone know that a week after I cancelled they refunded my deposit minus the $50 cancellation fee. I assume the &quot;blog&quot; she is referring to my very factual review on Tripadvisor (or is it this post?), I have no blogs.

She also stated that she had never had anyone complain in all her 15 years about the refund policy and that she thought my &quot;blog&quot; was very unkind and damaging (?). My response was that Tripadvisor welcomes responses from innkeepers, and that if she thought I wrote anything untrue or innaccurate, that she should respond on Tripadvisor.

Actually, I hope some of you check out my review on Tripadvisor and let me know if you think it was unkind and damaging, because I'm not seeing it. I will say that it is 100% accurate and truthful.

Maybe someone emailed this thread to them?

Your complain about the slow/late refund is valid, but the $50 fee is not. Unless I misunderstand something. Many of such rentals do charge a fee for cancellation, and you need to read the conditions before booking it.

I read your review on TripAdvisor and definitely did not have a problem with it. If I was thinking about staying there, I know I would think twice after reading your remarks. And that's a good thing...

If, when making the reservation, you &quot;agree&quot; to a $50 cancellation fee, well, you have no gripe about that.

As for the delay in crediting your account, it may be unreasonable (to you), but by the time you're finished spending all that time and effort &quot;notifying&quot; anyone/everyone you can think of, you'll probably already have received your credit, minus the $50 cancellation fee.

To everyone: whenever you book lodging at any &quot;seasonal&quot; place, for sure there will be strict cancellation policies, which, in my observation, are always very clearing explained all through the booking process.

It is not the least bit unusual for any vendor on the planet to declare that you may not see a credit to your account for one or two &quot;billing cycles&quot;.

That may be true, djkbooks, and I suppose if I were nina, normally I wouldn't be concerned about it, but I'd sure be wary of a place that actually told me the REASON they couldn't refund right away was because they had no &quot;money in the machine&quot; and they needed to wait for another deposit to come in for them to have any to return. That just sounds like very poor business practice to me. Can you imagine taking a dress back to a store and having them say they can't refund your money -- you'll have to wait until they sell another one?

First of all, I have no gripe with paying a cancellation fee, I know that some inns have them and wouldn't ever question it, IF I hadn't specifically asked prior to giving my credit card number what their cancellation policy was.

The reason I asked about the policy is because I wasn't 100% sure whether we could go that particular date. What I was told when I asked was that I had to cancel 60 days prior to the reservation, no mention of a cancellation fee was made. No problem, I knew that I would know in a few weeks, plenty of time before the 60 day window. Had she told me that there was also a $50 cancellation fee, I would have just waited a few weeks until I was positive of my dates.

At any rate, I know now that I should have rummaged around the website looking for the small print about the cancellation fee rather than trusting that when I specifically asked about the policy that I would have gotten a complete answer.

djk wrote &quot;To everyone: whenever you book lodging at any &quot;seasonal&quot; place, for sure there will be strict cancellation policies, which, in my observation, are always very clearing explained all through the booking process&quot; That is why I asked the question.

Obviously the strict cancellation policies WERE NOT clearly explained. I had to ask about the policy, and then when I did, the innkeeper ommitted the details about the cancellation fee and the fact that refunds could take months.

I hope that in the future, the Lodge does explain these policies clearly to guests prior to booking, it would eliminate a lot of misunderstanding.

&quot;I'd sure be wary of a place that actually told me the REASON they couldn't refund right away was because they had no &quot;money in the machine&quot; and they needed to wait for another deposit to come in for them to have any to return&quot;.

Exactly. The fact that I was told that they didn't have the money to refund made me very nervous that I might not actually get a refund. I can't imagine returning something to a store and being told they can't refund my money yet because they don't have it right now! Who in their right mind would give the item back and walk away without their refund or even a confirmation of a refund? Did I mention that when I cancelled they didn't even email a confirmation or give me a confirmation number?

Nina, small privately owned hotels and inns have stricter cancellation policies and fees. The hotel I worked at a couple of years ago had a two week cancellation policy.

Saying that, she's a nutbag. I can't believe she had the nerve to hang on to your money and then ask you how bad you needed the money.

I'd follow this through with the AG's office.

Thanks, GoT -- I've been looking for new word to utilize in some of my more irritated correspondence and &quot;nutbag&quot; really does the trick. :D

Tee hee, nutbag, good thing I didn't say it.

Anyway, I guess I'm not making myself clear. I have stayed at small inns many, many times (although Goose Cove isn't THAT small, it accomodates 80)and am aware that they have stricter cancellation policies than big hotels, that is why prior to booking I specifically asked about the cancellation policy.

What I was told was, I had to cancel 60 days prior to my reservation. The innkeeper never mentioned the $50 fee.

I cancelled approximately 120 days prior to my reservation.

Oh well, I have a feeling that she'll never forget to mention the cancellation fee again!

&quot;Oh well, I have a feeling that she'll never forget to mention the cancellation fee again!&quot;

Why on earth wouldn't she? Let's face it she made $50 she wouldn't have made otherwise and she is perfectly within her rights. When a place is operating on such a shoestring that they don't have deposit money on hand to make refunds, each of those $50 could come in pretty handy.

I received a gracious email from the innkeeper explaining the procedure a little better (apparently this is the thread she was referring to as the blog), and also saying that she will rethink how she handles the explanation of the refund policy.

I do think she will remember to remind people of the cancellation fee and I'm even willing to give the lodge a try in the future, it does look like my kind of lodging, I hope that I get to experience it sometime, of course I won't be reserving until I'm absolutely sure that I'll be able to go!