Roughing It

On our walk one day we were taking about hosting and how much we enjoy it. Besides the meeting new people and earning some money a fun part are the reviews that come in. Joan manages both of mom's Gulf Shores condos, Diane has 3 airbnbs, 2 here and one in Gulf Shores, I have 2 here, Rachel has a bunch here plus 1 in Gulf Shores and even some of my children now have airbnbs. Sometimes on the walk we have to read the reviews to each other. They can be great, not so great, funny and sometimes really funny. In church we heard of a family that took their entire family on a vacation and rented 'cabins' for everyone. Well these cabins turned out to be trailers. Below is the email they sent the owner once back. 

Good morning Now that we're home I thought it would be helpful to give you a recap, just for your records.

 

Wednesday -

Son arrived first, found a dead mouse in the garbage can at Cabin 4.  There was no liner in the can, and he couldn't find any spare liners at all in the cabin.  They seemed to be in short supply in all the cabins.  

Daughter and family moved into Cabin 3.  The left bedroom smelled strongly of dead mouse, they assume from the floor vent.  She found mouse droppings in all the bathrooms and spiderwebs everywhere.   They decided to not use that bedroom at all, and bumped some kids to the sofa bed.  When they opened the sofa bed it was obvious the sheets had been slept on.  No spare sheets in the house, so she pulled the bedroom sheets for the sofa, and they closed off that room because of the smell.  She cleaned the cobwebs and bathrooms herself.  

(It appeared this cabin had been cleaned since last occupant but had not been used or checked all winter)

 

Thursday -

Daughter in Law was wakened by a mouse in her bed (Cabin 5).  (I was not told about this till we were about to leave because of my major mouse phobia but later found out the mouse actually ran across her face).   When packing for a picnic we realized some of the chips, bread, and snacks had been sampled.  Bought mouse traps.  Also bought toilet paper because there were no extra rolls in two of the cabins, and dish cloths because there was only 1 provided.    

This is also the night when kids started throwing up, which added dirty laundry to our problems.   No extra sheets, blankets, or towels for cleanup were available in any cabin.  Side note - Cabin 4 bedroom appears to have someone else's clothes and a mouse nest in a dresser drawer.  

 

Friday - That morning we caught the bedroom mouse plus one on the kitchen counter in #5, and one in the cupboard in #4.    Your staff dropped off sheets, towels and comforters, but in the wrong sizes and types (nothing but big fitted sheets, no flat sheets, we had asked for twin), kitchen towels vs. bath towels.  Limped along with what we had.  More people getting sick as the day went on so we really didn't care anymore.

 

Saturday - Packed up, left our piles of dirty bedding and we apologize for the extra work for the cleaning staff.   

 

In spite of all that, we really managed to have a good time.  The cabins were a great fit for our families, the beds were good, we liked having the whole area to ourselves.   I would suggest more spare linens and blankets in all cabins, and more kitchen towels.   Because we had so many get sick at the same time, (18 out of 23 of us) I would suggest getting the water tested.  Cabin 5 needs a can opener. 

I don't plan to leave an online review of any kind - I'm sure you understand.   Hope this is helpful.

 

 Well sounds to me like everyone that went on this trip will remember it forever and will have fun telling their children and grandchildren about how life was in the good old days of 2024. Talk about roughing it!