Never in my family’s 30+ years of owning, renting and vacationing in Door County have we ever experienced such blatant swindling by a property owner.
Due to recent water damage to our North Bay home, we thought we were fortunate to find availability and stay at Carriag Mor for the week. The property is in a good location in downtown Baileys Harbor and has a beautiful backyard. The home is in good condition, despite the worn wooden floors and outdated appliances. As advertised, we were allowed to have small children and pets during our stay.
We received detailed instructions from the home owner on how to properly use the home throughout our stay, as well as instructions on how to prep the house upon our departure.
We spent the week at Carraig Mor with another couple, a toddler and two medium sized dogs. It was a very enjoyable week with friends and family.
When the week came to an end, it was bittersweet as we prepared the house for next week’s visitors. All departure instructions were followed and we all left the property on time. We were instructed that a cleaning service is provided, in addition to our cleanup, to prepare the house for other renters.
To our shock and disappointment, we were immediately notified that our security deposit would not be returned due to clean up of dog hair - only dog hair as damages nothing else. Specifically siting 22 man hours worth of cleaning during “tough times” as the damages rationale.
This news was disheartening especially since we cleaned the house before departing and paid a steep daily rate in dog fees, AND a cleaning fee, AND a linens fee.
If there was an issue with the property having dog hair, it should have not been advertised as dog friendly, and they should not have taken our money for the daily dog fees and the money from the security deposit.
We enjoyed our stay at the cottage, but knowing what we know now about the property owner’s customer service and lack of transparency, we will never stay at this property or any other of their properties again.
