- Report: #1062905
Complaint Review: National Park Reservations - Internet
Reported By:
National Park Reservations- buyer beware -
Luray, Virginia,
Submitted:
Updated:
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Author Not Confirmed
Why?
National Park Reservations
Internet, USA
Phone:
855-260-1738
Web:
http://www.nationalparkreservations.com
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Business Rating:
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National Park Reservations & Lion Crow Cabins Let the buyer beware. Very disappointing, Shenandoah National Park, Luray VA
Other than for advertising purposes, National Park Reservations, Inc. (NPR) does not appear to be interested in the condition of the properties they represent. Customer satisfaction does not appear to be their priority, even though NPR charges the vacationer 10% of the total reservation fee just to make the reservation. The service I received from NPR could have been satisfactory with minimal effort on their part. From NPR, I rented a vacation home for a week’s stay in June 2013 near Shenandoah National Park. National Parks Reservations is a private company. They are not an authorized concessionaire of any National Park nor are they in any way affiliated with the National Park Service of the Federal Government. They make reservations on behalf of their “customers” around the United States National Parks. NPR is only a middleman between the vacationer and the property owner, like LionCrowCabins.com.
To start with in addition to providing the property address, NPR could improve their service by providing the vacationer with a phone number for the on-site property manager. NPR told me the address they gave me was for the rental office and someone would be there when we arrived. With the help of a GSP, I found the “rental office”; it was a personal residence and the only one there was a big angry dog. After knocking on several other doors in rural mountain Virginia, and stopping a car in the road to ask for assistance, one of the local residents called the property manager to let him know we were looking for him. If I had a phone number, my first impression of the property would have been much more positive.
While the property appeared very nice, it has some construction flaws. For example, in order to turn on the main light in master bed room, a total of three different switches have to be on. It took several days before I figured this out. Light switches are minor compared to flooding. When it rains, and it rains often in Virginia, the property can flood, and it flooded during our stay. After discovering an inch of water throughout the down stairs master bedroom and bath, we called the property manager. “I know what the problem is” were his first words after being told. If the property manager knew the property could flood when it rains, the property should never have been offered for rent until the problem was fixed.
After we got back home, we called NPR to complain about the flooding and our dissatisfaction with their service. NPR said they would investigate our accusations and get back in touch with us. Only the property manager from Lion Crow Cabins called us. No one from NPR has contacted us regarding our stay, despite the fact that we had a contract with them and paid them a fee.
There are many other vacation rental property that are much nicer and much closer to Shenandoah National Park. If you rent from National Park Reservations, Inc. or Lion Crow Cabins, beware; you might be very disappointed.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
LionCrowCabins
Luray,Virginia,
NPR & LionCrowCabins
#2REBUTTAL Owner of company
Thu, June 12, 2014
I am the owner of LionCrowCabins.com, and though we do not personally own any of the properties on our site, we do market, reserve, manage and take care of them in general.
When there is ever a problem with any property we advise the owner immediately and if it were a problem that could not be taken care of in time for our next guest, we would certainly move them to a cabin of their choice, regardless of cost, offer a refund for the inconvenience. We would do whatever would have made them happy.
I would first like to apologize to you for all the trouble you went through with the cabin and especially NPR as our problems with NPR speak volumes about their company.
I would like to address the cabin troubles first. Mainly the downstairs flooding issue. Please be assured that we believed that problem had been taken care of as you even stated that my husband clearly said that. It is true. It had happened not only once, but twice before. We refused to rent that cabin until the problem was fixed by a licensed professional, as this was a foundation and water proofing issue. We were sent a notice from the water proofing company and a copy of a receipt from the owner that clearly stated the problem had been resolved.
We experienced no other problems until the guest/ writer of this report was the unfortunate guest that experienced a torrential down pouring of rain, and the obviously failure of the water proofing repair. Since this occurrence, the entire house has been dug out down to the footings where it was more than obvious the foundation had far bigger problems than just the failure of one repair. Now the entire foundation, down to the footings has either been repaired and a few blocks replaced entirely. Then a properly installed drain tile, water proofing material rolled on all concrete and water proofing thick black membrane placed over that. It was then back filled and re landscaped. We have had a lot of rain and no further problems.
You are also correct about the light switches in that cabin. I just cannot figure out what this electrician was thinking. It is very frustrating to this day and again, I apologize.
As far as NPR is concerned, in the 3 years we dealt with them there have been problems. They are in Montana; we are in Luray, Va. They have about 20 employees with a large number of employee turnovers and very little training it would seem. In the beginning, they would not give us the email address for the reserving guest. This caused such a problem that we stopped doing business with them, as ALL of our guest must get an email 'Conformation of Reservation' from us that states their dates, rates and that their credit card was approved and the approval number and MOST IMPORTANTLY, the EXACT address to the cabin they have rented. There has never been an office that any guest must check -in at. EVERY confirmation from us states: The following directions will lead you right to _ (cabin name) __ you do not need to “check-in” or pick up a key. The cabin will be unlocked and a key left inside for you. The Directions also tell you where we live in case you need us for anything at all.
The email the guest gets from NPR only had the 10% they charged the guest and our home address. We do work from home and 10 of our 12 cabins are within 1 mile of us. So we are available 24/7 for any reason whatsoever for all of our guest. Also, at the bottom of every reservation confirmation we send are our 4 local telephone numbers including a local, toll free and 2 cell phone numbers.
While 98% of people did read and follow the directions in the reservation confirmation we send, there have been occasions where the guest either did not receive our email or thought it wasn't necessary. I sincerely apologize for the confusion this caused you. I also agree that NPR should have some kind of refund/cancellation policy. They charge 10% of every rental all over the United States and they also charge us 10%. In addition to that, their monthly billing to us has never been correct. Needless to say, we no longer do business with NPR for some time now.
Again, I apologize for the negative experience you had and if there is any way I can make it up to you, please let me know.
