Home-Nest Farm must be in horrible decline. Stay away! They are so desperate for revenue that they try to dupe customers with a pathetic and misleading website. Here's my experience with this vacation rental property.
I clicked the "reservations" link on the home page, and my eye was immediately drawn to the 'arrival date', 'departure date', and 'choice of cottage' boxes right above the giant BOOK NOW button. So, I filled them out, entered my credit card info to pay the $200 deposit, and thought I had just secured a room in Maine for a weekend get away.
A couple of hours later, the owner emailed me back to say "Sorry you failed to inquire about availability first before making a deposit ... as required on our "reservation page" of the Web site www.homenestfarm.com (copied here). These dates have already been reserved by long term guests (staying one or more weeks, during the height of our season). We can return your deposit less the return fees charged by the card server ($25); or if you wish, we can hold your deposit until summer and notify you if we have a cancellation that would make these days available. If you wish to have $175 returned at this time, please let us know."
This is truly absurd. There is no mention of a $25 non-refundable fee for trying to make a booking deposit. And the idea that you have to email them first to check on availability before booking online is crazy. They brag about being in business for 87 years, but their user interface design was already obsolete 87 years ago!
To top it all off, I then emailed them to admit I was confused by their highly unusual web site as I "assumed it worked the way one would expect it work (and the way every other web site works!)" and their response was as follows:
"Sorry!! Our policy is, "If we are charged ... (as we are) ... you get charged." What's fairer than that? Conversely, we think it unfair that we be held responsible for your not reading our very clear instructions. Maybe we're not like "every other site," as you so haughtily exclaim with exclamation point! But what's so wrong with that? We object to being forced into the mold of others' preferences; and we are equally tired of being told to be politically correct: (which is just one reason we voted for Trump!). At 87 years old, we aren't about to change our ways for ways you young whippersnappers might prefer.
With your attitude problem, we wouldn't want your business if we did have vacancies ... (which we don't!!!). Have you ever wondered why you have a problem with us and no one else does? Most of our guests are happy return vacationers who like us, Yankee independence or not.
Please know we are sending you the $175 refund, noting $25 in no way covers the aggravation of having to deal with what some have characterized as a stereotypical NY attitude."
Classy. Given their attitude and approach to hospitality evidenced here, I genuinely fear what it must be like to be a guest at their property. read more
