Emerald Oasis home managed by Mill Pond Realty Review 3 night stay Thurs July 24 - Sun July 27 Nice home, but be warned -- the A/C system is not fully functional. If you're visiting during warmer weather and don't want to sleep in indoor temperatures in the 80s, this house isn't for you. Thurs: We contacted Mill Ponds, the home's management company, as soon as we checked in at 4:15pm telling them it was 82 in the house. They sent Damon, who was very nice, with one box fan to the house. He plugged it in and it didn't work. He said he would see if there were any other in their office but there weren't. The management office told me that evening they contacted the home's owner & explained the A/C issue. They said the owner said they placed an order for a window A/C unit and it would be delivered the next day, Friday. We thought OK, we have no choice, we have to sleep in this heat, but at least it's just for one night. It was so miserable sleeping. Fri: The management company sent an HVAC worker to the house to check out the system. He didn't know exactly why it was so hot as it seemed to be working ok, but he felt one of the reasons was because there were not enough vents for the size of the house. After back and forth that day with the management company in regards to at least getting the promised window AC unit, we learned the AC unit would not arrive until after our check out. I can't tell you for sure if this was because the home's owner lied to them or if it was the management company didn't actually contact them. Needless to say, we never received it. We had to sleep in this temperature again. Saturday: Melanie from Mill Ponds called and said she can't imagine how uncomfortable we were and would let us check out that night and not charge us if we wanted, but I told her we wouldn't have anywhere to go, which I imagine she knew since she told us it was the busiest weekend of the year in Saugatuck. I told her we would deal this last night but that I would expect compensation and she agreed. We slept in the 80s for the 3rd night. She ended up refunding us $390 for 8 people. We received $48.75/person for what I described above. She was going to let us check out Saturday evening and refund us the full night of $1000 plus give us some sort of compensation for the other 2 nights and instead gave us this. On the unit listing page, it does show air conditioning in the unit twice, once under amenities and once under property features. We would have never booked a home in Michigan, especially in July that did not have appropriate air conditioning. I do want to say that the management company was communicative, but that doesn't change the fact that we were miserable and so uncomfortable in the home for 3 days/nights. I do also want to say we were very kind and patient throughout the weekend in our communication with them, which Melanie also told us they appreciated. Would not recommend this home in the warm weather or Mill Ponds Realty. They really gave us the run around for 3 straight days. read more

Sunsational was a great location...easy walk to downtown. However, upon arrival the air conditioning was not operating properly. The upstairs was very uncomfortable for the family staying up there. While they responded quickly it took them 4 days to get it working properly which we found unacceptable. Also, my husband had a very long career in HVAC industry, but their team member was not interested in his input as to the issue, which turned out to be accurate input. Also, there was no hot water, two clogged drains and a non-working closet light upon arrival. We have gone back and forth with management and they have refused any form of compensation for the inconveniences. read more

This is a follow up to a stay we had in June. First off if mill pond realty handles numerous vacation rentals and seem to be very well organized my first question is why do they also need to use Airbnb to rent some of their properties. Secondly the Airbnb description doesn't match mill pond realty's of what is and isn't included at the property which led to confusion and disappointment on our part. It seems that if the rental property includes a very nice pool that in all cases pool towels should be included especially if the pool is a feature that justifies a higher rent. We were told when inquiring that there is no grill provided due to fire regulations even though all the other units had grills. We were then told that the fire regulations are different for owners than rental units. It turns out that we know an owner in the same complex that rents his unit out exclusively and he has a grill and told us that the only fire regulations is that the grill must be 10 feet from the building. Next time we will be renting from this owner. We were told that there was no salt pepper or oil due to sanitation issues but the Airbnb description stated that there was these things so again confusion between Airbnb and mill pond realty as to what is and isn't included. Yes I was upset during our stay because this property was different than every other Airbnb I have stayed in and there have been many. Mill pond realty wrote a very negative review that I was rude and demanding. All other Airbnb reviews about me are very positive. My behavior was not good because we encountered so many issues during our very brief 4 day stay with my wife and granddaughters that I was constantly calling their office asking for help with our issues. The unit itself was very nice and I said so. All the more reason why the issues clouded our stay were very unfortunate. They won't rent to me again nor I from them! I felt the need to post this review weeks after our visit. It left a bad feeling for me. read more

Loved dealing with Mill Pond Realty for our trip to Douglas, MI. 10/10!! Professional, helpful, and seamless transactions.

We used these folks for a vacation rental. They were great to work with, responsive, communicative. They take great care of the property and everything was clean and as advertised. We will work with them again. read more

We are at a time where many small businesses and even non-profits are making extreme decisions that sacrifice their financial well being for the actual health and well being of their customers. Unfortunately, Mill Pond Realty is not one of those businesses. Just an FYI, they are not making any concessions or changes to their refund policy for the Coronavirus and current health crisis. This is a horrible business practice. I even offered to request a credit to be used for a future trip or to adjust the dates...no dice. Luckily Airbnb is showing much more leniency and understands the corporate responsibility of allowing travelers flexibility during this crisis. I'm only glad I booked through Airbnb to have that extra safety net since Mill Pond's direct office line proved very unhelpful(not the customer representative's fault, they are just following their company's policy). You'd think in the age of Airbnb, an independent rental company would strive to be a little more amicable to retain customers. Reading from previous reviews it's clear that even without the climate of a current pandemic, this company routinely falls short of doing the bare minimum for their customers. Listen to the negative reviews, they are completely accurate about this business. UPDATE: The comment below is not representative of the situation. Airbnb reached out to your company for a refund but told me you've decided to uphold your cancellation policy. Airbnb said due to your response I now have to follow an extenuating circumstance. I've posted my correspondence with Airbnb to show what my communication with them has been. I'm still trying to follow my extenuating circumstance claim but since the shelter in place order is only through April 13th I'm not sure it will go through. read more

Mill Pond Realty - Property Management Near Me - Saugatuck, Michigan

I read Mill Pond's Yelp reviews after my second time renting a property through them. I suggest you read them. You can't submit a review on their website, only on a paper form you give them. Note that the Testimonials on their site don't mention any complaints. I gave two stars because we first stayed at Art Coast Cottage in 2018 and things went well. As with this time, we only needed a place to sleep and shower as we spent all day at a relative's house a very short distance away. Their house just doesn't have enough bedrooms/baths for everyone. We made one pot of coffee and never needed to do anything else. We rented Tuck's Treasure this past December 2021 for the same purpose. This time we needed beds and showers for 3 families. Again, all our waking time was spent at a relative's home about a mile away. We were here to spend Christmas with 25 family members: all traveling from out of state and one family from Australia. My husband and I were the first of our group to drop off our suitcases. At that first glance, the house appeared tidy, lights were on, and Christmas music played on the TV. We returned with one of our daughter's family to get them settled and set up for their toddler. My daughter looked at their bed and found a fair amount of black dog hair. We checked the bed in the room we had chosen and found the same along with a long strand of human hair. A third bedroom revealed more dog hair. We didn't check the remaining 3 bedrooms, but my daughter checked the kitchen counters. There was dog hair by the dish cloth and on the counter next to the fridge. We knew this was a pet friendly rental; my daughter had a Shih tsu/Maltese with them, (a non-shedding breed), but expected that the home would be thoroughly cleaned after each renter. My daughter was upset and after much consolidating of the available rooms at our relatives', was able to cram her family into one of the bedrooms there. I texted Mill Pond at their non- emergency number at 4:53, along with a video of the hair on the 3 beds. I asked that they bring clean sheets, make sure all the beds were hair free, and reclean the kitchen counters. After a bit, at 5:04, I called their after-hours emergency number which went to voicemail. At 5:22, I received a text saying they had received my message. At 5:36 a text said that a member of their team would go and "take care of those items" and text me when they were done. I asked that they call me and they texted they didn't have cell phone reception. For an emergency number? Makes no sense. We returned when they finished, now with our other daughter and her family. Dog hair still on one of the re cleaned beds and on another that our granddaughter was going to use. My sister-in-law gave us sheets to put on top of their dog haired ones. When I texted that there was still dog hair, they replied that they had bleached all surfaces and rewashed the sheets. They said the issue was due to the blankets, which are not washed between guests, and not because of the sheets. Thing is the blankets weren't on the first two beds we saw. They were laying on chairs in the bedrooms. We ended up not using the blankets though they said they lint rolled and vacuumed them when they came back. The texting and running back and forth, took the entire evening away from rare time with family. After several texts and one call after our stay, they refunded only the pet fee (my daughter's family that had the dog never stayed) and half of the cleaning fee. Makes no sense. They cleaned twice and it still wasn't right. They stopped communication after they reached this resolution. I don't think my think my request for a full refund of the cleaning fee was unreasonable, at the VERY least. Very stressful and disappointing experience. read more

If I could give zero stars I would. So incredibly disappointed!!! I go every year with a group of ladies now for over 25 years. We decided to try a this new property management company. We rented Tuck's Treasure. First day in the AC broke down in the back half of the house on the 2 large masters. They sent someone out, he said AC needed to be replaced. It was beyond 93 degrees. The 2 couples in these rooms couldn't sleep because it was so hot and humid. They were displaced to the frontroom couches and in children's bunk beds. After much complaining and following up we were offered 10% refund (for 1/4 loss of use of the house for 4 days and 3 nights). Totally unreasonable. 2 couples split 170 dollars for 3 nights of not being able to sleep in their rooms. I travel a lot and this is the WORST experience I've had. Their answer to us was that the contract we signed didn't added for refunds for the AC breaking down. Wow! What about just plain human decency? read more

Needed a winter rental with pets. found a house that was pet friendly. They took our $70 for credit Report before verifying with house owner that pet was ok. a waste of time and money. They knew the owner wouldn't allow it, but led us on to believe she would. They are scammers and rude read more

BEWARE of this company - you will be SCAMMED. We stayed at their Douglas Lincoln Landing house for a weekend. We were told by multiple people that we would be granted garage access as parking was limited and a hail storm was brewing. Unfortunately this was not the case and the company decided to not respond. All in all, this was not a big deal and we had a great time. However, after our stay we were informed that the company had made completely FALSE allegations against us and requested additional funds for "damaged property." I spoke to one of their reps who said she knew we would give them a bad review and were upset that we were rude and likely drinking. We are a family of physicians all 30+ years old with our 60+ year old parents and kids (ages 3 and under)...clearly the rowdy type that has nothing better to do than destroy property. The house was left absolutely spotless. The company decided to send a "special (ie different)" investigator to inspect damages and made up a whole host of ridiculous accusations. Fortunately we were saved because we booked through a third party intermediary that dismissed the ludicrous charges. In conclusion, DO NOT BOOK at Mill Pond. And if you do, absolutely document / take a picture of everything in the house or they will try to nickel and dime you for every little thing they can possible find. I had read other reviews that were similar to this after our experience and wish I had known earlier. BEWARE and look elsewhere if you can. read more

I do not recommend renting from this group, we had a horrible customer service experience. We had planned a girls weekend away in Saugatuck and when we found bugs in our bed, crawling on the comforter, in the sheets and on the pillows, we had killed the bugs and called the management (who left us feeling like they didn't believe us). Management came and said they washed the sheets & pillow cases & comforters, but when we returned the bugs were still on the beds & in the sheets-learning from the first time- we saved some of the bugs to show management, we put them under some cups (gross!) and left our lodging at 1030pm as management was not returning our calls and left us without a choice but to find another place to stay. They refused to accommodate us elsewhere or refund us for that night's stay. When we finally got a hold of them the next day, they accused us of lying and told us we just didn't like the place and we were looking for other accommodations at their expense. Really? Yes, we wanted to find new lodging at 1030pm on our first night. PS. When we were calling around hotels to stay that night, one of the hotels told us this was not the first call they've received late in the evening from patrons of Mill Pond Realty. I really encourage you NOT to stay here - the 2 managers we dealt with were LESS than professional. (If you were a rental management company, wouldn't you want to know if one of your rentals had bed bugs??) read more

I am surprised to read so many negative reviews of Mill Pond Realty. We booked through them for our July 2021 Saugatuk vacation. Every interaction with the office was helpful, friendly, and professional...no matter who I was speaking with. The house was as pictured and clean. We were delighted to have so much yard space for outdoor games, a private access to the beach at Silver Lake, a cozy fire pit along a wooded path, and a short 2 mile drive to downtown Saugatuk. We did find the deck and deck furniture to be in need of a good cleaning...so we took care of that ourselves. Originally I was worried that we would have very few properties to choose from as we got a late start due to the pandemic. Mill Pond listened carefully to what we were looking for and sent multiple properties for us to look through. We were very happy with the house (Silverberry Acres). It was a great vacation! read more

BEWARE. Three weeks before our August vacation, we were suddenly informed by Mill Pond that the property had been sold and was therefor "unable to be occupied" which entitles them to cancel our agreement. This is a bogus reading of the agreement and a shady business practice. Given how close we are to our summer travel dates, there are almost no rentals available - certainly no comparable properties. Do not trust this company. read more

I must give Laura Durham and her staff the highest compliment anybody can give. Laura is the utmost professional, available 24/7. I could never even think to provide business to anybody else in town. From the beginning to the end of a sale, including managing property and emergencies, Laura is a class act. This company follows through on everything and you will not be disappointed. Whether you need your property managed or sold or if you are looking to purchase a property you should use this firm. read more

We booked a second time - different property. Then my mother had to have emergency gall bladder surgery and was in the hospital for 5 days which included our weekend. DO NOT BOOK UNLESS YOU ARE CERTAIN THAT NO EMERGENCIES WILL COME UP. THEY WILL NOT ACCOMMODATE YOU. We asked if we could rebook at a slow time for them. NO. All we got back was our cleaning fee. They could not have cared less about the situation. read more

Had many issues with this rental facility. We accidentally damaged a piece of property that was improperly (and dangerously) placed in the house. We immediately called the office to discuss the issue. No one returned the call for more than a week, after we had left the vacation home. They were unwilling to take any fault for the damaged property and even when we agreed to pay for the damaged material, they did not follow-up with a phone call, email or invoice for more than a month and then blamed me for the lack of communication (though they obviously had my email and phone number on file). Very unprofessional, very slow in response and very unsatisfying. Would not recommend. read more

Dear Mill Pond Reality. I read the comments from other renters who have rented in the past and I agree with their comments. Mill Pond Reality was very professional and very helpful when I was making the reservations for our family reunion - first one in over five years. Unfortunately, when we arrived, the house was in terrible shape, very dirty and we were very disappointed that we had paid $5,884,50 for the week. When we checked into the house, the musty smell was so strong that we had to open all the windows. Unfortunately, we were not able to open all of them because the storm windows were still on. The ones we were able to open were very dirty, dead bugs, cobwebs. We went to the store to buy air fresheners and candles. The house did not smell fresh until the next day. Also, when we walked into the house the wood floors were so dirty that our feet were black from walking from the kitchen to the living room. We called the main office and spoke to Melanie. She was great and called a house cleaner who showed up to clean the floors within a couple of hours. When we went to sit on the back porch we saw a lot of spider webs, to the point where when we walked to the back door, our faces were covered with webs. We took the water hose and cleaned it free of webs before we went to bed. We then realized that the screens were very dirty and we cleaned those as well. The cushions for the chairs were so dirty; we did not feel that they were worth cleaning, so we did not use them. After having a disappointing first day, when we went to bed, the bed sheets on all the beds were musty smelling and dirty. Before going to bed, we all washed our sheets and then realized the bath towels were the same, so we washed those as well. Also, many of the light bulbs were burnt out and made a note to buy more the next day. When we woke up the first morning, we had to clean the coffee pot and realized that there were no coffee filters to make coffee. Icemaker was broken, but we fixed it. Counter tops were dusty and dirty. On the second night we planned to make fajitas on the grill. When we opened the hood, the grill was filthy dirty, so we cleaned it. When it was time to grill, we realized that there was no propane in the tank. Again we called Melanie and she sent someone over right away with a new tank of gas. Thank you Melanie. The house was big enough to accommodate 5 couples and we knew that we could not park on the street. Unfortunately, on Thursday, the owner of the house came to the rental property and told us that the neighbors had complained about our cars parked on the street and also complained that we had set up a tent on the grounds. The tent was a hammock, not a tent. Also, the cars parked on the street were cars owned by the bed and breakfast people. We did not appreciate the owner coming to the house, knocking on the door and then walking into the house. Overall, I would probably recommend renting from Mill Pond Reality again, but would highly not recommend renting the Four Seasons house. The house was very filthy dirty and a big disappointment for the amount of money spent for the week. I would also like to thank Melanie for helping us out with the concerns we had with the house. read more

We used Mill Pond Realty for our mini-moon in November. We wanted to go some place that would be close to my parents, Grand Rapids, from where we lived in Chicago and Saugatuck seemed like a great spot. We wanted a place that was sleepy yet also fun. The town didn't disappoint. Mill Pond was good to work with however, I booked our spot in probably August thinking we were all set. About 3 weeks before my wedding, I was told the space that I booked was no longer available but that they would upgrade us to a house (from a two bedroom apartment), which was great. However, the television didn't work in either the living room nor the bedroom which normally wouldn't bother me but it was November in Saugatuck and all we wanted to do was veg out. For the price and the time of year, we were pleased with our time. Thanks! read more

Professional, prompt and extremely knowledgeable. Laura is a great resource for all things local. As out-of-state clients we felt totally comfortable and confident in her care. Highly recommend Mill Pond and Laura. Thank you for making our transaction a seamlessly pleasant experience. read more

338 Park Street in Saugatuck. Harding House. Recommend you avoid this rental from Mill Pond. Fridge kinda works. Air conditioning sort of works. Hot tub broke a few weeks before we arrived. Washer and dryer, 2 sets, both with signs "do not use, will ruin your clothes." Towel bars falling off walls. Ants. Coffee maker slow as molasses. Dishwasher doesn't wash dishes. Called Millpond re fridge. Handyman came out, open and closed fridge said he'd be back and we never saw him again. Road outside house very busy. Do NOT walk to Oval Beach--dangerous. Must pay to drive car to Oval Beach, $10 per day or $50 per season. Worth it as Beach is marvelous. Bottom line--lots of money to pay for a vacation house that is falling apart. read more

Worst and most dishonest management company in Michigan. We saw other not so great reviews but they had reponded professionally to some on other websites so we thought it was worth a try to go through them for our vacation rental. Huge mistake, we should have listened to the other reviewers. They ruined our summer and charged us extra money they were not upfront about. When confronted they did not seem to care at all. I would not recommend using them to rent, manage or sell you home. Unprofessional, poor customer service from all the employees we dealt with including Laura and Melanie. They will use everything they can in the small print to rip you off... basically they will lie, steal, and cheat to make a buck. Like another reviewer said, if I could give them 0 stars, I would! read more

Well, where to begin. Upon arrival at LAKE BREEZE cottage (3019 Lake Shore Drive, Douglas, Mi), we immediately took a walk to the lake. Ha. Make that, we tried to and walked over 110 steps down to the last few stairs which were dangling. Yes, I said DANGLING! They were not attached and hung at a precarious 45 degree angle from the sea wall. Bravely, we inched our way back up to stable ground and phoned the management company (Mill Pond Realty) who assured us they had no prior knowledge of this problem. Great. Now what..? We have people coming expecting a vacation on the beach, which by the way, was my criteria when booking the site via Mill Pond Realty. We were assured the handy man would be sent right away, but in the meantime, we could use stair access from another property the owners had four houses away. We later found those stairs crawling with poison ivy. Not what we want a two-year old, a three-year old, or anyone, walking through for that matter. Speaking of poison ivy, if you happen to stay at Lake Breeze, don't go outside. Poison ivy abounds, up to 4' tall along the drive, but amazingly again, no one ever reported it. Sounds like this company needs an inspector on staff?? I don't recall reimbursement for my time reporting issues included in the rental agreement. Very musty/mildewy smell overshadowed a spacious and well supplied property. Unfortunately, the negatives mentioned cannot be excused when booking a costly rental. Waiting to hear from Mill Pond regarding reparations. Will update but, based on other reviews, I'm sure I'll never hear from them. By the way, why are so many ONE STAR reviews hidden, Yelp? read more

We recently rented vacation property at Mill Pond Realty. I was not happy with their sense of fairness. First night at the property there was a fire in the house. We had to evacuate around 10:00 pm. After awhile, the firemen advised us against staying in the house. We went back in and repacked our luggage. Packed up our food and paper products and left. Needless to say we were tired. There were 7of us on a long awaited vacation. We were moved to a smaller house. We spoke with Mill Pond Realty regarding our experience which threw a damper and delayed our vacation plans. They offered no compensation. Only after much discussion did they offer us 5 coupons for $10.00 each. There were 7 of us. Not a good experience. We will not use Mill Pond Realty again and I advise you not to either.* * * read more

This place is awful. Do not count on them helping you out doing a rental. They agreed to meet with me in south haven for my rental then the day before I called to confirm they said they couldn't do that anymore. I had to go to saugatuck. So I go to saugatuck the place wasn't ready I go back 3 hours later they had to check and finally it was ready. But here is the kicker the keys were at the rental property all 6 keys. The only thing they gave me was propaganda nothing useful what so ever. Do not use these people they are terrible if I could give them less then one star I would. TERRIBLE read more

Stayed at the Captain's Quarters at Back Bay. Definitely not worth the money we spent. There is a very musty, mildewy odor throughout the cabin that they try to cover up with fragrance. But, for a family with asthma & allergies...not good! My guess is that there is some water damage or possible mold. read more

I would never recommend working with Laura Durham as a realtor. If you are selling with her she will avoid communication with the buyers at all costs, even if that means losing the sale. She is devious in her business practices and avoids sharing pertinent information during a sale. Spending $300K+ on buying a home is not the same as buying a junker car that someone is trying to offload, especially when you are going in blind. We will never rent from her, buy from her or sell with her. read more

They were very nice and professional and even called after we checked in to make sure the rental was as expected and that we had gotten settled in. I don't have any complaints at all. read more

Horrible customer service. Owner thinks she is a queen. They rip everyone off. Do not rent or buy from them. Extremely out dated and very cheap products in the rental I stayed at. Laura Durham or whatever her name is (owner) is one of the rudest people i have ever met. She thinks she rules the world. Her daughter is just like her. DO NOT rent from them. WAY over priced for what you get. SUPER OUT DATED. They don't deserve business. I've heard multiple things about them and it's always negative. I would rate zero stars but that's not an option. read more

We purchased a property in Saugatuck from Mill Pond. It wasn't until we received our first property tax bill that we discovered there were two special assessments on the property from the village that amounted to over $4000. These costs are divided into about 20 payments ( one every year) and added to the tax bill. To add insult to injury, these assessments have an interest rate of 6%. The assessments certainly should have been disclosed by Mill Pond, but weren't, leaving us with thousands more to pay than we anticipated, and years of extra costs. If I could rate them zero stars I would. read more

WARNING!!! STAY AWAY!!! If I could give them a minus rating I would. My family and I rented Poolside in late August. When my son in law checked in we were given a sticky note saying they had just found out the hot tub did not work. The standing water and the parts in the bottom of the hot tub were rusty, that tells me the hot tub had not been working for some time. When I called on Monday they gave me a $200 refund. I paid $257 a night so I did not feel that was sufficient but they would not give me more. The pool house had a terrible smell and the a/c machine was dirty and noisey. The only a/c in the house comes from inadequate window units. There were cobwebs all through the house, they we're especially bad on the front porch and laundry room. The sleeper sofa had steel rods sticking up, so we considered it unsafe. And don't plan on any peace and quiet, you can hear the highway noise 24/7. The bathrooms were clean and nice. The pool was clean and nice. Other than the sleeper sofa the furnishings were decent. The people I spoke to at Mill Pond were always short and rude, they did not return calls like they told me they would. Once they have your money they don't care about you. As for my refund I received it on September 21, only after I called to find out where it was. STAY AWAY FROM MILL POND REALITY and POOLSIDE read more

We rented a condo with Mill Pond Realty. It listed Wi-Fi and sleeps 6. There was no Wi-Fi. We called Mill Pond a couple of times with no response. After the last call, they sent a relative of the owner. He told us the Wi-Fi should feed off of his two floors above. It never did. The sleeper sofa was broken and could only be used if the mattress was on the floor. We were disappointed in their service. read more

I rented a property from Mill Pond Realty and it was DISGUSTING!!! When we got to the property, it was filthy! There was food stuck to the refrigerator inside, the toilet was stained, and the hot water didn't last more than 4 minutes. They never supplied us trash bins, so animals got into the bags at night time and created a HUGE mess I had to clean up twice because of it. The owner Laura Durham was very rude, never fixed any issue we had, and was VERY unprofessional. I know numerous people who have rented from her and her company, and have never had a good experience. DONT RENT WITH MILL POND!!! read more

i made an offer on a piece of real estate this company had listed. The broker refused to present the office to the seller. I'm in the process of filing a formal complaint with MAR. They are very nasty and difficult to deal with there are many other realty firms in the area who specialize in making a home purchase a special time vs. misery. read more

Horrible vacation office. Unprofessional, cold, and inexperienced staff. All what they care about is payment. I was left alone with 4 kids, including an infant in the street for 6 hours. Staff including supposed manager promised to clean the vacation rental property sooner, however they lied and finally gave me a key that I had to try for over 10 minutes until finally I was able to open the door with my 10 months old on my other hand. Owner is no place to be found. Does not return calls !!!! Horrible experience. Would not recommend and would not reuse read more

7/26/2014 Thank you for your comments, Mary. We have a cleaning service go in before your arrival and that cleaning service is followed up by an inspector. I have gone over all of the issues you mentioned with both the cleaners and the inspector to ensure they will not be missed again. When we learned of the issues the day after your arrival, we immediately offered to send a cleaner, lawn service, and handyman. It is important that all of our vacation rental homes reflect the high standards we expect when we go on vacation. We take your comments very seriously and agree this home does not reflect Mill Pond Realty standards. We have asked this property to leave our program and will be more meticulous going forward. Thank you for this opportunity to improve our cleaners/inspectors, our properties, and most importantly, our business. UM, YOU STILL HAVEN'T RESPONDED TO MY SISTER REGARDING THEIR STAY DURING THE 4TH OF JULY WEEK LIKE YOU SAID YOU WERE. ALSO, RYAN'S RETREAT WAS IN YOUR POSSESSION WHEN YOU TOLD US YOU HAD AN "INSPECTOR" GO THROUGH TO MAKE SURE THE PLACE WAS CLEANED. YOU AND THE INSPECTOR OUGHT TO BE FIRED! read more

We rented a house on Oosterhout Lake and had a TERRIBLE experience with this company. We arrived at the house and discovered that the description was NOT accurate. The dock that was ours was covered by weeds and so rotten I would not use it. It was also only about 2 - 3 feet long. There was a note stating that we could use the neighbors dock instead. This was not what I had planned, but ok, we made the best of the situation. The note also said that while there was a TV, there was no cable or satellite so it could only be used with DVD's. So, no TV either. Thank goodness our baby was only 5 months old as I can't imagine staying a week with small children and no TV (it rained several days!) The first night we were there I tried to make dinner in the oven. The whole house started to smell of gas so I immediately turned it off and contacted the emergency number where no one answered so I left a message explaining the situation and to call me back. I figured that this sounded like a gas leak and thought they would be concerned. Boy was I wrong! No call back on Sunday so Monday I called the office to inform them. Their response to a potential GAS LEAK was "and what would you like us to do about it?" SERIOUSLY?????? This is the response to a potential gas leak?????? I asked if someone could come out to take a look at the oven as the food I had bought needed to be cooked in the oven. She said she would inform the appropriate "department." We never heard anything from them again. Needless to say, we chose not to use the oven again! The water smelled terrible...honestly the worst I've ever smelled...like sewer water. The dumpster was disgusting. There was so much garbage AROUND the dumpster that you HAD to step on the rotting garbage to put your trash inside. It stunk and there were flies all around it. We overheard one of the other tenants (permanent resident instead of vacation rental) that they had called many times about the garbage and other problems but no one does anything about it. They were threatening not to pay rent. We also talked to the next door neighbor who said they heard the same things from other vacation renters about the property we rented (about the misrepresentation of the property.) We sent the company a survey that said how dissatisfied we were and never received a call or email back. Terrible customer service. We will never use this company again. We ended up leaving early from the property. read more

Never again!!! As you can see, they did get one good review back in 2014, and I wish I had read their reviews before I booked with them. The house had no WiFi / internet connection of its own when we got there since they were trying to run it off the mill pond realty office right next door to save money. As it turned out, the Mill Pond owner owns the Driftwood rental yet tried to act like they didn't. After 3 1/2 days of constantly calling them and going to their office to see if any progress was being made, they finally broke down and had new internet service set up thru Comcast. They were so unprofessional, and shady and although they said they would call me with updates, they never once called me back. At one point, they told me they don't " guarantee the amenities". Seriously????? What if the A/C went out? It's 2016, who can live without the internet? There are plenty of other rental companies out there, use someone else if you want to stay in Saugatuck. I'd give them no stars if that was possible. read more

We really had a terrible experience with them. The house we rented was only air conditioned in the back of the house, not the front. The weather was 100+degrees. In addition, the floor of the house was very dirty and I don't think had been cleaned in a long time. We had 5 children with us all under the age of 4 and their feet was black after the first day from running around the house only. They never informed us of the lack of air conditioning in the front of the house and when I called to complain, their response was to holler at me and ask me why I checked in on Saturday and was just calling on Monday that they ask we call immediately. And, then the response well what do you want us to do about it? I asked for fans to cool the house down which they did bring these over. I also asked they clean the floors to which they sent someone over the following evening. We ended up packing up and leaving. The disrespect we were treated with was amazing and it was a disappointment to all. I would high recommend against renting from them. read more

We rented "Old Scotch" for the week of 07/07/12 through 07/14/12. The cottage was advertised as having portable fans as it did not have air conditioning. There was 1 fan in each of the 4 upstairs bedrooms. However there were NO FANS ON THE FIRST FLOOR AND THE WINDOWS (that weren't painted shut) HAD NO SCREENS ON THEM! The 5th bedroom/media room on the first floor had no fan, the window wouldn't open and even if it did there was no screen. Also, there were no window coverings on the bathroom windows. There was a privacy film on the window in the shower upstairs but it was partially scratched off. We called Mill Pond immediately to report our concerns. Mill Pond said they would contact the owner and call us back. They called back to report that a special screen was ordered for the 5th bedroom/media room but had not yet arrived. They didn't have an answer regarding our other concerns. After searching the property we were able to locate some old screens in the garage. We were able to install 3 screens ourselves (1 in the kitchen, 1 in the mudroom and 1 in the downstairs bath) after finally getting the windows to open. We purchased 2 fans from Meijers that we are waiting for reimbursement on as we left them for the next renters. In addition, the floor of our house was also very dirty and our feet were also black after the first day. The mirrors had not been dusted. The "cleaning crew", and I use that term loosely, even left the laundry for us to finish (there was 1 dry load in the dryer, a wet load on top of the dryer waiting to be dried, a wet load in the washer waiting to be dried and a pile of dirty towels and bath mats to be washed and dried) and we had to clean out the perishable food and condiments left in the refrigerator. Upon check out we spoke with Esther at Mill Pond who apologized for the problems and she assured us that we would be contacted by Mill Pond regarding our concerns. I called today (08/08/12) because they never called me. I was told I would receive a reimbursement check this month for our expenses. No apology, nothing. I would not rent from Mill Pond again. read more

Rented a vacation property from this place this past weekend. The house was disgustingly filthy. The carpet was old, worn, was soiled and stained all over. There were hundreds of dead bugs in every window ledge, some windows had no blinds, the ones that did the blinds didn't work or were busted, missing several slats. The patio screen had a huge rip in it. The outdoor grill was disgusting. I scraped a bunch of burnt crud out of it, enough to fill a large paper plate. I was told that there were 2 dvd players in the house. There weren't any. The bath towels were stained and dirty. The tv worked when it wanted to. The HDMI cable had a short in it. The furnance did not work right. The outside table & chairs were extremely dirty, sticky. The listing states the furniture was new but it looked and felt like it was from the 1980's (maybe older). The place smelled moldy, mildewy. My mother, who is on oxygen, could stay only one night. We contacted the office and they promised to take care of the situation but never did. We were told that the owners of the house do not want to put any money into it. We were offered a $200 credit for a stay at one of their properties next year which we declined. I am disputing the entire charge as the owner refuses to return my calls! I would avoid doing business with this place! read more