It was my hope that the issues that we had during our stay at Paradise Hills Resort and Winery could be resolved amicably but due to the unprofessional, passive-aggressive responses that we have received in response to our valid concerns it no longer appears that this will be possible.
My family rented the Serenity cabin for a planned 5 days over the Thanksgiving holiday. When my mother arrived at the cabin on Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, she found that the refrigerator was non-functioning. The staff was able to secure an ice-box and ice for use to use in the interim but was unable to send a repairman due to the holiday. At some point during the early morning (roughly 5AM), it began to work again. At no point was a repairman sent out to check the fridge despite that a maintenance light remained on for the duration of our stay, which was reported to the office when we were finally able to reach someone. The freezer remained broken the whole time.
My partner and I arrived the morning of Thanksgiving after having driven eight and a half hours to make the trip from Northern Virginia. Immediately upon arriving, we noted that the toilet in the downstairs bathroom, next to the rooms we were staying, was broken. Using some twine (that we brought with us) and some creative uses of knots, we were able to replace the broken chain in order to have a temporarily functioning toilet. Again, due to the holiday, there was no repairman available, nor were the offices open to report the issue. Still, at this point we were determined to make the best of our trip and settled in for the night. As we were getting ready for bed, while we were at the top of the stairs we noticed the overwhelming smell of gas coming from the downstairs (we were later notified by the propane company that this was due to the propane tank being extremely close to empty). We attempted to ventilate the space as best as we could before going to bed. We awoke at 3AM the following morning due to frigid temperatures downstairs and upon investigation found that we had run out of propane in the middle of the night, meaning that there was now no heat downstairs nor was there a functional stove/oven or fireplace. Again, we attempted to contact the office and were unable to reach someone. Finally, at roughly 10AM we were able to get a response by physically going to the offices. After several hours, it was found that no propane had been ordered for the cabin for the month. The propane company was fortunately able to come out to fill the tank that same day. We then had to wait even longer someone to come out to do all of the pilot lights. When all was said and done, this had taken the entirety of Friday. Had it been earlier in the day, we would have left right then, but as it had begun to get dark we opted to leave as soon as the sun came up the next morning.
At no point, did anyone from the offices come by the cabin, it was us, the people renting supposedly on a vacation, that had to wait around for various repairmen to come fix issues that should have been discovered and resolved prior to our arrival. This isn't even getting too much into the various amenities that were marketed as available but not actually as described.
Overall, this trip was not a good experience - which is a shame because we had really been hoping for it to be. The cabin itself was lovely and had any of these issues not happened we would have enjoyed our stay. But as it is now, I could not, in good faith, recommend Paradise Hills Resort and Winery to anyone. By the end of our shortened trip, I had no faith that major issues would be resolved in a timely manner and without snark from the people we were paying a not small amount of money to rent from. The place was beautiful but not worth the headache that came with it. read more