Complaints

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:06/13/2025

  Type:Billing Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I had a reservation for a cabin rental for 06/13/25 to 06/17/2025. This business required full payment by 05/30/2025. They did offer cancellation insurance, but I did not purchase it because I have never cancelled a vacation in my life, and I am 53 years old. Unfortunately, my 20 year old son had an accident at work last night, 06/12/2025. I still planned on going on the trip until we found at 11:30pm 06/12/2025 that he would need surgery on 06/13/2025. My husband called to cancel at around 7:30am on 06/13/25 because I am currently waiting for my son’s surgery. My husband requested a refund and he was denied because we did not pay for cancellation insurance. While I understand that I am not entitled to a full refund, I feel like it is horrible business practice to deny someone any money back when they can clearly re rent the property for most of the nights we were supposed to be there, as summer is the busy season for Smoky Mountain National Park.

  

  Business Response

  Date: 06/13/2025

  I am so sorry that the guest is having an issue. We certainly wish all the best to them. However, we have a policy in place for issues just like this one.
  Our policy clearly states:
  Cancellations and Early Departures
  You have the option to purchase a Reservation Guarantee. The guarantee amount is 8% of your total reservation and enables you to receive either a refund or reschedule (less the 8% guarantee amount and applicable tax). In order to receive a refund, you must cancel the reservation at least 15 days prior to arrival (for 1-5 bedroom cabins) and 60 days prior to arrival (for 6 bedroom and larger). Once inside the 15 days (for 1-5 bedrooms) and 60 days (for 6 bedroom and larger), you may still cancel the reservation. However, the paid amount (less the reservation guarantee and applicable tax) will be placed in an interest-bearing escrow account and must be applied to a new reservation which dates fall within one year from date of cancellation. Once the one year time frame has expired, all monies paid will be forfeited. In addition, please be sure to utilize the entire amount, as any portion not used is non-refundable and will be lost. Please note when booking your new reservation, you will again have the option to purchase the Reservation Guarantee; HOWEVER, the guarantee would only allow you to reschedule again should the need arise. It would not allow you to receive a refund. The Reservation Guarantee amount will be based on the new reservation total. Without the Reservation Guarantee, no refunds or reschedules will be allowed. Unfortunately, we can not offer refunds for early departures for any reason including weather and/or road conditions.

  This reservation has been in place for a month and these dates have been unable to be booked by any other guest for a month. We received notice of the guest issue at 8:30 AM on the day of arrival. Hotels have a very realistic possibility to re-rent a room on the same day. Condos and cabins are a specialty market and have a very slim chance for walk-in business.
  Had the guest purchase the reservation guarantee, we would have certainly applied it to their reservation. 

   

  Customer Answer

  Date: 06/14/2025

  
  
  Complaint: 23464072
  
  
  
  I am rejecting this response because: I feel it is good business practice to have exceptions to rules, especially as you are able to re rent the property. I have attached documents to prove the accident my son had. I would like to see at least a partial reimbursement or a credit for a future stay. Obviously, I would much rather be on vacation than tending to my son, after an accident that could have killed him. 
  
  
  
  Sincerely,
  
  
  
  **** *******

• Initial Complaint

  Date:12/31/2024

  Type:Facilities Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  We rented the Hawkeye View Cabin (2460 Hawkeye View, Sevierville) from December 21-26. We paid $1,554.70. Rental Charges: $1,095.00. Cleaning Fee: $89.00. Admin Fee: $49.00. Damage Wavier Fee: $50.00. Reservation Guarantee: $97.21. Taxes: $174.49. Reservation #: 563814 This cabin is advertised to be "dog-friendly."
  
  12/23/24, the water heater tank malfunctioned. We called the office at 11:00 AM. They informed us a plumber would come. We had to cancel already purchased plans for that day. A plumber showed up in the afternoon. He stayed for about an hour and half. He said that he would have to return the next day. We had dogs with us. When the plumber showed up, we secured the dogs in a spare bedroom and informed him that it was safe to enter. I stayed with the dogs the entire time in the spare room. 12/24/24: three plumbers/workers arrived in the late morning and spent a few hours installing the water heater tank. We had to cancel our plans for the day. I secured the dogs in the spare room again.
  
  I emailed Jimbo Whaley on 12/30/2024 and requested for a partial reimbursement for the two days affected by the lack of hot water and interruption of my vacation time. I was told that they would send "150 Hearthside bucks" to credit me for the next time I stay with them.
  
  I am requesting a refund of two days stay: $621.88 for not having the full access to the cabin with privacy and basic hot water. Additionally, I'm requesting to bill for my services of remaining at the cabin to accommodate the plumbers. $25 hour/ 7 hours of wait time = $175.00. I'm requesting for a total of $796.88 to be paid to me.

  

  Business Response

  Date: 12/31/2024

  Guest did advise us of hot water heater issue during their stay. We were notified at 11AM on December 23 and sent plumbers out to the cabin to fix the issue that afternoon. Guests had broken our agreement because they had pets in the house that were not crated and running loose. We do not enter properties when this occurs. We had to send the plumbers back the next day and asked guest to crate the animals. This issue would have been fixed much earlier had the guest abided by our agreement and crated their animals when they left the cabin.  We did offer a discount on a future stay.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:12/03/2024

  Type:Facilities Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  We recently rented a cabin from Hearthside Cabin Rentals “Poolin Around” in Gatlinburg, TN for Thanksgiving week (Monday 11/25/2024 to Saturday 11/30/2024). My daughter and I left after we checked in and went to the grocery store to get food for the week, when we arrived back at the cabin, my husband turned on the stove to start dinner and at that time we saw a roach crawling on the counter. I immediately contacted the office at Hearthside Cabin Rentals, they stated that they would send pest control out in the morning. When I got off the phone, we continued to cook dinner and then roaches started crawling up from behind the stove and over it so we had to keep removing the pot from the stove and killing roaches. I then called the office back again because seeing multiple roaches at this point did not make me happy. She came back and stated that unfortunately there was no way to send someone out after hours so it would have to be tomorrow morning. She also stated that unfortunately they did not have a cabin available to move us too.
  
  Tuesday Pest control arrived that morning, we explained to them what we saw, and we showed them the videos that we took as well as the pictures and the roach poop in the kitchen drawers that we also found. While we were away that day at Dollywood, I did email the cabin rental office with the videos and pictures of all the roaches and the poop in the drawers so that they could see how bad it was. When we arrived back to the cabin that evening, we could tell that housekeeping had been there but when we opened the drawers you could see that they still did not remove all the roach poop. I then took pictures of that and emailed that back to the cabin rental office as well so that they could see that this was not fully cleaned.
  
  They refuse to offer any type of refund since they state it was not neglect on their part.

  

  Business Response

  Date: 12/03/2024

  We
  do have issues with roaches from time to time, as does any property in
  the mountains. We also have lady bugs, mosquitos, bears, squirrels, etc.
  You did call our office and let us know that there was an issue, so we
  sent out pest control to inspect and treat if necessary. We also sent
  housekeeping in to completely reclean the kitchen, and they did so. You
  let us know that the stove and kitchen were the primary places that you
  were having. (during your stay, we sent our people out three different
  times to address issues that you were having. We do everything in our
  power to make sure that we take care of every single guest.) Pest
  control... Upon arriving at the property the pest control company did a
  thorough check of the kitchen and even took the back off of the stove.
  (we do have pictures) There were no roaches found. We did have them go
  ahead and treat prior to their leaving. They also put down glue sticks
  behind counters and stoves.
  After we told guest what we had done and found, we did not hear a single peep from you and
  you stayed a total of 5 nights with us, until she was demanding a full refund.
  
  We take all of our guest
  issues very seriously and go out of our way to make each guest happy.
  Refunding money is the easy way to do things and always makes some
  guests more satisfied with their stay. However, we received the
  following in the email from guest.... " I had not submitted a review as of
  yet because I was trying to give you the opportunity to make this right
  but Iva has expressed that will not be done. When I told her that I
  would crush you on social media she decided she could no longer speak to
  me since I was threatening her. I am not sure how she thinks that is
  threatening, it is a statement that I am going to review you on every
  platform possible because no one thought this was important enough to
  even reach out to us."
  We did speak with guest several times and did everything in our power to make her stay a good one.

  

  Business Response

  Date: 12/11/2024

  In the end, we did everything that we could to help Ms. ******* She did call demanding a full refund of her stay and we could not come to an understanding with her. We understand that things happen out of anyone's control in a rental property and will do all in our power to make things right for all parties. When we were notified of issues from Ms. ******* we jumped in to action. As we stated in our initial answer, we could not re-create the situation and saw no signs of roaches in the areas she described to us. 
  We also sent cleaners there to reclean the kitchen area for them and they were unable to get in to the cabin after knocking several minutes. Ms. ****** was very threatening to our employees and we will know speak with her again. 

  Customer Answer

  Date: 12/11/2024

  Again this information is not correct and is now different than what they provided to us in writing. 

  We never spoke to anyone and asked for a full refund, so that is false.  I spoke to two employees one was the person that took the initial report on the first night and she was very sweet and just kept saying that she was very sorry for what we were going through.  Then I called back the next day and spoke with the manager Iva and she stated that she needed me to send her the pictures and she would speak to the GM. At no point during any of those conversations was I threatening or even rude to them. I then spoke to Iva again on Monday 12/2 an she told me that the GM had to have surgery that day and was unable to call me but that she spoke to him and he said that no compensation would be refunded as they had no neglect. I explained that I was not even asking for that originally we wanted to be moved but that we do expect them to now do something to make this right. She stated that nothing would be done, it is at that point I stated to her and my exact words were that I will crush you on social media with this review. That is not a threat to an employee and at no time was I ever threatening so him stating that I was threatening to multiple employees no one will speak to me again is false.  I would like for you to ask him to pull all phone recordings and listen to them and then tell me when I actually threatened an employee.

  Also in this last response he is now stating that housekeeping knocked several times and could not get in is not what I was told in an email that I provided to you already. His office knew we were going to be away from the cabin that day and when I emailed to find out if they had been there you can see in the email that it says they were there and they cleaned the cabin, so now he is yet lying again.

  At this point since he is now lying multiple times and we now have his lies in writing we are demanding a full refund or we will take further action.

   

   

• Initial Complaint

  Date:04/09/2024

  Type:Facilities Issues
  Status:

  ResolvedMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I regret to report that my recent stay at this cabin rental was a complete disappointment. The experience was far from the relaxing, enjoyable retreat we had envisioned and I feel it's necessary to share the issues we encountered for the benefit of future guests.
  
  Firstly, the indoor pool, one of the main attractions of the rental, was uncomfortably cold throughout our stay, making it impossible to use. Not to mention we received a call while driving to the cabin, the day of arrival, someone would be working on the heater for pool. So it was obvious they were aware of the issues prior to the day we were to arrive.
  
  We also discovered bugs in various areas around the cabin, which was far from pleasant or hygienic. Dead roaches to be exact!
  
  More concerning was the fact that the water in the cabin had an offensive smell resembling rotten eggs, making it unpalatable and unsuitable for use. This was a major inconvenience for us, compounded by the discovery of items left behind by previous guests, indicating a lack of thorough cleaning between rentals. The water smell was so horrible we were afraid to use it to cook with, shower in, or even brush our teeth with!
  
  The problems did not stop there. We experienced water leakage from the upstairs bathroom into the kitchen, causing further disruption and inconvenience. Just so happens the maintenance guy had stopped by for another issue and was able to witness the water pouring into kitchen.
  
  To make matters worse, despite these significant issues, management did not offer any solutions, compensation, or even an on-time response. The lack of customer service in the face of such serious problems is unacceptable and left us feeling ignored and unvalued as guests.
  
  
  We requested compensation(a refund) for the fact that we had no water that was usable the entire stay because of the awful sulfur smell and unsure if it was safe to consume or use.

  

  Business Response

  Date: 04/15/2024

  We are going to reach out to the guests this week to discuss. The house in on a well and can have an odor but is completely safe, but can be unpleasant to some. 

  Customer Answer

  Date: 04/17/2024

  
  
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
  
  
  
  
  Sincerely,
  
  
  
  ********** ******

• Initial Complaint

  Date:04/10/2023

  Type:Billing Issues
  Status:

  ResolvedMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I went on Hearthside Cabin Rentals and when I was thinking about renting a cabin I put in my credit card information for reservation and it said it wouldn't take it because some information was incorrect. I then received a message from my credit card stating I was DOUBLED charged and I didn't even complete my reservation. I want both charges removed and I want my reservation cancelled that wasn't suppose to happen without completing the information and signing through email. Two charges of $519.49 need to be lifted asap.

  

  Business Response

  Date: 04/10/2023

  I have provided documentation to resolve this complaint. Ms. ****** did book using our online booking system. When Ms. ****** tried booking the first time on 4/6 at 5:24pm the payment did decline due to a billing address error. I attached the message Ms. ****** would have received notifying her of the declined payment. Banks sometimes put a "hold" on payments that decline do to a billing address error. This would be a bank issue not something Hearthside has done. Two minutes later At 5:26pm Ms. ****** tried booking again via our online system and it was successful. I have attached documentation Ms. ****** received confirming such. On 4/7 Ms. ****** contacted us to cancel. We cancelled the reservation and issued a full refund. Documentation is attached. Ms. ****** was informed that Refunds can take 5-7 business days to process. We hope this will clear up any confusion regarding this matter. 

  Customer Answer

  Date: 04/10/2023

  
  
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID 19907394, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
  
  
  
  
  Sincerely,
  
  
  
  ******* ******