This is long, I apologize in advance. Its a story I wanted to tell so here it is.
My wife asked a while back what I wanted to do for my 40th. We did hers last year just the two of us in Napa Valley and spent a shit load of money. I didn't want anything like that. Just get a small group of my best friends together for a weekend, and pay for everything that way we don't burden anyone who might not be able to afford to come otherwise. That was my only main request with a caveat that we should try to get a group together for a trail ride afterwards on Sunday. She booked a 6 bed cabin at a small resort on Table Rock Lake in an area near some of my friends I don't see as often live, like 5 miles away. She planned the entire event, food, activities, everything around this reservation. She told them what our purpose was, and how many people we would have. She was explicit in this prior to handing over the deposit. We had about 14 in our group in total but 4 of them live local so 10 in a cabin that sleeps 12 people. All of us are 30+ with the exception of my 21 year old son. The oldest in the group is 64 and is my friends slightly older wife. We drove two vehicles down, my 2005 Wrangler and my wifes Grand Cherokee. We arrived at 5:00pm to check in, and started unloaded all the coolers, food, and crap you have to haul to this kind of thing. Others begin to show up shortly after and do the same. No stereo going, no nothing, just a group of people preparing for a fun weekend and unloading all their shit. We even reserved 2x 24 foot pontoon boats from the resort so I wouldn't have to tow my cruiser down and deal with launching and loading it, besides I wanted to drive the Wrangler so I could go wheeling Sunday. We would have spent about $2000 at the resort in total if things had gone to plan.
We just about finished with setting up and some friends had brought some gifts and wanted me to open them at the picnic table outside the cabin, this was about 7:30pm and I was 2-3 beer in at the time, so not really flying high or anything, but I was in a festive mood and ready to relax after carrying everything. I noticed a man in my periphery walking towards us with what looked an exaggerated air of authority, so I stood up as he called out for me by name asking who was on the reservation. He immediately launched into a tirade about us having far to many vehicles on the property and far too many people for the cabin. I explained I had spoken to the woman at the front desk about that, and that we had 10 people staying in the cabin and 4 locals who would not be spending the night. We might have 12 people staying the next night, and I would be glad to cover the $12 per person charges if they do in fact show up. He said I was disrespectful to his wife and he didn't like the look of us at all. Which I found odd, because he was dressed like a maintenance man and to be honest looked a little sketchy to me in general, and my friends are all professional people for the most part, and drive nice cars. I was super nice to his wife, as I am to all people unless the treat me like this guy was treating me for what in my mind was no apparent reason. I asked him to elaborate on why he was being a class A fuck bag, first it was too many people, I countered with the cabin having 6 beds and us having 10 people sleeping here. Not good enough, he claimed anyone on the property needed to pay. Ok I wasn't told that until now and I think its a shit policy but, you want cash or card? Then it was the cars, we had far too many. I countered with all of them are parked within the designated area for the cabin, what is the issue with that? He shifted to Covid-19 restrictions, lol. I showed him on my phone that our state fully ended restriction June 15th, again not good enough. At this point I lost my cool, called the guy some colorful names and told him to bugger off and find someone with some customer service skills and less of an attitude problem to come speak with me, I am not interested in any further conversation with you. His wife came back and asked us to come up to the office and speak to the real manager.
I focused my chi and tried to start over with a smile and a hope this would resolve. It did not. Upon entering the office a small older lady with a Karen hardcut and bright red lip stick was snarling from behind the Covid-19 shield still in place at the check in desk, she said only "can I help you?". I said yeah, why are you guys flipping out over the cars and the head count, who is this world class douche whistle who says he is the manager, I know from online reviews you host family reunions and parties all the time. She said we do not do parties and we don't do drinking and we don't do loud music. This is a family resort and its not for you kind of people. I lost my shit, and literally let this lady have it with a tirade of obscenities and rude comments that would have made you all second guess my ability to function in a civil society. She replied in kind louder than I could believe she could manage. She told us to get off the property, I told here to go fuck herself and to either make me, or call the fucking cops. Karen is a dyed in the wool cunt, born and breed from a long line of angry little people who take no greater joy that fucking up someones day. I tried to be nice, I really did.
Soon the owner showed up, turns our he was on property the whole time, but lived out of state and was just in town to relax with his family for the weekend. Chris the owner is a 50-ish dude, typical red faced alcoholic and brough another customer with him for back up I assume, he was a thin 50-ish softball coach looking guy who was flexing the whole time Chris talked to my wife. Ok so #1 he didn't need back up, and #2 most of my friends are Vets and where just as pissed as I was about how this whole thing went down. It made things more tense, you could literally feel my friends all stand up taller as they encircled Chris and my wife. Chris and my wife talked through everything and he was trying to placate that raging cunt of a manager Karen by saying, well maybe if we move some cars, and you guys promise to keep it down tonight we can let you stay. While Chris was having that conversation I was on the phone booking 5 suites at another resort, I told them we are probably going to be extra loud and drunk because of the way we just got treated and they said we have just the place for that on our property in a remote multi unit build, come on over. I interrupted Chris and told him I wasn't comfortable with us accepting conditions outside of what we paid for and if that was going to be the case, I wanted a full refund on the rental and the boats. He agreed and shook my hand. As we packed all our cars to leave he pulled me aside and apologized for his employees. I explained to him that in my 40 years alive and 20 years in customer facing business I have never on my worst day spoken to someone the way I was spoken to tonight. I did return in kind, but felt the provocation from his staff was a reasonable justification for my emotional state. The quote that stuck with me from Chris was "I bought this place on a whim, and I have realized I am a piss poor business owner." Yeah well admitting you have a problem is the first step towards recovery.
After we relocated the weekend was salvaged. The new resort was super nice, the employees were very apologetic about the community and how we were treated. We only got in trouble once, and complied with the request to stop signing along to "Don't Stop Believing" as loud as possible at around midnight. We swam from the dock instead of a boat, there was plenty of food, the theme was a surprise, it was "Shenanigans" and my wife provided Super Trooper shirts, badges and mustaches for everyone. I even got a few of the guys to chug some syrup, lol, I laughed so hard I cried. Everyone went home happy, if not a little hung over.
We wheeled at 3B in Eureka Springs AR Sunday. A couple of my Jeep buddies bought me a EMP gas tank skid, that it turns out wont fit my 2005 Wrangler. They are not forum members or Jeep nerds like me, so they didn't know 2003-2006 is different from 2002 down. No biggie, we will sort it out.
I am awaiting my credit from them of about $1100 and wonder if I should try to damage the reputation of this resort by posting a review (or 1000 by leveraging my friends). I was high blood pressure pissed over this. You have the details, at least my perspective of them, and my friends. We all talked and everyone seemed to think I handled it better than they would have. Was I out of line, or expecting more than I should have?
My wife asked a while back what I wanted to do for my 40th. We did hers last year just the two of us in Napa Valley and spent a shit load of money. I didn't want anything like that. Just get a small group of my best friends together for a weekend, and pay for everything that way we don't burden anyone who might not be able to afford to come otherwise. That was my only main request with a caveat that we should try to get a group together for a trail ride afterwards on Sunday. She booked a 6 bed cabin at a small resort on Table Rock Lake in an area near some of my friends I don't see as often live, like 5 miles away. She planned the entire event, food, activities, everything around this reservation. She told them what our purpose was, and how many people we would have. She was explicit in this prior to handing over the deposit. We had about 14 in our group in total but 4 of them live local so 10 in a cabin that sleeps 12 people. All of us are 30+ with the exception of my 21 year old son. The oldest in the group is 64 and is my friends slightly older wife. We drove two vehicles down, my 2005 Wrangler and my wifes Grand Cherokee. We arrived at 5:00pm to check in, and started unloaded all the coolers, food, and crap you have to haul to this kind of thing. Others begin to show up shortly after and do the same. No stereo going, no nothing, just a group of people preparing for a fun weekend and unloading all their shit. We even reserved 2x 24 foot pontoon boats from the resort so I wouldn't have to tow my cruiser down and deal with launching and loading it, besides I wanted to drive the Wrangler so I could go wheeling Sunday. We would have spent about $2000 at the resort in total if things had gone to plan.
We just about finished with setting up and some friends had brought some gifts and wanted me to open them at the picnic table outside the cabin, this was about 7:30pm and I was 2-3 beer in at the time, so not really flying high or anything, but I was in a festive mood and ready to relax after carrying everything. I noticed a man in my periphery walking towards us with what looked an exaggerated air of authority, so I stood up as he called out for me by name asking who was on the reservation. He immediately launched into a tirade about us having far to many vehicles on the property and far too many people for the cabin. I explained I had spoken to the woman at the front desk about that, and that we had 10 people staying in the cabin and 4 locals who would not be spending the night. We might have 12 people staying the next night, and I would be glad to cover the $12 per person charges if they do in fact show up. He said I was disrespectful to his wife and he didn't like the look of us at all. Which I found odd, because he was dressed like a maintenance man and to be honest looked a little sketchy to me in general, and my friends are all professional people for the most part, and drive nice cars. I was super nice to his wife, as I am to all people unless the treat me like this guy was treating me for what in my mind was no apparent reason. I asked him to elaborate on why he was being a class A fuck bag, first it was too many people, I countered with the cabin having 6 beds and us having 10 people sleeping here. Not good enough, he claimed anyone on the property needed to pay. Ok I wasn't told that until now and I think its a shit policy but, you want cash or card? Then it was the cars, we had far too many. I countered with all of them are parked within the designated area for the cabin, what is the issue with that? He shifted to Covid-19 restrictions, lol. I showed him on my phone that our state fully ended restriction June 15th, again not good enough. At this point I lost my cool, called the guy some colorful names and told him to bugger off and find someone with some customer service skills and less of an attitude problem to come speak with me, I am not interested in any further conversation with you. His wife came back and asked us to come up to the office and speak to the real manager.
I focused my chi and tried to start over with a smile and a hope this would resolve. It did not. Upon entering the office a small older lady with a Karen hardcut and bright red lip stick was snarling from behind the Covid-19 shield still in place at the check in desk, she said only "can I help you?". I said yeah, why are you guys flipping out over the cars and the head count, who is this world class douche whistle who says he is the manager, I know from online reviews you host family reunions and parties all the time. She said we do not do parties and we don't do drinking and we don't do loud music. This is a family resort and its not for you kind of people. I lost my shit, and literally let this lady have it with a tirade of obscenities and rude comments that would have made you all second guess my ability to function in a civil society. She replied in kind louder than I could believe she could manage. She told us to get off the property, I told here to go fuck herself and to either make me, or call the fucking cops. Karen is a dyed in the wool cunt, born and breed from a long line of angry little people who take no greater joy that fucking up someones day. I tried to be nice, I really did.
Soon the owner showed up, turns our he was on property the whole time, but lived out of state and was just in town to relax with his family for the weekend. Chris the owner is a 50-ish dude, typical red faced alcoholic and brough another customer with him for back up I assume, he was a thin 50-ish softball coach looking guy who was flexing the whole time Chris talked to my wife. Ok so #1 he didn't need back up, and #2 most of my friends are Vets and where just as pissed as I was about how this whole thing went down. It made things more tense, you could literally feel my friends all stand up taller as they encircled Chris and my wife. Chris and my wife talked through everything and he was trying to placate that raging cunt of a manager Karen by saying, well maybe if we move some cars, and you guys promise to keep it down tonight we can let you stay. While Chris was having that conversation I was on the phone booking 5 suites at another resort, I told them we are probably going to be extra loud and drunk because of the way we just got treated and they said we have just the place for that on our property in a remote multi unit build, come on over. I interrupted Chris and told him I wasn't comfortable with us accepting conditions outside of what we paid for and if that was going to be the case, I wanted a full refund on the rental and the boats. He agreed and shook my hand. As we packed all our cars to leave he pulled me aside and apologized for his employees. I explained to him that in my 40 years alive and 20 years in customer facing business I have never on my worst day spoken to someone the way I was spoken to tonight. I did return in kind, but felt the provocation from his staff was a reasonable justification for my emotional state. The quote that stuck with me from Chris was "I bought this place on a whim, and I have realized I am a piss poor business owner." Yeah well admitting you have a problem is the first step towards recovery.
After we relocated the weekend was salvaged. The new resort was super nice, the employees were very apologetic about the community and how we were treated. We only got in trouble once, and complied with the request to stop signing along to "Don't Stop Believing" as loud as possible at around midnight. We swam from the dock instead of a boat, there was plenty of food, the theme was a surprise, it was "Shenanigans" and my wife provided Super Trooper shirts, badges and mustaches for everyone. I even got a few of the guys to chug some syrup, lol, I laughed so hard I cried. Everyone went home happy, if not a little hung over.
We wheeled at 3B in Eureka Springs AR Sunday. A couple of my Jeep buddies bought me a EMP gas tank skid, that it turns out wont fit my 2005 Wrangler. They are not forum members or Jeep nerds like me, so they didn't know 2003-2006 is different from 2002 down. No biggie, we will sort it out.
I am awaiting my credit from them of about $1100 and wonder if I should try to damage the reputation of this resort by posting a review (or 1000 by leveraging my friends). I was high blood pressure pissed over this. You have the details, at least my perspective of them, and my friends. We all talked and everyone seemed to think I handled it better than they would have. Was I out of line, or expecting more than I should have?
Last edited:
