Lake House

It is an old boarding house, but each room had its own bathroom. It was clean and the bed was just fine. The price was on the low end for the neighborhood. We got what we paid for. We needed a place to stay and it worked out just fine. There was no lake in sight. It was more of a youth hostel type of place.

That it was not a chain-hotel? I like to support local businesses, but this place left a lot to be desired. I knew that this place was going to be a bit rustic, but for the prices of other rooms in the area-- we were up for the adventure! I was travelling with my wife and in-laws-- we were spending the weekend doing Cooperstown. First, I received a text message on my phone around 9:20pm telling me that I needed to check in by 10pm and also telling me to go to an address different than the one that I thought I had booked at. We were sent to a place that was NOT on the lake as advertised...and since when does someone get to tell me WHEN I need to check in?? This was nothing I had ever experienced before... We arrived about 9:45 (we were on our way already). Not sure what would have happened if we pulled in after 10. (we were the only people there that night). Upon arrival, we were greeted by an elderly woman along with a rather scruffy, biker type looking guy smoking on the porch. She then had two younger girls escort us to our rooms. (Perhaps they were exchange students). The rooms were rustic just as expected, but worked. We were never asked to sign anything, no one ever looked at my ID...it was a very twilight-zone experience. That being said, the beds were comfy, there was a continental breakfast, and the AC worked. We weren't looking for much more this particular weekend...We left by 9am and didn't come back until after 9pm every night. I would not go back.

Because we changed rooms after our first night, I need to give two sets of ratings to question 2. For night 1, they're good, poor, poor, poor, mediocre and poor. For nights two and 3, they're good, good, mediocre, poor, good and poor. We had a VERY disappointing stay at The Lake House Lodge. We made our reservation more than 3.5 months before our arrival date, but when we arrived, we were escorted to a separate building that I'll describe as a bunk house, more than a mile from the lodge and the lake. Our first-night room was small and cold with a tiny bathroom. There was no trash can, no wash cloths (though I scavenged the building and found some) and the TV was a 13" computer monitor (being a hockey fan, I wanted to watch the Stanley Cup playoff game, and doing so on that TV was totally unsatisfactory). In short, it was the worst accommodation I've ever experienced. The next morning, the owner gave us our choice of rooms for our remaining two nights and we found a much better one. It was, however, still in the bunk house away from the lake, not the lodge. She also said that she'd give us dinner at the lodge to compensate for the night before and we had a nice dinner in the dining room overlooking the lake at sunset our last night. Since we paid for the accommodations in advance and felt that being put in the bunk house was less than what we paid for (and with the free dinner only compensating us for the first night debacle), I e-mailed the owner on June 4 saying I thought a partial refund or a free night on a subsequent visit (the lodge would be a wonderful place to visit in autumn when the leaves are changing) would be appropriate compensation for being housed in the bunk house rather than the lake house for nights 2 & 3. I felt that if I'd gotten a satisfactory, good-faith response, I'd chalk it up to experience and consider myself a satisfied (albeit minimally) customer. As it turns out, though, I've gotten no response, so I remain a dissatisfied customer.