DO NOT EVER RENT A CABIN FROM:
If you’re planning a get away to the Smoky Mountains, you would be hard pressed to find a more beautiful spot. There is so much to see and do in the Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge area, but the wrong accommodations can ruin an otherwise wonderful vacation. I know, since American Mountain Rentals ruined ours!
My entire family planned this Christmas GetAway for over a year. We planned and arranged every detail, which was not easy between fourteen people spread out around the country. Finally the day arrived that we were to all meet at the cabin…we were so excited, until we saw what would be our home for the next week! I have vacationed in this area quite a few times and have never been disappointed until this. I will never book with American Mountain Rentals again! .
We got to our cabin and half the things didn’t work properly. Furniture was broken and downright dangerous with broken, jagged pieces sticking out from it. There was zero decor, the walls had been stripped bare. There were no rugs on the cold, tile floor and we had to buy one ourselves because we had a one year old that was crawling and just learning to walk. Things in the cabin didn’t match things in the picture we were shown when we rented it. The picture had shown a big screen TV and we had an old fashioned tube TV that was sitting on the wall of the stairs!! Many of the outlet covers were missing or broken and this was also dangerous with a baby! It was also full of bugs!
BROKEN AND MISSING OUTLET COVERS
BROKEN, JAGGED HANDLE ON RECLINER (which was unusable)
INSIDE OF DISHWASHER…..DISGUSTING!
THESE BUGS WERE EVERYWHERE! EWWW!!
And if that was not bad enough, there was garbage all around the outside of the cabin! I’m telling you, it was crazy!
GARBAGE IN THE YARD ALL AROUND OUR CABIN – BEAUTIFUL VIEW, ISN’T IT!
It also did not accommodate as many people as we were told it would and it had not been cleaned well….it was awful!
We called to complain and were told the cabin had sold and was closing the next week. The old owners wouldn’t care and the new owners didn’t have it yet…so it was up to American Mountain Rentals to care about us…and they didn’t!
It was Christmas…and it was ruined! I will make sure everyone knows about this experience and this company, so no one has to endure their family time being ruined. This “bait and switch” was the most unscrupulous and deceitful thing I have ever seen a company do!
Do not EVER rent a cabin from American Mountain Rentals.…..and just in case you are wondering…..the name of our cabin was Grand View! (I have inserted the link, but I promise, it looked NOTHING like these pictures!) I wanted to write a review on the website (which does have reviews) however, it was not possible, so I guess the reviews that are on there are written by them and not real live people!
I gave American Mountain Rentals every opportunity to make this right. They said that the best they could do was reimburse us $200. We paid $3,000.00 for this cabin so that $200 means nothing to the 4 families that paid for this trip! They said that the cabin was sold so they probably wouldn’t even be managing it after this. I see that they still are managing it and it is mid February. I talked to this company several times before making the trip to Tennessee, asking tons of questions and NOTHING was ever said about the owners selling the property or that it would not be decorated. In fact, I called and asked if it would be decorated for Christmas and was told “we are not sure, some owners do and some do not.” Well…..yes YOU did know!! Nothing in the cabin was decorated…..it had been stripped of the decor because it had been sold!
Underhanded, unprofessional and downright deceitful……that is how I would describe American Mountain Rentals!
**I should add that my family and I did enjoy being together. We love each other and our enjoyment together does not come from the building we are in!! I am thankful for that!
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Thank you for sharing. Im hoping you were able to find some joy in your vacation despite the horrid accommodations.
this is absurd to do to any family especially at Christmas. These people should be ashamed of themselves but clearly are not. I will make sure to spread the word so no one else has this happen to them
You should file a complaint with the BBB. Thank you for sharing your story. I’m sorry you had to experience that.
So sorry to hear about your nightmare! How can something like this happen? My family has been to PigeonForge and had a wonderful vacation! Our cabin was called the “Hillbilly Hilton” and it was amazing! Cannot remember who the rental agency was but I hope it wasn’t American Mountain Rentals! The area has many rental agencies to choose from but mark them off the list!
I’m so sorry this happened to you Laurie! I will be sure to spread the word and thank you for the heads up as we were seriously considering doing a family trip to the mountains soon. I just wrote a nice (not really nice) note to them on their website. I told them word is spreading quickly thanks to a very popular blog that they are the worst rental company to deal with.
Thanks for the information, you really never know what you’re getting when you book online so we have to help each other out with the truth! Love the blog!
Thanks for the info. This is such a popular vacation spot for Florida folks to head to see snow, so now atleast we know where not to go! You never know who you are dealing with it what to expect when you get there so this is so helpful and I will make sure to never deal wih this shady company!
Ridiculous and quite underhanded of them!!!! Shame on them….what goes around comes around.
That is awful, Laurie. My family has vacationed in the Smokey Mountains many times. It is a beautiful place and we have rented several different cabins in the area. We won’t be renting from American Mountain Rentals! Thank you for sharing.
Laurie, my sister follows your blog faithfully and showed this to me. I am a travel agent and I am always saddened to hear of anyones vacation being anything other than a wonderful, relaxing experience-especially when it is situations like this one that could have been totally avoided if everyone in the travel industry was as conscientous and dedicated as most of us are! The experience you had was indeed unscrupulous and uncalled for. I know for a fact there are many wonderful cabin rental companies in that area and I will send you some names. I will also let my own clients know not to deal with this one! I hope you all were able to enjoy being together in the Great Smoky Mountains and making some memories together, despite the discomfort they put you in. Bless you and have a wonderful and prosperous 2015-I am now hooked on your website too!
Thanks for this info. I stumbled across it while searching for cabins in that area. It came up on my search and saved me a lot of trouble and heartache. Sorry you had to go through that, but thank you for sharing for the rest of us! Definitely won’t rent from this company.
Wow…unbelievable! Those pictures speak volumes! What kind of people would do that to someone’s vacation? Again…unbelievable!!!!
this is crazy! You all should have moved to a clean, well stocked cabin full of decent furnishings and sent American Mountain Rentals the bill!!!! There is absolutely no excuse for them to run a business like this. This came on a search of mine too (I have never heard of your blog before this) so rest assured word will get around and ruin them! Too late for your vacation, but at least they won’t be able to keep screwing around with everyone else!
I am sorry….what a terrible thing to do to someone’s family! Spread the word..tell the rest of the world. I will help you. Sending this to everyone I know…let’s make it go viral! You know what they say about karma..sounds like this company is due for dose! And at Christmas no less…I’m still shaking my head!
We go to Gatlinburg every other summer and actually are in the process of planning a huge family reunion. I saw this while I was online researching for that trip. Thanks for saving us the trouble of dealing with this underhanded company. There’s so many great cabin rental companies….no need to deal with this dirty one!
What a shame. I am so sorry this happened to you. Did you send this to them?
Having been to the Pigeon Forge area a few times myself,this is surprising to me. Most cabins there are beautiful and high quality. I will be sure to Never use this company and I will be sure to tell friends that plan to vacation there.
Wow! Thank you so much for the heads up. What a crappier way to run a business
That is terrible! It’s so awful when you plan a trip that’s supposed to be a wonderful experience and instead you get something like that! Boo! Hiss!
So sorry that you had such a disappointing time. My family goes to the Pigeon Forge area often. We have always rented from Cabins USA, and have never had a problem. We won’t be renting from American Mountain Rentals ever after reading this.
Wow seems like one thing after another happened to you guys. How sad that you went to enjoy your time and stay in a nice place and it didn’t work out. Sorry you had a bad experience with them.
Oh man! What a bummer! It suck so bad to plan a great trip and then get socked with something so crappy.
Good to know! How so disappointing! Glad you enjoyed time with your family but paying for something with all these issues? Unacceptable!
Wow, that place looked nothing like the pictures in their online listing! What a gross place! We have had a time when we rented a hotel room and it was nothing like the pictures. Total bate and switch. And it was vile and nasty in the room. And nothing worked too. It is so frustrating when companies do that. Thankfully corporate did reimburse our money for the hotel room, but yeah, your offer of $200 for the $3000 cabin rental was SO not cool.
That is horrible!! Even with a change in ownership of the cabin the company should have made it right, since they arranged the booking. I have a lot of friends and family who vacation in Gatlinburg, so I’ll make sure they DON’T use American Mountain Rentals! 🙁
Oh, that sucks the big one! I HATE it when stuff like that happens on a trip. The same thing happened to me on a vacation, and it totally ruined my trip. I feel your pain!
How horrible! I’m glad that you still enjoyed being together and thank you for making the rest of us aware of the horrid conditions!
I love that you wrote a bad review, this place deserves it. How horrible hope they do something for you and for their property.
OMG that’s horrible! I’m glad you wrote a post about it. At least I know to never go there. That is just awful. I’ll make sure to share this with others so they don’t go there either.
OMG! I can only imagine the disgust. Imaging hoping for a nice relaxed Vacation then end up here ! Sorry to hear though
That is absolutely terrible!! Gatlinburg is one of our favorite places to go on vacation. I’m upset for you that this place was such a disgrace.
What a horrible experience! I am so happy you shared an honest review here! I hope tons of people see it!
Oh that is just disgusting. Most everywhere we have ever stayed at has been really nice, but one time we got a disgusting place at Myrtle Beach through Myrtle Beach Rooms For Rent. The stove and entire kitchen was disgusting. There was peeling wall paper everywhere and mold in the bathroom. This is just the tip of the iceberg. I rented somewhere else immediately and demanded a refund and took pictures. I ended up getting a refund. We booked with them for years but that was the 2nd time we had a problem with them. We have never booked with them again since.
What a disappointing trip. I would be horrified if i had paid that much and had to stay there. I hope your next trip is amazing. Shame on American Mountain Rentals for not making this right.
Wow, that is crazy. I am so sorry to hear that you had such a terrible experience. I hope that someone will reimburse you. You should not have to pay for such an experience.
Wow. That is horrid. I would be calling the Better Business people plus anyone who will listen.
Oh no! That’s terrible – and inexcusable. Thanks for giving us a warning.
So sorry to hear of this experience, and even more sorry to hear that this company wasn’t willing to make things right for you. They will understand now, though, that there’s nothing worse than a blogger scorned. We have a platform, and we have loyal readers who listen to what we say. If they’re not already regretting their failure to make things right, American Mountain Rentals soon will be.
It is awful that your family vacation was not as enjoyable as it could have been because of a horrible cabin! Thank you for the warning!
How horrible 🙁 I hope you contact the Better Business Bureau and try to get a full refund.
That is so disappointing! I won’t be staying there if we visit.
I am so sorry that you had to experience that with your family. I definitely will not be using these cabins.
What a bummer. There’s nothing worse than a vacation gone wrong. Hopefully they’ll turn things around for their future guests!
Oh my gosh – that’s absolutely volatile. I can’t understand how a business would try and pull something like this – and then actually manage to get away with it. I’m SO sorry this happened during your Christmas trip with the family. I’m so stunned by your photos.
Thanks for the heads up. I’m sorry your trip was ruined, I hate to pay that kind of money for garbage like that.
Wow, that’s terrible that you had to go through this. Hopefully others will find this post in their vacation search and avoid this place in the future.
It is sad that this company deceived you so greatly. Accommodations matter and this experience marred your family’s vacation.
OMG! I am so sad to hear this happened to your family. This would make me furious. If this post doesn’t encourage them to clean up their act, I don’t know what will. Shameful.
I am so sorry you had such misfortune with your travels. I hope you find a better company to work with.
Wow!!! I love visiting the Gaitlinburg area, but I’m sorry you experienced this.