Aspen Retreat

As Shelbi’s first campers and our first time renting, there were some lessons we had to learn the hard way. First and foremost - Shelbi and her husband were really good communicators from the time we requested the rental and all throughout. It is obvious they are passionate about camping, and Shelbi was excited to share that passion, especially when I told her this was our first time introducing our two boys to camping. The provided smores kit and big collector were a big hit! They asked our desired arrival and departure times and worked drop off/pickup around it. In regards to lessons learned- the owners notified us the night before our trip that the refrigerator didn’t work. They provided a mini fridge to accommodate which was initially kept outside. We moved this inside to protect it when storms moved into our camp area. It took up a lot of room in a small camper! Second, when they were hooking up the RV during drop off, they notified us there was a small leak at the toilet and asked that we turn the water pump on and off to accommodate. Upon our arrival a couple hours later we found the leak was much bigger than initially explained. We had to keep the water turned off completely to protect their camper. They initially offered us $50 back to accommodate for the inconvenience, but that didn’t seem like enough for us when we were already paying more than $800 for the 3 night trip. (The owners only receive a fraction of what you pay- so while that seemed fair for what they were getting, it was not on our behalf.) They were not able to find the part to fix the leak, so instead came back to cap the toilet to at least allow us to have water on in the rest of the camper the following day. No matter how long we let the water run to push the air out of the pipes, the water faucets continued to spray water everywhere, every time we used them. (Especially the kitchen faucet! Beware prepared if you use it!) I am not sure if this is related to the toilet water issue or not. We were told the camper was taken out of storage shortly before our trip. This likely explains the cob webs and dirty blinds. If you are sensitive to air-fresheners, be wary. Hopefully they will be less necessary the longer it’s out of storage. We also had sugar ants in our bed. The owners will claim these came from the campground. I have no way to prove they didn’t, but we also had dead ants on the master pillows the first night. Waking up to ants crawling on you is less than ideal. The ants were primarily in the bedroom. Only one meal was eaten inside the entire trip and no food was ever eating in the sleeping areas. One of the stabilizers were broken. We were told this happened in transit, and that the stabilizers are a convenience. While they may be, when you are paying as much as we did, it’s not an unreasonable convenience to expect. We brought our dog along for the trip. We kept their couch covered with a blanket to protect the couch that was near dry rotted and already had creases. This was not enough though and some scratches occurred through the blanket. The owners worked with us regarding extra charges due to all the issues above and the age of the couch, but if you are planning to bring your dog with you, please bring your own (thick) blanket, so you don’t get charged extra. Also be prepared for processing charges from RVezy in addition to the amount requested from the owners. I called RVezy that first night when we didn’t have water to see what our options were. I was told we could request they come pick up the RV and then request a refund. I wish now we had done that as we never seemed to catch a break… guess that’s camping sometimes! Finally, if you are not familiar with camping, be prepared to ask a lot of questions, as we had minimal instructions regarding the dos and dont’s of camping. Fortunately, this was not my and my husband’s first time camping. Just first time renting. And we will never rent again, at least not from here.