Disappointed in Sleeper House!

[pengy]

This post is for information purposes. The sleeper house we rented this last weekend (from a well-established Waskish business) was very disappointing. When we got there Friday afternoon we could tell from the looks of "things" that the place had not been moved for a while. The house was 8' X 14' with four bunks and three clean mattresses. The fourth mattress my buddy had to put gloves on before he would touch it to throw it outside, I kid you not. There was no access to the top bunks. They were about 5 1/2 feet off the floor and a chair to stand on did not help much. Nothing to grab on to, just a flat piece of plywood for a bunk. The heat for the place was a "Big Buddy" heater. With the four access hatches open for fishing you would be freezing at ground level and roasting in the top bunks. We were not able to put rattle reels down at night because the guys on the bottom bunks got too cold. The hot plate to cook on was a real work of art. One of the legs was broken off and supported by a piece of 2 X 4. This put a 10 degree angle on anything you tried to cook on it. The place had absolutely nothing on the walls. No coat hooks, no shelves, nothing to hang a lantern on. Mandoor leaked cold air like a sieve. It had a welded bolt assembly for a door handle/latch. I won't even mention anything about the condition of the toilet that was attached to the house when we first arrived. Obviously a real lack of proper clean-up for the next group renting the place. As I said to start with, this is not complaining about what we rented for $160 a day, but should have been more than what we got. We are not "complainers" and did not stop at the office to complain. We all just know that next time we will not rent from them, and if anyone does and they bring you to a house that has the number "42" on it, run the other way!!

[gorrilla]

If it was in that condition when you got there with the guy, why didn't you point it out??? There's no way I would have stayed in there for $1 a night... Big Buddy Heater? Are you kidding me? I don't even like a ventless in rentals. Our propane distributer won't even service ventless in sleeping areas since they don't want anything to do with anything but a directvent style. Everybody says, "but it has a low oxygen shut off!" The fact is every flame produces a byproduct - carbon monoxide. There needs to be a vent to allow exhaust out and new oxygen in. Period. No way around it. Talk to the experts(not the heater salesman!). Is saving a couple stupid dollars really worth it?

Sounds nasty, and unsafe, not to mention uneven heat and crappy beds. What where you giving him $160 for again?

[Dahitman44]

I am renting a house Monday-Wednesday and I hope we don;t run into that. The guy comes highly regarded by Kelly's wife.

I hate hearing those stories -- glad they are NOT the norm.

Kelly P -- can you put my mind at ease?

[ZapBranigan]

Sounds like they had plenty of unwanted ventilation. Probably plenty of COLD healthy air pouring in. Sorry to hear of your trip. This can really be dissappionting. Another good reason to look at the list of supporters to this site first. There would be plenty of complaints to the staff on one of their sponsers which we would hope would cause them to be removed. Next time in check in at the top of the forum for providers first.

[MuskieJunkie]

I feel your pain, we got something like that on Mille Lacs one year, the mattresses looked like they were the rejects from Hennipen County Correctional Facility. My friend had a lot to drink and slept face down no pillow, no blanket just right on the stains, looking back that story alone was worth it.

[bearpawandclaw]

I feel your pain I was just up there with a group of my buddies. We rented a 4 man sleeper with only two bunks. Dirty as hell, no fish , will never give him return buisiness.

[shadyzr]

Just a rumor, But I think house 42 was used as a holding cell for drunks by the local sheriffs office last summer.

BAD RUMOR,

[Dahitman44]

Kelly --

Still no response from this question? Will the guy Patsy suggested be good for us?

Thanks

Anyone else chime in. He has been a guide for 20 years and his BC has a pick of a dog on it.

Hitman

[Eric Wettschreck]

I can't picture Kelly, Jon, or Patsy recommending an outfit that isn't a good one. If you got a referral from them I'm thinking you can rest easy my man.

[Wookiee]

I agree with that.

[snoozebutton]

Quote:

---

Thanks

Anyone else chime in. He has been a guide for 20 years and his BC has a pick of a dog on it.

Hitman

---

Pat Foster's web site, Club Red has a pic of a dog and he's been in the business for over 20 years if that's who you mean. (I can give his name since he's a sponsor here.) If you read through some of the posts on here, everyone has nothing but good things to say about him.

[jm15]

I think we used the same "guide" and stayed in the same house Pengy. Frozen bags of poop in the attached toilet left behind for us to deal with! The house stunk so bad we had to keep the door open for several minutes at a time to survive. Thought about burning my clothes when I got home because they took on the same disgusting ordor. Like you said, the house had not been moved in a long time and was only a few yards off the main drag...lots of traffic! We were dropped off and didn't see or hear from our "guide",if that's what you call it, until check out the next day. The crazy thing is,we wouldn't have minded all of this if we were put on fish!!

[pengy]

Hey JM15, at least your "stuff" stayed in the bag, not where we found it. The house was just off the "main road", to the north about a 150 yards. About a quarter mile past the bridge at 3.2 miles. I felt bad because I picked this place to rent from and had three other guys with me. One was from Worthington, MN, and had never been up there before. I was really wondering if it was the same house where someone else also posted and said they found "garbage" on the lake floor (when viewing with an AquaView) from the previous "tenants". It may not have been moved for, I'll bet, three weeks if that is so. Very disappointing!!

[Eric Wettschreck]

Worthington is like 20 miles south of me and I can honestly say, holy crap it's a long drive from here to URL. That would totally suck to drive that far to end up in a crappy house.

[Dahitman44]

From what we have heard this Foster fellow is a good guy and works hard. That makes me feel good and puts my mind at ease. You don;t want to make a 4-hour treck and then end up with a bad deal.

I can't wait get up there.

Thanks to everyone.

Hitman.

[Dahitman44]

Anyone else have any thoughts ?

[hanson]

I think you'll have a good time!

I saw Foster moving some of his houses on Monday when we were leaving. They look nice and he's trying to keep his customers on fish.

If you have any problems, it'll be keeping the seals from coming up your holes at night! Those darn URL seals are really vicious when you leave food in the house. Make sure to ask him about the seals!

[kelly-p]

Quote:

---

Kelly --

Still no response from this question? Will the guy Patsy suggested be good for us?

Thanks

Anyone else chime in. He has been a guide for 20 years and his BC has a pick of a dog on it.

Hitman

---

I stay a way from any topics like this. Everybody on the lake has had bad things happen including me. I could write a book of things I've heard about. But did you hear about,,,,,,

[Desperado]

besides, I wouldn't post a message on the internet along the lines of

"my wife gave you bad advice"

or

"my wife gave you a questionable referral"

Kelly's probably even smarter than that

[SM1]

I had the same thing happen to me two weeks ago. The "guide's" houses had not been moved in I dont know how long. It looked like vomit or the remains of cleaning a pan all over the snow by the door. There had to be an inch or more of yellow ice around both sides of house. There was a community outhouse for the six houses that had two 5-gal buckets full to the top where the bags did not get changed until one from my group had enough and did it himself.

We caught next to no fish. We asked the guy to move the house and his reply was "the fishing was the same everywhere." Ive fished red for nearly ten years and I know better than that.

As said before, all this wouldnt have been a big deal if we caught fish. I know you can always get into the fish but when you pay someone around $200 a day (it was a big house), they better at least show an attempt to put you on the fish ie move the house or at least keep the "camp" clean. This was poor service at best. What are some of these guys thinking and why do they think they can get by with it? Bad advertising goes further than good advertising. Im sorry to say but Red lake has a fair number of shotty rentals. The guy next to me was from iowa and said he's never coming back.

No more unestablished guides for me. I love fishing red, but I wish it had more established guides like Lake of the Woods.

[Down Deep]

This sounds like the sleeper I rented on Zipple Bay about 10 years ago. We stayed there for about two hours and then paid a trip to the resort we rented from. I told the guy to get out there and clean it up and change out the stove that didn't work. He actually apologized for the condition of the house and told his guys to get moving. We hung around the lodge for an hour and the guys showed back up and told us they had put us in a different sleeper which was clean, everything worked and was even bigger.

By the way whats the hang up of sticking up for yourself?

[Dahitman44]

Hanson --

Seals?

[Devonian_Piscivore]

Wow that sucks. I'll be there in a few weeks, and renting from a well established Wiskish business. I hope it's not the same one. I'm worried now. I have not seen any pictures of the houses, but the woman assured me that they were nice.

-Alex

[LABS4ME]

Then they'll be nice... don't fret! I know most of the rental outfits on the east side... the majority are stand up folks who'll treat you well, there are few that should be avoided... but you almost never read their name here on the forum... If you've read positives about the outfit you are going with, you'll be fine!

Good Luck!

Ken

[pengy]

Devonian Piscivore, beware the promises of older women! I'm almost positive you have the same place. If so, and when you get to the house and it has a "42" painted on it, run the other way!

[kelly-p]

The opposite of this is the people renting the houses and wondering what kind of people are going to be in the house.

This was the first day of a brand new rental house on URL this year. It was a very nice house. Carpeted, wired for 110 with a generator attached to the house, TV and DVD player and radio. 4 burner stove with oven and an outside entrance bathroom built into the house. Never been rented, never even fished in.

After 1 day the carpeting could not be seen as it was completely covered with smashed food, minnows, the remains of cleaned fish and shell casings. Yes shell casings, it seems they were playing with their pistol while in the house. What's a few bullet holes,,, after all it's only a rental. Only 2 of the fishing holes were still usable. 1 corner hole was full of bodily waste, all kinds of waste, smeared on the walls and piled around the hole. 2 holes were full of soiled clothing. 3 holes were full of garbage, burned food, etc, etc.. The door to the fish house was bent so bad that it would no longer close. The oven door was torn off completely. They did this is less then 20 hours.

[eyepatrol]

OMG that's aweful!

Cleaned fish? TIP??? or were they crappies?

[crappeyeslayer]

Bet you wont rent to them again! Dont people respect anything these days? I always leave my rental house cleaner than it was when i got there, out of respect for the guide and the people coming in after me!

[eyepatrol]

I'm no expert on law, but these guys MUST have broken at least one law!?!?!

[icehousebob]

Kelly, I remember your dad spending two hours cleaning the fish scales from the carpet of a house before you put us into it. I like to treat a rental the same way I would treat my own home. It makes it a lot easier to get reservations the next time around, right?? So far, every house I've rented off Hillman's road has been all I expected.

The house trashing you described would tax the patience of even someone as mellow and easy-going as yourself.