Big Brook Retreat

If you are planning to stay at the Big Brook Retreat don’t stay in Unit 3 unless the management tells you that the air conditioner/heat pump has been fixed. When we arrived at the unit in late August for a three day stay it was cold as a stone, literally. It is of masonry construction and the walls were colder than the mid-day air outside. Considering this is a premium destination in every other respect it wasn’t unreasonable to expect the air conditioner/heat pump to have been turned on to warm the place up before we arrived. Never-the-less we turned it on and laid down for an hour or two for a nap. When we got up nothing had changed! The place was still as cold as a stone and the output from the air conditioner/heat pump was feeble at best and zero most of the time. Management came over and waved his hands in the air under the feeble air flow and felt a little bit of heat. He ignored the fact the unit hadn’t warmed the place up at all despite the thermostat being set at 30 degrees for over two hours and the fan was obviously not functioning correctly. We were NOT impressed. No one likes to hear a lot of spin when the facts were obvious; it just adds insult to injury. We had already paid for the unit and unpacked so we were effectively trapped. So we turned on the heat lamps in the bathroom and the electric oven to heat the place up to a tolerable level. That might seem wasteful of energy but it is far more economic than running an air conditioner/heat pump that likely either needs a charge, has clogged filters, a failed thermostat or a broken interior fan.

Beautiful and quaint accommodation. We stumbled upon these lovely chalets by accident and booked only a few prior to our arrival. The owners were so friendly and very accommodating. The chalet was so lovely and the owners provided plenty of firewood and the chalet was fully self contained, it even had a bbq in the courtyard. Very private with beautiful grounds a close to town. Highly recommended.