We stayed in Creekside at the beginning of August 2017 while riding the Hatfield-McCoy trails. We found a BEDBUG crawling up the wall in the master bedroom. That will likely be enough to keep some people from staying with Livinggood Lodging, but the reason I won’t go back, is more so how this was handled.
Great people with clean cabins. Very accommodating with great access to the Hatfield and Mccoy rockhouse trails!
Good price, really clean, nice people to deal with!
1. Wall in the master bedroom had runs in the paint as if it had been wet (bug spray) and run down. Vivian told me someone exploded a soda in the bedroom when questioned.
It took me several weeks to decide to write this review because I do not doubt that reading about our experience will cost the owners some business. Had I however, read about a similar experience, I would have certainly chose to stay in one of the 20 other places in Gilbert for our trip. I will try to be as fair as I can by laying out facts. I have no doubt that the owner will attempt to defend or downplay my review, which is fine. This was our interpretation of the experience.
Great place to stay close to rockhouse trailhead. Owners are very friendly and checked in often to see if we needed anything for our rooms and also helped us with directions and maps for the trails. The cottage was clean, very home-like, and had ample parking for trucks/ trailers/ unloading. Access to a deck with corn-hole game we played every night while we grilled our dinner.
4. We noticed a new bed skirt in the master, with all mattresses wrapped in plastic.
Thanks for such a great stay!
After we got home, I emailed Vivian (owner) to ask what they had found.
Do I take issue with the bedbugs? Yes. But the reason I would recommend you find another place to stay in Gilbert is the way this was handled. Poorly. Full review on Trip Advisor.
Stayed here to ride the Hatfield McCoy trail system. House was clean, and experience was great!
To be completely fair, all was fine until day 3. As we were packing up to head out for our ride, my father asked me to come look at a bug on the wall. Sure enough, a BEDBUG was just cruising right up the wall in the master bedroom. We immediately trapped him, put him in a zip lock bag and googled images. I have attached the image. I do not know if TripAdvisor or google will allow it to stay, but there is no question, it’s a BEDBUG.
I immediately called Vivian (about 730 AM on a Wednesday), to tell her. She said, “Okay, I’m soo sorry, I’ll take care of it”. At this point she may or may not have asked if we brought it (none of us have traveled in over a year, but more so, how rude?) That was it. So we left, and we left the BEDBUG in the zip lock bag on the counter so she could see it.
She told me this was her worse nightmare. I asked if her and her exterminator found the bug we left. She said they did, and he wasn’t sure that it was a bedbug. Again, you look at the picture and be the judge. She proceeded to tell us he would have to take it to his “bedbug specialist” because he had never really seen one before (for real?). She assured me that they had never had a problem before, but also told me she has her places sprayed once a month (I guess by the exterminator that hasn’t ever seen a bedbug?). At some point, and forgive me I forget if it was this call or the initial call, she stated “maybe you brought it”, for an extra warm touch of professionalism. I asked her to follow up and let us know what they found out, if they found more, etc. She assured me she would. She assured me she would shut those cabins down until they had this problem solved. It’s been 2 weeks and I haven’t heard from her.
3. The manager told us that a group of TEN people from NEW YORK left the cabin next to us after 1 night very frazzled and rude the day before we arrived. She (and Vivian) chalked that up to the people being “illegal trail riders”, and said that when they found out Vivian was the mayor they didn’t want to stay with her. I’ll note that the first time I searched ‘Livinggood lodging” on google, I found out the mayor owned it. Make of that story what you will.
The more we thought about it, the more we are convinced she knew she had a problem. Some other oddities we noticed in hindsight:
Now, let me take a second to pause. Bedbugs happen. Some of the nicest hotels in America have seen bedbugs. HOWEVER, when it is a problem, it needs to be dealt with swiftly and completely before you allow anyone else to stay in your place.
2. Guest book hadn’t been signed in over a month. Vivian told me she had the cabin booked up for over a month basically every night. Kinda weird.
ABBREVIATED REVIEW (full review on Trip Advisor):
Livingood Lodging is a US Travel Agency based in Gilbert, West Virginia. Livingood Lodging is located at WV-80, Gilbert, WV 25621, USA.
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