Avis Mentone “Rest Easy” - Tranquil Serenity, Relaxation & Pet Friendly

Our guest Bo arrived at our home for a 7 day stay. Bo notified us about 2 days into his stay the hot water in the home was running out after a shower. We called a local professional plumbing service who arrived at the home the next morning and diagnosed the home’s tankless hot water unit was no longer working. The home does have an additional 20 gallon electric hot water heater tank backup to the homes tankless water heater, however, the 20 gallon tank wasn’t able to keep up with the hot water needs of Bo and his family (1 hour in between running out of hot water before the unit could make enough hot water to be used for other purposes). We had to order a new electric hot water heater tank (30 gallon) to couple with the 20 gallon unit. Unfortunately, due to the difficultly in sourcing one locally (30 gallon tanks in this part of Alabama are hard to come by - took 1 day to get tank ordered and picked up at a local Plumbing supply store in Fort Payne), coordinating an electrician and plumber to install the new one, Bo and his family were without hot water for 5 days. We provided our sincerest apologies to Bo and also offered a significant refund for the inconvenience, although it was no fault of our own. This guest deserved a relaxing, peaceful stay at our home, as we have been known for and u fortunately, the home’s hot water system gave out during their stay. We are sincerely sorry to Bo and his family this happened during their stay.

Theresa, our sincere thanks again for choosing a stay out home, the Mentone "Rest Easy". Please know you are more than welcome back at any point your travels bring you back to the Mentone area. Owner - Greg Sippel

Morris, our sincere thanks again for choosing a stay out home, the Mentone "Rest Easy". Please know you are more than welcome back at any point your travels bring you back to the Mentone area. Owner - Greg Sippel

Andrew, our sincere thanks again for choosing a stay out home, the Mentone "Rest Easy" and for leaving a very "detailed" review of your stay and the home. To complement some of the points Andrew raised for others reading his review: 1) There is a neighbor on the dead-end street our home is located on who does occasionally let their dog loose to roam the neighborhood. The dog is very friendly, and I have spoken to the neighbor about the fact we have vacation rental guests, are a pet friendly property and it would be appreciated if he kept his dog on a lease while she is outdoors. 2) Internet - We have had a few guests that have cited issues with connecting to the WiFi in the home or upon connecting, the WiFi router not having connectivity to the Internet. We are working with a new broadband provider in the area (Famers Telecom) to research replacing the current internet to the home. The Farmers Telecom solution is much faster than the current provider we have which is DSL (through the telephone lines). 3) Ice Maker - As noted in Andrews review, we have had a few guests that have notified our property manager, left in their review of the home the Ice Maker on the side by side, French Door fridge doesn't work at times. During a recent visit to the home, I looked into the issue with the Ice Maker. The problem is NOT with the Ice Maker, it is due to the fact that if a guest(s) are not routinely using the Ice Maker to dispense ice from the unit, the ice cubes the Ice Maker creates fill up the drawer which holds the ice (inside the door on the freezer side of fridge) and the ice creates an "Ice Ball", basically the ice cubes freeze together where once a the Ice Maker disposal turns to dispense the Ice, it is unable to do as the Ice Maker is trying to dispense a solid chunk of ice. The way to resolve this is to take out the drawer on the inside of the freezer door, dump out all of the ice cubes in the bin, remove the chunk of frozen ice that is sitting on top of the Ice Maker dispenser portion of the unit. 4) Soap / Body Wash. As Andrew cited, we DO NOT provide bath soap or body wash. We know a number of other homes do provide these amenities; We used to supply this in the past but found a large number of guests brought their own personal items and didn't utilize the bath soaps, shampoo / conditioner bottles, or body soap we provided. In essence, we were spending money on items guests weren't using (We have been renting the home for 10 years and provided these amenities for a period of 3 years in 2017, 2018, 2019). As such, we clearly disclose in our booking reservation confirmation, our VRBO listing and check in instructions list that we do not provide these amenities, and the guest is to bring them with them. 5) Conflicting messages about firewood. In our VRBO listing, it is clearly states we DO NOT provide firewood, starter logs for either the indoor, outdoor screened in porch fireplaces. Additionally, this is also clearly stated in our check in instructions message all guests receive, prior to their check in date, that we don't provide firewood or starter logs for either the Indoor or outdoor screened in porch fireplace. We will review ALL of our guest correspondences again to ensure it is clear that we don't provide firewood. We provided firewood for guests for years, up until 2021, however, some guests would use a couple pieces of firewood, others would burn 1/2 a cord of firewood during their stay. It became very expensive to restock firewood for guests, including the price on firewood also went up along with everything during and after COVID. We do supply firewood for the outdoor firepit on the patio which sits to the right-hand side of the home (Firewood is on log racks alongside the patio). That firewood is ONLY TO BE USED for burning in the outdoor firepit as it is mostly pine and if burned in the home's fireplaces, will create creosote buildup and potentially a fire. Our check in instructions sent to ALL guests clearly states use of the firewood in the log racks can be used for the outdoor firepit and outdoor firepit ONLY. 6) I sincerely appreciate Andrew bringing to our property managers attention the issues about the sugar ants. As our home is in the woods, we occasionally get the outside "Pest" inside the home. We have a quarterly pest extermination program with a locally owned pest extermination company called Safe Solutions Plus Pest Control who treats the home (inside and out) quarterly and will retreat for free for cases like Andrew brought to our attention. Andrew, please know we were honored to host you and are incredibly grateful for the detailed feedback you left on your stay. You are more than welcome back at any point your travels bring you back to the Mentone area. Owner - Greg Sippel