Labor Day cabin stay draws complaints from family

By RENEE FITE
Special Writer

TAHLEQUAH DAILY PRESS October 02, 2008 09:57 am

— Complaints about a family’s Labor Day weekend stay at Sequoyah Bay State Park marina and cabins have prompted owner Gina Ramming to paint a different picture of the holiday on the lake.
Located two miles north of Okay, the privately owned enterprise operates on state land. It rents five cabins, hookups and primitive sites for camping; has a boat ramp and docks for fishing; provides meals at a hamburger grill; and has restrooms and showers and outdoor grills, a grocery and picnic areas.
Three of the five new cabins have been remodeled with themes – western, lodge and Tiki Island; the other two are “basic, clean cabins,” said Ramming, who has operated the business more than six years.
She said that on summer weekends, those who visit the lakes or rivers realize these facilities will be packed, and on holiday weekends, they’re even more swamped. Sequoyah Bay State Park is no exception.
That could be the impetus for a recent complaint, lodged to the Daily Press in a form of a lengthy letter to the editor.
While attending a family reunion during the holiday weekend, Dianne Underwood, of Choctaw, said that from the time she checked in and until she left Sunday, she had a problem with her accommodations.
“We checked into the marina; why, I don’t know. It was a mad house,” Underwood wrote. “A little hamburger grill is busy, the gas pumps are going and the little store is packed. We wait and wait some more, just to check in.”
When they checked in, they had two cabin keys, but one cabin was already occupied. At the other cabin, they had trouble with the door lock, had trouble finding linens, and expected two queen beds instead of one.
The futon “wasn’t bad for a futon,” Underwood thought, “until my husband [lay] down next to me and the bed folded right in the middle, throwing us on top of each other.”
On Saturday, after eating lunch at the marina, Underwood wanted to fish from the inside dock but found it closed and being used to store supplies. That afternoon, the cabin door lock finally refused to reopen, requiring someone from the marina to come and remove the doorknob, so some of the people in the cabin could get out.
Underwood complained that staff members were slow to respond to her problems.
Ramming said they know they can’t always make everyone happy, but they try.
“We do our best,” Ramming said. “This is a family-operated business with five on staff.”
As she was thinking about the situation, Ramming recalled the complaining customer.
“I remember her,” she said. “She was rude from the minute she walked through the door. Very demanding.”
All five of the employees tried to work with Underwood, Ramming recalled.
“It’s always busy during the holidays, and we had three extra people helping us,” she said. “We’ve been busy all summer, and we’re grateful.”
They usually have a waiting list, she said. “We’re booked all summer – even now, fortunately,” Ramming said.
She added that by Saturday evening, they realized they weren’t going to make Underwood happy, and offered her a full refund.
“She said no,” Ramming said. “She stayed all weekend.”
As for the broken door lock, Ramming admitted it’s true.
“We had to go take it off, and dad went into town the next morning to get another one and replaced it,” she said.
They also offered to buy new sheets for Underwood, since she said they were scratchy, Ramming recalled.
“That family has come here for several years, they told me,” she said.
Employee Carol Reed remembered the situation well.
“We bent over backward to please her,” she said. “Nothing we did was good enough.”
Reed also said although they allow pets that are well-behaved, the contract states the renters are responsible for any damages caused by their pets.
When the cabin was rented again, Ramming said, the next customers complained about flea infestation.
“We had to contact [Underwood] about paying for spraying for fleas and cleaning up after the large dogs she had,” said Ramming.
It’s hard enough to keep a family business operating these days, Ramming said, so “we do everything we can to make sure people have a good time and want to come back.”
Ultimately, Underwood indicated she felt she was misled by an online advertisement for the cabins. She quoted from the Web site, www.shopoklahoma.com/sequoybay.htm: “Sequoyah Bay cabins are the cleanest cabins around. The cabins have each been designed with one bedroom, a small kitchen, a full bathroom with shower, air conditioning, heat, a covered porch, and a grill. Each cabin has two queen sized beds, a futon that folds out to a full sized bed and sleeps six people comfortably. Cabin Guest receive free admittance to the fishing dock.”
Leslie Blair, with the Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department, said her department should be made aware of such concerns.
“We want to make sure visitors to our state parks have the best possible time,” Blair said. “We’ll follow up with a visit to make sure everything is as it should be.”