Steer Clear of Island Cove Marina
October 17, 2007
Lake Chickamauga in Harrison, TN
By: Bo Crawford
"They felt no remorse about what they did"...Bill Greene, TMTangler veteran
Those of you who visit the site know that for years TMTanglers has made several trips per year to various waterways around the southeast. Part of the fun is the enjoyable experience we've had at the numerous accommodations we've booked over the years. This year we had a terrible experience at Island Cove Marina & Resort, LLC on Lake Chickamauga in Harrison, TN.
Here is a synopsis of our experience: Island Cove Marina has a small inn called the "Island Cove Inn", and two cabins; "Cabin A" and "Cabin B". In October 2006 we reserved "Cabin B" for October 2007 and guaranteed this reservation with a credit card number. In September 2007 we verified the reservation at least twice prior to making the trip. However, upon arrival for our vacation we were informed that the Cabin B has been rented to another party.
Obviously, it is never good to arrive for a fishing vacation complete with boats and fishing gear to learn you have no place to stay. The explanation given to us was that our reservation was cancelled weeks earlier upon learning the Island Cove Inn (The Inn) was booked. It is true that we inquired on the possibility of renting rooms at The Inn once we learned that more anglers would be attending than originally anticipated. But since The Inn was already booked, this option was not available. How asking " are there any openings at The Inn?" translates into " I want to cancel my reservation for Cabin B" is beyond me. It is much more likely that the decision was made to rent the cabin from under us to a friend or other party who offered more money.
How Island Cove Marina treated us going forward was even more disappointing than the fact that they rented the cabin out from under us. Regardless of who was at fault for our predicament, the fact remained that we were in Harrison, TN and had no place to stay. In my youth I worked at a front desk and when there were problems with customers' reservations we would do our best to help them by making other arrangements--even if this meant calling competing hotels on behalf of the customer. This is common sense and customer service 101. Wendy at Island Cove offered no assistance like this what so ever. The only help she provided us was to let us use the yellow pages to look up the address of a Motel 8.
There was a boat race on the lake that weekend and all the hotels in the Chattanooga area were booked. We were there, with no place to stay, and not familiar with the area. In desperation I once again called Island Cove to ask for assistance. Wendy's response was "I gave you the yellow pages to find a Motel 8, what else do you want me to do"? I asked to speak with the general manager and Wendy said that he would not help us with issues like this.
I could go into more details but the bottom line was this; Wendy, at the Island Cove Inn, was all about covering her butt and zero about making things right. She felt no responsibility for our predicament and had no desire to make it right by helping us find alternate lodging. She successfully screened us from her boss or anyone else who might be able to offer helpful advice on where to look for alternate lodging.
The bottom line is that in years of doing this, this is by far the worst experience we have had on one of our trips. STEER CLEAR OF ISLAND COVE MARINA. I would not use any of their services, much less the lodging. I am willing to bet same terrible customer service is prevalent among the entire organization.
For the record, our group did receive help from the front desk manager of a Hampton Inn. Although their hotel was full, and she was not in any way responsible for our quandary, she was kind enough to help us find a place to stay in the next town. Our trip turned out to be a success in spite of Island Cove Resort and Marina, LLC.