A Happy Ending

After exchanging a few emails with the owner of Getaway Cabins, I'm extremely pleased to report that our New Year's story has, at long last, come to a happy ending. I received an email on Friday, detailing the following steps they were going to take to rectify the situation:

They are going to refund us the cost of our stay.

In addition, they are sending us a gift certificate for a free night's stay with them.

They are also sending a similar certificate to the couple who helped us out so much during our ordeal.

They are going to install security bars in the top track of their sliding doors so they cannot fall into place.

They are going to start handing out to guests laminated cards that contain all necessary contact information.

Assuming all of this is true (I have no reason to believe it's not; I just won't believe it 100% until I see it for myself--I'm hoping the refund and gift certificate will be in the mail today), they've really stepped up to the plate, and I'm heartily impressed. The refund will be nice, and the gift certificate is an unexpected bonus that will definitely get us back down there. I think it's really great of them to do the same for the couple that gave up a night of their vacation there to help us out. What I'm most glad about, though, is the changes they're making to prevent or ease similar situations in the future. I didn't expect anything to happen in that regard. To be honest, I didn't expect anything. At most, I thought they might give us a refund to get us to go away, and that would be it. While I would have accepted that with no real qualms, I'm glad to see that they took our situation seriously enough to address all aspects of it.

As for the money we're getting back? We haven't made any firm plans for it yet, waiting until we actually have it in our hands, but I'm thinking we may use it for an upcoming weekend in Cleveland for a Cavaliers game or (further out) in Cincinnati for a Reds game. Whatever we end up doing with it, be it one of those options or something else entirely, I just hope it's fun and uneventful enough (at least in terms of negative events) to make up for the New Year's debacle. Getaway Cabins has already done their part to erase the bad feelings that night engendered.

UPDATE: The refund check and gift certificate did indeed arrive today in the mail. Hooray!