Denied refund aftr medical emergeny
I was excited to take my kids to Fruitdale Farm. As a single mom, I appreciated that it was an affordable trip. However, I got violently ill with a bacterial infection and had to be hospitalized twice--once two days before the start of the trip, and once on what would have been the first night of the trip. When I wrote to Aimee 48 hours before the start of the trip, asking if I could possibly bump our reservation to another weekend, or receive a partial refund, given the medical emergency (& explaining the extreme, sudden nature of the illness),she refused, rigidly sticking with her policy of 3 days' notice.
This was my first time using HipCamp, which interested me as a more community-oriented company than AirBnB or corporate hotels. I was really disappointed to discover Aimee's callousness in the face of real suffering by a potential repeat customer. She didn't even have the courtesy to say, "Sorry you're sick," or offer even a partial refund for the firewood or sauna session I purchased.
To me, this indicates a person who cares more about lost income than other people, and in this way, does not uphold the ethos that HipCamp espouses in their mission statement. I will be lodging a formal complaint with the company to try to recoup some of the amount. It's a family farm, not a chain hotel, where this rigid disregard comes with the territory. Being in hospitality/tourism means building good relationships from the start, & at the very least, showing a little sympathy.