Crystal Chalets

I've gone to Crystal Mountain my entire life (save for the first 5 years) and decided to rent a place and experience the mountain for a few days. It was a goat rodeo from beginning to end. The Price The summary of Crystal Chalets on this web site indicate a price of (and I’ll quote): “$219 - $300 (Based on Average Rates for a Standard Room)” My price after taxes and fees was $479.03. I don’t believe there’s much chance their advertised pricing is accurate. I paid a bit under $2500 for 5 nights. Not a cheap date, but it should be nice, right? Right? The Reservation Making the reservation was absurd. The web site didn't work so I had to call a number. No one would pick up the phone so after a few back and forths with voicemail, I got a hold of someone. The call that was picked up wasn't working so the person called me back on her cell phone. Evidently they run the company off of Google Voice and they sit in cafés to save money on phone bills as well as being able to prevent annoying ringing phones when customers want to make reservations or find out what on earth is going on. Anyway, the reservation was eventually made. The price suggested a three to four star resort which I am used to so I looked forward to check-in. Credit Card Stolen Nearly immediately after I paid for the rental (several weeks before the stay), my credit card started accruing charges from businesses I have had nothing to do with. The credit card was stolen and I assume sold to a fencing network which in turn sells them to others. I had to cancel the card and wait for a new card while using one from a different bank in the interim. This took two weeks. Being a former network engineer, this scenario seems pretty clear to me. Here’s my best guess: Management sits in cafés using poorly secured networks to run the business which includes network-based phone calls as well as running credit card transactions. Their laptops are hacked via the café Wi-Fi network and all credit card information (including full names, CC#, addresses, phone numbers, zip codes etc…) from Crystal Chalet is taken and sold. To be clear, the thieves know your address and when you'll be stuck way up in the mountains and utterly unable to deal with a home burglary. What a joy to be a Crystal Chalet customer. Pro Tip: This is not what professionalism means. Check-in I arrived and found there was no one on site to check anyone in. I had received an email a couple of weeks prior indicating that I would receive check-in information via email. I did not. I asked around and was referred to a piece of paper affixed to one of the buildings that gave the phone number of the "not-terribly-resident" manager. Again, I was referred to my email. "Check your spam filter" I did, there was no email. I was then given a code to an antiquated mechanical lock-box (Where's Al Gore when you really need him?) affixed to the wall of the building just outside my door. It opened just fine. I was told to return the key w