Silver Pines Chalet

Please research this rental carefully before booking. It’s one room in a larger building with nine separate rooms, each listed separately on Vrbo. Google reviews are worth checking, since the property operates under several names, including “June Lake Chalet,” “Silver Pines Lodge,” and “June Lake Lodge.” More digging shows that each listing is managed by Patricia Kennedy, with the same phone number shown here. After reading the Google reviews, I noticed similar reports, especially room changes and last-minute cancellations. I booked on Dec 2, 2022 for Dec 27-30, 2022. On Dec 11, a Vrbo message I hadn’t seen yet said Room 5 was no longer available and asked me to call. The next day I asked to change the guest count from two to four because friends were considering coming, and I started making plans with them. On Dec 14, a voicemail said they needed to move us to a smaller unit with just one queen bed if I wanted to keep the reservation. Patricia later told me the original room wasn’t available and asked if my dates could move. She said she could fit four people in two rooms if we went later. My dates weren’t flexible then, so I accepted the smaller room and had to uninvite my friends. Six days before the trip, on Dec 21, Patricia texted that there was a family emergency and they had to cancel, with a refund. I called back immediately. She said she could try to house us elsewhere. I also found another Vrbo listing for Dec 28-31 at a much lower price and requested it. It turned out to be another room in the same building. We decided to move our dates. Patricia apologized and offered to cover a day, refund the price difference, and let us stay free the following summer. We later learned only the free summer stay was actually an option. I declined because I was tired of dealing with all this. I wasn’t refunded the difference, but accepted that as a holiday-season premium. We arrived on Dec 28, 15 minutes after the 4 pm check-in time. Nothing was ready, nobody was on site, and the rooms were empty and open. On the phone, we were told to wait an hour because the manager was at the laundromat cleaning linens. We finally got settled around 5:45 pm, but the unit hadn’t been properly cleaned because the manager was rushing to finish the other rooms. The Vrbo photos also weren’t of one specific room, but seemed to be picked from different rooms. Before being told to wait, we’d spent time looking through rooms for someone on site. Patricia and the manager were always cordial and civil with us. They seem like warm, lovely people, but unfortunately don’t seem able to maintain high standards at their business.

Walking into Silver Pine Chalet felt like visiting a very tasteful aunt who lives by June Lake, Cal., on a hot summer weekend. Even with very little notice, the room was ready with lovely bedding, a cute fireplace by the window, and a clean, pleasant bathroom. The wifi was amazing, too.

We called the host before the trip to confirm our reservation, given the regional stay-home order. After nearly four hours on the road, they called and canceled it. It was around 9 pm, and there was nowhere else we could stay nearby, so we had to turn back and cancel the whole trip even though we were close to our destination. The last-minute cancellation was beyond understanding. Don’t book here if you want to avoid the same disappointment.

Two families with kids of different ages planned an eight-day winter mountain vacation near the slopes, booking four months ahead. Patricia wrecked all that planning and the kids’ hopes for snow. “Silver Pines Chalet” is misleading, and I found the host fraudulent. It’s a large house with seven or eight bedrooms, several entrances, and two kitchens. The other rooms have only microwaves and refrigerators, though Patricia calls them “quaint.” She rents rooms and combinations through multiple booking sites, gets overbooked, and can’t provide what the listings show. The photos are confusingly labeled, especially when comparing different websites and room layouts. Getting in touch with Patricia is nearly impossible. She communicates when she feels like it, if at all. If she says she’ll call back or update a reservation, she won’t do it, and then she won’t answer the phone. When something goes wrong and rooms aren’t available, she rushes you and pressures you to cancel yourself instead of canceling on her end, apparently to avoid fees, penalties, and a lower host rating. We booked three bedrooms for up to 10 people. Without telling us, she tried to squeeze us into two bedrooms with one queen bed each. I only found out because I noticed she’d changed the listing profile and reduced the capacity to six. Please do your research before booking an affordable place in June Lake with Patricia. We ended up with a ruined mood, hours spent resolving the conflict, a canceled vacation, and no customer service. In December there’s no affordable housing left around Mammoth or June Lake. We had to change plans, return the kids’ winter gear, and give up the extended vacation they’d been looking forward to.