We booked at Magic Lamp after reading overwhelmingly positive reviews from previous guests; unfortunately, that was not our experience. We understood from the listing and the reviews that we would be sharing the dock with our hosts, and we didn’t have a problem with that—the family was indeed very friendly, and the lake is beautiful. What was neither mentioned to us or represented in the listing is that there is a recording studio behind and in close proximity to the cabin. Nor was it mentioned that a recording session would be taking place during our stay. On the Saturday night our host mentioned as he was walking by, “you might hear some drums”. Well, yes we did, for about 4 hours that night. Then all day Sunday. Then all day Monday. There were other instruments being played as well of course, and some singing—but the almost constant sound of drums was what disturbed the most. We even got some cowbell - just like the Saturday Night Live skit. Only it wasn’t funny.
In correspondence with our host after our vacation unraveled, she tried to imply that we had misguided expectations: "Definitely this is not the place for you,” she wrote, “we do not offer exclusive use of our property." But as we have outlined, not having exclusive use of the property was not the issue.
We are small business owners who work hard and manage to carve out one short summer vacation a year into our schedule. We were dismayed that our 5-day getaway was being ruined by a situation and setting the host had not been forthright about. Full days of drumming are very oppressive if you haven’t asked for them. It was difficult to enjoy the good things about this property, and simple things like just sitting on the porch relaxing and reading a book were not possible. We were hoping it was a weekend event and would be over, but the session continued Monday. Our stress levels were rising. When the band arrived again on Tuesday morning, my husband went and spoke to the host Jose to tell him how we felt.
After that we sat and weighed whether there was a way to salvage the remainder of our time there. There was no way it would not be awkward and tense with our hosts, and with the band there for another day we just could not see it being good. We left a day early and in our back and forth with the hosts requested a three night refund. They were firm on offering two nights and in order to resolve the matter that is what we eventually accepted.