I, along with several others, have been travelling to Lake George every year in Feb or March for a week and sometimes 2 and have for the past 6 years been booking rental homes. Lots of others stay at the Southern Ocean Tourist Park which is where I booked a cabin for our first few years of travelling down there.
A year ago new people took over the company managing the bookings of the rental homes, By The Sea Holiday Rentals. They pretty much have a monopoly on all the rental properties down there. It turns out they are the same people that run the tourist park.
In previous years I have never had an issue booking nor baulked at the prices being charged. But last year and even moreso this year, the prices have been jacked up astronomically to the point where it is now more expensive to stay for a week in Feb or March than it is to stay at Xmas or New Years. This reeks of greediness and money grabbing and almost extortion toward us windsurfers. I have not checked the prices of camping as that is something I haven't ever done but it would be interesting to hear someone else's take on it.
In trying to book this year, my email enquiries have not been returned (5 of them) nor any voicemails I have left (4 also). So instead my friends and I booked another property not in By the Sea's portfolio and it is cheaper than we would have normally have paid anyway, so a good win. But I do think we were just lucky.
Is this sour grapes on my part? Yep, it probably is. But I just wanted to highlight that people should be aware of what is going on and draw attention to the terrible customer service (or lack thereof). We inject tens of thousands of dollars into that community over a 2-3 month period and I would have thought they (By the Sea Holiday Rentals) would be a bit more attentive and accommodating (no pun intended) towards us. Maybe it is just me having the issues, but I suspect it is not.
Jamie, if you read this post, maybe you can have a chat to who we both know runs the show now and let her know that this isn't cool. Unless of course she just doesn't want us staying there anymore in which case we'll just go to Millicent or Robe.
Don't you get the hint? they don't want you there lol, kind of stinks if the prices have been inflated for that time of year.
I'll share my mansion with anyone that is priced out 
Jokes apart it is a known practice to jack up the prices to your most faithful customers, they call them 'sleeping beauties' because don't shop around.
I've just had a week windsurfing lake George with 4 others and we stayed in a rental house in Beachport. We are from Adelaide and this is the fourth time we've used the house which is managed thru By the Sea Holiday Rentals. But this year we had the same experience as sic_em_rex above. Higher prices and poor communication, ph messages not returned etc. Not a good customer experience.
Problem is there isn't a lot of choice as there aren't many rentals houses in Beachport and By The Sea has most of the market covered. We're planning to go back for another week later this summer and we'd prefer to stay in Beachport. But we may need to look at the Beachport Caravan Park or Millicent / Robe if we cant get a rental house in Beachport or it becomes too expensive.
