We made the mistake of just reading the first few rewiews...make sure you read them all. There seems to be two sets of hosts...the warm and caring ones and the "Others." We found the latter. They made us feel like intruders.

Our son& his wife, very thoughtfully gave us a 2 night stay at the Husum Highlands Bed & Breakfast as a gift. When I called to make a reservation in June, the wife, Carol, was very grouchy and said that they do not have any weekends for us (voucher said it was good through Sept 30), but if we wanted 2 weekdays, they could work it out. She also went on for way too long for my liking, about how they wished they had never signed up for Living Social and that you guys take all their money and they don’t make anything off of these deals. I was mortified, to say the least. We were in a very precarious position, due to the fact our son gave this to us as a gift. So I said OK, let’s make it a weeknight visit.

This would be the first of many times I excused their horrible behavior. I asked, since we weren’t getting the weekend for 2 with wine, can we at least upgrade to the “suite”. She griped and griped, then said if we pay another $50 to make up for the difference, she will do it. I agreed to that. Then, she calls back and says she just talked to her husband and they are charging $50 a night, for a total now of $100. OK, again, to try to avoid a bad situation with this gift our kids gave us, I complied. Then when I emailed to confirm, Jerry, the husband, writes back and says he is also going to charge us an additional $20! Now we’re up to $120 out of our pocket, for 2 weeknights, no wine, and a lot of griping from Carol & Jerry about how they aren’t making anything off this.

So, my husband and I drive 5 hours to get there, knocked on the door, and this crotchety, sour faced, unfriendly man just stands there. No “hello, can I help you”, or "Welcome, come in", he just stands there. Feeling awkward, I say are you Jerry? He answers in a bark, “Last time I checked!” It went downhill from there. He insisted when we walked through the door to go no farther until we provide payment of $120. No tour. No friendly talk. No hospitality. Just give me the money. He then took our credit card and charges us the $120. Then he says “follow me” and takes us up three flights of stairs to a little bedroom and the “suite” was a bathroom in the hall and a daybed in a nook, all open to the third floor. Again, no tour or offer to relax in any other part of the house. Just the 3rd story “prison” We ask if there is a key in case we come in late. He says “no locks on doors, inside or exterior”. He said the place was safe but since we had no idea who the other guest would be, were we to trust them too, to all of your belongings while we were out for the day? Great, now we are really feeling creeped out. He disappears back down the stairs, after informing us that breakfast will be at 8:30, and that’s all we saw of him, thank goodness!

We walked aroung the garden, then got back into our car and left. There was no way we were staying there with creepy “hosts”, and no locks on any doors. Also, this place claimed to be close to everything, but it was a half hour drive to civilization and part was on an old dirt road.

I called Jerry when we left and told him we will not be staying there due to their intense lack of hospitalityand not even pretenting to make us feel welcome. We then asked if he could please credit us our $120 back, as he was going to keep the money from Living Social that our kids paid. He again complained, like it was OUR problem they chose Living Social and then into the fact that Living Social only gives them 20% and that they (Stockwells) have to make their money, so no, he was not going to credit it back to us.

What the Stockwells are offering does not match up to their advertising at all. They are scamming people with hidden fees that they conjure up, not to mention that the whole premise of a B & B is HOSPITALITY has been totally lost to them. They do not know what the word means and they are downright creepy. It reminded us of something like out of an Alfred Hitchcock movie. We drove a long way to stay there and anticipated a good time. Instead, I’m sorry to say, it was a huge disappointment and very stressful. More than anything, we felt devastated to have to tell our kids the truth; that the gift they so thoughtfully gave us was not going to be used. We operated in more than good faith. The Stockwells did not. A B & B without hospitality is really no B & B at all....and hang onto your pocket book.