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January 2023 by Matt Williams
They don't pay their bills to their suppliers. They refused to answer the phone or return voicemails. BEWARE of doing business with this group of crooks.
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November 2021 by Pat Pendleton
May 2017 I launched my Harbor Cottage Houseboat (16' x 84' - no engines) and keep it at Lee's Ford Marina in Nancy/Somerset KY. Before I began this building process, I had never owned a boat of any kind, nor had I been to Lake Cumberland. I was a real beginner in every sense of the word.From the beginning, the team at Harbor Cottage Houseboats has been extremely patient (I had and still have lots of questions), allowed me to visit the build site anytime (I live in Cincinnati) to check the progress, offered suggestions, ideas, or explained why an idea I had was not a good move, and outlined any added cost based on changes I made. Because of all the interaction and help, I was able to make informed decisions and felt good about the building process.Since 2017, I met with other potential customers to discuss my experience, ideas, small changes I would make (shelving, draw space) and as a result, at least 3 families I know of also built their dream Harbor Cottage Houseboat. I keep in touch with them, and they are pleased with their choice as well.JD Hamilton, (Owner), Larry (Bubba) Jones (Shop Foreman) and his crew, as well as employees at Lee's Ford Marina made this entire experience one I would happily repeat!
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November 2021 by Sherry A. Nelson
I made the mistake of believing their whole advertising story of family owned and quality manufacturing. My second mistake was falling in love with the cosmetic beauty of the brand new never used, TinyXL. Which I thought I was getting at an unbelievably low price. It was listed for 349,000.00. I purchased it for 200,000.00. I will spare you the gory details of the five months it took to get the cash purchase completed. Suffice to say the Hamiltons, father and son made it a nightmare experience. The lack of communication and mysterious difficulties just getting the houseboat registered so it could be purchased was enough to boggle one’s mind.The final straw was the letter from JD Hamilton at the eleventh hour. It stated that he would be “remiss” if he didn’t point out that the houseboat was not “designed” to handle the Mississippi, which his son knew practically from the beginning was the plan. The son was supposed to give me a quote on the cost of transporting the Tiny XL to Celine Tennessee so it could be placed on the Mississippi. After waiting a week for his quote I was told he couldn’t do it and I needed to get a third party. After receiving JD Hamilton’s letter regarding the “design” of the houseboat. I decided to have it surveyed. (Thank you Baby Jesus). Turns out this beautiful houseboat, below deck, had multiple code and safety violations. The cost to bring it up to code is 15,000.00.The appraisal of this TinyXL?... 200,000.00.Please for your own safety even if you purchase a brand new houseboat from Harbor Cottage Houseboat manufacturer...get a marine survey.Yes I did purchase the HB. Like I said I fell in love with it. I moved it to a different marina, connected it to shore power and... no power. Brought in an electrician, turns out the outlets for shore power on the starboard side are not connected to anything.PLEASE SEE YELP REVIEW ON HARBOR COTTAGE TO SEE MY REPLY TO OWNERS INCORRECT STATEMENTS IN HIS REPLY
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November 2021 by Barry Flatt
Great people to do business with. The cottages are very beautiful and very good quality workmanship.
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January 2021 by Sherry N.
In response to owners reply. Yes he is correct. It is sitting in his marina. And yes they did fix the code violations. I had every intention of adding an addendum to this review when this nightmare was finally over. It would have been a bit different than what I am now going to report after seeing the owners incorrect statements. Yes I did purchase an UNUSED one year and one month old tiny XL. NO they never explained anything about how the boat was to be shipped. Actually except for the letter from the owner stating he would be "remiss" if he didn't tell me the houseboat was not designed for the Mississippi, at the eleventh hour, I had NO communication with the owner. NOTHING was ever explained. Trying to communicate with the owner or the son was next to impossible. I spoke to the son exactly twice. My first call to Harbor Cottage was answered by the owners son who said after I stated I was interested in their tiny houseboat "How did you get this number". The second time was when I reached him accidentally in total frustration because mysteriously the broker couldn't get the tiny xl registration information. That is when I found out that the woman who made the changes to the original tiny turning it into the tiny XL had not paid the sales tax. It wasn't until I spoke to her that I finally received information about the houseboat. The broker from BoatUS was constantly apologizing because of how difficult it was to complete the purchase.NO I did not decline shipping because of what harbor cottage charged. I was told by JD's son they couldn't make any money on transporting it and I had to get a "third party" to transport it.After I got the letter from the owner of HC about "not designed to handle the Mississippi" is when I had the HB Driven to Trifecta the company that was going to charge me 15,000.00 to bring this UNUSED HB up to code. Then the pandemic hit. And it sat there. When things started opening up I received a call from Barry, the broker who replaced the one who sold me the boat.Barry said he heard my Tiny XL was at Trifecta and hadn't been worked on yet so Barry offered, since HARBOR COTTAGE had built the HB they were more qualified to do the repairs. REPAIRS! BTW I still have the emails verifying what I am stating here. I asked BARRY if he knew what "repairs" were needed? He stated "no" .I then informed him that they were NOT repairs but work needed to bring it up to code. Which btw every code violation stated in the survey was followed BY the USCG REQUIREMENT as stated in their rules. Obviously I have the survey as proof. Barry got back to me after that and informed me they would do the required work for free if I brought the boat back. Which I did. At first they worked diligently on the HB. I was asked by Barry if I would sell the tiny XL back to harbor Cottage. I was told JD wanted it to put in his rental fleet so people could see this new design. When I said no, the work slowed. It has finally been completed. Yes he has not charged me slip fees, yet.Considering the nightmare I have endured, that is the least he could do. JD has completed and is manufacturing more of these beautiful TINY XLs.The interesting thing to note and I told the broker who sold me the HB. I was trying to find a slip in New Orleans marina. When I told the New Orleans manager I needed the slip for a houseboat she informed me no there were no slips available and there was a long wait list.I then asked her advice as to where I could find a slip for my houseboat and showed her a picture of the TinyXL. She said after seeing the picture "Here". "I will find a slip HERE". "People are going to want this HB".I WILL GET THIS HOUSEBOAT TO NEW ORLEANS MARINA come hell or high water. Without spending the 80,000.00 Harbor Cottage charged the woman who had the tinyXl built, to transfer it to her home in north lake Pontchartrain. Unfortunately when they delivered her HB 1. She couldn't get insurance and 2. The transporters couldn
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November 2019 by Ray Gillies
Website is infected with an ad virus that wants to down load ad software
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November 2019 by Kadeem Bailey
Never returned phone calls
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November 2019 by Larry Lang
Cool product.
