Shasta - Best place to rent a houseboat

I am planning another HB trip to shasta. We launched out of Shasta Marina two years ago and loved it. However, I want to look at other areas. Where is the best place to rent a houseboat out of, as well as ride?

Looking at heading up in the fall.

Rent a houseboat at Packer's Bay. It is a family run operation, and they will take good care of you. As far as where to ride, find a cove that is perpendicular to the wind, and you're good to go.

Hi Stefani, We shared the same cove 2 years ago. From what I have seen Shasta marina or holiday harbor might be your best boat rental bet. Both have great boats and good riding near by. we had nothing but problems with antlers marina and the boat. We are going to be there for the week of July 23 to the 30th. When are you going?.

Stefani,

Stay away from Antlers!!! Everytime I think about it I get more fustrated..... I will TRY tomake this short & sweet but don't think I can

I went check out on the DOC, lady says boat looks great, thank you. I go upfront to check out & they inform me there is a hold on my deposit & they will call me later this week with the charges - LOL. Out front theere were 3 other groups of renters dealing with a simillar mess like mine =(

I said, I can wait - she said she doesnt know the total damages are or what for??? I said, how is there a deposit hold, yet you don't know what it's for & the costs.... I told her I understand you are simply the messenger, please get me someone who can help. She informs me that NO one can help me and to go home & we will call you later. At that point I said I will sleep in your parking lot, I am not leaving without a list of damages and costs. She calls the manager out & she goes back in her office, the place is not that busy and they make me wait a good hour + for nothing. The manager comes out pulls the sheet - $900.00 in cleaning costs.

The first lady had the list the entire time & detailed list of charges but didnt want to tell me and tried to get me to leave. The manager lady says these charges are due & theres nothing she can do for me. I advised her when I checked out they said the boat was clean & I owed nothing, so down to the dock I go.

I speak to they women who checked me out & she said the boat was fine & tab was 0.00. I asked for Steve the DOC manager. Steve indicates he saw the boat before we were done cleaning & I dont appreciate you punk kids thrashing my boat. Do you guys know what respect is??? I am biting my tongue and trying to stay cool calm & collective with every ounce of rationality in my body. ( thinking to myself - I am 30 years old to start, we are on Shasta which is filled with Red dirt & lastly the HB came with no hose to wash off the docks )


Steve went over the charges:

500.00 for carpet cleaning ( a houseboat has a 2 ft by 40 ft run & had plastic lining over the top - cmon now)
100.00 for the screen opeeling from mesh ( a 1.00 fix )
100.00 for mopping ( mopping - cmon now )
100.00 for weather strippin on the slider peeling off ( who knows if we even did this + its a 5.00 part )
100.00 for a toilet seat cap missing. ( again picky and a 2.00 part )



I said how does the boat look now Steve & he said a lot better. These were obv. estimates & I began to question them when he got more upset & said I have to send people into town for parts & I can charge you for ordering , shipping and labor costs.... With every bit of patience in my body I calmly got the cleaning fees down to 450.00 which I was still ROYALLY PISSED off about but better than the 900.00 to start.

I bought the 18.00 a day insurance plan for nothing, I could have sunk the boat & been better off. I was well aware about cleaning and brought my own supplies, pine sol, 409, wipes, paper towels, etc... We mopped all the floors, cabinets, dishes, walls & even matresses =(

The other renters on the dock were charged a 100.00 an hour to go back down to there boat to RE CLEAN in to get some of thier deposit back.

I thought about filling complaints & disputes with Visa but you know what there time will come. I plan on renting houseboats at least 1x a year & Antlers will never see a dime of my money & hopefuylly not your either...

Here are 2 quick movies I shot on our way out - boats clean IMO

http://stunnin.com/SHASTA/DSCN0239.MOV
http://stunnin.com/SHASTA/DSCN0240.MOV



Lzy

I do NOT recomment Silverthorne either... We had a horrible experience with them last summer. I have rented from Holiday Harbor for 4 summers before that. They don't have the luxury houseboats but they are very well priced and have the cheapest gas on the lake.

They also have something silverthorne couldn't quite figure out on a busy weekend... organization at the launch. Holiday harbor has a guy with a walkie-talkie guiding traffic and launches. Silverthorne had nobody when I was there. They decided to pull a houseboat out to replace the outdrive in the middle of the morning when there was already a huge line to launch/trailer boats. Rediculous!!!

I could go on and on but it pisses me off just thinking about that place.

Thanks for the tips. We had a great experience with Shasta Marina last year. We loved the Sac. arm but were thinking of trying another area. Michale, if we can get the same cove as we had before, we will. That cove was incredible. We won't be heading out until last week of August or first week of Sept. most likely. We'll know more this week. Will you guys be heading to the same cove?

Does anyone have opinions about jones valley or bridge bay?

Aaron, that sucks. I will not use Antlers. Not after hearing all this. By the way, we got the rubber bark (per your suggestion) for the back yard and we LOVE it! Brady has done a nose dive several times on it and we have had no problems:-) Thanks for that tip as well!

P.S. The only thing I hated about Shasta Marina was the ramp. Or lack of. There was no ramp! We launched our boat from an uneven dirt roadway. They called it a ramp, but that was NO ramp!

Shasta Marina is great. However it is best to launch the boat at Packers. Doe Cove is awesome we are there every weekend and love it.

To experience the Pit or Squaw arms I would try Jones Valley Marina.

For the McCloud arm try Lakeview Marina.

I agree Jones Valley is close to some great riding and has a awesome HB. We've rented out of there a few times. Also liked Silverthorn. They rent the same boats. We had great water at that end of the lake but were told we were lucky with the conditions. Shasta Marina wasn't all that great and have never gone back.

Stefani , That was doe cove we were in 2 years ago. We were on the other side by holiday last year and will be this year. Last year we went for a boat ride and checked out doe cove but the lake was full so it seemed smaller.

Arron you have got to be kidding me.....That boat was perfect. We have rented from Silverthorne, Minor problems but nothing that we that big of a deal and nothing that cost us money. The best place we have been was Sugarloaf. They are owned by Jones Valley. They were great. They have the small houseboats and the huge nice boats. since they own 3 places on the lake you have more options for Pump out. We even took out a prop once and they have a 1 free replacement. The people are super freindly and our boat was perfect.

Aaron I can not believe that you had som many problems. I am sure that this was the last thing that you wanted to deal with after your Bachelor Party weekend. I have never been on a houseboat that has CARPET. Are they retarded...come on, not to mention that for $500 I can have my entire living room carpeted in Berber. Who is to say that the toilet cap was not missing...
We have a lot of people on this board that spend a ton of money on our passion. I know that the houseboat company at Shasta are not hurting for business but if some of them get a bad name our there then they will realize that they are not treating the customers with respect. Aaron that just sucks about your trip.

I have rented from Antlers last year, and had a bad experience, and we had a reservation this past month thet fell through. We ended up at Jones Valley, and thet were great. No complaints.

Jones Valley and the Pit River arm. Good stuff.

Rented a party cruiser early in the year at Antlers, no issues, but they did not appear to have their S#it together. From the people we dealt with, hearing that HB horror story does not surprise me.

It's been a number of years since using Jones Valley, but they were always good. We've used Holiday Harbor the last few years and they have always been great. When it's a buck-5 on the dock, a few frosty cold bullets for the check in crew doesn't hurt.

Lakeview(?) just north of Holiday Harbor was also good to us last year, but their set up isn't as convenient. I think this is the third Jones Valley owned location (Jones, Sugarloaf, and Lakeview).

blah, blah, blah.....Holiday Harbor!

We just rented a houseboat out of Jones Valley (check the "All my houseboat people call me!!!! thread in the "Wake Events" section of WW) and other than a few mechanical problems, it was a good experience. Any mechanical problems we had with the boat was met with fast service. No problems during check out.

BTW, our HB had carpet throughout which we spilled beer and other stuff on repeatedly throughout the week. We cleaned up spills ASAP and vacuumed before we left. No charges.

we have rented from seven crown every year except one where we went with holiday harbor. the grand sierra seems to be the best value in terms of the big-boy boats.

Thanks Aaron,
No Antlers for us either.

Where is this great cove that is close to shasta marina? we rented a HB from shasta marina and are heading out in a few weeks and have never been to shasta, so we have no clue where to go. Thanks!

the cove that shasta is in has some off shoots that may work for you. also leave shasta marina cove and go straight across the sac arm. there is a pretty good cove to beach in. not to far either.

Packers Bay is a great place to rent.

It's been a few years, but Holiday Harbor treated us well.

Rob,

Doe Cove is on a map you can get at the marina. It's like the first cove to the right when you leave the HB marina. It was amazing!!! I heard that water level can make a huge difference though. However, we went in July as well. Also, our gas bill for our HB was so cheap because the cove was right there! I hope you can find it and I hope it's available. Go all the way to the back and you will have lots of privacy. Don't forget to back your HB up once a day because we got stuck one day because we didn't do so. The water drops fast.

Thanks Stefani!

Another vote for Jones Valley. Rented there the last two labor day w/e's and booked again for this year.
Nice boats, nice people and they have never tried to screw me on the deposit or anything. I will keep going back.

holiday harbor is always good, my cousin works there so we always get hooked up. I like the mcCloud arm of the lake, my friends usually rent houseboats out up there and have had good experiences. the pit arm is also a good part of the lake, just watch out for trees

Shasta Marina is a good place to rent but as mentioned the ramp & parking for your tow rig sucks.
We rented a boat one year, had a black light party, went crazy with the glowsticks. In the morning you could see the stuff all over the place. Oops dident think it would show without the light. Anyway it was one of the older boats, (I wouldent waste the money for the pimp boats, too much stuff to break when your really having a good time), they never said anything, and where very helpfull with loading & unloading our stuff.
They also came out when the generator stoped working and replaced the waterpump on it very quickly after we had called, and never asked us to bring it in for the repair, and we where way far away.
Jones valley is another cool place so is silverthorn.