New Credit Card Policy
The last two years have given us extra time for internal reflection and a chance to look to the future. What a great honor it is to see many of you each year. We look forward to many more summers at Pelican Lake with you. We hope you do too! We are excited to finally be able to bring back the Monday evening cookout during the peak season. We will once again be hosting a potluck meal at the lodge each Monday night starting on Memorial day thru August 8. If you are staying with us during that time we hope you join us for a fun evening!
As you are likely aware, inflation and rising costs are becoming a real problem in today’s world. Like many of you, we have seen some huge increases in costs the last two years. Some examples of this include seeing our insurance costs double, boat costs increasing by one and a half times, rising fuel costs, skyrocketing lumber prices, doubled utility costs, increased labor cost for cleaning cabins and more. We have done everything we can to keep our prices down for you. Sadly, we are needing to increase our prices across the board for the summer of 2023. We know that your money is hard earned and needed for your family. We are doing everything we can to not raise prices for this summer. We are sorry we will have to raise prices in 2023. We hope you understand.
While we aren’t going to raise prices this year, our costs have gone up. There will be one new policy effective immediately. From now on, we will charge a 3% transaction fee for all credit card charges. Many of you have paid in cash or check for years. We thank you for this. Not only is BFL a great place to vacation, it is how our family makes a living, and we sincerely appreciate those of you who have helped us by saving 3% over the years. Given that our costs are up an average of around 10% across the board we can no longer eat the average 3% fee that credit card companies charge us. We hope you understand. You are welcome to pay in cash or check to avoid the 3% charge. Please remember that if you do choose to use a credit or debit card of any kind, you will be charged a 3% transaction fee.
We thank those of you who have helped us keep costs down over the years. Helping us keep costs down is a great way for you to invest in your future vacations and help us keep rates down. If you aren’t already, there are things you can do to help us keep costs down. Examples are turning off fans, lights and especially A/C when you aren’t using them. If a window is open, please turn off the A/C! Please don’t take home or throw away the bath mats. We are inspected regularly by state officials including the fire marshal. Gas cans stored under decks or next to cabins are seriously frowned upon by the fire marshal and our insurance company. Each time one is seen by an inspector our costs go up. Each summer we lose a kayak or stand up paddle board and have several lost or broken paddles. Please pull the watercrafts securely onto the beach after using them or after your kids use them. Our garbage costs have tripled in the last two years! We pay for garbage based on volume of garbage collected weekly. Garbage costs can be decreased by increased recycling. Recycling is free in Minnesota. Each cabin has a recycling can for clean plastics, tin cans, aluminum cans and paper. And leaving your cabins relatively clean really helps. The last couple years has seen an increase in trashed cabins and when combined with the increased costs of labor our cleaning costs are going up significantly. Thank you.
When you arrive at Birch Forest Lodge this summer you may notice that we have installed solar panels for the main lodge. Each year we have tried to add new value to the resort and keep it running well. Along with trying to keep our carbon footprint down, this new solar system will make it so that during power outages we can still operate the well. This means that even if we lose power you will have water in your cabins. Those toilets will still work! We try to strike a delicate balance between keeping costs down so that rates don’t increase and still continuing to add value and comfort to the operations. In the last few years we’ve replaced all mattresses, cooking ware, updated the cabins(new kitchens, bathrooms, windows or other) added wifi to the cabins, significantly improved the dock system, improved boats and many more things. We are committed to operating Birch Forest Lodge as the best family oriented outdoor recreational resort it can be. We thank you again for your patronage and friendship! We hope each thing we do to improve the resort brings you an increased sense of comfort and satisfaction, as well as a glimmer of how much Birch Forest Lodge means to our family.
Many of you feel a sense of ownership at BFL. Your family has come here for decades or plans on coming for decades. This is wonderful. We understand your feelings towards BFL. We think of ourselves as stewards of the property. We hope you always feel that BFL is a special place. Knowing how you feel about BFL we want to make you aware of the increased costs of operating BFL. We hope that you help us do everything we can to continue to operate BFL in a manner that keeps you and your family coming for many more years.
