I was extremely excited to come to Swannanoa for a full week of tourism. I looked at staying at Mama Gerties and booked. Immediately after doing so I noticed an error and tried to cancel. I anticipated paying a fee for this same day cancellation. The business should not incur a credit card transaction fee.  Instead I was charged a fee AND issued a gift certificate. The gift certificate expired not a year from my stay but from the date of the transaction. Leaving me no time to utilize it. In short, the business pocketed almost $600 for a 5 minute inconvenience. I was horrified and called them. Begging them to do the right thing. Not only did they refuse to refund my money and just charge a fee, the woman laughed at me, stating it was just"policy". Worse yet they also refused to extend the expiration of the gift certificate. Even the airlines let you cancel same day.  Even Olive Garden doesn't let gift cards expire.  The end result is they will be able to double book the site, get my payment in full, AND charge me an extra fee for doing so. This is predatory. We are a hard working family who saved months for this trip. The end result is we will not be able to come. This takes away tourism dollars from the Swannanoa/Asheville. Restaurants and shops that we'd love to stop at. I'm truly horrified to be treated this way. Even Olive Garden doesn't have gift cards expire. Even the airlines allow same day cancellations. This is so heartbreaking.  Also if you look at others reviews they have also experienced this.  This establishment does not care about client service only about profits and greed.  They are CROOKS do not book here!