Reviews of Northernaire Houseboats On Rainy Lake (Tourist Attraction)

Mikaya Tripp

Just spent four nights on a houseboat and had a great experience. We had our two dogs with us and our three-month-old daughter so we had quite the adventure, but everything worked out great. We ran into some trouble with our pull-behind boat near Kettle Falls, but Tristan was able to come out and fix the prop for us. Better maps near Kettle Falls would be helpful. Great staff- all were very helpful. We'd definitely return.

l o

Overall, very good. Unfortunately the steering in our houseboat leaked and cost us a propeller when it didn't work.

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We have used Northernaire Houseboats for at least 30 years (yes, we are in our 80"s) and can say they have been consistently helpful, accommodating in every way, from boating additional guests out to us to running more food when we ran out, to also supplying a pro fishing guide when one was needed. They have continued to update the interiors of the boats and the bedrooms to currant standards. With a new owner and family coming in this season, we are sure you will continue to enjoy your vacation on this peaceful, gorgeous border lake with Canada, and the U.S. side of Voyageurs National Park with its islands you can park your boat on!

Avionics Engineering

I would never use this company as they have terrible communication with their customers. They dont honor their words and what they did with the family with cancer was just another example on terrible customer service skills. Anyone that does that has no business and personal integrity so dont book with them. Lots of other houseboats in the area that dont treat their customers in that fashion. Terrible terrible

Dori Gregory

I just finished my first houseboating experience and absolutely loved every second of it. Northernaire runs a fantastic operation. The owners and their team were welcoming and incredibly helpful in getting us familiarized with the boat and all its functions and showed us all we needed to know for navigating the lake. The GPS unit made navigation a breeze allowing for more peace of mind and time to take in all the wonderful scenery of the National Park. If any issues were had, the base was always just a radio call away...thankfully we didn't have any. I look forward to returning and would be thrilled to be book with Northernaire again.

John Enger

Great time with my son and caught an amazing Pike place is fantastic! Scenery is awesome and the people are great! Excited to go back again!

Lex Sweatt

Duck family near the main dock.

Rodney Mills

It is surely a place I would go to again to rent a houseboat. From the very beginning the people were nice with getting us situated on the boat and to carry our stuff to it. There were very, very friendly dogs when we went up to pay and get maps for the whole lake. The boat was comfortable and seemed kind of classy. Our boat, number six, had a bathroom with a shower, a stove with an oven and a sink, three beds and a grill. Driving the boat was easy enough and there was a smaller boat to go driving around after you parked the bigger boat. The locations to park at were beautiful and secluded, sometimes hard to find. It was a nice thing to do for a change instead of staying at a hotel. I would definitely do it again.

Rhonda LaFerney

Had an amazing time and experience on our family vacation and first houseboat experience! The owners were very accommodating to any needs and very quick to respond on the radio. They also offered Minnesota fishing licenses on site and guided fishing tours which ALSO ended up being a blast! First time fishing for walleyes :) Thank you soo much, from all of us!!

Pat Jensen

We just returned from a week long trip to rainy lake. We rented a houseboat from Northernaire houseboats. If possible I would give a zero star review. The workers were helpful, but the owner was a complete and total jerk. The boat that we rented had a big hole in the floor of the middle bedroom, that flooded that bedroom and the hallway, so we had to deal with soaked carpets for almost half of the trip. The weather stripping under the bow door was broken and half gone, so the carpet in the front room got soaked as well. Then we had many, many, motor problems. The motors were wired wrong, so the solar charging system didn't work. We tired twice to start the motors, and both times the batteries were dead. Thankfully we had cell phone coverage because the shipboard radio didn't work because of the dead batteries. Then there were the problems with one of the refrigerators. It wouldn't start initially, and after the first visit from the mechanic to work on the motors he got the refrigerator working, but it died again after a few hours. After the second visit from the mechanic to work on the motors, we decided to cut our vacation short by a day rather than risk being stranded the last morning and being charged for an extra night. After all of these problems the owner refused to do anything to compensate us for our problems. In fact, after being informed by my girlfriend of how upset I was, he threatened to call the police if I came in to complain. Overall, a horrible experience dealing with Northernaire houseboats. I would never, ever, do business with them again. I will be telling everyone I know to never do business with them as well. This is in response to the reply from the owner and his lies. There were eight people on the boat, four of whom were children. We were never told not to travel. When we were traveling there were only three people sitting in the bow room. We never left lights on at night after we went to bed. In fact, while using the room on the bow at night we used a lantern that we had brought with us because the lights were to dim to see. The only power used at night was the twelve volt power point to charge a cell phone. If that's enough to drain a battery, his equipment is even worse than I had thought. This guy is a snake and a liar. Avoid this business at all costs.

paula walter

It was relaxing and fun awsome owners and awsome work there doing on the house boats I also love the great fishing

Wayne Pieper

Voyageurs National Park is amazing and the fishing is great.

Erin Stuntz

We have rented houseboats for several years. Let me clear, the business model is forget maintenance, wait until it breaks. Of course that usually happens when you are miles away. I can't tell you after four years of rental his boats, how many repairs I had to do just to keep a minimal level of comfort. Broken furniture, empty propane tanks, plugged water filters so bad the pump drained the batteries, rodent infestation, Screened porch that leaked so badly, there was an inch of water where we had planned to sleep on the fold out bed that was falling apart. Then to make matters worse, the owner blames the renter for all the problems associated with his lack of maintenance. The young employees that work there are great. But it got to the point that I had to bring enough tools to do an engine rebuild just to keep us going. Here is an example: Before we left the marina during the checkout, I noticed the water pump wasn't doing very well and making strange noses. (A little background here, I've built everything from housed to race cars.). The response was "It's fine, it always sounds like that." We get out to an island to moor and the water constantly runs to maintain pressure. Eventually, batteries are drained, no water, and refridgeration has failed.

Jeff pierce

Absolutely great place, great staff, and wonderful time on the freash water ocean, In the words of trump; everyone is talking about it! No Vocationing safer than an extended one on a quarantine boat, the best social distancing tub that floats, I a 89 year old at risk retired man, was able to rent a house boat for the whole summer! And have been catching a fish a day to preserve my rations, and it is the most affordable quarantine money can buy on this most beautiful lake! I encourage you to take one out with the whole family and you will have a better Vocationing than some crazy heptic Florida one & without the retrace of traffic!

Alyssa Nelson

Been going here over the last 3 years and it doesn't disappoint each time more exciting than the last not to mention the Awesome fishing and walking up to nature, try it its great for family and friends you'll love it

Sri. B

Well I was the housekeeper that clean three piles of puke and try to clean the brand new mattress that actually had what looked like a swastika drawn on it with permanent marker and not even to mention that I work with a 15 year old and 16 year old and there were inappropriate items left Including a drug pipe and we don't need business from so called adults that are so disrespectful!!

Jeff Miller

New owner doing a great job

Alison Fischbach

Great place to go, I had a wonderful time. It's so peaceful and beautiful up there.

Mark Johnson

Terrible customer service and no business integrity.A family I know booked and paid their deposit The mom found out she had cancer and needs surgery and chemo. So they called Northernaire to find out their options. They didn't want to cancel but needed to know what they can do. They said wr have a waiting list so they said they would check the list. The couple said ok but we are still wanting to go just kets check with family to fill in in case the mom can't go Talk to them Wed night and said we will let you know in am Thursday morning they called to say we found someone to find out they put another group in their reservations and Northernaire cancelled their reservation without their consent.Terrible communication and no business ethics. Family is out their trip they wanted to take the mom on to lift her spirit after cancer. Owner won't even consider the first family situation. Cold no integrity. Don't book. The fact is Yvonne never cancelled you filled their spot without evening confirming they wanted to cancel. Never assume..always verify and you didn't and left a family trying to work it out and they did find other family members they said they would go. But you took it soon yourself to cancel them.

Kim Thelen

Northernaire Houseboats Thank you our rental rental experience was AMAZING the staff was friendly and informative our family had a great time. My dad passed shortly after this trip and he cherished every minute of it. Thank you Northernaire Houseboats for making my DAD'S Dieing Wish come true. We will be doing memorial trips yearly.

Remmy Moten

Northernaire Houseboat rentals are a great vacation experience! Kevin, Vonette and staff take care to make this an amazing experience especially for first timers like us. They are all about customer service. Even when we had a medical emergency they dropped everything to help us get us through it. A special mention to Tristen who got us going on the first day, helped rescue us in a medical emergency, and brought our rental houseboat back to dock in a storm. Huge Thanks to all! The Walter Family

Shyanne Saunders

I would like to rebut the comments made by the owner regarding the Winkler group the week of 6/17. There are several inaccuracies in his side of the story, and a couple of down right lies. Like that we were advised not to travel-not true. When we left the water wasn't glass calm, but it wasn't rough either. Nothing that a vessel that size shouldn't have been able to handle. We did not have 12 people. We had 8 people, 4 of which were kids, 3 of those being skinny teenage boys. There were only 3 people in the bow on our way out, not 12. The big water problem was in the bathroom and sleeping area toward the REAR of the boat. We had about an inch of water on the floor, and the owner admitted that there was a repair hole that was NOT CAULKED which caused the flooding. We did not leave lights on all night, we used the propane lights the majority of the time. I did not demand a refund. I simply asked to be compensated for our lost day and the hours we lost waiting for the mechanic to fix our issues. After the owners refusal, and failure to even acknowledge any fault on his part at all, i asked if we could at least be compensated for the ice we had to buy because the fridge wasn't working-no dice. I did not threaten anything. I just let him know I was the least angry out of all of us, so they sent me, and I hoped my boyfriend didn't decide to come up there because he had some not very nice things to say. He did say he would call the police, which I thought was uncalled for. Now we know where not to go next time. Lesson learned. The dock guys and the guy that showed us the ropes were great, they can't help who they work for.

travis gustafson

No better place to spend a few days on the lake without life's distractions! Always come back here for our houseboat vacations!

Carol Ganser

Everything worked, great weather. Good fishing!

Theresa Mills

Love houseboat trips at Northernaire Houseboats of Rainy Lake. Who can ask for a better lake when you are on the water in the middle of Minnesota's only National Park... complete wilderness. We see the best sunsets and early morning sunrises on our houseboat trips. The kids love hearing the loons at night calling as they fall asleep. The lake is so big that it's never crowded and you feel like you have your own little piece of paradise. We've done fishing trip vacations with friends before (we always hire a guide for the first day to figure out where the fish are biting) and had a blast. Believe me, we are not expert fisherman, but after a day with a guide we are right on them. We've also done houseboat trips with the family. The kids love it, we relax, and unplug. The boats work just fine and everything we expected to have was available on the boat. It's like camping but with the comfort of a floating motor home with you instead of a tent. You come for a wilderness camping experience and you get just that.

Tass Ree

It was ok , for my first time on a house boat. The bugs wasn't that bad , the fishing was ok too, i didn't catch anything but i never do anyway. I felt like a guide , a human guide would have been more helpful , for a first timer , but all well that ends well right?.

Christopher Winkler

We had a lovely time. The only bad part was 2 of the islands we stayed at mice crawled on board our boat. EEK! Thank goodness the owners had mouse traps on the boats. We spoke with another party there who had no problem. All in all it was a great experience and would do it again!

John Talbot

The worst vacation ever. Rented small house biat. It was dirty and the holding tanks were not cleaned out. Had to clean refrigerator before putting our food in it. Had to hold a paper towel over face to use the bathroom because of the pee stench. Could only stand it 2 days. No refund. Office people were rude. Never go there. The price was outrageous for what we got. Maybe we would have had better treatment if we paid fir a biiger boat. Ruined what could have been a beautiful vacation. Had to give 1 star to write a review.

Burlin Gibson

A beautiful place to spend your vacation! I would highly recommend coming here.

Cathleen Ahner

Well it can go both ways i guess. The boats ran well for the most part. The one did not have a plank which was on the check list. The cost was a bit high but reasonable. The gas should be included in the high price but its not. The owner told us we would not run out of gas. The one came back on fumes.

Fred Stark

Northernaire Houseboats has been our yearly getaway for over 20 years. We look forward to spending a week on the houseboat fishing and relaxing each year. Our favorite vacation every year!!