This may become a long review so here's the executive summary: The cabin's heater did not work. Kitchen utensils and cups were dirty and there was only 1 of some items. There were no linens for the sofa bed. The Wi-Fi is terrible.
My buddy and I arrived around 7pm on October 19, 2019 after a 14 hour drive. There was nobody at the office to receive us. Instead there was a note and a key. We located our cabin and entered to find the heater running and the place uncomfortably warm. We lowered the thermostat and the heater shut off. And stayed off. Nothing we did could get it running again. We turned to the wood burning stove for heat. The fire went out at some point during the night and we woke to a temperature of 48 degrees INSIDE the cabin. [In case you aren't familiar with Colorado in October, every night the temperature dropped well below freezing - some nights in the teens!]We called the manager (still nobody in the office) and he came over promptly to look at the heater. He showed us how to open the access door and use a paperclip (which was already there and bent to the proper shape so clearly this was an ongoing problem that was never properly fixed!) to bypass a relay and get the heater to turn on.
We left and returned after dark to find that the heater was still running and had been running all day. The temperature in the cabin was close to 80 - unacceptably hot! So now the heater was either on or off and had to be restarted with the paperclip. The thermostat had no control over the temperature. This meant that my buddy, who drew the sofa bed to sleep on, had to keep waking up throughout the night (and every night!) to turn the heat on and off. For 6 nights he didn't get an uninterrupted night of sleep.
In the "fully equipped kitchen" we found utensils in the drawer that were obviously used and dirty and a coffee cup with some sort of brown crud inside. I'm willing to do my own dishes in a cabin rental situation like this, but having to do the previous occupant's dishes is totally unacceptable! Furthermore, there was only 1 spoon and 1 wine glass for 2 people. I get that it is towards the end of the season, but you've got to check these things when preparing the cabin for new customers!
Next issue is that there were no linens for the sofa bed. Fortunately my buddy brought a sleeping bag so it wasn't a problem for us. But what if he hadn't??
The Wi-Fi was so weak that I ended up stealing the signal from the neighboring property (Moose something Lodge).
A lightbulb in the bedroom was burned out, as was one in the bathroom.
The scrubber provided to wash the dishes smelled horrible and left that nasty smell on your hands long after the dishes were done.
At no point did management offer to move us to a new cabin or reduce the cost of our stay.
We were away from the cabin from dawn to after dark every day hunting. Our needs couldn't have been simpler - just a place to sleep and eat. If Bear Paw Lodge can't satisfy us, how in the world can they not ruin a family vacation? Had our families been with us we would have left after a day and demanded our money back.
My wife and I are going to take a winter road trip and I had hoped this would be a nice place for me to take her. That's not going to happen. In fact, there is no way I will stay at Bear Paw Lodge again. The total lack of care, consideration, and preparation is beyond belief. I can't imagine how bad it must be when they are at full capacity.
The only reason I'm not giving 1 star is that the owner did respond quickly to get the heater (but not the thermostat) to work. read more