We decided to have our wedding up in the mountains. On December 3rd 2021 My wife and I got married at the Lake Arrowhead Resort. We did not just stay at the resort, no no no. My wife found the most amazing property in California. Probably the closest thing to a castle in all of America. Even more of a castle than Hearst's castle. Both of our families came and stayed for the weekend. I devised a mystery puzzle game which was accommodated and accentuated by the venue because of all the rooms and places to hide. The Wifi is great, the beds are comfortable, and the kitchen is the best place to hang out and be with family. The only thing that is tricky are the roads and the volume levels. There is no cell service in some areas while driving but you just need to be aware of this and come prepared with a pre printed map just like in 1999. Its very easy to take a wrong turn and up on the Rim of the World. Full disclaimer for weddings: Don't do it here. Its not because the venue is bad, its because of the neighbors and the location. Parking is a nightmare if you have any more than 7 cars. There is no designated lot and the garages are off limits due to storage. So if you park on the street on Sycamore, you are good as long as all your tires are on asphalt. The sound. Keep in mind this house is in the middle of a quiet forest. you can hear sound travel very easily so when windows are open and there is a party, everyone around can hear it for miles. Also, the house is huge, and maze-like. If you have ever played the first Resident Evil and gotten lost a few times you know what I mean. All in all this place is amazing, but do not get your expectations too high for a wedding or an event. Its a huge property in the middle of a forest, of course its hard to get to, of course there aren't enough bathrooms on the ground floor. Of course there are going to be minor inconveniences. IT'S A CASTLE. IN THE FOREST. The people who built it went bankrupt. We should all be so lucky to get to enjoy this wonderful property! Also, I left my laptop there and the property owners/managers sent it back to me the very next day!! If thats not professional and courteous service I don't know what is. All I know is I had a great time and I'd do it again. -Stan read more

Expectations exceeded!!! My Husband found this location online and we agreed to book it for my milestone birthday celebration. Some of our closest friends joined us here for the weekend and we had an absolute blast with them at the castle! We didn't need to leave to go to a bar or restaurant. We enjoyed our time in both family rooms, the pub downstairs, the kitchen, the study and the outdoor backyard was the best for photos. We want to go back around the holidays when there is snow. This place is beyond impressive. I truly had the best birthday and this location was a huge part of that! read more

Castle In The Forest - We had a masquerade themed dinner party for my birthday - Vacation Rentals Near Me - Pasadena, California

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If you're looking for a vacation rental in the Lake Arrowhead area that offers access to mountain attractions and massive amounts of space for large groups, then look no further than Castle in the Forest. I've had the pleasure of staying here numerous times for different occasions, including birthdays, ski trips, etc and each time has been an absolute delight. One of the stand out features of this vacation rental is its spaciousness. It's perfect for large groups with many bedrooms and bathrooms for folks to spread out and enjoy themselves. The bedrooms are comfortable and well appointed and the common areas are designed with group gatherings in mind. Whether you're cooking up a feast in the chefs kitchen, lounging in front of the fireplace or playing games in the card room, there is no shortage of space to enjoy. Castle in the Forest is very close to the Lake Arrowhead Village with many shops and restaurants, and only about 45 minutes away from snow-sports in Big Bear. I cannot recommend this vacation rental enough. It is the perfect place to gather with friends and family for a fun filled mountain getaway. read more

Castle In The Forest - Castle in the Forest - Vacation Rentals Near Me - Pasadena, California

Beware. Especially for weddings. This place is not permitted to have events! The property manager/owner, Arsine Shirvanian is extremely difficult to work with and will make your family reunion/wedding/event a total nightmare. She is in trouble with the county and her neighbors. 6 different vendors had problems with this manager. 2 weeks prior to our wedding Arsine had listed a variety of requirements that were not on our contract. She monitors the cameras while you are there. She attempted to boot out one of our guests from their room so that she could spend the night at the house that we paid for so she can "keep an eye on the situation". She had her husband barge into one of our guests rooms while she was sleeping to make sure there wasn't any unauthorized guests. She couldn't keep the bathrooms maintained during our event. At some point our wedding guests needed to use cocktail napkins in lieu of toilet paper (photo pictured below) because that is all that there was left. Arsine called us all the time to "have a quick call" which quickly devolved into her threatening to cancel our wedding due fo last minute unreasonable requirements that were not on our contract we had for years. Here are some examples: - because she isn't allowed to have events we had to have a silent disco and end our wedding 1.5 hours prior to the contracted event time. - she insisted we shuttle 125 people onto the property with folks as old as 95 in 45 minutes (which is impossible). She said she would cancel the wedding otherwise. - she called us the day before our wedding (instead of our planner) because our event timeline lacked line items for loading in and etc. - she told us we needed to hire a professional florist and that we could not do it ourselves on the property's rented for 3 days. This wasn't on the contract and we had to lie to her and do our own floral anyways. - she wanted our vendors to have to move all of their vans out even though they would have fit. This place has no elevator, no ramps, no ADA access, no parking, no sound permits and is ran by a property manager that will be breathing down your neck to ensure that she doesn't get in trouble for hosting events. It isn't worth doing an event here I promise you even with the pictures. You can read my expanded review, email exchange and experience at castle in the Forest review dot com. read more

Castle In The Forest - Vacation Rentals Near Me - Pasadena, California

*first off, the views, the castle, are undeniably gorgeous and serene* My fiancé and I drove up two months ago to attend our best friends wedding. This was a venue that a group of us were planning on renting out for a birthday pre-COVID so I was beyond excited to finally see this venue in person. As soon as we arrived we were ushered in and after having a long drive, I asked to use the restroom where right then I found out that the owner of the venue, actually expected over 100 people to have access to ONLY ONE BATHROOM until the ceremony began. (We had over a two hour wait time). From there on, the way the venue treated the wedding party and guests was honestly just unimaginable. We were all stuffed into one floor, and with over an hours time wait left before the ceremony, for some unexplained reason, the owner decided the all the patio and windows, except for one, were off limits and needed to be closed immediately, and again with no explanation. There were so many other unacceptable and unsanitary instances as well - my fiancé at one point came and showed me a photo how he went to use the ONLY BATHROOM we were allowed to use and it had run out of toilet paper so they replaced it with A STACK OF COCKTAIL NAPKINS. Literally chuckling as this is written because of how much of a joke it is with the way they handle their business and for what it costs. The people running this venue should be absolutely ashamed and unless you want someone breathing down your neck the entire time and telling you how to run YOUR wedding day, I'd run and look elsewhere. read more

My friends and I stayed here for new years and it was ammaaaaazzzing. There was about 15 of us and we had more than enough space. The grounds are beautiful the owners are so nice and it was peaceful and perfect. We had a dance off in the restaurant area, we played games, we did yoga and the kitchen was so big we were able to do a crab boil for 15 people. We also built a snowman in the backyard. Best trip ever we didn't even need to leave the castle. read more

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Our stay at the Castle in the Forest was simply magical. It was perfect for our large family celebration where there was comfortable and elegant space for everyone. We especially loved the architectural surprises that make the castle so unique. We got afternoon tea to-go from San Diego and brought it to the castle for a memorable feast fit for a princess. The hosts were lovely, accessible but not hovering. If you are looking for a memorable, unique, and very special location for your gathering, this is it. read more

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We have been staying in Lake Arrowhead with friends yearly over the past 16 years staying in the most luxurious properties we could find. I've honestly never been so blown away with a property (even in Europe for our wedding) as I was with the his Castle. Arsine the owner and Collette were terrific communicators throughout the process and extremely accommodating. We comfortably had 19 friends and there was more than enough space. The detail of secret rooms, a fully wood paneled study, a pub in the basement with a wood bar, etc... If I had known this place existed earlier this year I would have had my wedding here! You really won't understand until you are actually at the property how beautiful and unique it is. I would give the Castle in the Forest 10 stars if it was possible. read more

Castle In The Forest - Study - Vacation Rentals Near Me - Pasadena, California

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Beware !!! Do not stay here they will take your deposit !!!! And they took down my review even though they stole our money! How is this a fair forum if they can remove reviews that don't say the truth. The "castle" is worn and they stole our deposit even though Covid made us cancel our wedding due to shutdowns and they offered us to stay for an additional $3,500 on top of our deposit . They will nickel and dime and make it impossible to get your deposit back. Please don't take down the truth. read more

This is not a wedding venue and does not have the proper county permits to operate as one. The property manager, Arsine, lied to us and said we were the last wedding there because somehow "the wedding before us" ruined everything. Truth is, San Bernardino county banned large events from private rentals in 2019! Yes, they banned them BEFORE we signed our wedding contract here! Turns out they started enforcing it in 2021 (news articles to back all this up) and in turn the property manager "graciously" verbally mended a lot of our contract costing us thousands of dollars to make her stay under the radar with the law. This included week of hiring extra shuttles, overhauling our floral arrival arrangements, pulling 150-head set Silent Disco out of thin air, and losing an entire hour off our contracted event end time. For the day of the event, the neighbor is seen in all our pictures drinking our beers wearing jeans and a baseball cap. The property manager played this off to us days before that she will have "hired security". The day after the wedding, word finally reached me that the property managers' husband WALKED IN ON ONE OF OUR GUEST IN A PRIVATE ROOM the night of the wedding! The property managers stance was they were making sure non-overnight guests all left the property. Wow. There was absolutely no way they could be contracted for a single day after all the load in and load out restrictions that were verbally changed from the signed contract. I had to wear my wedding dress the Thursday before our wedding because my coordinator convinced me the property manager's stress level the day of will cause a disaster if we tried to do photos, video, and then our event all on the day of. HE WAS RIGHT. She blew up my coordinators phone and my husbands phone for about 72 hours straight the weekend of the wedding. Even my husband was about to lose his shit when she continuously called the Thursday before threatening "the wedding cannot proceed" because our coordinator's timeline details weren't to some arbitrary standards or that we did not tell her the exact time we were rehearsing. She even called the property landline incessantly because my dad was setting up my ceremony backdrop. Moreover, our caterers have been in the business for decades and luckily worked here before. Since this is a newer and hopefully never again venue, they watched the lack of professionalism she lacks with multiple clients throughout 2021. Their last straw was her badmouthing the caterers and literally removing them from their duties as caterers to bitch at them/about them. The catering kitchen is not up to any fire code, and the caterers themselves, along with all vendors (lighting DJ sound table and chair rentals etc) are required to carry all their gear up and down a giant 3 store unlighted hill (they are not allowed to take the stairs). Oh by the way, there's no elevator. My 92 year old grandma had to trek down and then up 56 stairs (yes several upset people counted). The event property is not handicap accessible. Oh yeah, when we first toured the place in February 2020, the guest tower was a part of the tour. Accommodating for 25 people, two people must sleep there. Luckily I took videos during the tour, because when we checked in the property, the manager told her husband to lock the tower. That's 1 less private bedroom and bathroom we had already preassigned to our guests. The husband said it's now an office and for the property manager to stay onsite during the night of the wedding. Wtf. That was not a part of the contract. Did I mention there's only a non-contractual car limit on the property. 25 on-site guest plus all the vendors... you're only allowed to park 8 cars on the property. And that number is reduced to ONE CAR THE DAY OF THE WEDDING. These are not on the contract. Our caterers and vendors were told to unload and drop their cars at the guest church parking lot and shuttle in with the guests. We were informed the week off that ALL neighboring streets are no parking zones. Then we're told vendors can't pack up at 9:30 PM WHEN CONTRACTUALLY IT STATED VENDOR LOAD OUT GOES UNTIL 10:30PM. That means they all needed to come back AGAIN THE NEXT DAY. The property manager had the nerve to threaten us with a $350 fine for not being loaded out Sunday morning. I found out there was a time in the event they were not stalked with toilet paper and guest were using drink napkins. Luckily a few onsite guests not catching planes offered to drive remaining trash to the local trash drop off (lake arrowhead does trash drop off locations to protect the wild animals from rummaging residential areas). All in all, it is not worth the stress. Having your wedding at the resort or sky park won't feel as intimate, but the headache at this "venue" is not worth it because it's not a real venue. The money you save DIY will go towards bending over backwards and dealing with a vampire who will drain the joy out of your weekend. read more

The Castle in the Forest is amazing.... A beautiful property that's just as nice on the outside as it is on the inside. The inside has a very contemporary, ultra luxury, home-like feel to it while the outside is like a cool Castle. We searched a castle vacation and this was the only one we found in Southern California. As they are usually booked in much advance, we got lucky to find availability for the weekend we were hoping to take our vacation on VRBO. availability The pictures do not do justice to how magnificent the estate is. It is so big that you won't even know where your kids are at. They will just disappear for a couple of hours and then eventually roll back into the kitchen looking for a snack. We had 5 families, each with 2 kids, for a total of 20 people stay at the Castle in the Forest. Every Family slept very comfortably. Plenty of room for all of us. Every bedroom has its own bathroom, the bedding is really comfy and in pristine condition. The kitchen is the stuff of dreams. So big yet cozy that 20 people can huddle  around the island and thenook. Massive double viking fridge and custom color range. We didn't cook much as they were great restaurants around the Castle. Arsine is very caring and attentive and gave us a list of all the great  local restaurants. The Castle is way too clean for a rental property of this size. I am talking about spotless. Everything is very well maintained and super clean. The entire experience, from asking questions, booking the castle, getting confirmation, signing the contract, checking in/out was very smooth. Communication was very fast and Arsine would respond to our questions very quickly. We loved the castle so much we took ton of pictures and sent it to our friends. The castle in the Forest is the ultimate vacation experience. Look no further and just do it. Worth every penny!!!! read more

I have stayed at this property several times over the past few years and I have to say it's a magical place! The house itself is truly a castle with beautiful architecture. The pictures do not do this place justice. Very spacious, beautifully decorated, and in a great location. Great for big or small groups and events! The backyard is gorgeous and whether it be winter or summer there's room for lots of activities. From the kitchen, living areas, and bedrooms, I'm always comfortable and have everything that I would need. The hosts/owners are great people and very accommodating! Love staying here and will stay here again in the future! read more

Came here for a recent weekend trip and was extremely pleased. The house is absolutely beautiful and extremely spacious. It has plenty of bedrooms and sleeping areas. We were a large group and each person had a bed to sleep in (the beds were also extremely comfortable). The owners were extremely professional and helpful, they responded quickly to any questions we had about the property before and during our stay. The backyard was very spacious and was a great place to play in snow! The house is also close to the ski/snowboarding resort in Arrowhead, so that worked out perfectly for us. Overall was extremely pleased with the house, will definitely book it again in the future! read more

Castle In The Forest - The inside was decorated for the holidays - Vacation Rentals Near Me - Pasadena, California

We recently rented the castle out for a family retreat. The house is out of this world. It has magnificent architecture, lots of beautiful furniture and it is very clean. The backyard is gorgeous and has lovely spots to pose for great family pictures. We will definitely go back Again. read more

Castle In The Forest - Vacation Rentals Near Me - Pasadena, California

We attended a wedding here and while the wedding was gorgeous, the host made it so much more complicated than it needed to be. She threatened to cancel the wedding multiple times, set insane restrictions on the guests, monitored outside surveillance like a fiend, and was inflexible to there point of tyranny (and I am not being dramatic). She also made it hard for the vendors to do their job and created more stress then was necessary. She also only allowed the wedding guests (150 people) to use one bathroom on the entire residence at risk of the couple losing their deposit. The place is amazing, but do not use this property for an event unless you want to be stressed for weeks. read more

My family planned a weekend getaway for the holiday. We have a large family so needed a large enough property. We were so excited after seeing the listing. The pictures of the rooms that "were taken" are accurate. Few reasons why I gave a low rating: 1) listed as 8 bedrooms: HOWEVER, for one room You have to walk through a storage room,the laundry room, then 3-4 steps down is an area that had a twin bed. There was no bedding, furniture was dusty & no heating. There is no door between the laundry room & the sleeping area, I would hardly call that a "bedroom". It was 18 degrees with no heating, how is anyone expected to sleep in there? In order to access a half bath you have to walk up stairs, thru the laundry area & the storage room. To shower you need to walk down 2 flights of stairs, thru the pub, or use the ensuite in someone's bedroom, which is another flight of stairs. We msg'd the host & she responded somewhere along the lines of "the other 7 rooms were nice" No apologies or anything. The another so called room is a large balcony that was converted into a "room." It was cool for the kids because it had a secret passage into another room, but it would've been nice to have a better description of the room. It has a Day bed with a twin bed below that pulls out, which was dirty, host had the cleaning lady come & change the sheets right away. The issue with that room is that there is no bathroom & doesn't have easily accessible one either. You would have to walk thru someone's room/walk down 2 flights of stairs to the other side of the house to shower. if you have a couple/children it's hard to use this room. 2) I acknowledge that we had more guests then we told the host, but some were truly last minute guests we didn't plan for, who only stayed 1 night & we had lots of children. We checked in around 4:15pm, host greeted us & gave us a tour before leaving. We again told her we had about 24 ppl total, but 7 kids & 2 infants. She said that's okay, she normally charges $50pp over 20 but since it was a last min booking she would not charge us. We get a call around 8pm, she wangry that we had more people than we said we would. She said she has been "glued to the camera" watching how many cars and ppl were coming in and out of the property ! First off, that made us feel very uneasy knowing that someone had been watching us, and two, I highly doubt that you can count the amount of ppl when it's pitch dark outside with just camera's outside of the house. We apologized and she said she wouldn't kick us out but is charging $50pp per NIGHT! She said she counted 38 total so charged us an extra $1800 for our stay. As I stated, we had 10 children, 2 of which were 3 and 6 months old. Are you srsly gonna charge $100/infant?!. Plus, she could've been more fair in charging us per person for the night they actually stayed. 9 of our guests only stayed one night but were charged for 2 nights. That's $450 that we were over charged. 3) checkout is at 10am. The host did tell us that the place was booked the day we check out so we were mindful and planned on leaving by the checkout time. However, the cleaners showed up at 9:30am and started to clean while we were finishing up breakfast and packing our things. It was very awkward and disrespectful in my opinion. We were basically forced out early because we felt uncomfortable. 4) we paid a pretty penny for the cleaning fee. At first glance the place looks very nice and clean. However, we found potato chips around the house that weren't ours, a metal nail file in the couch cushion that could've injured us, and crumbs in the couch cushions. 5) minor things: - one dishwasher was broken so we were told not to use it - the smoke detector in the living room still had the original plastic on it that is supposed to be removed once installed...does that mean it's not properly installed? - signs over the thermostat saying AC doesn't work, but we weren't told you can control the heat for each section of the house thru it still. Some of us spent the night freezing while others were sweating from the heat - not allowed to sleep on the couch. Is there that much more difference in lounging on the couch and sleeping on it? We were very respectful of the host's place, did not to eat on the couch/bedrooms, cleaned up, basically left it how we received it, but I don't feel like she was as respectful/fair to us as she could've been. The property itself is beautiful, but had we known about all of the above we would NOT have rented the place. The cost was $6500 for the stay plus $1800 =$8300, we would've had other options that would've worked MUCH better for us. For a 10,000 sq ft listing to say that it has beds that can sleep 16ppl and allow you to bring air mattresses to sleep on, to cap you out at 20ppl and unfairly charge for ppl not staying the night seems a bit ridiculous read more

I just had my wedding at the Castle In The Forest (CITF) last weekend. It's true, it's logistically challenged but Arsine saved it. Let me explain... We had a small wedding of 23 guests and since I've been to the castle 2 times to preview it. I knew it was going to be logistically tough. I went ahead and ordered a shuttle service so none of my non overnight guests parked at the venue and repeatedly gave strict instructions to all my vendors to only arrive with 1 car. (There is limited parking spaces.) No matter that all vendors agreed to do so, some end up doing whatever they want. I thought I had it planned out all perfectly to the T for the smoothest experience. This is where Arsine came in to save the day. She went above and beyond her job to re-organized parking situations on the fly. The flower pedestals brought to the ceremony were simply wrong and missing vases! Arsine rolled up her sleeves, brought out paint from her office, and SALVAGED THEM! She painted them the day of the ceremony on location and gave them the rustic look they were missing to match the ceremony. I'm beyond words for how much that means to me. Seriously, who does that? There are other things she might not know that I've noticed but I know she helped setup the reception tables and fix up the head center piece flower arrangement. At the end of the night, my band was leaving at 8:30. I noticed that was a bit of a mood killer and Arsine turned on music from somewhere to keep the vibe going. I can probably go on about how she saved my wedding and I'm beyond thankful. I thought my wedding was planned perfect and everything was thought out but you just never know whats really going to happen and I thank Arsine for working her magic. Her husband (I forgot his name) is also a very nice and soft person. read more

Castle in the Forest is a very unique and absolutely beautiful rental property. We enjoyed our stay in this property with courteous & great customer service. The host is avaialbe to answer questions at all times. The outdoor grounds are as beautiful as the indoors, it is relaxing, calm and beatiful at this property... we have stayed at many places in Big Bear and Lake Arrowhead but if you are looking for a unique castle experience, this is the place to stay. Great place to stay with smaller or a larger group. loved it! read more

We were hired to help plan and cater a small intimate black-tie wedding at the Castle in the Forest. Due to scheduling conflicts and the distance to the castle, we were not able to visit prior to the day before the wedding. Like most people I turned to the internet. I found a ton of pictures and three recent reviews. After looking at the pictures I thought I had a fairly good idea about the different areas in the castle, so I moved onto the reviews hoping for more specifics. The reviews were not only recent but also about a wedding which is what I was looking for. After reading all three reviews, I started to panic. We were doing a black-tie affair out of town at a castle in the forest in a city that I had only traveled to one time prior and from what I was reading the people in charge of the venue were anything but nice, they were not transparent, made last minute changes that made it hard for vendors and guests to get to the property etc. I had several vendors needing to deliver to the castle for the wedding not to mention we were catering it. Not just everyday catering but a sit down plated 4-course extravagant meal. I decided to call the castle myself. On top of the original questions I had, after reading the reviews I had a ton more. When I called the castle, Arsine answered the phone. I told her who I was and for the next 30 minutes asked question after question to which she was extremely nice, answered all the questions that I had and seemed forth coming regarding the challenges that we would be facing regarding deliveries, catering, serving, etc. then at the end of the call she offered further assistance if I needed it. Complete opposite from what I read in the reviews. The day before the wedding arrived and most of the vendors were scheduled to deliver that day. In true wedding fashion there were a couple of changes to the delivery schedule of which she made without hesitation. She was available to every vendor directing them to the exact location their stuff was needed. She even backed one of the vendors vehicles into the driveway when they were having a problem. She continued to be that same helpful person on the day of the wedding. She went above and beyond to ensure the wedding and reception were on time and exactly as planned. I would not hesitate to recommend the castle for any event that you may want to have there. As a matter of fact, my family and I do a trip each year using different vacation home rentals. This year we will be looking at the castle for our annual trip. read more

Plenty of amenities. Beautiful views. Got a letter in the mail inviting me to the Castle and ended up saving the world. Kitchen faucet leaks slightly. read more

Our family was really excited to stay at the Castle and it was going to be a family board game kinda weekend. Everyone was really impressed by the amazing property, it was really beautiful and the house had everything imaginable but the owner made us feel a bit uncomfortable from the beginning. We checked in around 4:30 and the cleaning lady was still doing last minute cleaning. The owner asked us what was the total count of people and we couldn't tell her because there were family maybe coming or not last minute but we would confirm with her once everyone arrives. Then she replied that she'll just "check the cameras" which made us even more uncomfortable. Later that evening she called to say that she's been glued to the camera watching us for the last 3 hours and counting all the people entering the house. We apologized for the big group and told her we'd give her a total head count and pay for extra guests. She said that it's not about the money and that she wouldn't charge up til 24 guests and it's not about the money. Then we sent her a tally of 24 adults, 10 kids/teenagers, and 2 infants but a family of 5 was staying only one night. She again said it's not about the money but in less than an hour sent us a surcharge of $1800 for 18 additional guests through Airbnb. We thought it was fair to pay for additional guests but her charge was exorbitant. Since all our family and friends with infants drove hours to arrive at the house and it was late we felt threatened to pay the fee or risk being kicked out so we paid the fee. Then we found out that the 8 bedrooms advertised on the listing was actually 6 bedrooms one kinda loft area and a small bedroom that can only be accessed when you walk through the linen closet and laundry room and there's no heating nor linen on the bed. We gave the house a fair and neutral review on Airbnb but the owner replied that she showed us 7 bedrooms and even allowed us to use an extra bedroom (the small unheated one) which again contradicts her listing and what we were expecting. She even asked us to change our review. The morning of checkout the cleaning people came to clean at 9:30 even though check out was 10:00. Overall beautiful house but bedroom description is not accurate and if you don't mind being watched like a hawk even though you paid $8300 for a weekend, then YOLO. read more