For those who want the short version: This place is an awesome place to stay for a vacation get away for a large group! Here's the detailed version: The house is located in Hocking Hills and is the perfect place for a large group of people! There are 3 floors with 8 bedrooms and 11 beds. The top floor is a loft that has 2 beds. There are 4 bedrooms on the main floor- 3 that have 1 bed, and 1 room that has full sized bunk beds. On the bottom floor, there are 3 bedrooms- 2 rooms that have 1 bed and 1 room that has bunk beds. Note: all the beds are queen/full sized beds even the bunk beds so the house could potentially sleep 22 people. The house is a beautiful lodge with hardwood floors (don't forget to take slippers!). There are 2 kitchens which was a bonus when cooking for a large group! There are also 2 dining room tables (one on the main floor, one downstairs) and 2 living room spaces. The house has 4 bathrooms (2 on each floor). Note: If you go there with a lot of people, try to be one of the first to take a shower because the hot water DOES run out if everyone is taking consecutive showers. When you go, towels (including beach towels) and linens/blankets are provided. They also provide some toilet paper and soap (dish soap, shampoo, etc) which was enough for a 2 day stay but if you're staying for the whole week, you may need to bring more. In the kitchen, you can find plates, silverware, some pots and pans, cups. They have some cooking utensils like spatulas, ladles, can opener, etc. They have a coffee maker and filters but if you like fresh coffee beans, you have to bring your own coffee grinder. There are 2 TVs there which both have DVD players and direct TV but they don't have HDMI connections so you can't hook up an Xbox. There's no wi-fi and you probably won't be able to get good cell phone service while there. But they do have corn hole, scrabble, taboo and a couple decks of cards for game night! It was actually great to get away from technology i.e. internet, etc and enjoy time with the family. In order to get there, you have to drive on some country roads- some that look like they are only one lane so I recommend trying to get there before dark just because it's so hard to see when it's night time. Also on the website, they recommend 4 wheel drive which I totally agree with! You have to drive up this steep gravel/stone driveway. One of our cars was a sedan and had trouble getting up the entire way. If you don't have 4WD, you can still make it up (although if it may be a problem if it's snowing) but try driving in reverse. Our larger cars (mini SUVs/Vans that didn't have 4WD) had problems going up driving forward, but were able to make it up in reverse. Again, it's a lot easier driving up in reverse during the day than at night. The contact person is Theresa. She was quick to respond to questions we had about the place via email. I didn't really have much contact with her since someone else dealt with the reservation but she seemed nice when I met her when we checked out of the lodge. read more

Martinwood Cabins - Vacation Rentals Near Me

If you are looking for a place to relax and throw your worries away, Westwind Lodge is not the place for you, and if you dare try, please be sure to throw those worries away in a trash bag and do not leave them loose in the trash can outside. My female relatives (aunts, cousins, and grandmother) and I came to Hocking Hills to reunite after an incredibly long time without seeing or hugging each other. It was a little strange when the owner of the property mentioned THREE different times in one message not to follow GPS, but instead, use her directions. The oddities continued as she insisted to be there when we arrived to greet us since none of us had experienced this with a VRBO rental prior to this getaway. But the neuroses of the ownership finally smacked us straight in the face when we realized that greeting was simply to walk us through the rules. Many, many rules. Complete with a binder left for your reading pleasure and a condescending lecture from the owner to a group of adult women. There were 13 of us ranging in age from 29 to 88, but it really didn't matter who we were. Jesus Christ could have walked in with his 12 disciples and she would have asked him to make sure he showered before entering the hot tub. Her tone was both rude and insulting. Things we were warned of during her tirade, lest we be charged additional fees: Do not eat, drink, or sleep on the sofas. If you are going to sleep on the pillows, remove the pillow shams and use the pillowcases in the closets. Do not leave the coffee maker plugged in when not in use. Do not move the furniture. Do not get in the hot tub without showering. Do not leave any loose trash without bagging it. This includes boxes that are too big for bags. After leaving the property, we were informed that we left loose trash, which is an outright fabrication, clearly designed to offer a "reason" for additional charges. We were meticulously cleaning the entire cabin all morning to be sure to reach her satisfaction and even cut down all boxes so that they would fit into trash bags and not be considered "loose". One of the comments by the owner was that she was forced to empty the trash can and rebag it because there was loose trash and it was unsanitary. Speaking of unsanitary, you are asked not to strip the beds when leaving the property so they can "inventory" (AKA look for things to forfeit your security deposit) the linens. We did have our suspicions on the motive of the owner when one of my aunts pulled her blankets back on the first night and found a hair on the sheets. We were also told to wash the dishes used and then put them away. I am not a health inspector, but every place I've ever rented has either asked to load and run the dishwasher but leave the dishes in there or just load it and not run it. I suspect this is so that the renters do not then touch the clean dishes to put them away, but what would an unsanitary person like myself know about health codes? Interested in keeping your loved ones posted while haphazardly moving furniture and sleeping on sofas in a cabin in the woods? No problem! There is a landline that allows you to hear a couple of syllables at a time, which is enough to ensure that your spouse is ta.....car......tom..... And if that is not enough contact, the owner does offer the use of her personal Wifi for a small fee of $5/day in cash only. No exact change? No problem there either! Just give her the next bill you've got higher than the total and she'll call it even! It was blatantly clear with each warning of impending charges for things like spotty wifi and sleeping on pillow shams that the goal here was to come up with some failure to abide so that we could lose our security deposit and wring out any spare change we had for things like communicating with important people in our lives. But wait...there's more! The wifi doesn't work half the time and the TV in the main living space doesn't work either, which I guess is okay since who wants to watch television without the snacks and beverages that are strictly forbidden on the living room furniture. Anyway, the cabin was beautiful and there were lots of towels and beds and bathrooms and two kitchens. Those things were great. We had an amazing time because we are an amazing group of women, but it was a shame that every single one of us walked away saying, "this weekend was perfect if it hadn't been for that horrible owner." Perhaps if someone is that neurotic and paranoid, they might seek a different line of work than allowing strangers to use their property to enjoy themselves. If you want a place that limits your freedoms and puts rules on your fun, this is the cabin for you. Otherwise, run to the closest Red Roof Inn, because I bet the people there are at least welcoming. read more

A group of avid birders and I took advantage of this lodge on a rather cool summer weekend recently. 9 of us attended and enjoyed the 7 bedrooms (plus loft with double beds) offered by our host Theresa. As has been noted, the lodge comes with two kitchens and two family rooms. Most everything you need is indeed included, especially a copy of Kangaroo Jack with the upstairs TV. I must have watched that fine film approximately 0-18 times in our two day stay. We never could get the 10 person hot tub up to temperature to actually use. I think the highest it got was around 90 - not exactly hot tub worthy. But this is a minor gripe as we were quite busy with our birding in the area. There is a fire pit on the side of the lodge which made for a lovely evening next to a bonfire with some beers and smores. Birders love smores, it's a known fact. The 4 bathrooms included in the lodge is nice when you have such a large group, no fighting over showers and the like. The nice decal of the scuba diver on the toilet tanks adds a pleasant diversion while you're taking a whizz. There is zero cell service, except for Sprint customers, apparently. This is kind of a bummer as nobody in the entire world has Sprint. While I suppose it may be desirable for some persons to completely disconnect from society, birders and persons of my age tend to get a little twitchy after 24 hours of no internet access. It would be delightful if the cabin had wifi. Luckily all our group arrived before darkness fell -- I wouldn't want to try to find the place in the dark. You might end up in a ditch. The owner recently had the steep gravel drive replaced partially with concrete and it's a good thing. I think several of my fellow birders would have failed to scale a gravel drive so very steep and would have been stuck doing their birding from the bottom of the drive. Another "nice to have" would be better televisions, the current models are small and difficult to see from across the large family rooms. We wanted to watch some shows on birding but found it difficult to do so and had to resort to going outside to see birds -- not ideal. Checkout is at 11:00am and I can see how it could be a scramble to get up and get everything prepped for checkout, as it is expected you have the dishwasher run and unloaded, as well as all trash taken out, I believe. Luckily birders are used to being early risers to "catch the worm", as they say. All in all we had an excellent experience just bordering on five stars. Internet service at the lodge and a more liberal checkout policy would push it firmly into 5 star territory for me. That being said, I would definitely return here for activities other than birding as well, as you are in the edges of Hocking Hills state park and there are lots of activities nearby. Kudos to our host Theresa for a fine stay and thanks to my fellow birders for such a fine weekend watching birds and Kangaroo Jack. read more

Huge cabin - very secluded and quiet. And close to Clear Creek. A great hiking area. But difficult - not for a beginner that's for sure. read more

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