Winterwood Lakeside Cottage

Reviewer: Not provided on Sat 04 Jul 2015 rated 3 out of 10.

We take a few trips each year renting different mountain cabins in a few states, so I have some comparisons to offer an honest review. This “cabin” is actually the homeowner's garage with the double roll-up doors still adorning the front entrance that was converted into a guest house, so you are literally staying in their garage. My kids joked the entire stay about our rental garage. The homeowners and visitors reside and come and go on this property and we felt very uncomfortable that we couldn't even walk freely on the property without feeling like we were being supervised. I feel much of the description of the property in general was falsely stated, advertised as "gourmet kitchen" was very small (my 7 and 12 year old stood shoulder to shoulder and they filled up the entire kitchen), looked in every cabinet and couldn't find a nonstick pan and burnt my eggs, pans and metal cookware showed heavy use. Old microwave without turntable, older coffeemaker, basically there was nothing gourmet or upscale about it, however the colors, cabinets and countertops were pleasant. The cabin wasn't fully cleaned when we got there, but I said we weren't really that worried about things like that and we usually just help clean up or take care of random items since we are borrowing the home anyway.
The furnishings were all mismatched randomly purchased items, different from the photos, not comfortable. Since the place is small, the kitchen has a small (maybe 2x3 metal table) at the entry from the hall that seats 2 people, so we had to eat in the living room. To make the living area look larger, there is only one 3 seat couch with love seat (unmatched) and an outdoor wicker chair that the rest of this set is placed randomly throughout the cottage. Decorating is bland and everything in the house was small, all beds included. There is no "Master" bedroom, and I am pretty sure the main bed is a full size since we have a queen at home that is larger, but in order to use the bathroom from the main bedroom, you have to walk through a short hall opening to the kitchen to get to it, so you best make sure you are fully dressed on the way to or from or nobody else is on that floor.
Shower was a step over tub combo, usually there is separate tub and shower in a cabin. For the wood cabin theme, the walls were left stubbed only, so metal tubing adorns all the wiring to almost every light switch and powered furnishing in the place, some of it looks out of place and unfinished. The owner seemed to emit vibes that he really didn't want us to be on his property. If you use more internet than they think you should use that they will charge you $175 extra (said no streaming music or movies, only check email and searches, etc), they lock you out of any room you don't "reserve" so you don't use more space than you need, guessing they don't want to clean any extra rooms than necessary. I found similar cottage rentals where you have the entire home, several floors, with game room, multi-level porches, cable or satellite TV and internet for less than 1/3 what he wants for you to stay in his garage that takes an extra 25 minutes to get to if you want to explore the area. I would have been more pleased with our stay if we didn't feel so incredibly ripped off by the price for what you get (because I paid MORE staying here for 4 nights than an upgraded family balcony suite on a cruise to the Bahamas a couple months ago) .
No regular air or satellite TV at all (even though I am sure their house has it), so you are stuck only watching movies. The TVs have no remotes that we could find (only 2 rooms have tv, both remotes missing) and the sound on the living room TV kept going from really loud to not being able to hear it at all. We tried to use the main bedroom TV to watch a movie while the kids watched another in the living room and because there is no ceiling in any of the open rooms, only walls, so you hear every sound from both sides of the wall like there isn't one even there, so was very difficult for both movies to play simultaneously.
The second mid-level bedroom (we didn't reserve but looked in) had two small day bed size singles with a very out of place decor of two bathroom towel bars with bath towel and hand towel hanging on either side of the door (this is a bedroom), and the downstairs area the kids slept in was a bunk bed (kids said was comfortable), but two nights we almost just wanted to sleep somewhere else. We dreaded staying here, my husband and I both woke up with horrible back pain and morning headaches every day. I travel a lot, stay in mostly upscale resorts and am not usually difficult to please. I am so very frustrated that we planned our family's summer vacation solely around the advertisement for this place, paid more than a jacuzzi suite at a 5 star amenity filled resort, and almost nothing was anything we felt was portrayed in any review. I can't understand why there are such high reviews from others, unless they are friends or family. There are so many things I wanted to share but would take too long to list them. I didn't know how else to express my disappointment than by writing a review in hopes that someone else may have more accurate listings of what this place actually offers. I took pictures, but they look different than how they appear on the website.

Positives: Beautiful view
Pretty piece of property.
Well kept grounds.

Negatives: Homeowner and visitors reside on property.
This is a converted garage cottage, very small with cheap furnishings.
Very small kitchen with seating for only 2.
No TV service offered to cabin.
Monitored internet usage with high overuse fee.
No private bathroom in any bedroom, all shared.
Many doors have no latches, including bathrooms.
25 minute drive from main road to get to cabin.
No sound barriers between rooms, you can hear everything.
Small beds in every room (full size main and singles everywhere else).