This property overlooks the Gross Reservoir, but is should be a three-season rental due to weather and a gnarly access road. We booked 3 days for a family Christmas gathering, attracted by a view, wood stove, outdoor grill, fire pit and hot tub. Irene reminds you this is HER house. You literally walk into "just" a house, with no welcoming hospitality (like a few shelves/drawers to store personal things, soap and towels in the bathrooms, firewood, propane for the grill, or a shoveled driveway). There WAS a festive Christmas tree The house was mostly clean (except for refrigerator handles and moldy leftover coffee grounds in the coffee maker - yuk!). Cabinets were disorganized, making cooking a scavenger hunt to find pots, pans, dishes, etc. We never found dishtowels, wash clothes in messy linen closet or dish soap - but did find brake, wheel and engine cleaners under the sink). The blizzard of 2022 across the Midwest delayed our arrival by a day. We arrived to find 8-10 inches of snow on the sloping driveway (it had snowed three days prior - I had asked the host about the roads with a vague response). My son rummaged for a snow shovel and spent 30 hard minutes shoveling a path for the cars. We could not believe that Irene did not have a service to do this. When we have rented ski houses or condos, the host always has shoveled paths, driveways and parking spots. We shoveled around the grill (a nice one similar to what we have at home), which started initially, but then went out -- propane tank was empty, so we had to adapt our traditional recipes to the broiler. Son had some wood in his car, which helped keep warmth in the house with fierce winds outside. The furnace tried - but kept going to eco mode so we had to reset often. In fairness, Irene had warned us of this and told us what to do. It was too cold and windy to use the fire pit or hot tub.
I alerted Irene to our problems before writing a review, and asked if she would consider a partial refund for our missed day and the shoveling and cleaning we had to do. She went crickets. Our displeasure is not with the weather per se (traveling in winter always has its challenges) as we are pretty adaptable and understanding. But we don't feel Irene understands what it means to be a good VRBO host, or what guests expect of the experience, especially with the rates she is charging. We were highly disappointed with our host's lack of response.
