Barlow Manor ~ Perfect Reunion Home

Kitchen was good. Eating area was great, plenty of sitting. The bunk room made a great area for the young ones to play.

Perfect location in Nauvoo for a large group to stay! Check-in/out were a breeze!

We were very pleased with our 3 night stay. We all fit very nicely, and even though we had 20 kids under age 11, the noise level was not bad at all. The house has a great layout. The yard area was great as well, and the proximity to Old Town Nauvoo is hard to beat. Not very walkable, but a few minute drive. We were able to park 4 vehicles on the property. Walmart delivery was a success as well! I sometimes cringe at the time period-looking decor of places, but this house feels fresh and yet Nauvoo-ish all at once. All the works of art were tasteful and quality pieces. I loved the bedding too. The kitchen was well-stocked for the most part. Large mixing bowls were non-existent, so we resorted to large pans which there were plenty of. When I let the owner know, I was thanked for the input and told they would get more. We also lacked any kitchen washcloths. I was very pleased to see two kitchen tables on our arrival, as I couldn't see two in the pictures. Somehow they fit our crew. There were other supplies I didn't expect like spices, clothes detergent, and a nice armoire to store kitchen supplies next to the kitchen tables. There really was a place for everything, even with our big crew. We live in a 10,000 sq. ft. house, and somehow this home felt much more convenient for the family....a ton of bathrooms probably helped in that. : ) We would definitely consider staying in this house again! It really completed our family reunion. Thank you!

Overall the property was gorgeous, the house was super cute, and the college youth group I brought there loved their stay! There were a few problems that felt significant enough to list, that the property owners did their best to rectify. 1. Not sure if this was a glitch, but the property manager did have a pretty long response time because they often didn't see/receive my messages. Apparently there are only 28 beds, but at the time I booked it was listed as 30. Leading up to the trip I messaged and asked for clarification because I was only seeing 28 spots, and it took them up until the week of to get back to me and let me know that it was mislisted. They were super nice and apologetic about it, I just wish I had known a little earlier so we could have dealt with getting extra bedding/air mattresses earlier. 2. In addition to the slow messages, we didn't get check in details until I called on the day of. Again, I think there was an issue on their end with VRBO where they weren't seeing messages, she said something about her phone crashing etc so pretty understandable but still was a bit stressful not knowing how to get in to the house since we drove 5 hours to get there. Also, check in and check out times on VRBO didn't match the times listed in their instructions so make sure you're on the same page about that. 3. This was the biggest thing. We booked from Friday night to Sunday morning, and also had a VRBO across the street for the guys. On Saturday evening a man comes over to the OTHER house and starts knocking on the glass doors, and insists that we were supposed to check out that day. It was one of the owners of this listing, who had misread his calendar and had gone to the house, seen 2 of my female students entering, followed and questioned them. I showed him our reservation and he backed off, and then his wife came over and explained that if VRBO says someone can book on Sunday that means STARTING Sunday night, not that no one is there Sunday morning. They apologized profusely, discounted our cleaning fee, offered a 10% discount if we book again, and brought us some cookies the next morning, but it still left a really bad impression. They have a property manager who is also co-owner (and their daughter), but instead of calling to confirm ANYTHING they just assumed they knew what was going on and acted in anger/impulsively. I think especially because my students are mostly women and Asian/American it felt particularly alarming.