VIEWS & FIREPLACE - Minutes to Gburg and Ober - Condo

There were bears every single day. We even saw a mama and her baby as well. It was such an amazing stay as far as wild life.

It wasn’t cleaned to our standard. There was caked on food, dirt and grime on each side of the fridge, dust bunnies were coming out from under the beds, dressers, couch, chairs, dining table. We were there on time (check in time) the cleaning person was still there and locked us out with the chain lock but still left splattered food in the wall and the cabinets. It needs updated. there were broken tiles in the master bathroom and carpet that led to a deep tub that once was what appeared to be a 90’s hot tub. Counters were out dated as were the so damaged they looked dirty. There were chip crumbs and an actual opened bag of chips in the couch cushions. I contacted the owners and they were amazing. They had the cleaning person come back. however, she only cleaned the couch out. Nothing else. The floor wasn’t mopped, the food splatter was still on the wall and cabinets and… she locked us out again while the owners said we could be on the property. The cleaning person put the chain lock on.

The view was great very affordable .

Nothing

The view of the mountains and bears.

It was a little dirty.. used towel, dirty walls/base boards, dirty windows, stains on some pillows. But they do have a lot of extra pillows and blankets. Besides that the stay was pretty nice.

Review is for Unit 104. Coffee bar and welcome snacks were a very nice touch. Great wifi connection and speed. Having a dishwasher and washer/dryer in the unit was also helpful. Large fridge to store our groceries. Comfortable furniture in living room that had lots of fluffy throw blankets to use, even had a Christmas tree in the corner. Used the fireplace and the deck outside was nice until the weather was too cold to use (it was in the 20s a few of the days we were there). Bedrooms were clean and spacious, and the beds were comfortable. Use of board games and streaming services on tv were convenient. Parking lot was easy to use. Always had hot water and there were special makeup washcloths provided, also a nice touch. Beautiful view from the deck on the property. Lots of dishes and utensils in the kitchen, we were able to make meals on both the stovetop and the oven. Air fryer was also a nice touch, took us a bit to figure out how to use it with the function buttons. Water filter device in the fridge was also a quick way to heat up meals, took us a few tries to figure out how it worked. Since we stayed in the winter, the outdoor pools were closed for the season so can't comment on that. Door code made it easy to get in/out easily, although the code used should have been changed to something harder to guess. That was an immediate security issue we had. Driving distance to Gatlinburg was easy 10-15 minutes with traffic, although actual grocery stores (Publix, Food City etc) were about 45 minutes away with traffic in Pigeon Forge. We tried a mom & pop style grocery store in Gatlinburg and a pack of eggs was $9. Lesson learned.

Room for improvement for Unit 104 - have actual door on master bathroom, there were large closet-like doors on the bathroom that didn't lock and were difficult for child to fully close when using the bathroom. Master bedroom was always the coldest room in the condo - we couldn't figure out why even with the heat up that room was so cold, could have been an issue with the vent up near the ceiling? If we turned the heat up, it just got too warm in the other rooms, so we didn't want to do that the whole time. Also, that deep tub/shower combo in the master bathroom was difficult to get in and out of when you have the closet doors shut, that's the area with the only step in/out of that large tub and it's impeded by the closet doors. Not safe for anyone with mobility issues. Also, providing only one dishwasher soap packet for a 5-day stay was not enough. We never saw any laundry detergent packet either. We had to buy packs of both dishwasher soap and laundry detergent for our stay. Suggest also kitchen surface cleaner and paper towels as well, to clean up messes in the kitchen. Try to also stash enough toilet paper for 5 people for 5 nights, we literally used the last sheet of toilet paper right before check-out. The toilet paper (two rolls total in each bathroom) supplied is cheap, 1-ply paper and we went through it fast. Towels provided were small and rough, we had one bath sheet per person provided. Would have preferred to have two towels per person, especially for women who use one for hair and one for the body. Also, the additional floor mattress was quite dirty and looked like it had questionable stains. A protective mattress cover would have helped. We tried to use as many sheets as possible to cover it, but there was an ick factor to having our kiddo sleep on it. Might want to add helpful tips on how to use some of the appliances in the property guide binder, like the air fryer, water filter, tv/cable system, etc.