Whispering Pines Cabin

This cabin was in severe disrepair. Hot tub was stained and debri in the water. Deck and railing was warped and loose. Living room floor was unstable and soft in several places. Railing at top of upstairs bed room was loose and appeared unsafe. Found four live Spiders and one in the bed.
Called owner to discuss the condition and to request a refund and he promptly refused and stated that this is standered for Hocking Hills cabins. Web site clearly misrepresents this cabin in my opinion. Subsequently we have filed a fraud charge with our bank. Due to the condition we did not stay and had to find other accommodations for the weekend.

Whispering Pines Cabin in Hocking Hills also own the Whippoorwill Cabin, and it’s grouped together with Whispering Pines on their web site and the
web site. This review is specifically about the Whippoorwill.
The Whippoorwill is offered as a budget friendly alternative. We chose it because it was about $ 300 for the weekend (as opposed to almost $ 500 for other options in the area). We should have paid the extra $ 200 for something else.
First, the good. It is a legitimate building with electricity, plumbing, a kitchenette, couch, and TV. The bed is comfortable. It is on a fairly secluded road.
Now the bad:
* We wanted something secluded so we called and asked about it. We were told it was close to the township road, but there was very little traffic and it the hot tub area about back was private. The truth: This shack is right up on the road, so we heard every detail of every car driving by. Which might have been from the next door neighbors (more on that, next). Oh and the fire pit is, well, right between the cabin and the road – meaning right next to your car!
* The next door neighbors on the right are a mobile home that I’m pretty sure is running a meth lab. They start up their cars at all hours, idle them loudly in the driveway for hours, and drive on the road in front of the Whippoorwill loudly (they have no mufflers). They play loud music whenever they want, and you can hear them talking when they go outside. The complaint here is you don’t feel like you’re isolated in the country with that racket next door.
* To further provide the illusion of seclusion, there is a picket fence between the Whippoorwill and their property. This means that you aren’t looking directly in their windows (or they at you!) when you go to the hot tub. But you still see the trailer and if you have the back porch light on, you’ll feel like they can be watching you.
* This cabin has 2 windows in front and that is it. No side windows. The back door (off the bedroom) has a window, but not that’s not a window you can open to enjoy fresh air.
* The hot tub is against the back wall of the house, right outside the bedroom door to the back porch. So every time the hot tub cycles the heat on, you hear/​feel the electric hum while you’re trying to sleep. This electric buzzing changes in pitch and frequency, so sometimes I wondered if it was experiencing a «problem» (i.e. about to catch fire) which kept me from relaxing.
* The hot tub kinda works. It is a hot tub, and it has jets. But the control panel is an ill-​fitting replacement panel, the buttons don’t always do what the label implies, and some parts like cupholders and headrests are broken off.
* While the walls are well insulated, the floor is not. The temp dropped from 60 to 20 F during our stay, and the floor was so cold underfoot it hurt to walk in socks. We wish we brought slippers.
* The water pressure was horrible. This is to be expected in the country. But the crappy showerhead in the bathroom shot weak little streams of water in every direction except your body. So it took 45 minutes to rinse the shampoo out of your hair.
* The bathroom has no shelves, hooks, or hang bars for your towels and stuff. Really?
* Neither does the kitchen. It does have an excellent stove/​oven and a functional microwave and freezer/​fridge. But there are no ice trays or icemaker in the freezer. The provided plates and bowls are okay, but the 3 little tea cups and 10 red plastic drinking cups don’t give the best options to drink from. They did not provide paper towels, but they did provide coffee filters – the wrong ones! The coffeemaker requires basket filters but they provided cone filters. There were about 4 – 5 knives, including 2 steak knives, and a bunch of forks, but only 2 spoons! The stove pots were good, and the oven pans functional. But a little short on cooking utensils.
* The tiny parking space in front of the cabin is a mud pit in the rain. There’s no way to avoid tracking clumps of red dirt into the cabin.
* The hockinghills web site listed DVD players in the features, but there was not one. There went our movie watching weekend. However, the satellite TV worked well, as long as you don’t want premium channels.
* The décor was, well, non existent. Cute side tables by the bed, and that is it. Does not feel like a cabin; it feels more like ¼-​size trailer.
I am boring myself with all this negativity, so I’ll wrap up now. It’s a clean, basic place. But it’s far short of the expected Hocking Hills cabin experience. Keep looking.