Cathy's Cottages

This might have been the worst hotel I have ever stayed in. The Motel 6 up the street would have been nicer. I booked my room through hotels.com, which does not provide an accurate address for the property and makes it seem much closer to big bear village than it really is. The check in/check out process is a pain because you have to drive 4 miles down the road to go to the "office" which doesn't even have staff, it just has a person using an ipad to facetime check you in. The wifi signal is so weak that none of my devices could successfully connect. Perhaps the most unforgivable part of the whole experience was the condition the room was in and the staffs reluctance to help fix anything. The heater worked, but it worked so well that it couldn't be turned down and was close to 85 degrees in the room. The knobs for the main light and fireplace were broken off. The bathroom had a giant hole in the wall and the door-frame was broken so the door couldn't lock or close properly. The bathroom was also just in general dirty. Lastly the front porch light was out and it is incredibly dark/slippery on the front entrance (it had just snowed when I was there, so ice was everywhere).

Perfect for two for relaxation. We went for fishing and just wanted a place to be able to cook our catch and clean up, sleep and relax. Didn’t catch a thing so bought steaks and cooked out on the grill which we needed to clean out before we could use it, but we were happy to have it. Everything else was great. The windows open were enough to cool off without the A/C.

We booked unit C7 in this quaint cottage based on other reviews and pictures and a reasonable price. The unit was cozy and provided our basic needs, and fortunately one of I believe two units with an air conditioner, due to outside noise and not wanting to open the windows. I missed the fine print on the reservation that said the office check-in is 4 miles back from where I came and had to go there to get the key, and the cottages are further from the Village than I had realized, so my mistake there. Getting inside was tough because the key barely jiggled into the lock, and once inside we noticed two lights out in the ceiling fan and that the TV remote would not change channels. I called the office and was told they would come by later, but after a couple of hours we needed to go to dinner, so they came by while we were out, dropped off the wrong type of bulbs, and didn't even enter the unit to fix the TV issue, so stuck with PBS all night. The next day we rode in the Tour de Big Bear and upon returning contacted the office again and finally got somebody to fix the remote and the lights. The only ice is a very small ice bin in the freezer and their note that an ice machine is available appears to mean back near the office, because there is not one at the cottages. The A/C unit is very small and takes a long time to cool the unit, but once cooled it was comfortable and the A/C noise helps mask the noise of the street traffic and home next door where people drank outside and talked until midnight one night. There are four pillows, two extra firm and two firm, so if you like a softer pillow like we do, they are very uncomfortable. The staff is very pleasant and the unit is quaint and has everything you need, but too noisy, uncomfortable pillows, and needing to coordinate service and basics like an ice machine back at the office, and taking a day to fix our TV issue are why we rated the cottages poor.