Location: Five stars if you are a hiker, fisher or just want a quiet getaway from the city and its amenities. One star if you want those amenities. The nearest good restaurants, shopping and full-service stores are thirty miles away. Building: Five stars for a large, modern home with a lodge look, spacious and well-built with upscale fixtures. There are three upstairs rooms for rent. Grounds: Five stars for the generally attractive surroundings that reportedly include miles of hiking trails. Room and amenities: Four Stars for our room, which was spacious with lots of storage, a balcony and a bath. There were two bed lamps but both were inadequate for reading, while the flood lights in the ceiling were too bright for anyone lying in bed trying to read. The room included a small desk and a chair. Our room rating does not consider the other two rooms, one a bedroom, the other a bunk room for an unknown number of good friends or an entire family, both with a separate or shared bath. Bathroom and amenities: Four stars for the small bath with shower. Counter space was inadequate but that was fully compensated with plenty of drawers and cupboards. Due to the small size of the bath, there is only one towel rack and the TP is uncomfortably located to the rear of the small toilet. The lighting is better than that in most hotel bathrooms. Bed and pillows: Five Stars for the comfortable queen bed. One star for the mushy pillows that crank your chin up toward your chest without providing any support for your neck. HVAC: One star for an unconventional room air conditioner that not only blew cold air across the bed all night long but did so at constantly varying fan speeds that supposedly mimic natural breezes but actually mimic natural cold winds. Both the remote control and the instructions for the AC indicated that this supposedly desirable feature could be defeated in favor of steady low, medium and high fan speeds; however, our attempts to change the program(which included an attempt to reboot the remote) changed nothing. We made do the second night without the AC by opening the door to the balcony. Breakfast. Four stars for a healthy fix-it-yourself fruit and cereal breakfast with high-quality breads and jams. Dog: Five stars for Delilah, a very nice Lab. Service: Three stars. The hosts are friendly and helpful but this is an Airbnb home, not a full-service hotel. Noise Level: Four stars. The rooms are not well-isolated from the central living area or each other; however, the home is generally quiet and noisy activities cease around nine or ten at night. Price and Summary: Airbnb properties generally offer lower prices but they are able to do this in part because they generally are not subject to the building and safety codes and the insurance requirements of commercial hotels. Cascade Mountain Lodge offers especially favorable prices for such a nice property, if its Location(see above) is right for you. The hosts have an unconventional no-shoes-upstairs rule.
