Arden Acres Executive Suites and Cottages

I wanted something other than a hotel for a couple of days. Saw Arden Acres online and gave it a go. Glad I did. Wow! It’s a wee bit away from downtown but the peope running it and the place itself are five-star. I had unit 46 and it was nice. Like a tiny house. It was clean. It was quiet. It was comfortable and I really liked the vibe of the area. If you don’t mind an extra ten minute drive this is the place.

I actually booked this on a hotel website. The other reviews on here don't give the place justice. It's VERY quaint, clean, and I felt very safe as a single female traveler. They have limited check-in hours, from 2-6pm, but if you're arriving outside that time, arrange it with Vicki at the office. Also check out time is 9am, which is typical for vacation rentals. When you come in, the first driveway and keypad didn't work for me, but there's another one a few more feet down that worked every time. I found my cottage, came in the door, and the key was on the storage bin in the middle of the living room. My first impression was this place was spacious, cozy, warm, with plenty of closet space and cabinets. They have a full kitchen with every utensil imaginable, plus toaster and coffee maker. The TV in the living room was more app based, but there's free channels too if you keep poking around with the remote. The TV in the bedroom only had 4 channels, 2 Spanish language channels, and 2 Christian channels. Weird. Each cottage had their own wifi which was great, nice strong signal. It's your typical vacation rental. So there's some things they have, and there's other things they don't have. There was shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, and liquid hand soap, but no Kleenex, bar soap, or hair dryer. Luckily, they were on sale at Walgreens, but it was still and inconvenience to leave in the morning to get one. I didn't actually meet the office staff until the day before I left. They seem to get a lot of people in between homes, and it appeared as if someone overstayed their welcome. So they seem to change the gate code frequently. Nothing is within walking distance, and the place is surrounded by RV sales lots, so to get decent food, you have to drive a bit or get groceries. If you don't have a car, nothing is within walking distance except a Carls Jr. But it was still nice to have a place to myself. The bedding was soft and warm, and the heater worked well but was very VERY loud. Basically, it was either the heater or the TV. The fridge was loud too. And at night there seemed to be all sorts of things that bumped in the night. It it was still nice at night to sit in the living room and was Netflix. This place was nice and cozy and I would stay here again.

I phoned the manager in the afternoon to tell her I'd be arriving late. The call went to voicemail. When I arrived, her phone was still off and I was locked out in a sketchy neighborhood at night. A car went through the gate and I ran in and found a man working on his truck and he helped me get into the cottage. I'm used to hotels and motels that have someone there to check you in, not this. The cottage itself was cute enough though a little run down. For the final problem, there was no hot water in the shower in the morning. It's bizarre that this place is getting four stars, it was cheap but I wouldn't recommend it under any circumstances.