A Stone's Throw Bungalow Vacation Rentals — Attraction in Bend

We stayed at Khaya for six weeks in Bend this fall, which A Stone's Throw bills as "eco-conscious luxury." We would not stay there again if we had another option. This was an extremely noisy location, with trucks from the grocery store audible first thing in the morning, and weekly late-night parties with bonfires outside at a neighbor's house across the way, despite COVID restrictions on gatherings. We were sort of hoping that noise wouldn't be an issue, given that the building is relatively new construction. But there is little meaningful sound insulation on the second floor. Probably fine if you're just there for a weekend but we don't recommend it for a longer stay.

The noise issues obviously are not entirely within the control of the rental agency. But we had more than a few issues that were: In our first days there, we put the rug from the master bedroom outside because it had not been adequately washed after the last person's pets. There were visible signs of unwashed dog shit and vomit. This was not the only cleaning issue we experienced. We managed to get A Stone's Throw to comp a cleaning mid-stay (thank you! that was much appreciated!) but their cleaner suggested we should have avoided a pet-friendly place if we didn't like the fact that there were mounds of dog hair underneath the dresser that had never been vacuumed. Just because we didn't have pets of our own on this stay doesn't mean I don't want the place adequately cleaned after the last folks!

The house itself is kind of a design fail. Just try opening a window: the screen, which opens inward, is likely to catch on a shade hung incorrectly and too low, and when you get to the actual window, it might be blocked by something like the HVAC vent outside. The kitchen window screens, for instance, get caught on the faucet when you try to open them. There was a nice attempt to have heated flooring but if you run the heat for any of the other bedrooms, it overheats the master one. Lots of other small issues like that.

Again, if we had been here just a couple of nights, it probably wouldn't have been too bad. But every day brought a new problem there, and we only reported about half of them. Someone should take the time to live there for a while and work on making this 'luxury' house more genuinely functional, and also more legitimately "eco" -- having solar panels on the roof means little when half the appliances inside run on gas, and the place isn't even subscribed to the city's compost system. We ended up paying to take our compost to a county transfer station. C'est la vie. There are worse problems to have in the world. But there are also better places to...

My husband and one-year old stayed at Big Lava for 3 nights on a weekend in September. It is advertised as a brand new home, however, it definitely shows signs it's been 'lived in' and signs that people have come and gone. It was advertised as having a high chair, which I inquired to confirm prior to my arrival. When we arrived, the high chair provided was one like provided at a restaurant (wood basic chair) with no tray. Usually, this would work just fine for us, however, all the table surfaces were bar stool height, including the dinning room table. We wish this was disclosed to us seeing that we inquired about it prior to the trip and we would have brought an alternative high chair counter attachment with us. We also experienced quite a few bugs and spiders in the home. I took photos and sent to the mgmt. I was told that this was common for the time of year. Ironically, prior to our most recent move, we have lived in Central Oregon, and in general, have been PNW residence for 20+ years, and the collection of bugs we encountered did not seem like the "typical time of year" bug situation. They also stated that because of Covid they do extra cleaning and are extra careful, and therefore we were instructed, at the end of our stay, to strip the beds and bag the linens and towels, etc in 3 designated provided bags. Which is fine, but my one year old daughter while sitting on the couch came across a vape or smoking pen of some sort and old receipts from past stays. A little disconcerting on many levels, but left us puzzled if in fact a deep clean actually occurred. Overall, we had a fine stay, but considering the cost and weighing if it matches the value, I'm unsure...

We stayed in the Hillside Loft for five nights in August 2021. It was a great experience. The rental unit was cozy, comfortable and clean. It looked and felt brand new. The bed was very comfortable and we appreciated the full kitchen with lots of cooking pots and pans and plenty of utensils and supplies. Having a dishwasher and a microwave was great. We appreciated the bath/shower soaps, lotions and shampoo. Nice touch! Even though the unit does not permit pets, every dog owner in the neighborhood brought their pooches to the grassy Hillside Park right across the street. It's a super friendly neighborhood. We arrived during an extreme heat wave and dangerously unhealthy smoky air from all the wildfires burning on the West coast...so it was a real lifesaver to have air conditioning and a ceiling fan in the unit. They kept us cool inside and kept the smoke and ash in the air from coming inside. It almost goes without saying that, since the unit is over a garage, you'll hear the garage door opening and closing and cars coming and going down below. It wasn't really a big deal but we noticed that the people living in the adjacent house seemed to leave for work very early in the morning. We had great communication with the Stone's Throw staff prior to our arrival and during our stay. They are well organized and very professional...it was a pleasure to stay here. We'll definitely come back here or choose another one of their rental properties when we...