Bracken Fern Manor — Hotel in Lake Arrowhead

We booked the whole building (10 rooms + kitchen and living spaces) over the Christmas holiday 23-25 and ended up staying till the 26th (for an additional nights fee of course) due to the snow.||||The hotel - It might not be for everyone but I personally like the timber house style, it is especially beautiful in the snow. The Manor is located 2 miles away from Lake Arrowhead Village and right across from the Tudor House.||||The room - There are 10 rooms in the Manor and all (I think) have a private bath. Ours was on the 3rd floor overlooking the Tudor House and was extremely cold the first two nights (even though the hall was very warm) and extremely hot the 3rd night? The room only had the basic amenities - two sets of towels and a shampoo, conditioner, hand soap and lotion in the bathroom, a small hanging rod and armoire for your clothes and a mishmosh of furniture (chair and small bench) nothing else. It appeared to be clean but when laying in bed the first night my face and hands kept itching, possibly a reaction to bleach? I have very sensitive skin. I ended up sleeping with a tee shirt over the pillow the next two nights and the problem seemed to go away for the most part.||||Kitchen - It was nice to have the kitchen to ourselves to prepare meals during our stay. I am not sure if this is the norm (if you only rent one room) but I would hope so since no rooms had a fridge, micro or even a keurig.||||Activities - Lake Arrowhead Village is very close and offers shopping, dining and lake activities. Warning - during the winter months and specifically during Christmas weekend things run on their own schedule there. We definitely should have done research on this area ahead of time but it is hard since there is no reception for phones and only spotty wifi services available within a 5 mile radius of the Manor. So, without proper planning, we did end up heading down to the Village on both the 24th and the 25th. On the 24th we hitched a ride with the caretaker of the Tudor House since our cars were being held hostage by the snow (it snowed the night before and the two plows/bob cat that normally take care of our parking area/driveway were unreachable and the caretakers snow blower was also broke - for all three days). While there we were informed by a store that they would also be open the following day (Christmas Day) so we quickly got some basics and decided to come back the following day when we had more time. The next day we ended up having to walk back (due to day 2 of the car hostage situation and no Uber in the area) and were surprised when only 3 stores were open not including the one who said they would be or the grocery store. So after walking almost 2 miles, literally in the snow, we had to turn around and walked back with nothing to show for it. ||||Staff - all were friendly but we had very few interactions. The caretaker from the Tudor House was the person we dealt with the most. He came and helped us dig cars out on the 26th when it was time for us to checkout. This was done by hand/man handling cars since, once again there was no plow/bobcat or blower available to come and clear the parking area/driveway. This is my main complaint but apparently the person in charge of our reservation was told to have all cars bring chains so this would have been only a small hiccup had the message been delivered I suppose.||||*PS the history of the Manor is that it was built for Bugsy Siegel and was the brothel building that went along with a gambling hall/building (Tudor House) and an additional building for guests. All are connected by tunnels that include a wine cellar and date back to the prohibition time. If you ask, everyone has a "ghost story" or has had an "experience" in the Manor. I personally think this is just a selling point and, besides the cold room on the first 2 nights, did not experience anything out of the ordinary for a 1920's house while there; however, my SO swears that the lights on the Christmas tree reacted to something he said late one night when it was just him and a cousin present. I don't know, I guess if you REALLY want to see something...

Overall... it has great potential but is in SERIOUS need of cleaning, maintenance, and repairs. We spent much of the first afternoon there cleaning: cleaning the vacuum so we could vacuum, washing everything in the kitchen (including greasy dishes and pots/pans), and creating a list of things we needed to purchase (dish rags, dish towels, wash cloths...). The beds appeared to be clean (staticky sheets) which was a relief, but many of us had what appeared to be used towels in our bathrooms.

There's no AC which is fine, but many of the windows didn't have screens so we had quite a few flies and crane flies. Thankfully not many other bugs. The windowsills were full of spiderwebs and dead flies and dust.

The kitchen had plenty of plates/silverware/mugs, but only two pots.

Each room had a bathroom (other than one jack-and-jill room which worked great for us and our six-year-old). Only some of the showers were clean enough to be comfortable using them.

The advertised "wine cellar" was cool temperature-wise and had potential, but was filthy and unusable.

The water was HOT, so you have to be careful to not scald yourself.

No one ended up using the sauna because the kitchen put off so much heat due to constantly exposed...

Let me start by saying that the family I was with rented out all 10 rooms, so I'm not sure how it would go renting a single room. Having said that, this is an ideal destination for a family function. (we were here for Thanksgiving) All bedrooms have their own separate bathrooms and are quite cozy. I wouldn't rate this place as being luxurious or fancy (theres not even a TV) but I would say that it was in good shape, the rooms were clean and the the staff (John, Peggy, Jimmy) were helpful. There is a main kitchen and main dining area as well a living room. The Manor is 5 minutes from the lake and across the street from the Tudor House. AND what everyone really wants to know...no one in our group was haunted on our trip. I had the Jasmine room, and...