Echo Valley Cottages — Hotel in Middle Smithfield Township

Great place to stay if you love piss and $hit on the floor/toilet. Absolutely disgusting and owner is a glorified slum lord. I went on a walk through of the bridge cottage weeks before I was supposed to move in and it was dated; but looked ok. I showed up a few weeks later and was repulsed by the living conditions. Piss was all over the floor around the toilet, bloody dental floss was on the floor of the bedroom, the refrigerator had shelf’s broken off with sticky looking residue streaking down the inside, mouse turds under the sink, and stains on the sofa. The mattress was also an old lumpy spring mattress from the 80’s that I was told I needed to bring my own sheets, pillows, and towels for the bedroom/bathroom. There was supposed to be internet in the cottage and was told that I needed to get an internet extender since the modem/router was in a different cottage and could not reach. I told/showed the owner Hiram about everything I had found; including left over beer in the fridge. He told me that his cleaning lady had cleaned it and didn’t know anything about it. I told him that I was not going to stay in that filth for the next month. He then showed me the Deerfield cottage. We opened the door and tried the lights; they don’t work. Go to the bedroom and again a spring mattress from 1980 with pubic dust bunnies all over the floor. Went to the bathroom and once again $hit all over the base of the toilet with, you guessed it; more pubes. Utterly revolting!! I showed Hiram and he asked me if it was a deal breaker. I said undoubtedly yes it was!! He stormed off down the road in his yellow jeep and I left. I contacted my boss who had prepaid for me to stay there; since we had business in the area and needed to be in the area for a few months. He contacted Hiram who told him that he could not be refunded for the month. Hiram did admit to my boss that he had let a few guys stay there the weekend before and they must have left the beer/pissed on the floor. He is a crook and the place should be condemned. Do NOT stay there!!!! I didn’t get the chance to take any pictures of the first cottage, but below are pictures of the second cottage he tried to put me in. Nowhere near as bad as the first, but still...

I stayed a full week in the Hilltop House cottage as a vacay for my birthday. I came with my boyfriend and dog. I do wish that when booking they added what the dog fee was per day. |Hiram and Allison (who I believe is the property manager) are very nice but there were a few issues with the place. Heating was a major issue. It was uncomfortably cold in the house, even thought there were thermostats in every room of the home. Some heat was coming through the baseboard but not enough to provide warmth for the home. I could not sleep in the room downstairs because of the cold. We used the portable heater and fireplace but it still wasn’t enough. Hiram did come and assist us with the heating situation and was able to provide us with another heater, which is great. However, I think for the price, the home could have a better heating situation. |Another thing was water pressure. The water pressure was incredibly low in the kitchen sink, main bathroom and upstairs bathroom. The shower upstairs had no water running at all. It was difficult to shower because of the low water pressure ON TOP of the home being cold. You’re in the shower longer than you have to be because of the low water pressure. Again, Hiram was accessible and made aware of this issue. |Lastly, the lights went out in the kitchen and main bathroom. Some of the outlets were working and some were not. I couldn’t finish microwaving my food because the power went out. I also bought some groceries that day so they had to spend the night in a nonworking refrigerator. Also cooking in the dark wasn’t fun. Hiram was made aware. |Now, I thought the cottage was cute and the scenery was nice. I liked that I could get away from everything but was still close enough to go to places like the grocery store but I felt for the price I paid, the amount of issues were far too much. I’ve booked other places in the Pocono Mountains before and didn’t have as many issues as I did with this home. So while the stay was okay, I would not book or recommend people stay here. |Last tidbit, I don’t know how clean the place actually is. I opened the fridge and oven and it looked like whoever was there last spilled something and it was...

The location was perfect and definitley was an adorable cottage. We stayed at The Pond and it was nice being on the water and having the duck couple as companions. Window unit air conditioner definitely did its job which was wonderful. However, the cottage had odor of fish and cigarettes. I thought after the air was on for a bit, it would subside but didn't. It states "no smoking inside" unfortunatly not observed. And the queen bed definitly needs replacing. ||When booking, there was not a place to put 2 dog fee on the reservation. At check in, it was confirmed that we had one dog. I corrected her and stated that no, I have two dogs and they are small. Nothing was said to a change of fee. About 20 min later, the owner came over to "intoduce himself" to my husband and said that he noticed two dogs and we only paid for one. My husband did not check in with me and did not know that I had said I had two dogs to the person I checked in with. The owner said that we needed to pay for two and a processing fee. I had NO problem paying for two dogs and didn't understand why that wasn't done when I had said there were two. He made us feel like we were trying to get away with something. ABSOLUTELY not as we travel with our dogs all the time and have no problem with paying for them. It's way cheaper than a dog sitter is how I look at it. Just wish that there was more communications from front...