Housekeeping Camp — Hotel in Oakhurst

Ok, long review - but packed with info I was searching for when booking at Housekeeping, and didn't find a review that covered it all- so trying to write it up, paying it forward in case anything here is helpful! Keep in mind, this was our singular experience, so I'd recommend you read a lot of reviews when planning.||First, I'm a long-time visitor to Yosemite, been over 20 times across my 55 years! We stayed in the cabins in the 70's (washed away in the floods in late 80's), I've stayed in Yosemite Lodge rooms, Ahwahnee, Campgrounds (all 3), and spent a ton of time in Curry, and around the Valley. This was my first time staying at Housekeeping but I had been there a number of times to the showers, and the store. I hope you enjoy the review. Note: My 1st choice is always to stay at the campgrounds, however, those reservations are so hard to get, that one has to make concessions, because...it's Yosemite, and always worth it. ||My rating system - scale of 1 (Poor) to 5 (Great)||Overall campground vibe: 4|crowded, units are 2 back to back and close to other units. It's transient - there is always someone arriving/leaving. It is extremely quiet during the day so it's relaxing, good to hang near your unit, chill in a hammock. Come dinner time, it's noisy with adults talking, kids playing, music, etc. If your neighbor is playing music, you are hearing it loud and clear. I didn't see this as a bad thing, but just be aware it's very loud and lively. For the most part, people observed quiet hours and things settled down by 10pm. One thing that struck me was that it was not at all noisy early in morning. In the 3 Pines campgrounds, I would always be woken up at 6am or so by other campers waking up - but here, it was a real treat to sleep in a little. It got going about 8am or so. For souvenir shopping, this little shop is nice has essentials, but head over to Curry to hit the Mountaineer shop as store for a good selection of items, it's just also a better vibe over there. We didn't use pools this trip, but curry has one, and Yosemite Lodge (preferred) both have pools you can use for a small fee. Food/groceries abundant, but we like cooking at our unit so Brought all our own.||Parking: 5|We were a river unit near beach, so we had a parking lot vs. parking next to our unit. it was a very short walk to unit. no reserved spaces, just find what you can. not a problem.||Room/Units/Beds: 4|These units are fine. all the reviews that say just expect the dust and dirt - accurate, but it was so nice to have a bedroom area, and a living/dining patio! We liked that more than a typical tent camping vibe. Just a place to hang. Everyone decorates their units - so bring string lights, tarps/sheets with big towel clips to create privacy wall for yourself. We were lucky, our patio was fairly enclosed by fence and tree, but some units were open on both sides, so add a little privacy you won't regret it. When you arrive, wipe everything down. The table is a small six seater table (not 6 adults, more like a few adults and a few kids) - bring a table cloth. Make it homey. I brought rechargeable outdoor table lamps, and mosquito repellants and it was perfect. the unit lighting is good, but at night the little lights we brought made it comfy. someone came over and admired our little unit saying we 'made it look like an apartment'. There is an outlet at the kitchen (one light switch, and two 3-prong outlets), and one outlet in bedroom (see pics). The double bed was solid, but held up by a plank board - I'm sure it was fine, bu the twin beds were super sturdy (see pic of underside of bed support). Mattresses were comfortable. The "shower curtain" door was weird, but fine. No critters and no safety concerns. Bear boxes were standard - very roomy for us. We read that some are only 18 inches high, so we brought a cooler under that. turns out ours was much taller. Bring a rug to put on your bedroom floor - we had two to span the space between the two bed - very comfortable. roomy shelf. bring extension cords. We also brought a little fan which was nice in the afternoons to cool out the tent. This will be more important in late Summer when it gets hot! our temps were low 80's. I brought little magnetic hooks to put on the bed frame for our hats. Our Unit was 232 - fine. Unit 231, 235 were exceptional locations/setups to name just a few.||Cooking Area: 5|The counter was high and spacious. I wiped that sucker down too when I got there. I had my Coleman stove, a water jug, and I brought a little coffee maker and it was just perfect. Storage underneath is directly on dirt. Water avail nearby and grey water/washing dump are attached to bathroom buildings. Kitchen counter is not magnetic - my hooks didn't work there. bring extension cord in case your plug is further away from counter. ours was right next to it.||Bathrooms: 5|These bathrooms are so much cleaner than the campground bathrooms. The women's bathroom had 3 sinks with a counter spanning the whole width, with multiple outlets. Plenty of paper, and cleaned daily. Hardly any bugs (one flying one got in), but not ants, hardly mosquitos, secure, well lit. No towel holders, so bring your own. soap dispensers were always full.||Firepit: 1 (our experience)|I posted a pic of our unit. There was a potable water spigot next to our unit, so it made it a little grand central station in the evenings, so our fire pit was essentially in a walkway. We had bought a box of wood at checkin before checking out our space. We opted to just skip the fire and ended up giving our wood to a neighbor. Boo.||Proximity to River: 5+++|I mean, for all the negatives one can come up with at Housekeeping, you cannot compare this to how close you are to the river. Spend the extra money and get a River unit. Note that not all river units are frontage to the river, we were like in a 2nd row, but it was literally so close, a very short walk to the beach (in front of us) and to a rockier part of the beach (to the right of us). We were in Unit 232. I posted a pic of the campground map. It feels like it's not exactly to scale, but close enough. Bring your pop up shade to the beach, your own tubes/rafts. we enjoyed watching the rafters go by. we camped ourselves in the river with our chairs- heaven! ||Peacefulness:|This is definitely not the place to come if you are looking for a back to nature, soothing getaway. However, if you know what to expect at camp, you can simply find your zen just a short walk away. I, and several others, had found various sitting spots along the beach/river bend, under a tree, in hammocks, etc. It was very relaxing to me. And, it's Yosemite, there is nothing like gazing out at the trees, the granite walls, listening to the wind, hearing the water run, taking in the sights, smells, sounds. The beach/river has views of Yosemite Falls and Half Dome, and the whole place is just my happy place.||We didn't hike or go to our usual haunts this trip (lower falls, mirror lake). We just wanted to chill at the river since it was a short trip - and we had a great experience. Would I stay here again, yes, but I still prefer the...

We were really worried about the noise level from seeing all of the recent bad reviews so I asked the front desk to put us in a quiet location. Front desk agent assigned us to section D near the river b/c he said that it's quieter and has its own bathroom that's not used as much, although further from the showers. When we arrived late around 8 pm, we heard music coming from next door and loud talking. We hoped that it would be ok but then the music got louder and more people came to the tent, talking loudly and singing at the top of their lungs to Miley Cyrus deep into the night. The rules are not to make noise that will bleed into other people's tents and quiet hours 10 pm-7 am. I went over to ask them to keep it down at 9:50 pm b/c I couldn't stand it anymore. Their speaker was right on the other side our double bed and we were so tired from all day of hiking and wanted to get some rest so that we could explore Yosemite further the next day. They thought they could make much noise as possible until 10 pm. Wrong! There must have been 30 young adults, drinking, smoking, yelling, singing, right on the other side of our wall. Oh lucky us! We were right next door to the party tent! I could see all of the other tents around us were getting annoyed but afraid to say anything. Finally about 10:00 pm, they went to the river with few stragglers talking further into the night. Then I heard 2 rangers around 10:30 b/c some people got a hold of them and complained. Apparently, the partiers left behind a huge mess of beer cans and trash, making it risky for bear. I think I heard that they will fine them and heard them cleaning up their mess. All food and trash should have been put away. These partiers put our lives in danger by leaving out all of their food trash behind. All of this makes me so outraged. I tried calling the Housekeeping Front Desk but since it was after-hours, noone would answer. There should be a way to easily contact rangers for situations like this. I'm not sure how they were called.

We made last min reservation probably due to a last min cancellation of somebody so we were really grateful that we were able to stay over-night in the valley floor, but having these partiers produce so much noise pollution late into night, we didn't get the peace and rest that we really needed, ruining the beauty and tranquility of this amazing national park. There needs to be a way to contact the ranger or somebody who can come out in situations like this so it can be controlled before it goes out of hand. A phone number for emergencies should be included in the check-in information.

One other thing I wanted to mention is the mess in the shower facility. People would leave used diapers, tampon leftovers, and other junk in the shower stalls. People are so messy and inconsiderate. I know it's not the fault of the camp but it would be nice for an attendant to check every hour or so to walk by and pickup the junk left behind.

Location of the Housekeeping Camp is amazing and the staff...

This gets 2 stars for the only reason that this is located inside the park. The campground itself deserves a big 0.

For about 125 dollars a night this place is a sham and I would have rather stayed in my own tent in a better maintained campground than in there run down units

What you get:

. Campsite with a covered unit that has a door like thing that you cannot seal completely. The massive space above and around this door like thing lets in a lot of air which isn't great if it gets cold and nights can be very cold in the valley

. A parking spot for your vehicle but not necessarily next to the unit, this I believe is true for most River units where you will need to park farther way from your site

. A fire ring that you are only allowed to use between 5 PM and 10 PM (or else there campground staff which patrols regularly will extinguish the fire for you)

. Two lights (one inside the unit and one outside) with electrical outlets but no space heaters allowed (I was told that the circuit will trip at 15 amps so don't use anything that might draw a lot of amps)

. 1 bunk bed and 1 twin bed that make creaking noises like they will fall apart at any moment

. Food storage box where you need to store your food at all times unless you are six feet away

. For an additional 15 dollars a day you can rent a bedding pack which has two pillows with covers, two thin blankets, a sheet and a cover for the mattress

Our experience

. The staff at reception was nice so no complaints there. . The unit we stayed in (231) is in a bad state, however as I looked around most units seemed in the same poor condition. . When we arrived the unit was not clean so I'm guessing that there is no housekeeping for the units at the housekeeping camp. . We found a deer mouse under our bed who greeted us on Day 1 but we did not see him thereafter. . Shared restrooms that were in a bad state and looked like they weren't cleaned often. Infact the restrooms at the park's visitor center and other spots within the park were much cleaner.

IMO if you are an experienced camper with proper gear, can rough it out and wouldn't mind paying the extra premium for the experience of staying within the park then go for it, however, if you are expecting even the tiny bit of comfort or are planning to book based on the pictures on there website then avoid...