Staying at Otter Shores was a disappointing and frustrating experience for us. I am writing this review so that other people considering booking here will know what we wished we would have known in advance.
To start, the positives:
- the property itself is beautiful, set on a quite steep hill leading down to the Salish Sea
- it is very conveniently located for the ferry
- it is very private, we didn't see almost anyone else when we were there
- the caretaker cabin was actually totally fine (I slept there for all three nights); a bit slanted, yes, but perfectly workable
The negatives:
- there is no central kitchen that a large group can cook in -- all of the kitchen supplies are quite randomly spread out across the various cabins/tents -- it is neither particularly well set up for a group to cook altogether or for everyone to cook on their own
- the BBQ was in very ill-repair and quite dirty
- the caretaker cabin and the downstairs studio were quite dirty -- it was clear no one had cleaned the floors before we arrived
- the day before we arrived, the host wrote us a message to ask us to bring our own towels and trash bags -- we were already travelling and did not have these things with us
- the trailer was completely unuseable; the beds were at most five feet long, it smelled terrible and was quite damp
- several of the beds listed on Airbnb were not actually beds -- for example the "single" in the bell tent was basically a glorified bench. By my count, these were the actual sleepable beds: (a) garden studio -- double bed + camping mattress on the ground, (b) caretaker cabin -- pull out couch + king bed, (c) upstairs studio -- double bed, (d) downstairs studio -- pull out couch, (e) bell tent -- double bed [there was also a sort of bunk house with a bunk bed in it, which was not listed on Airbnb, but which we used when we realized the trailer was not useable]
- in the email and throughout later communication with us, the host repeatedly referred to Otter Shores as "glamping" as an excuse for something not working (e.g., water, BBQ etc.); this is not how it was pitched in the initial post on Airbnb and it's certainly not what we were paying $1000/night for
- while we were there, the water did not work in two of the three cabins; the host kept telling us it would be fixed "that day" but it never was -- we were 10/11 adults sharing a single shower -- we asked for a two night refund, but she would only give us one night
All in all, definitely the most disappointing and frustrating Airbnb experience I have had. I'm all for glamping, but it should still be clean and functioning, and that should be reflected in the price point!