My wife and I stayed two nights at Yokum’s in one of the "new" cabins - Cabin 2.

On the plus side -- great view of Seneca Rocks, picturesque cabin, clean, comfortable bed, outdoor Jacuzzi, picnic table and charcoal grill.

On the minus side -- DOA heating and cooling, smoky fireplace, do-it-yourself fire fixings, shoddy maintenance, staff with attitude, heavy daytime truck noise from highway, indoor pool heater busted, very few cable channels.

Really, at first blush this looked like a very nice rental. But there were issues...

The issues started when we went to the office to pick up the key. The girl there failed to check which cabin we had reserved. She tried to put us in Cabin 1, when I had specifically reserved Cabin 2 (I thought my wife would appreciate the rustic staircase.)

Once we got that fixed she told us the heater in the indoor pool at the lodge was not working and that the water was cold. She told us the heater was new. When I diplomatically said, "That's disappointing", her reaction was, "Tell me about it." That was as close as we got to an apology. A discount? Get real…

When we got to the cabin we were impressed. It looked very nice. It was clean inside and well equipped – full-size refrigerator/freezer, full-size electric range/oven, over-the-range microwave. But no dishwasher or garbage disposal. Okay, not a biggie.

When I checked the thermostat I found we had both central heat and air-conditioning. But when I tested the heat I found the blower made a racket – like the fan was hitting its housing. I almost decided to go back to the office and complain, but decided we could get by without either heat or A/C for two nights (and we did, no problem.)

There are one and a half baths. The downstairs bath has a regular bathtub with shower. But the toilet seat was a padded, vinyl-covered unit that had passed its use-by date. Cracked and sagging. Another aw-heck-we’ll-live-with-it item.

The upstairs half-bath looked okay, but we never used it.

We had two bedrooms, each with a queen-size bed. Both bedrooms were bare-minimum size for one bed and a second-hand dresser. There were no nightstands, no chairs. We only used one bed and that proved to be comfortable.

The upstairs loft had another five beds, mostly singles, one double. So in total the cabin could have slept 10 people, if you had a couple upstairs that were willing to share a bed without any privacy. But ten people in that cabin would have been tripping all over each other downstairs. Just not enough room.

The kitchen had a drawer with the end ripped off. Said end was stored inside the broken drawer. The paper towel rack was also broken. Eh, okay. We’ll live with it.

I also found there were several lightbulbs burned out. And the layout of the light switches was strange. It wasn’t until the second night that I found one of the main light switches – hidden behind the refrigerator.

The real disappointment came when we decided to make a fire in the fireplace. That is something I know how to do. I checked that the flue was open. We made use of firewood apparently left by the previous tenant. I found out why. As soon as I got the fire going the cabin began to fill with smoke. I had to open the upstairs windows and door to clear the air. After a while – fifteen or twenty minutes – the chimney warmed up enough that it started to draw the smoke, and we could finally enjoy the fire.

The next night, same drill. We bought firewood from folks who stopped by in a pickup, selling us a good load of wood for $5.00. But when I got the fire going the cabin started to fill up with smoke again. No fun.

The staff’s reaction to hearing about the smoke-you-out fireplace was, “Did you open the flue? Yes? Well, huh.” Not that I expected more, but I thought I’d mention it and see if I was doing something wrong.

That does explain why the previous tenant had left their firewood for us.

The staff did say the chimney had been swept by the local fire department recently. So bad maintenance may not be the issue. It may simply be bad design. (Actually that's worse. Bad maintenance can be fixed with good maintenance. Bad design you have to do heavy repair, minimum.)

Setting aside the smoke problem, Yokum's provided nothing for a romantic evening by the fire except a few cheap fire tools. No wood. No lighter or matches. No fire starters. They didn't even have them for sale at the lodge. You had to go out and buy your own at their general store in town or (better) at the outfitters across the street.

Another corner cut to save a couple bucks and take a little more of the romance out of the weekend. Not appropriate for what we were paying.

The one night we decided to watch television was a bust. There were maybe six cable channels. We found one showing a movie, but it was so chopped up with endless strings of commercials that we finally got tired of it and went to bed.

No, I don't go on vacation to watch television. And maybe I can't blame Yokum's for the sparse cable service. But for some people TV is the background of their lives. Don't go to Yokum's if you need that fix.

Now the outdoor Jacuzzi was a definite winner. The cover was big and heavy. We decided to leave it half-on and half-off. The controls were cryptic. But once we got it open, turned on and heated up, oh honey! Very, very nice. That almost made up for all the disappointments! We made good use of the Jacuzzi.

All in all, not a horrible weekend, but well short of what I’d hoped for.

There may be better places to rent cabins. The cabins near Smoke Hole Caverns, a few miles up the road, could be better. But they are smaller, and the layout is more like a trailer park for cabins. Yokum’s wins for picturesque.

For simple comfort and convenience a Holiday Inn Express would have Yokum’s beat all hollow. And definitely cheaper. But if you’re willing to put up with some serious disappointments, and pay heavily for the privilege, Yokum’s might suit.