Our organization, the Christian Sport Bike Assocation, planned our annual National Rally to be head quartered out of Smoke Hole Lodge. The owners had agreed to our group using the conference facilites and most of our group were staying on site. There were a few who were staying else where and communting in the am to meet up. When our rally began on Monday and a couple of folks arrived and went into the cabin another person had rented, the owners saw these "visitors" and threw them out! Therefore our whole organization left the property. I had a cabin booked and cancelled with over 48 hours notice prior to when I was going to arrive. I was charged the full amount for my cabin because I had cancelled less than ONE MONTH prior to my arrrival date. One month cancellation period is quite excessive and found no where else in the lodging community. DO NOT MAKE A RESERVATION HERE! If anything happens within that final month, ie sickness, death in family, etc., you will be out your full charge for what you've rented. Don't even think about talking to the owners, Jerry and Janet,about it. They were rude, obnoxious and unwilling to hear anything. Fortunately this does not speak of all West Virginia has to offer. We relocated to Yokum's Vacation Land and a nice cabin and SUPER nice service.

We had planned our national rally for the Christian Sport Bike Assoc. In the WV area, the Smoke Hole Resort seemed to be the perfect place. My vice president and another rider took a trip up to check out the resort and meet Jerry, both were impressed with the place and let Jerry know what we were planning, Jerry even offered to show us some roads and lead a ride, we were interested in the roads not in him leading any rides. I booked one of the cabins for 6 days. Other members had reserved rooms and cabins We pulled in with our trucks and trailers on Monday night, we were coming from the race track after having spend the holiday weekend racing and had brought our street bikes with us to do some road riding. Minus the mice in the kitchen the place was very nice; it was empty with the exception of one other cabin across the court yard. We had chosen the place to gather to ride and to fellowship as Christian riders, on the morning of our first day Jerry’s wife wanted to know how many people were staying in the cabin. The three of us had our bikes out front plus truck and trailers, we had invited some of our other members to join us for breakfast, and they were staying at the camp ground which is also owned by Jerry. There was total of 8 people in our cabin sharing breakfast, the cabin holds 6, we were informed by Jerry’s wife that this was un-acceptable and not allowed, I explained that we would not do it again the following morning, as I had at this point decided that if we could not gather as a group then there was no point in staying.

At this point I figured we were just in the wrong place, these people are just kind of crazy and left it at that. We contacted our other members let them know we were moving down the road to Yoakum’s Resort where they welcomed us with open arms and real southern hospitality. I gave them such a negative review based on how they handled my members when they canceled, they told each of the people that they would be billed for the rooms they had reserved and in one case even over billed them twice for a room that was not used. The entire staff at Smoke Hole from the clerk to the owners was rude and arrogant. I would advice anyone who was looking for a place to stay to try any place but here, we found through the course of our stay in this area that everyone else was very polite, from the owners of Yoakum’s to the merchants in the area, they were all very accommodating to our motorcycle group. We have already planned to visit the area next spring for our rally, the roads the people were great, we will just avoid the Smoke Hole Resort.

Bob Brown
President
Christian Sport Bike Assoc

With my line of work, I am placed in a city usually for 3 months. I lived in Petersburg West Virginia from April, 2007-June 2007. Due to the rural area, my company placed me to live on Jerry Hedricks property. He put me in a very run down trailer house that I believe had been in the Potomac River flood! During the 2 months there, Jerry was constantly coming around, usually around 9 or 10 at night. He made me very uncomfortable with his maneurisms. The last weekend I was there, the air conditioner broke. The temperature reached 92 degrees in the house. I tried calling several times and yet it never got fixed. At one point, I spoke with my company and they called him so he finally placed me in one of his cabins after being very rude over the phone. I had a cat with me so I left her in the cabin so she didn't have to be in the heated house. When I came home after a day at work, rather than call me or have the guests wait, he locked my cat up and let the guests start to move in. I first went over to the trailer house and someone had left the door wide open and all of my stuff thrown in the front door. I had a computer, printer, digital camera, etc in there that could have been stolen. Fortunately after this day, I was able to get out of there and find a safer more comfortable place my last month there. I have stayed in several states and never have I been treated this way. The town of Petersburg is the greatest most loving town I have ever been too. So I will never hold my miserable living arrangements against it! If you are traveling for several months or just several days, I would NEVER recommend staying at Smoke Hole Log Cabins/Cottages or the hotel!

My husband and I stayed at Smoke Hole Cabins, run out of the Smoke Hole Caverns tourist shop on Route 28 about 10 miles south of Petersburg WV. We were there on Thanksgiving 2007 for a 2-night getaway. After reading other reviews we were nervous about staying there, but had driven by many times and wanted to see for ourselves what the cabins were like. We liked the setting very much - on a peaceful patch of green with most cabins a few hundred feet from the highway so not bothered by traffic noise. The 25 or so "honeymoon" and family cabins are on a small trout stream and have beautiful golden trout for you to feed with pellets. There is also an attractive playground and pool, not relevant to us during a winter visit, but probably great for families in summer and fall. Our cabin was clean, nicely decorated and had a full modern kitchen w/ microwave & coffee maker & coffee packets, a jacuzzi, plus a shower in the bathroom, a wood fireplace (which we did not use), and cable TV but no VCR or DVD player. It was cute and cozy but minimally equipped in some ways, compared to some other vacation rentals. No towel racks in the bathroom (we were putting wet towels on doorhandles or the floor), no phone, no soap dish at the jacuzzi, no hairdryer, no kleenex in bathroom, no paper towels in kitchen, no salt & pepper shakers, and one thin blanket on the bed (we did get another blanket the next day after asking for it). The owners seem to be chintzy. There were minimal dishes - enough for 2 people but no extra (e.g., 3 teaspoons, 3 small plastic drinking glasses, no wine glasses) - every time we had a drink or snack, we were washing the dishes. The owners also charge extra for firewood ($5 a bundle). One strange thing is that there was an aerosal device on the fireplace mantel called "ProVet" (I think) that sprayed something in the room every 15 minutes with a "zap" sound. It had a sickly sweet air-freshener smell. We opened the device and discovered it was some kind of insecticide. Ewww! It annoyed us so much we finally put it outside on the back deck. We would have been OK with all this but then discovered (as another reviewer noted) that the mattress was covered in plastic - bizarre and annoying. Even with the mattress pad and sheets, we could hear the plastic crinkling every time we moved. It felt like sleeping in a baby's crib! We did use the jacuzzi and enjoyed it, but the bedding was disturbing and seemed "cheap." We thought the cabin was a bit overpriced at $145/night (incl.tax), esp. in the offseason when we were practically the only people there. The owners also charge extra for using a credit card. So we probably won't stay there again.

All that said, the location is nice and if you want to visit Smoke Hole Caverns, Seneca Caverns, Spruce Knob, Seneca Rocks or Dolly Sods, you are within 20 miles of all those sights. We visited both caverns and enjoyed them, and hiked to the viewing platform at Seneca Rocks - very nice 2-3 hour day hike with a 960-foot (but easy) ascent. A few miles south on Route 28, just across from the road to Dolly Sods, are Harman North Forth Cabins - same design and great setting right on river - look very nice, similar price -- we'll try those next time.