Pros: Close to town, in nature, charming area, very clean, friendly owners, quiet
Cons: plumbing issues, internet issues, no central heat and air, cramped
We rented the Mona Lisa for a full week to work remote and explore Hot Springs in the evenings. While the listing may be ok for someone who will not be spending a lot of time there it wasn’t appropriate for what we needed in a work-remote scenario. We cut our seven-day trip short.
Plumbing:
Firstly, the owner asks that no toilet paper of any kind be flushed in the toilet. It was not disclosed in the listing that the toilet plumbing was in disrepair so much so that any soiled toilet tissue must be placed in the open trash can provided. This created an unpleasant and unsanitary situation in the only bathroom in the property.
Inaccurate photos:
We chose this property specifically because it had a desk and chair where I could set up my workstation for the week. Upon arrival we realized that the photos in the listing were outdated and no longer reflected the current state of the property where the desk has been replaced by two cabinets and the chair is gone. The full-length mirror featured in the photos is also missing. We worked with the owner to correct this issue and moved in a desk from another unit.
Heat and Air:
Only after we had booked the property on VRBO did we receive an email disclosing that the property did not have heat and we’d be using an exposed flame propane space heater to heat the property. Which is actually a mobile home. This made us nervous.
Wifi:
While there is technically wifi, it is far too weak to support Zoom calls or any sort of streaming. Again, this may not be an issue for everyone but working remotely this was critical.
Animal Visitors:
An animal (assumed to be a raccoon) had crawled into the crawl space/attic and was burrowing/scratching at all hours of the night preventing us from getting any rest until the wee hours of the morning. We did contact the owners via text message on Friday (our first night on property) and they said they would attempt to solve the situation with live traps.
If you’re looking for a rustic get away this could be a fine property for you, but keep in mind the state of the plumbing, heating, and wifi. We did not want to cancel our stay because the owners were kind, but we did move to a hotel after 4 nights of our planned 7-night stay.