Oak Grove Cabins

We used Cabin 1 at Oak Grove Cabins as a base for both moving our 18-​year old college freshman into Southern Illinois University and a means to explore Giant City and environs.
We found:
— A clean, comfortable cabin with the kitchen stocked with everything needed
— A queen bed in one room and a king in the other
— A clean hot tub for relaxing after long hikes
— Easy access to U.S. 51 to get into Carbondale to help move the new college attendee
— A filled binder with suggestions for sightseeing and getting food
— Personal attention from the owner when asked
Dorothy, one of the owners, sent me an email afterwards complimenting us on leaving the place clean. We even met the neighbor in the last house before the turnoff to the cabins and she was very helpful on getting our older child acclimated to college.
HIghly recommend.

These cabins are cute and in great condition, and we had a lovely weekend stay to check out the SoIL wineries, breweries, hiking trails, etc., but the owners weren’t exactly hospitable after our stay. The day we checked out, they immediately e-​mailed me with the $ 50 cleaning charge. Their reasoning was petty (not filling up the hot tub?! like that’s our job, as guests?) and it just felt forced, like they always add a charge.
Oh, and the drive times to area sites on their website are all wrong.

Id like to start off with some positive. These cabins are very aesthetically pleasing. But in the end… aesthetics alone did not save our experience.
They claim these cabins are secluded, they even provide pictures to show you how secluded they are. Well, if you rent cabin 1 please say «Hi» to all your neighbors in cabins 2 & 3 as well as the permanent neighbors about 20 yards away.
They also have this «cleaning policy» Its a good policy. you can tell the owners pride themselves on how well these cabins are kept. In fact. if I owned cabins and took the «$ 50.00 cleaning deposit» from everybody who rented from me regardless to how clean the cabin was left… I could hire outside people to come in and remodel every couple of years too.
We swept, we cleaned all our dishes, put all dirty laundry in the hamper, wiped off counter tops… yet. we still got charged $ 50.00 additional because we left the place «messy» Im part of a group who has rented 3 different cabins in Southern Illinois in the last year. We left this one the cleanest per their «cleaning policy» (which btw. the cleaning implements they leave you to clean up seriously look like they were pulled out of a dumpster behind the dollar store.)
The weekend we stayed it actually snowed, and then melted. And considering we rent these cabins to hike and sit around a campfire, the ground got muddy, therein making the cement patio muddy… That was the #1 reason they took an additional $ 50.00 from us… And its not like we didnt try to clean up the outdoor cement patio. but the outside hose was not working… So the owner had to do 5 minutes of hose work on their patio and then justified their labor with an additional $ 50.00, when really, I think mother nature or bad grass could have been just as easily to blame.
We are not amateurs, We are not younger then 30, We have careers, wives, families, none of us live in squalor, we’ve never had any other complaints from all the other cabins we have rented in the past… Yet… the owners made the renter feel as though we left the place on fire and then spray painted the ashes.
The beds were not comfortable.
The climate control was laughable.
And all the cabins are about as secluded as a under-​developed subdivision.
If you rent here expect less privacy then their photos convey, expect an additional $ 50.00 clean up fee and then expect the owners to try and belittle you when you ask for reasonable and specific explanations as to why you are being charged more.
I will not return. Renter beware!