Quan Yin Cottage at Ashland Zen Center

We stayed for a month and enjoyed every day.

This lower level rental is in a small complex of connected units. It is located in a safe neighborhood two miles south of downtown Ashland. You can reach everything in a five minute drive. The air conditioned unit is new and quite large with hardwood floors. The main room has a fully furnished modern kitchen, dining room, living room and small computer area. The living room has a new large, flat- screened tv which has several hundred cable channels. The bedroom is large with a very comfortable king bed. The bathroom is divided into two rooms: one has dual sinks and the other with a shower and toilet.

Cyndi is the rental agent and lives in the complex. She is very friendly and is always ready to help. She respects your privacy so you won't see her unless you need her help.

I only found two cons and they wouldn't stop me from returning. There is some periodic road noise if you leave the windows open and the landscaping was missing because the building is new but was being restored.

I recommend this unit to everyone.

We stayed at the Quan Yin Cottage for over 5 weeks while Autumn arrived. It was such a lovely place to be to watch the changing season. So much care has gone into making every detail about the cottage perfect, but the garden is especially beautiful. It was so well-planned in terms of color, privacy, and variety. Inside, the same attention to detail is apparent in the way that the color-scheme offers the same feeling of peace as the garden does. The furniture was very cozy. The main heat source is a free-standing gas stove; it quickly and beautifully warms the cottage on those cool mornings with the glow of a "wood-appearing" fire. The rooms are spacious and bright. Its seems that they thought of everything to make ones stay perfect. Whenever I thought about something that I needed, it was always there: scissors, a vegetable peeler, local info; they even had pens and paper in the writing desk. WiFi was excellent. The bed was very comfortable, with satiny soft sheets.

Cyndi was our contact person, and she was exceptionally responsive. She always answered email or text questions promptly and was there to greet and orient us when we arrived. Once, we had a minor issue with the shower; she was immediately 'on it' and had a professional come right away to take care of the problem. Every person that we encountered from the Zen Community was open and warm. They have an obvious love of their property and tend to it with great care.

The location is convenient: one can walk to restaurants and the famous "Shop 'n Kart"---a wonderful grocery store. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this cottage.

When I found Quan Yin Cottage online - lovely and reasonably priced - it sounded too good to be true, so much so that friends asked, Does it have indoor plumbing? And I wondered if there was meaningful air conditioning, which I knew was a necessity in Ashland in the summer. Quan Yin turned out to be even better than we'd hoped. The cottage is not only charming, it's immaculate and in good repair. The kitchen was thoughtfully equipped with almost all the basics we needed, and a request for a larger salad bowl was met in seconds. The air conditioner proved equal to a week of record high temperatures. And, although it's called a cottage, there was enough room for both my husband and me to have writing areas.

The tree-shaded deck is where we ate most of our meals. And tending the grounds, with their beautiful flowers, shrubs, and trees must be part of the Zen Center's spiritual practice: generally, the only time anyone entered the yard, s/he was coming to water and prune—moving quietly, clearly mindful about disturbing a woman with a laptop. By the way, the center's activities didn't impinge on us in the least. I think there was a meditation gathering from 6-7 a.m. most days, but people arrived and left so quietly, we slept through it.

Stacey was an extremely considerate host. He called us the day before our arrival, when we were driving up from California, to let us know they'd needed to repair a broken window and expected to be done by the middle of the next day ... and he hoped that wouldn't cause us any problems; it didn't.

Quan Yin ended up really feeling like home. Just looking at the picture, two weeks after our return, I miss it!

My husband and I spent almost a week at the charming cottage at the Zen Center in Ashland. Peaceful and surrounded by beautiful gardens, views and abundant birdsong we felt that this was the best VRBO site we had used in Ashland. The cottage appears as charming and clean in person as in the pictures displayed. I felt the price was excellent. Mike and the others at the Zen Center were very personable and helpful when we had questions. I really appreciate the site in the Southern part of town as it is less hectic than the downtown bustle but still close to stores, hiking and theatre. It has a very country feel with awesome views of Grizzley Peak and surrounding areas. Thank you so much for a memorable time and looking forward to our quick return!

The cottage was relaxing, quiet and very clean. It had everything that we needed for our visit. The few people we encountered from the Zen Center were very kind and helpful. The gardens on the property were beautiful and a peaceful surprise. We will stay here again when we visit the Ashland area.