KEMA Hornby Island - Cabin - across the road from our property waterfront acces
- Cabin175 sq. ft.
- Sleeps: 2
- Bedrooms: 1
- Bathrooms: 1
- Min Stay: 3 nights
Studio style cabin with large deck and private yard, small kitchen and bathroom.
Bedrooms
Owner
Martin Rempel
- Languages:
- english, german
Amenities
Featured
- Heater
- Children Welcome
- Internet
- Parking
- Fireplace
Bathrooms
- 1 Bathroom
House Rules
Please consider the following guidelines when booking this property:
Cancellation Policy
100% refund if canceled at least 60 days before arrival date.
4 Reviews
Cabin urgently needs TLC; several safety issues should to be addressed.
The property surrounding the cabin is quite pleasant with tall trees for shade, yet an opening is there to see some of the ocean from the cabin deck. There are wild blackberries all around the cabine and lining the driveway - nice for breakfast. Although the property sits on a main road leading from the ferry terminal, it is usually only somewhat noisy in the morning and late afternoon. At night it is very quiet. Deer mums and fawns grazed on lawn regularly.
Ocean access across the road is down several flights of rickety stairs; not ideal to carry down cooler, chairs etc. Better to hop in the car and drive a short distance to Tribune Bay Provincial Park with its beautiful sandy beach. As Hornby Island is quite small, it is really a short drive to all attractions whether they be wineries, distilleries, hikes, beaches etc.
Cabin: smoke detector had no battery in it and was too old, fire extinguisher indicated it needed recharging, railing on the cabin deck was very wobbly; you would not want to lean on it too much or you could topple into the blackberries. The outdoor benches are also wobbly and we had to drive many nails back into deck stairs (with a rock) as they were sticking out. Some of the wiring is iffy; hubby fiddled with bathroom GFCI switch for half an hour to get it to work. Light string outside the cabin does not work either. Ceiling in the bathroom by the toilet is so low (about 4.5 feet) when I stepped back to let husband pass soundly smacked my head on that ceiling; have a big goose egg to prove it.
Ceiling is also low by breakfast table/ chairs so one must always think to duck when one gets up from the chair. Lighting is poor in the cabin, except in kitchen. The lighting that does exist is harsh and often not possible to position where it is needed. We thought to bring book lights or else we would not have been able to read and there is no TV. Cast iron stove is about 2 feet from bed end; thank goodness we still had warm weather and did not have to use it. Not safe to have this heat source so close to bed linen.
We took our garbage with us (as requested) and had to provide all our own water for consumption - sulphur smell of tap water while washing was awful. We received a list or rules prior to check in and then found more rules posted all over this little cabin. 5 in bathroom alone.
2.5 out of 5.
Many thanks for your detailed review.
We will review the safety issues you mentioned as we take these seriously. The smoke detector was checked early August and was still ok. The battery will be replaced and the fire extinguisher also if required.
Please note that deck nails will rise up when the deck boards shrink during the dry part of the year and when nailed down (this was done again early August) will pull up again during a wet and cooler spell.
We will also try to improve our cabin images, but on the present pictures it is already obvious that this is a small cabin with limited headroom in locations. The cabin would lose its charm if we raised the roof...
The facts that there is no TV and that our well water can have a sulfur taste are otherwise all documented in the information we provide. Our rules have in general been created to assist guests as much as possible or to eliminate issues we've had in the past with guests who have not observed some common etiquette. We apologize if you found these too extensive.
The sting of lights was purchased in August. It needs to be turned on with the switch next to the plug. Again, we will ask our caretaker to see why a new set of lights is apparently not functioning.
We continue to concern ourselves with making the stay in our cabin comfortable for all guests and as mentioned above will consider all of your feedback. Thank you.
Peaceful place for a home base
We stayed for 3 nights. It's a 'basic' cabin and suited our needs. Positive notes...We wanted quiet and we got it. Close to great biking trails, which we did daily. Visited the entire island. Bed was comfy and great sleeps but did not notice till the last day there were no sheets on the bed. Just a soft mattress cover. Kitchen had all the 'basic's' for cooking. Negative notes...the beach deck was not as I thought. Impressions are it's across the road, which it is, but then down some over 50 very very steep stairs - then the deck. Very hard return up. And the well water had the super strong sulphur smell. I was ok with it, my hubby, not so much. lol Overall it is as described and had the quiet stay I was looking for. Loved the bike trails, the bakery and the Co-op has everything you need. Will definitely be back to Hornby.
Many thanks for the thorough review and again for having stayed in our cabin.
As a note for future guests we want to point out that we always make up our beds European style without a top sheet, but also launder the duvet cover with each guest changeover. So far there have been no complaints, but we will begin placing a top sheet in the cabin in case someone is partial to using one.
Also, all accommodation on Hornby Island is either supplied by well water (mostly with the same sulfur smell) or cistern water, which typically needs to be rationed during the summer. We always advise our guests of the sulfur smell in our check-in notes and suggest buying bottled water at the co-op if this should present a problem.
Finally we will add a note to our check-in notes describing the stairs so that there are no more possible surprises.
Many thanks again for pointing out these items.
Cabin review
Overall the cabin was fine two things that we feel need improvement 1 the bed mattress very lumpy and no bed frame very low to the floor 2 the freezer in the fridge never was defrosted full of ice and snow could not use hope this info is helpful to you.
Thank you for this feedback. We will from now on be instructing our cleaners to check that the fridge is properly defrosted. Based on your feedback we have already replaced the mattress and also added a memory foam pad on top of the mattress. We hope that these changes will improve the comfort of all future guests. Thank you again for your valuable feedback.
Very Nice Cabin on a Very Special Island
We are a couple from Germany and had a wonderful time on Hornby Island, which seems a little like a lost paradise.
The KEMA cabin was lovely. The hosts were friendly, the cabin was very clean and was outfitted with everything we need for our short stay.
It was also a surprise to find that the beach across the road was really lovely and deserted. At the waterfront here we felt like the only people on a remote island.
Thank you!