The owner was very responsive, especially initially. She answered all the questions, helped with local activities and super nice over the phone. The Platte Lake area is wonderful and within 10-45 minutes distance to many beautiful cities and sights. So many things to do. We did hiking and kayaking, went to beaches, the dunes, many towns, rented jet skis, went to Torch Lake, did some boating, etc.
The cottage is decent size and has a very convenient layout. It is spacey for 2 adults and 2 kids.
Two things that bothered us: One, it is a shared lot/shore area so all the six cottages on the same lot are very close to each other. It is quiet, however, so no one bothers anyone but it was a bit too close when you are eating outside, for instance. Second, the cottage was not cleaned properly for us. We were there during July 2020, right in midst of Covid... so, it was not even clean for a regular time, let alone Covid standards. For example, One bathroom had dirty footprints on the shower floor. The shower has scum all over the glass door and has not been cleaned for quite some time. The other bathroom has a shelf unit on the floor and all the dust and dirt underneath the shelf was still there. No one cleaned under it. The kitchen table had a plastic clear table cloth over the fabric cloth. The plastic cover was dirty. I wiped and the wipe was dirty... The place had a strong scent that was added to disguise the mildewy smell.
We brought our own bedding but the bedding that was placed as a "decoration" smelled bad, like stale body odor. It would have been a good idea to wash them to freshen up the place a bit. We wanted to use the oven mitts and they were so dirty and smelled bad that we ended up having to wash them.. Underneath the family room couch, there were still old food pieces remaining from previous guests... We were very disappointed and ended spending a few hours on the first night cleaning the place. I let the owner know that if she wanted we could talk about it after our trip was over (I didn't want our kids hearing during our trip), I could give her some feedback about the place, and how it could be a better experience for others. She contacted me on our first morning there but did not take me up on my offer to listen to me after the trip. I am sure she has all the good intentions and trusted the cleaning person to do her job. I hope the place will be in better shape for future guests/customers.