Cedar Lodge sparks new career
When Sandy Berry retired to Bella Vista, she and her husband bought a large house on Loch Lomond and started redecorating. She didn’t know at the time that she was embarking on a new career in vacation housing.
They always liked the looks of a hunting lodge, she said, even her husband’s dental office up north was decorated in the same style. The house on Loch Lomond wasn’t. There were a lot of white walls and an unimpressive kitchen.
Since Berry had spent years traveling to horse auctions with her father, she already owned many unique antiques. When they didn’t buy a horse, they often filled the trailer with furniture and other odds and ends from sale barns near the auction. Soon the big house on Loch Lomond started looking more like a lodge.
Although the house was large, they added on so when their children and grandchildren visited there would be enough bedrooms. The addition gave them the chance to make a master suite with windows on two walls so the lake view was visible without getting out of bed.
Soon family and friends started coming to visit. Berry loved hosting them, but it was a lot of work, she recalled. Then people started asking her if they could rent the house for their own special occasions. One summer, Berry and her husband moved to a garage apartment that belonged to a neighbor so the house was available all summer. That was the start of her new career.
“To us Bella Vista is a paradise and we wanted to share it,” she said. Eventually, they bought a smaller house to live in so the lodge could be rented year round.
Everything about Cedar Lodge is unique. Much of the decor, like the signs from a former campground, was scavenged. When they found a closed sawmill that was about to be sold, they bought many of the logs, brought them back, pulled off the bark and finished them to add the authentic look of a lodge. They found a man who agreed to make a giant chandelier out of antlers for the master bedroom.
Berry doesn’t want her guests to be bored at the lodge, so she added a shed full of lake toys and paddle boards, canoes and kayaks. A fire pit and a cabana complete with a bar and television set overlook the lake. If it’s too cold to swim, there’s also a hot tub. There’s both a gas grill and a smoker available.
All ages are welcome, so the game room not only has a pool table and foosball table, it also has a built-in children’s playhouse that has a child-sized secret door into one of the bedrooms. There’s a closet full of children’s toys, too.
The house has been available for short-term renters for seven years and has seen all kinds of events taking place. Sometimes the events are elsewhere, like weddings that take place at Cooper Chapel, and the lodge gives the family a place to retreat to together.
Berry remembers when her own children were young and they traveled to visit family. No one ever had enough space for everyone, so part of the family had to stay in a hotel and miss out on the early morning conversations over coffee and the late night reminiscing after the kids were asleep. With seven bedrooms and enough beds for 21 people, families can all stay together at the lodge.
She has also hosted golfers who come back year after year and small groups from nearby who are looking for a “sta-cation.”
Not all her guests spend the night. Businesses bring employees for daylong retreats and use the theater room with a screen and projector for meetings. There have been anniversary parties, birthday parties and the occasional church group. Between the dining room, the breakfast nook and the kitchen, about 35 people can sit down to a meal together.
Berry blocks out long weekends for her own family to come and visit each year.
“I couldn’t do it without my staff,” she said. When she first started renting, she used Vacation Rentals for reservations and did the cleaning by herself, but that became too much work. Now she has four people who can come clean and change the bedding in only a few hours. There are also two people who work outside. She handles the reservations herself with some help from websites like VBRO and Airbnb.
“We try to keep something blooming almost all the time,” she said about the yard and patios.
Running a business in a neighborhood comes with some challenges, she agreed, but she’s careful about who rents the lodge. There has to be someone over 25 to sign the contract which includes agreeing not to park on the street and respecting the city’s noise ordinance. There have been few complaints, she said. In fact, the lodge has hosted family for the weddings of two neighbors.
Both the fire department and the police department have inspected the lodge to ensure that it’s safe.
Her hard work was rewarded when USA Today named Cedar Lodge as one of the top vacation rentals in the nation two years in a row.
For more information about the lodge, go to the website: cedarlodgearkansas.com