The cabin is cozy and offers decent views of the mountains through the trees. While Whittier does not have any shopping or restaurants, it's only a 10 minute drive to nearby Bryson City. When we arrived, the home had not been cleaned after the last guests checked out and the back door was open without a working latch or lock. We immediately left the home and notified Vacasa. They told me that someone from their "local staff" would be in touch. At 930PM when we still had not heard back from the "local staff", we decided to try to check into the cabin again. The home had been mostly cleaned, although we found long black hairs in the sheets of the beds upstairs. The latch and lock were still broken. For the entirety of our stay, we kept a heavy wooden rocking chair in front of the back door to keep it latched and offer some sort of protection. After reaching out to Vacasa 5x, they finally agreed to offer a refund for the cleaning fee.
The home was cozy and beautiful! The management company, Vacasa, is one I will try to avoid for future bookings.