This house is fabulous for large groups; we had 14 people there for 5 days. The kitchen is easy to work in with several cooks at once. The bedrooms are great, and by spreading them out across 3 floors you have some privacy. We especially loved the large deck on the side of the house. The only problem with a large group in this house is that you need to bring disposable plates and cutlery, as there are not enough of these to feed everyone. We ran short on coffee mugs too, so good idea to bring these things with you. The reason I can't give the house a 5 star for cleanliness is that the hot tub needed chemicals after the second day and there were none around; also there was a drip in the ceiling of the main floor bathroom from the tub above, so the crew had to come out and clean the ceiling. The fire circle is fantastic - it's located up a steep hill behind the house and is hard to hike up to, but worth it. (We drove up there.) Overall this is a great layout for a family gathering and we enjoyed our 5 days there. The house is located beside Tweetsie, and you can actually hear the train whistle. It's also near Boone, Blowing Rock and Banner Elk, so there are plenty of things to do whether you have kids with you or not. Even though this is a pet-friendly place we did not take our pets. It was clean though, and we saw no left-behind pet hair at all. Great place to Paws A While!