Good Neighbor Podcast: Orange County

A Family-Friendly Mountain Stay With Room To Breathe

• Rachel Fyffe & Jody Bras

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Pine shade, quiet water, and a home that actually feels like one—this conversation with host Rachel Fyffe and guest Jody Bras takes you inside Honey Pine Lodge, a three-bedroom, pet-friendly short-term rental nestled ten minutes from Lake Arrowhead Village. We unpack what turns a simple cabin into a reliable retreat: a full, well-stocked kitchen, clean and organized spaces, and thoughtful hosting that makes arrival and downtime easy for families, friends, and dogs.

Jody shares how years in real estate and the travel industry shaped her approach to hospitality, from clear guest communication to a focus on small, high-impact details. We talk honestly about pricing and value—why a rate that might seem steep at first can beat the total cost of multiple hotel rooms when you’re traveling as a group—and how a private living room, a dining table, and space to spread out can transform the pace and quality of a trip. You’ll hear about the calm of Grass Valley Lake, the flexibility to be active or to rest, and the simple joy of cooking a holiday meal together without leaving the mountains.

We also dig into the realities of marketing a short-term rental. Jody opens up about building a straightforward online presence, using tools like digital guestbooks to reduce confusion, and leaning on local networking to spark referrals. Along the way, we touch on four-season reasons to visit Lake Arrowhead—skiing, hiking, quiet midweek escapes—and the policies that welcome pets without sacrificing cleanliness or comfort. The takeaway is simple: hospitality is a promise kept through details, and when it’s kept, guests return.

Ready to see the space and plan your stay? Explore photos, availability, and rates at Visit: honeypinelodge.my.futurestay.com, then follow and share to support local hosts who put care first. If this conversation helped you plan your next mountain getaway, subscribe, leave a quick review, and tell a friend who needs fresh air and tall pines.

SPEAKER_00:

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Rachel Fife.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. Now, are you in need of a short-term rental in Lake Arrowhead? Well, you know what? We have that resource right here for you. It is my pleasure to introduce your good neighbor, Jody Brass, with Honey Pine Lodge. Jody, how is it going?

SPEAKER_02:

Pretty good. How about you?

SPEAKER_01:

I'm doing good. Now tell us, we're excited to learn all about your rental here. So tell us about the Honey Pine Lodge.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, it's kind of in the woods, um, up about 10 minutes from the village in Lake Arrowhead. Uh, we overlook a little lake called Grass Valley Lake. It's really calm and quiet, and you've got your birds and all your animals and trees. Um, and it's a full house. We have three bedrooms, two and a half baths, and it's 700, 1,700 square feet. So we can sleep up to eight guests, and we also allow dogs. Um, the kitchen is fully stocked with anything that you might need if you're gonna cook a Thanksgiving meal or just a Saturday night dinner for your family, so you can all hang out and play games. Uh, it's it's a very you can either be active or you can not. You can be relaxing. Um, we've got just about anything you need, and and it's so much better than taking your family to a hotel.

SPEAKER_01:

That's wonderful. Now, well, how did you get into this business or you know, get this all started?

SPEAKER_02:

Well, I was in real estate for about 15 years, and um, so I'm I've always been very interested in uh income property. And I thought my son actually came to us, my youngest son, and said he wanted to get into short-term rentals, and were we interested? And I said, Oh yeah, you know, that sounds great. So we started looking. Um we put out a business plan and uh the group of us got this going. We found the house and we had to do a lot of work, a lot of work, but that's okay. You know, then you get it, you get to have what you want. Um, so we've owned it for about five years. Now our son has moved on and and he wanted to go out on his own, so he has. So it's just my husband and I.

SPEAKER_01:

Wonderful. Now, are what are some myths or misconceptions in your industry?

SPEAKER_02:

Well, uh if you have never done a short-term rental, it seems as if it may be expensive. Say you're paying$250 a night, but if you were to get a hotel room for eight people and two dogs, you'd pay a lot more than$250 a night. And not just that, uh, some people that have short-term rentals don't treat them quite, they don't have the hospitality background in order to um give the customers the best experience that you can. And we work really hard at that.

SPEAKER_01:

Wonderful. Well, we know marketing is really the heart of every business. So, how are you marketing your your property?

SPEAKER_02:

Well, that's kind of my downfall. I'm working really hard on figuring out how to market. I do have a Facebook account and a LinkedIn account. I've also signed up um so that I can send with something called Touch Day. I can send messages to our guests. I have a guest book that I put together. Um, I belong to a couple of uh networking groups, and that's really been pretty awesome. Um so I'm always open to new things for marketing because I think marketing is just as important for this type of thing as for any other business. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Now, have you ever thought about doing your own podcast by any chance?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I thought about it. I thought about it. I just um like I said, I'm not really great computer savvy. I'm working on it. Um, but that might be something we do in the future.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. Well, now outside of work, Jody, what do you like to do for fun?

SPEAKER_02:

Fun? Is there time for fun? Um, I like to do all kinds of things. My husband's a bike rider, I am not. What do I do? I love to read books, I love to um go shopping. Who doesn't love to go shopping? Uh I like to paint. There's a lot I there's a lot of things I really do enjoy doing. I love gardening. Um, I love gardening so much that when my kids were growing up, I preferred mowing the lawn over running the vacuum. So they always thought I was a little crazy, but uh, that's why you get a housekeeper, right? Um so I try to keep busy. I just recently retired for the second time from uh the travel industry. So I'm still doing some trips for different friends and family.

SPEAKER_01:

Wonderful. Now, Jody, please tell our listeners one thing they should remember about the Honey Pine Lodge.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, um, I think the biggest thing is when you go there, it's very clean, organized. Um, you have an entire house to yourself, um, and you can bring your pets. We bought this during COVID, and our biggest thought was, you know, people can't go on vacation during COVID. And we were really busy during COVID. It was it was an awesome way to kind of give back to other people, but it's it's relaxing or hiking or skiing, you know, there's it's just got so many things you you can do up there.

SPEAKER_01:

Wonderful. Well, how can our listeners learn more about the honey pine lodge?

SPEAKER_02:

Well, um, we do have a website, it is honeypine lodge dot my dot future stay dot com. Sorry. So it's honeypinelodge.my um dot future stay.com. Uh it's it shows our calendar and available dates and approximate uh costs because as you know, just like at a hotel, uh different days are going to be more expensive or less expensive. And if you want to come up during the week, um oh, do that. We'll give you a great day, a great weekly rate. Um it's it's a nice little website. You can look at the pictures and see what you're getting yourself into.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, wonderful. Well, Jody, I I just really appreciate you being a guest on the show and wish you and your business and the Honey Pine Lodge all the success moving forward.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, thank you so much. I really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gmporangecounty.com. That's gnporangecounty.com or call 714.