JIM: Recently, short term rentals throughout the Poconos have been having a moment. And right here, just a stone's throw from Lake Wallenpaupack is a newly renovated old one room schoolhouse. And so the owners have just updated this place for families to come and stay for a weekend or a long week. So we wanted to give you a little tour with Tiffany, the host here. 

TIFFANY: Welcome to the Uswick Schoolhouse. 

JIM: Tiffany and her husband have done such an amazing job with this. Come on inside. Let's have her take us around. 

TIFFANY: Yeah. So this is the original one room schoolhouse right here. We tried to keep everything pretty much original is where we found it, but adding the little touches to make it home or a perfect place to gather with your friends, family, whatever kind of event you'd like to have.
Tiffany was one of hundreds to attend a first-ever short-term rental conference at Camelback Resort hosted by Poconos Association of Vacation Rental Owners, the Pocono Mountains Association of REALTORS® and the Pocono Mountains Visitors Bureau outlining best practices and industry tips for success, much of what can be found right here at the Uswick Schoolhouse.
JIM: What would be a schoolhouse without the chalkboard? 

TIFFANY: Right. So this is an original school chalkboard. The floors are original. So many original things in here. 

JIM: But it's got this homey feeling to it, doesn't? 

TIFFANY: It does. Yeah. And that was sort of the whole concept. We wanted everybody to be able to experience the history and what has happened here, but also feel comfortable. No matter if you're staying overnight or you have guests coming in and you want to have a little gathering, a party, whatever it might be.
JIM: Show us around. You've got a dining area kitchen. 

TIFFANY: Yeah. So come on in. So we do have a small little area here that we have for your living area. We have dining. And believe it or not, Jim, one of our first parties we had here, it was a 90th birthday party. So 90th birthday party had a lot of locals here. And believe it or not, I heard there were some arguments. Now, can you imagine some of these ladies at a 90th birthday party, right. Arguing over their school days because they went to school here and that at this location they were arguing over who sat where and stories of school time of this happened and that happened. And the biggest one they wanted to know was where was the coal stove located? And we found some coal outside and the documentation of all of that.
JIM: You could do breakfast lunches, dinners if you didn't want to go out to some of the great local restaurants. You've got it all right here. 

TIFFANY: So we incorporated the whole kitchen area. So you have the dishwasher, the fridge. We do have a really cool old sink that a lot of people love. 

JIM: And your stove.

TIFFANY: You can come in, you can bring your own food in, you can have it catered. And if you're looking for a party and you hate doing parties, let me know. I will help you plan whatever you want so we can help with all of those different things. And yeah, it's great for breakfast. You want to have lunch, dinner, or you just want to go out. We're so close to all of the amenities here you can. It's a short trip to any of the restaurants downtown, Hawley, Lake Wallenpaupack
TIFFANY: This staircase is new and we tried to incorporate this by not having to move too many things around. We try to keep everything sort of original or at least match it and the best that we could. Yeah. Little touches of history here and there, even though it might be new. And so we've got four beds. You can sleep eight in the entire place because you have a pull out couch downstairs.
JIM: And this is relatively new. Just within the end of ’23, early ’24 that you got open here. So now people can really kind of start to utilize this for your season ahead. I'm sure you have bookings already lined up back.

TIFFANY: You can find us online LakeRegionRentals.com, right. And you can book us for any night stay or overnights we can do during the day parties, whatever it is, we're pretty accommodating.
JIM: Tiffany Hoffman of Uswick Schoolhouse and Lake Region Rentals. Thanks for joining us here on Pocono Mountains Magazine.