The Heartwarming Story of How One Woman Stayed in Every Room at Ree Drummond’s Sold-Out Hotel
Ever since The Pioneer Woman Boarding House opened up its doors last spring, the boutique hotel has been one of the hardest reservations to snag in all of Pawhuska, OK — aside from a table at P-Town Pizza, of course. However, against all odds, one Ree Drummond fan has already managed to stay in all eight of the bespoke suites. We tracked her down to find out how she managed to do it (and how you can, too).
We first got word about Angelia McDaniel’s intrepid mission from Ree (of course) who tweeted the sweet story as told to Ann Teget, the local travel blogger behind Postcard Jar.
Angelia, who lives just an hour and a half away in Bixby, OK, paid her first visit to The Mercantile with her husband in 2016 only to find the mecca for Drummond fans snaked with lines. She told the Postcard Jar, “Instead, we ate at McDonald’s.” She vowed to come back, though — and, boy, did she ever.
When news of The Boarding House first broke, all available bookings sold out within an hour, before Angelia could land one. Instead of losing hope, she staked out the website in search for cancellations.
Here’s her strategy: “I definitely tell people, ‘You have to STALK the website. I always have a browser page open to The Boarding House where you can see what’s open. There may be 5-6 days in a row where you don’t see anything, and then all of a sudden, there will be 2 or 3 openings. Someone on the east or west coast probably can’t get to Pawhuska with such little notice, but since it’s nearby, I can!”
Because of her quick eye (and immense patience), Angelia has managed to book a stay in every single room. Her favorite? “The Butterfly Room. I love its size and how you can go out on the balcony and see the street. It’s got two TVs and is really pretty. They’re all different!”
When she ran into Ladd one time at The Merc, she got to tell him her favorite part of The Boarding House: “I said, I know it sounds crazy, but the bathrooms have two toilets, and that’s the height of luxury to me! He thought that was funny.” She went on to share some of her favorite details with us too. “Ladd designed the rooms on the third floor: The Ranch Room, The Prairie Room, The Drugstore Room and The Tack Room. The ones on the second floor Ree did: The Emerald Room, The Butterfly Room, The Photograph Room, and The Boudoir.”
Angelia’s Pioneer Woman fandom runs deep which is why getaways to The Boarding House with her family are so special to her. “My mother was originally from Southwest, OK. My grandparents had a farm and a ranch and we would often visit to see my grandparents. That whole lifestyle was very close to my heart. When I read Ree’s stories on her website, I just connected with them. I could see the people, the land, the cowboys, the cattle in my head. She also wrote a book, Black Heels to Tractor Wheels, about how she met Ladd in a bar, and that’s how I met my husband. We’ve been married for going on 23 years and have a daughter in college. There are just some similarities.”
As for all the fuss about her most recent accomplishment, Angelia has a sense of humor about it. “I was afraid I was going to come out looking like a crazy person who doesn’t have a life. But the truth is, we had been spending every weekend taking care of my parents. And when they passed away, my family needed some time to get away. So it is just nice to spend our weekends going to The Merc and staying at The Boarding House.”