One of our rooms was infested with bugs! When we pulled the covers back, there were also bugs in the bed! Absolutely gross. We cut our stay at the hotel short because of the absolute lack of cleanliness in the room. Front desk staff sort of shrugged it off.More
The quality of this hotel has declined. The hall carpet was filthy, so was the elevator. We could not get fresh towels. The pool was also out of towels. The breakfast at their bar/restaurant was awful. We won't be back.
Jeanne,
I spoke to our General Manager, and she did share with me that she had emailed you through our internet based survey service, Medallia. I will keep my response here brief as I know we have been in contact with you since your stay, but I do want to let you (and other TripAdvisor guests) know about some of the steps we’ve taken since your stay.
While we had already ordered more towels as we were getting very low on extras. We had enough for the rooms, but we has just enough to have clean towels in the rooms and not enough for extras to be handed out during the day while cleaning the ones we’d removed from rooms. We have purchased towels while waiting on our order just to keep on hand for extras. Our goal is to make sure we have some on hand during the day during our switchover.
We have also received our order for extra pool towels. Unfortunately, despite signage asking guests to leave pool towels in the pool area, they do get taken back to guest rooms. This keeps our front desk staff from being able to wash and fold towels and replace them in the pool area during the evening hours. However, we have gotten additional towels, and I don’t anticipate the shortage through the end of the busy summer season.
We are still working on the breakfast provision. We made drastic changes in an effort to address the complaints we’d had about our continental breakfast and lack of seating. We haven’t yet gotten all of the issues worked out, and we are looking at changing the breakfast again in an effort to improve. I hope you, and our other guests, will note the drastic change we have made and know this is evidence of our willingness to listen and try different things.
Lastly, I have addressed the carpet issue several times on TripAdvisors and individually with our guests. The carpet is old and needs to be replaced. This I know and agree with. We have always had our carpets shampooed regularly (actually, they were again just this week), but they have reached a point where staining and age cannot be removed with soap and water. This is at the top of my personal list of priorities, but with monies being allocated for brand-mandated updates (bedding, flat screen televisions, etc.) it has been pushed back. We are having a Property Improvement Plan team visit us this fall from Best Western, and I know this improvement will finally be pushed up to mandate.
We were very happy to have you, and I hope that between my reponse here and the communications you’ve had with our General Manager we will have you back with us again.
Thank you, again, for sharing your concerns. Please feel free to contact either Melissa Lentz (General Manager) or myself to discuss any of these concerns further!
Christine Hutchens
608.356.1100
bestwesternsales@baraboo.com
A great place to stay! Staff was wonderful and the property is very well managed. Front desk staff were helpful during check-in and at sheck-out. Food in the restaurant was very good and the service was exceptional.. Room was clean and comfortable. Excellent experience!
Jennilynn,
Thank you so much for sharing your experience with our fellow TripAdvisors. I know that as a traveler I rely myself on this website, and I appreciate so much that you’ve shared your impression of our hotel.
Best Western provides our hotel management with some fantastic training tools for our staff, and I am glad that this training and effort was appreciated during your stay. I will be sure to share your review with our staff as I know it will be an incredible encouragement to our staff to keep up the good works they are doing.
We feel very fortunate to have a team of employees who take pride in their work and who share a passion for guest experience. Please know that we are always here to serve you…Even if you aren’t here! If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact me or our front desk staff anytime,
Christine Hutchens
Sales/Front Office Manager
608.356.1100
bestwesternsales@baraboo.com
My husband and I stayed there as a mini-vacation and to be near Wis Dells for a concert. We had a king room and it was spacious with fridge, however, we were in an older section of the hotel. Smelled a little musty, but cleared once we opened a window. Bathroom was a bit on the small size, esp the potty. I'm a small person and this toliet looked like it belonged in a preschool setting. The "hot breakfast" that's included with the room is a menu-based breakfast (allowed to choose from 4 breakfast entrees) in the adjacent Bonzo's restaurant. I got the eggs, toast and potatoes dish and it was a decent portion. But they ran out of jelly. Overall: would stay at this hotel again, front desk staff was very courteous.
TravelM79,
I am so glad to hear that our hotel was able to be a positive part of your mini-vacation, and I hope you and your husband enjoyed the concert you attended in the area. We are very lucky to live and work in an area that has so many fun things to do, and I am very happy you were able to come enjoy the entertainment!
I want to thank you for the thorough review of the hotel. We have an exceptional staff. Melissa Lentz, our general manager, and myself have grown up in Baraboo, and we feel very blessed to have staff members who share our passion for the area and the people visiting our hometown.
I agree with you about the mustiness and small stools in the bathrooms. The size of toilets has grown since installation, and while we want to update them we do have a couple of other things ahead in the line of priority.
I want to apologize for the mustiness. This is something we are battling, and trying to figure out a clever fix for. This summer has been unusually humid/rainy, and our air units are having difficulty keeping up with the moisture. I notice it regularly, and I appreciate your affirmation of the issue. Please know we are trying our best to address the issue mid-season.
I hope we will see you again soon. There are a lot of fun events in our area year round…Hopefully you two will be in our area again to enjoy another mini-vacation. We would love to share in the experience again,
Christine Hutchens
Sales/Front Office Manager
608.356.1100
bestwesternsales@baraboo.com
After attending a wedding, we went back to this hotel and wanted to have a couple of drinks in their bar so we wouldn't need to drive. To our dismay, they wanted to charge us $2/person to get into the bar! Supposedly they were having a costume party there that night and the $2 was for the "prize" money. I told the doorman we were not interested in his party, we just wanted to sit down and drop about $50 in drinks. He refused to let us in....NICE huh? AND...The next morning they served a complimentary breakfast (which they get 9.99 for) which sucked so bad, I'd have rather had a day old donut and orange juice.
Ed S,
I want to thank you for taking the time to share your experience in Bonzos. I also want to ask that you contact me directly at the below phone number or email address as I would like very much to continue this conversation and clear up my own confusion.
It was my understanding that we had a guest who was asked to pay the cover charge during a special event in the restaurant adjoining our hotel, but when it was brought to my attention I had asked Daniel, the front desk clerk on duty to contact that guest and assure him that the fee would be waived. I was under the impression that this had been communicated, and I am very sorry for the confusion. I was unaware that this mis-communication had been made with more than one guest, and I would like to speak to our staff about how this happened.
I do want to assure you that this cover charge was waived from this point on in the evening, and we did have several guests in the hotel join us in enjoying the festivity and cocktails.
We do have special events in Bonzos about four times a year during which a cover charge is put in place, but outside of these events we do not charge entry fees, and I also want to assure you that going forward we will make sure to inform the people working at the door that guests of the hotel are not required to add to funds.
Again, I am sorry for this confusion, and I hope you will contact me personally I would be happy to discuss further this incident. I know our staff in the hotel was very disappointed that the event in the adjoining business dampened your impression of the hotel. We hope that you will give all of us an opportunity to better serve you in the future,
Melissa Lentz
General Manager
608.356.1100
bestwestern@baraboo
Stayed here two nights when in town for a business meeting. Good value, good breakfast. Found myself there for dinner and although the menu is limited, the food I had was good (salad) and a great martini. Internet is reasonable speed and the room was quite! Not too many screaming kids (which was nice).
Regina,
Thank you for sharing your perspective, as a traveling business person, of our hotel. Business travelers are our most consistent types of guests, and I am so glad to have had your impression shared as I think it will be helpful to the many people who come to our area on work-related trips.
We are very lucky to have the restaurant and bar adjoining our hotel, and I want to assure you that I will pass along your compliments to the staff. We only recently (less than a year ago) changed the breakfast to being served in the restaurant and are very eager for guest feedback.
Also, your suggestion about room placement for a quieter room was wonderful! We actually have rooms on the third floor that have amenities specifically put in place for our business travelers. We call them executive king rooms, and they have a larger desk with additional outlets for electronics (laptops, etc.).
I hope we will have the opportunity to serve you the next time business brings you to our area. Please feel free to contact me with any further feedback, comments, or concerns!
Christine Hutchens
Sales Manager
608.356.1100
