"We BOOKED a three night stay in this sprawling “resort” complex with hundreds of rooms set across what felt like a hundred plus acres near the Sleeping Bear Dunes national lakeshore to attend a wedding. Unfortunately we had to leave a day early due to TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE CUSTOMER SERVICE… more on that in a minute. We stayed in one of the “suites” in the Little Belle -an aging mini ski village at the base of the chairlift to the ski hills. As it was August, the village was pretty quiet. Our room, Suite 10 was located on the second floor and while spacious, had several flaws including a broken gas fireplace not really an issue in August), stained carpet, broken base molding, a tiny bathroom with a phone-booth sized shower with a slow drain, a ridiculous 1990s whirlpool tub set in the middle of the bedroom along with a tiny pedestal sink. At more than $350/night $400 on the weekend) given the modest quality of the room, this would be for me a 2 or 3-star place, at best. Unfortunately we received a shocking text Friday night see photo) with less than 12 hours notice that the electricity would be shut off at 8 am on SATURDAY for an indeterminate time frame in our section of the property and that they were sorry. Obviously I called asking to move to a different part of the resort but was told they were full. I’m thinking, well emergencies happen, but after additional calls, I found out, no, in fact they had a power issue a couple of weeks ago and have been running off a generator. Further, while there was no time frame for the repair, they were “HOPING to have it done by mid afternoon.”!!!!! As we had a 4 pm wedding, this was obviously not going to be acceptable to be without power, hot water or a room for what was expected to be a rainy day. We just couldn’t rely on the HOPE that we could get back into the electric door locks after all) and HOPE we would have enough time to get ready and HOPE there would be hot water… I think you get the idea! Luckily I was able to find a hotel in Empire with a room we could book for 1 night when I called at 9 pm. They were super nice when I explained our situation and promised to get a room cleaned as quickly as possible then call us so we wouldn’t have an issue with the 4 pm wedding-No THAT IS CUSTOMER SERVICE! Hint to the Homestead). What I can’t get over is the tone-deafness of the text. Clearly they knew about this issue when we arrive to check in on THURSDAY yet only notified us late the night before when we and the other suckers were stuck with no options during the busy tourist season?! I don’t know about you but we travel frequently and stay in hotels of all levels 50-60 nights a year and have never experienced such a cavalier level of customer service. While this is a nice area to visit, I’ll never stay at the Homestead again and hope my experience will inform your decision as well. Good riddance!"
Beef Fillet
