GruntledDad
Google
Maybe it's because we were there at Thanksgiving, but we had a really disappointing experience here. We were expecting it to be rustic (it was), but also to have quite a close-knit family vibe and atmosphere - particularly for Thanksgiving. I had communications with one of the staff before we stayed, who was friendly and helpful, so had high expectations for the atmosphere here. We were invited to their Thanksgiving lunch, which (although expensive) we were really looking forward to, thinking everyone there would be away from home and this would be a friendly and inclusive event. But it was just like a restaurant lunch with everyone sticking to their own tables (we were stuck on a table in a corner of the pool area, next to the bathroom). The girl who welcomed us as we arrived for our stay was really friendly (despite being about to go on her break), and the waitress for Thanksgiving lunch was friendly, but otherwise the staff who clearly worked there didn't seem to interact with the guests at all - no friendly 'Good mornings' in the restaurant area when we went to get our (very basic) breakfast, and not one person wished us a Happy Thanksgiving which we thought was very weird. We had to find someone to check out, and they seemed annoyed at the intrusion to their day. On top of that, our room was freezing at night (the air conditioning clearly hadn't been checked over for some time and was unable to give out any heat - I managed to eventually get this working the first night but was unsuccessful the second night. The location however was good - great for access to the Joshua Tree National Park, and a relatively short walk into 29 Palms itself (although all the roads surrounding the hotel were pitch black with no street lighting - a mini torch was provided on the keyring with the room key though)