Amy D.
Yelp
This is my experience and warning to other brides and grooms. I have waited months to write this because even now, it makes me feel upset and emotionally drained.
On 10/9/2021 I called and spoke to a lady at the Mountain Lake Lodge to do a wedding block for 7/8/2022-7/10/2022. She said she had 8 rooms available; 2 rooms that were Ponderosa Suites ($348 nightly) and 6 rooms that were 2 queen beds and sofa bed ($294 nightly). She would put them on a wedding block and guests would use my name, to book them officially. She said she needed a card to set them aside but it would NOT be charged and only guests who officially booked the rooms would be charged. She explained that 30 days prior to 7/8/2022, if any rooms were NOT booked, then they would be released to the public and anyone else could book them. I wrote this information down as it was occurring to help keep track of details for our room blocks for our guests.
I shared the information on my wedding website. Multiple guests of ours ended up staying at the lodge, but did not use our wedding block because they wanted to give other guests a chance to book the rooms prior to the 30 days if needed.
The night before my wedding on 7/8/2022, I received a voicemail that stated that I needed to check in my 8 rooms before the receptionist left the front desk for the night. I called and explained the situation to a man that answered the phone, that I never booked the rooms. I was told it was a wedding block and that the rooms were supposed to be released to the public 30 days prior to this date. I was very surprised and overwhelmed by the information. The man I spoke to seemed also upset because he did not know how he would know it was a wedding block vs. me booking rooms, and I shared I didn't know how the system works but it seemed like common practice with other hotels we had blocked off and either way I did not want or was told I was officially booking them. He was grumpy and shared that the hotel turned away others and he'd have to call them back to fill the room. I apologized again and he hung up. I never received a call or information following this phone call. During this time, I should've canceled my card or followed up after I returned home from the rehearsal dinner and meeting with family, but I honestly was so overwhelmed with having the wedding that I went about the events and thought this was behind us.
We returned home from being out of service from backpacking following right after our wedding, and when I checked my credit card statement, I was charged close to $2500 from Mountain Lake Lodge. I was astonished that I was charged for the rooms. We were astounded because we never were told we would be charged, which included the taxes and all the other fees, even though we never even used the rooms. If we had been told that we were going to be charged the rooms despite us not ever wanting to, we would have treated our whole wedding party and parents as a thank you and made the best use out of this situation. However, we were not even notified that the rooms weren't filled and we'd be charged full price! After pulling all of our money to host our dream wedding with the help of our families, it was so upsetting to have to use all of our gift money we had planned to use towards a true honeymoon and use the rest of our savings to pay off rooms we did not book, weren't notified we'd be charged, and weren't given an option to use them. When we reached out to the manager and owner, we were told basically that they don't block out rooms any more so I was mistaken with what I was during my original conversation, and that they wouldn't help any further. Overall, I'm sure the hotel and rooms are wonderful, but our experience to resolve this issue and be notified of the charges so we could make use out of the mistake, was met with no help. I would just caution any bride or groom to know that they do not block rooms for weddings in case they are told differently, and to be wary of having any guests make reservations.
