Maggie R.
Yelp
To set the scene - I booked a 2 night stay in February 2021 to celebrate my husbands 30th birthday. We are generally not the kind of people who book expensive hotels - so this was a splurge for us. I was confident that the investment would prove worthy - but unfortunately, I was shown time and time again that Suncadia is woefully overrated.
CHECK IN PROCEDURE
First of all - I called TWICE prior to my booking to confirm that check in was at 4 - because we were driving from quite a ways away - and I didn't want to be left in the cold (literally and figuratively). Both times, I was assured that we could check in at 4. One representative even said they'd even write down that I requested early check in. "Great", I thought! So, on the day of our check in, we arrived promptly at 4 - but were told by the front desk that "check in starts at 4 and goes till 5 and later". I was shocked and annoyed. We drive nearly 2 hours to arrive on time - so that we could make the most of our $620 2 nights (you read that right - $620 for 2 nights). Unfortunately, we then proceeded to wait 40 minutes, in our freezing cold car until we could check in and bring out bags inside. Not a great start.
Once we finally got the call that our room was ready - 40 after 4pm - we pulled back up to reception and asked for a cart. I was met with a stern, and unfriendly "we don't give out carts - we can bring one to you and take your things up for you - but we don't do that". So in reality, they force you to use one of they're employees to bring up your bags so that you're indebted to tipping them. "No thanks", we said - and we shlepped our food and bags up to the room without carts (okay, again - not ideal).
THE ROOM
When we got to the room, we were reasonably pleased, but somewhat disappointed that our room did not feature a fireplace - as specified in the booking photos. Moreover, the duvet was dirty and ripped, and the kettle on the stove was still full of someone else's water. While the decor was dated, the room was otherwise clean and tidy. Fine.
Unfortunately, we soon found out that dog friendly hotels are not great for folks without dogs (or those with a fear of dogs). We proceeded to listen to LOUD barking in and off for our entire stay - and he was clear that staff had no concern for the way others pets infringed upon our enjoyment of our stay. It's unclear to me why dogs are apparently allowed on all floors - it would seem more practical to have only certain floors that are pet friendly so that other guests are not disturbed. Another big "miss" for Suncadia, there.
HOUSEKEEPING
After our first night, I was hopeful that housekeeping might drop off more coffee (they only left us 2 caffeinated K cups for a 2 night stay), but was disappointed there as well. I guess I'll give them a "pass" for that, because the lack of housekeeping could be Covid related - and that's fine. I just wish I knew to pack my own coffee. The booking said that coffee was included, so I had assumed there would be enough for the length of our stay... nope.
"AMENITIES"
Regarding the pool/hot tub situation - both are open, but not being monitored whatsoever for Covid regulations. The hot tub is rather small, every time we checked, it was packed with 6-8 people - meaning that they were not nearly 6ft apart! That was a no-go for us - again, unfortunate. I would rather have reservations, and KNOW that a limited capacity spot is available - rather than checking many times - and seeing the same non-covid friendly situation each time.
One thing that future prospective guests should also note - nearly ALL of the "amenities" cost money. With the exception of the lodge pool, and the resort fitness center - everything comes with an added expense. We found the pricing to be astronomically high - especially considering the price required to stay on property m - you'd think that more of the "amenities" would come included - or at least for less than $20/person...
OVERALL
I'm sad to say that our stay felt like a MASSIVE waste of a 2hr drive, and $620 price tag for 2 nights... from the extremely dissatisfactory check in experience, to the dogs, pool, and added fees for "amenities" - I'll stay at a freakin' Best Western next time and save hundreds.
We won't be returning.