Tim W.
Yelp
Reviewing the hotel only.
Room fine but I am going to leave it and its 10:15 PM. We came to hang out and eat/drink by a pool for the Holiday weekend, being Tucson graduate students. Had a couple of phone talks with nice lady, said reception was leaving at 4 but guard at gate would be happy to help. It was 20 till 4 and I was about 10 miles out, wanting to catch evening sun and have dinner there, a few drinks. Lady on phone concurred this was excellent plan.
My guard experience was good, he was nice guy, seemed a little annoyed that at 359 or maybe 4:01 he was already acting as front desk person for a hotel, but more annoyed at actual front desk people. If I hadn't of warned them I was so close I likely would have caught them, as it was they must have fled like thieves into the desert as reception area was dark and locked up minutes after our call.
This was good part of the visit. Recall, we are in the middle of the desert.
First order of business, get some ice, ice down some soft-drinks to have as hydration aids while we judiciously sip cocktails at pool from the resort's bar/restaurant. Finally find ice-machine (you may recall hotel people escaped, I mean, went home), it says you must have tokens which are provided in hotel room for guests. I return to room, no I didn't overlook tokens, there are none. Middle of the desert, right? I know my way around an ice machine and am going to take cowling off and just get the ice when I realize there is no dripping, no noise, no coldness, emanating from this hidden ice closet.
I decide to start calling every preset number on phone, but first decide to run over to the marketplace on the RV side and PAY for ice and some booze or just go straight to the bar. Web site even touts glory of room service at these limited number of hotel rooms on the RV grounds, like 10 or 11. As its only 4, 7 will be late enough for us after a little sun, drink and exercise followed by dinner.
In no particular order, restaurant closed: summer hours/holiday hours/never was open/just closed at two. Marketplace closed, holiday (its a campground?!)/ All ice machines broken and decommissioned, meaning they aren't "out of order" they aren't hooked up. Out long enough for there to be no tokens in the room for ice, although seductively, the ice bucket remains.. This info from a private security guy I manage to corner as I stagger through the hostile desert terrain. By way of consolation he confides the machine in the employee break room is down, too. I need to get on 1 10, Go a couple miles to a truck stop and get ice, etc. no booze there, for that need to head into town.
If there is a working soda machine in this death camp, I can't find it, after a couple glasses of from the tap city water at least I no longer thirst for anything but justice.
I don't know if there will be anyone at gate to protest to, so I am just leaving. Maybe I will get a refund, maybe an ice token as a peace gesture.
Those dear ladies I talked to on phone apparently forgot this place was shut down tighter than Dick's hatband, and the website had the menu and described the good times to be had. There funny thing is I finally got in car to cruise around looking for any signs of life or ice and even the nice guy who checked me in, who had just come on, I thought, was gone. His replacement was cordial but firm, if I would have asked him he would have told me about the situation but he wasn't responsible. I did get his name at least, Pontius Pilate, although otherwise he provided no solace.
Ironically hunger is driving me to leave park at this late hour, and as civilization is closer to my home as back to here, and I doayn't care to go grocery shopping for ice and mixers that I have at home, we are cutting our losses at the 70 bucks this debacle cost. refund would be nice, I did watch color tv for a couple hours, and it worked.
Otherwise room ok, everything looks nice, not fancy but ok.
I am sorry, you lose your ice machines out here, you bring in bags and bags of ice and make it available to paying guests, its a safety concern. The restaurant and bar and store being closed is just some good old fashioned bait n switch, misrepresentation, and caveat emptor.
Its a campground with 70 odd rooms, its expected these folks buy and cook their foods in their lavish RVs etc....and are removed from major shopping and dining areas. Thats what we WANTED, but with the quick convenience of not setting up a camp and provisioning it, etc....I wouldn't to camping equipped as I was today, nor should they purport to run a hotel with no services, or at least DONT PRESENT YOURSELF AS HAVING IT ALL. One word of any of the issues and we would have amiably gone elsewhere and come back when things were open and/or brought some supplies.
Other than that, we really enjoyed our stay. They are actually running a hotel without any staff, which is quite remarkable .All the preset numbers rang empty, except 911, as a preset!