The Bozeman Bowl — Attraction in Bozeman

The staff at the Bozeman Bowl are absolutely amazing to deal with and are certainly a great asset to the business. I don’t understand all the hate the place receives as I’ve been going there for years now and have never had a negative experience. After discussing it with the employees there I feel like most negative posts are just from judgy individuals who don’t understand how stressful the job those employees have can be. They spend sometimes 14 hours a day running non stop from the phone, to the desk, to the back to fix something, and back to the phone, all the while they sre being non stop slammed with people walking through the door. It’s a lot for one individual and the disrespectful individuals who want to say the employees are just being rude need to go apologize. They are probably tired out and are trying their best not to become overwhelmed. If you can’t understand that then maybe go apply and spend a week in their positions dealing with drunk college kids who are damaging equipment or grumpy people who are mad that they took five seconds too long to get back from the back fixing equipment. Another thing I’ve noticed is the wait times. So people want to complain about a lack of availability and then complain about not being able to finish their games. So what do you want? To finish your games or be able to get on quicker. With only one bowling alley in town and only 18 lanes they fill up quickly and then there’s a wait. But then you want to complain about not being able to finish your games when in reality having that ability would postpone your opportunity to bowl as not only are you waiting for the individual ahead of you to finish their games you are also at the mercy of the mysterious amount of time they are going to take. The employees wouldn’t be able to help you at this point as they honestly can’t tell you how long the individuals occupying lanes have left.

In regards to pricing, yes it costs a little bit to bowl. Congrats everything is going up in price due to inflation. And if they do renovate then get ready for another price increase as renovations can cost millions and someone has to help foot the bill.

In regards to the complaints about league. Someone has to host league and as the Bowl is the only alley house in town it falls upon them to host said league nights. Now if you can commit to being there for 33 weeks then feel free to join a league and you can have fun bowling every week. If not be gracious and grateful that there is open bowling on the weekends and before and sometimes after league ends.

At the end of the day this place is a very friendly place with great staff and delicious food and everyone needs to be kind to the employees who are doing their best to help make your day there better. Being kind takes zero energy and even better yet if you are kind then the employees might take some extra time to make your day even better...

I have historically had a great time here. That changed 3 nights ago. My husband paid a lot of money to pay for my friends and I to go bowling for my birthday. Just me and my 30+ year old mom friends. We were greeted at the entrance by two security guards with small dog syndrome. After my friend and I said we wouldn’t be drinking and receiving an X on our hands, they proceeded to force her to dump out her water bottle that was full of water. Once we got our places to bowl, the pizza guy showed up, because my husband ordered us pizza. We have never had an issue bringing outside food in before. However, the small lady guard would not let me bring it in. I felt like I was being questioned by the police. She asked me an unreasonable amount of questions about why the pizza was there and then lecturing me on rules. Then proceeded to tell me to just take it to my car, which was down the street. I clearly did not have my keys or a coat on me. So I had to set my pizzas on a tiny little counter over the garbage to go tell my friends about this. One friend offered to take it to her car because she parked much closer. She went to get the pizza and the small dude guard literally lunged at her to prevent her from taking it in. I’m not kidding. Anyways, once the kitchen closed, my friend ran back to her car and brought in the pizza. The security guards then stood like 2-4 tables behind us just staring at us like we were doing something illegal. We were eating pizza and drinking water. I felt like I was being vetted by TSA when I entered the building and guarded like I was in prison while I was there. It was ridiculous. Unless they ask their guard dogs to back down, chill, and not try to intimidate and creep on their paying costumers (who paid a lot), I would not recommend. Unless you’re cool with that kind of behavior... At this point I’d rather pay the extra money and go bowling at ponderosa club, where I could at least expect to be treated...

WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE. It began with my daughter asking for a 6 lb ball. The attendant behind the counter was so annoyed that his cell phone time was interrupted, that he rolled his eyes, said something under his breath and rolled the ball to my daughter. Later, he put on inappropriate music that had fowl language in it. When asked to change the music, he changed it to another song by the same "artist". I then went up to him and asked him to put on music that didn't involve bad language. He told me there was no bad language and that he would listen for it. I then asked him to change it again and was told, "How about we play what we play here". His words. After a back and forth, he threatened to throw me out. When I told him to go ahead, he got irate and cranked the music up so loud you couldn't talk to the person next to you. He then left the counter and went to the bar to talk to his buddies for at least ten minutes while the music was cranked up. Keep in mind that there are other people in the place. As we were leaving, and I was talking to my daughter about what happened, he continued his tirade by again engaging in disrespectful conversation. I really hope this is not a reflection of the attitude of the owner and the rest of the staff. This was by far the worst I have ever been treated by any business and to do so in front of children makes it that much more appalling. The only up side was that my daughter learned a valuable lesson about rudeness and how to handle it...