Sourdough Sue's Bear Lake Lodging — Hotel in Alaska

Where to even start with this. I never write reviews, but this place was so bad i felt the need to warn any future residents. Insanely expensive ($278 a night for a glorified tent) but it was literally the only place not booked up for Labor Day weekend.

We had brought two well trained dogs with us. About an hour after we arrived, the owners came over and told us dogs were not allowed, and we had to now pay a $100 pet deposit on top of the $278 a night. They gave us a rope to tie both of them to a tree. She told us their website said no pets were allowed (the website says no such thing which is why we brought our dogs in the first place) keep in mind this place is essentially in the woods where dogs love to play. Their dogs were roaming around freely with the neighbor dogs, who all kept coming up on our yurt porch taking my dogs toys and eating her food. I guess we were supposed to be ok with that while our dogs sat tied to a tree wanting to play.

The first night we were there we were having a fire relaxing outside. The owner came out and instructed us to “shut it down” complaining he had to get up early. He also felt it necessary to threaten us with he “knew our bosses” if we got too loud, and insisting we tell him where we were from. This was all before the posted outdoor quiet hours so we were not in the wrong. However, we obliged and ended our fire early.

The morning we checked out we cleaned up, I thanked Sue for the stay and we departed. Thankfully we went to exit glacier in town because this is the good part. A couple hours later I received a voicemail from the owners stating they had charged my credit card an extra $200 for damages sustained inside the yurt. A friend of mine had accidently put the owners Graco Pack n’ Play bag in their baby’s luggage so we immediately headed back to the yurts to give the bag back and find out what we were being charged for. We arrive, hand the bag back and apologize. She was already heated and said there was a bigger bag with a handle we were given and that the Pack n’ Play would not fit in the bag we gave her. (Which it did because that’s what it came in and we showed her) There was some back and forth about said bag, and we were told we’d be charged for it if we did not return this other bag (which we never had to begin with)

I then asked what we were being charged $200 for and her response was “everything”. there were some bedsheets needing to be replaced because of some regurgitation that had taken place on them. We happily agreed to pay for those, and that we just needed a receipt for what we were being charged. I feel like we handled the situation well and were very respectful, but this woman kept being nasty and rude when I would ask for a receipt of the charges. She said she emailed it to me (which was a lie) and then threatend to call the cops if we didn’t leave. I said I just wanted a receipt of what I was paying for and she said “leave and never come back here again”. Thinking she would send me an invoice of the charges incurred, I thanked her for the stay once more, and we left in good faith. This was after she made my friends wife cry, called us thieves, liars, and refused to give me a receipt.

This trip was completely ruined because of the hosts. I emailed the business a few hours after I arrived home for a receipt, no reply. Called the next day, no answer or call back. My friend called an hour after that, no answer no reply. I was charged the $200 with no justification for said charges. All in all, if you enjoy businesses who arbitrarily charge you huge extra fees, rules made up on a whim, and the most disgusting hospitality you can imagine, this is the place for you. To me $800 for two nights in a fancy tent is not worth the BS you’ll deal with during your stay. Pick somewhere else to go in...

HORRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE. HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE. 10/10 WOULD NOT RECOMMEND. Me and a group of friends decided to visit seward and stay at sourdoughsues yurts from Friday-Sunday for. THE EXPERIENCE WAS ENDEED SOUR. Both owners were very rude. Our first day arriving to the yurt after already paying,we were told we had to pay a pet 100 deposit fee. No where on the website said no pets, nor did it state anything about a 100 pet deposit. We’re we’re given a rope and they made us tie our dogs to a tree and they had to stay there until we departed the yurt. The dogs were not allowed on the porch or inside the yurt. The owners had pets who were not tied up who constantly came on our porch not to mentions all the neighbor dogs who would just run around our yurt and on our porch. It was not right we had to pay money to pretty much tie our dogs up when there dogs roamed free. But since we already paid all the money we decide to stay since it was only for 2 days. Later that day we decided to use the fire pit provided next to the yurt to have a bonfire. As stated in the yurt quite hours wasn’t until 10:00pm for outside. As we’re all sitting there relaxing and talking by the fire sues husband Greg came out and told us we were being to loud and we had to stop our fire and return inside the yurt. This was around 8:45-9pm and as stated before outside quite hours was 10pm. He then threatened to call his “connections” to get us in serious trouble with our leadership. But we did as we were told and we headed inside ending our fire early. Day one was really bad but it can only get better right? That’s where we were wrong. So the next day we had activities planned in the morning and we did not return back to the yurt until later that night. We didn’t have any interactions with them on Saturday. Our day of check out we cleaned the yurt and departed. An hour after leaving we received a voicemail from sue saying how we were being charged 200 because we ruined her bedsheets with regurgitation which we agreed to pay for. But she would tell us what else she charged us for. She then said we stole her pack and play that she let us use for the baby we had with us and tried to charge us for that as well. we accidentally packed it up so we returned back to the yurt to return her pack and play bag which she then said was not the correct one and the pack and play did not fit in the bag we gave her. We tried to explain to her that that’s all she gave us and that it indeed fits in the bag that we had. and she started to get really nasty with us calling us liars, and thief’s, she told us we were stupid for trying to tell her about what she gave us. We were being so respectful to her and she was just going on a rampage. After about 10 minutes of us trying to reason with her she finally agreed to let us show her that it fit in the bag. When we got over to where the pack and play was stored, we got all the items to fit in the bag and she started yelling again. We couldn’t understand why she was mad because she said it didn’t fit when it did. Ever one was being respectful with her but she was just honestly being and huge A HOLE. she then threatened to call the cops after we requested a receipt of all the charges. We tried for 20 minutes to get a receipt and we were unsuccessful. After the constant yelling from her, along with making one of my friends cry and the constant threats, we decided to go ahead and just leave. She claimed we would have a emailed receipt which we still do not have and it’s been 1 day since the incident. She’s ignored calls and emails from us....

I have stayed at Sourdough Sue’s yurts for the last 10 years and each time has been a wonderful experience. I have happily recommended Sue’s yurts to my friends, knowing they will enjoy the same great experience and gracious hospitality. However, when making my reservations for 2019 I was surprised and dismayed to see several negative and retaliatory reviews from some guests that visited in September 2018. These negative reviews are not an accurate representation. I was a guest that same night and I can tell you that this group was not the quiet and considerate group they are trying to portray. Even after moving inside I could still hear loud partying with periodic expletives throughout the night-- I was not sure whether it was just inconsiderate drunken rowdiness or if I was going to see a fistfight in the yard. That they had to be held accountable for a bed full of vomit (which they admittedly left without an attempt to clean when they checked out) speaks volumes.||||In addition, I frequently travel with dogs and never assume that my dog will be allowed to run freely around a facility ground, whether mentioned on a website or not. I would certainly not assume so without speaking to the owner or management prior to my visit.||||I don’t begrudge folks having a good time—been known to do it myself more than once! I understand how fun (and beer) in the moment can get in the way of situational awareness. But when I have overstepped considerate behavior and been held accountable, I have owned up, made my apologies and moved on, not tried to justify it by going on the attack via site reviews. Unfortunately, our human nature will put more value on a couple negative site reviews rather that the multitude of positive ones!||||Thank you for reading my comments, and for those of you considering adding a unique and Alaskan flavor to your visits, I recommend staying at Sourdough Sue’s Yurts! You will...