Deer Valley Lodge — Hotel in Barneveld

To travelers with or without children this place is a wonderful place to go. Water park was great, and the environment is very children friendly, and you won't feel out of place being here with children. We stayed during an early family Christmas event. Reservations were made by my in-law, so we just read the previous reviews before getting to the Lodge.

Reviews we read pointed out their thoughts of how out dated everything was. In my opinion the place is clean, no smoking in any room, smells clean (no obnoxious odors from sprays), and bathrooms are nice. The beds were fantastic to sleep on and everything smelled and looked clean. I would probably recommend to the owners to updated the comforters or linens just for looks. Otherwise it reminds me of a up north lodge where we live. Décor is older, but I don't mind older décor when it's not falling apart.

I have stayed in "updated" hotels that weren't half as clean or family/people friendly as this place. The staff here was very welcoming and friendly. So, what could be done just to make it better or improve the experience?

Microwave in room (I have food allergies and tend to make food when traveling) most places have this now. Prep more for breakfast to have larger volume of food ready. Invest in a buffet style hot plate (my kid really like the waffles and sausage). Not a complaint but a suggestion. We stayed when there was a very large amount of multiple children families. So the breakfast line got hit. Maybe new linens (the current ones are fine) but it might help with the feel of the lodge. Invest in some televisions with streaming capabilities. A lot of hotels and resorts are going this direction. That way people can use their subscriptions when traveling. I do this a lot when traveling for work and really appreciate it when a place has this available. I know people are going to say use your tablet, but have you had two children trying to watch Bluey together on a tablet. It's chaos. lastly, maybe look at flooring in certain high volume places. For instance the elevator flooring could use a little face lift. Again, not anything that would put me off, but might help with the looks of things. Some people are picky.

All in all I really liked staying here. I really liked the family environment vibe because it's kind of hard out there to find a place where kids can run off energy without annoying people. We most definitely will be staying here again, and maybe it'll be warm enough...

I booked 2 nights on their website to attend a funeral in the area. The total price came out to be $251.09. The night we arrived another customer had told us he was charged twice and to make sure to check your account. I did. I had two charges for $276. I called the front desk and was told there “was a ‘frankly’ very annoying glitch with the credit card company” however I highly doubt it was with the credit card company since I doubt the man and I bank at the same place and have the same credit card. It was clearly an error with their system. My bank put a hold on the account for 3 days si for 3 days I’m unable to use $552. The next day I check my account again, I have 2 more charges, this time for $251. So now I have a total of four pending payments totalling $1,054. This is money I cannot access in my account for 4 days. When I asked what the new charge was of $251 they said the $276 was voided. So the hotel, knowing they had a glitch with their system double charging people, then went and made a NEW CHARGE to correct the old charge - hence the 4 charges. The staff continually just kept saying “oh it’ll end up back on your card it’s just a credit card mistake. Imagine you’re in my position- you come in to town to attend a funeral, you don’t expect to spend more than a total of $251.09 total, and now you have $1,000 of your cash inaccessible to you for multiple days because their system?? I tried to reiterate that to the staff and they never apologized and just looked at me like I was a Karen. They never asked to comp anything. If that was all I had in my account I would have had no money for gas to get home. I would be stuck. They just kept telling me “when the bank opens Monday you can deal with it” Uhm no it was on your end. It sounds like the general manager didn’t want to deal with it over the weekend.

Im addition this hotel is mostly just for kids - I would not stay here if you are just two adults. There are also ample signs saying no parties in the common space but there was many kids birthday parties happening and the children ran around screaming in the lobby. The tv is about 15 inches wide, and the best channel was QVC. I’m not sure what cable package they have but there was nothing on tv that was created past 1985. No Nickelodeon, no tlc, but a Seattle...

Disclaimer: I never stepped foot inside this hotel; this review is from my experience using the Lodge for a wedding room block. Overall, I’d only use this place again for a room block if nothing else in the area (e.g., GrandStay in Mt Horeb) was available. In short, we had several issues come up that should have never been issues in the first place. First, they conduct room reservations through the room block such that only 5 rooms can be blocked at a time, but the kicker is that they must be within a prescribed ratio of room types. So if you choose 3 double queen rooms and 2 single king rooms, but four families call to reserve and the fourth family also needs a room with two queen beds, they will simply be told that there is no room available for them in the room block and they thus do not qualify for the room block discount. Ridiculous! I had a guest reach out to explain this to me, and I had to speak with the Manager. With this policy in place, the hotel does not guarantee that all guests can get the room type that best suits their needs. Second, at some point, a staff person gave away a room that I had a confirmed reservation for, that was under my name/contact and CC details! I never received a phone call or any request to give the room away or place it under someone else’s name. Third, sometimes staff (likely young and untrained) pick up the phone and provide incorrect information. There is a serious need for staff training and to revisit the hotel’s room block policy. Amber, the Manager we spoke with, was receptive to my complaints of issues I was experiencing and I did see improved behavior toward the end (e.g., actively checking with me on another room I had reserved for a family member). I did not receive complaints from guests on the quality of the stay (rooms, breakfast, etc.), but I also did not receive any praise, so I cannot...