Skytop Lodge — Hotel in Barrett Township

I really wanted to give skytop 5 stars but it fell short for a few reason. I’ll give examples of the good and the bad…. Looking for a place close to Long Island for a Halloween weekend getaway. We’ve been to Rocking horse ranch, Woodloch, crystal springs but wanted something new. I called ahead and spoke with a very sweet girl named Abigale. She assured me Skytop was perfect for families with kids and gave me a list of activities that would be going on that weekend. We were mostly interested in the zip line at the adventure park as my kids love it. So I booked a cottage which was very nice, we’re a family of 7 and the adjoining rooms were perfect. It was a short walk to both the main lodge and the inn. We had no issue getting dinner reservations and we were pleasantly surprised by the quality of the food. It was the best we’ve had at any of the aforementioned resorts! My only complaint is that the restaurant in the main lodge has a big humidity issue. You can feel it when you walk in. The place just feels damp and there’s condensation on all of the windows. I could only imagine how much mold is behind the walls. It looks like they’re trying to combat it with small dehumidifiers and UV lights but it’s nut cutting it. We were told they didn’t take breakfast reservations but we had no problems getting seated. Breakfast was a Buffett and was very good. The grounds are beautiful and most of the staff is very nice. Some issues we had, there is really not much to do for kids, at least not when we were there. Our activity sheet listed the hours for the Adventure park where the zip line is. The person at the front desk couldn’t give me any info about it. She told me to speak with the concierge. He seemed visibly annoyed that I was disturbing him and when I inquired about the zip line he barked, “the adventure park is closed today”. I told him this is the only full day we’re here and the main reason we came (we went sat-Mon) and showed him the activities sheet says it’s open and he replied, “well it’s wrong”. Ok, so what can we do? They list a 10am hayride but it was a little after ten, he said there were two more after that but are booked. Then just up and walked away. This is not the guy that should be in concierge. So we head to the game room. It’s really nice but $1.00 per game! I mean, come on. The only thing that was free were the 2 ping pong tables which is what most of the guests were using. No one was using the $1.00 games. And I don’t blame them. There’s an ice cream parlor and a little store down there which we’re both nice . We decided to check out the pool, the pool area was also improperly vented and way too humid, even for a pool/spa room. There were windows and doors open and a big floor drying blower running constantly trying to combat this. Pool and hot tub were clean and they had a small kids pool which was nice, but there area was run down, plants and weeds growing out of the floor drains and any metal on the inside structure rusted from condensation. We had lunch at the taproom in the main lodge and again, we’re very impressed by the food. After that we walked the grounds, went to the playground and went back to our cottage to rest before dinner. There wasn’t really much else to do, I was surprised since it was Halloween day. Thought they would have something. We had dinner at Lakeview at the inn. The inn is really nice, clean and more modern. The restaurant, again, was amazing. And so was the service. After dinner they lit a fire pit and had marshmallows and sticks available for the kids which was cute. On our last day we tried again to do some of the activities. Calling the concierge from the room ended with just a ringing phone. So we head to breakfast and he’s not at his desk. After breakfast I finally spot him as he’s walking into a back room behind his desk and catch him to inquire about the hay ride and zip line only to be told the hay ride is booked and zip line closed. Renovate the pool room...

We just spend the weekend at Skytop for a brief get away without our kids, unfortunately our experience was sub par, especially when compared to similar priced getaway destinations driving distance from NYC. Below is a breakdown of our experience to hopefully shed light for future travelers and management on our specific experience.

Food: overall disappointing, our orders were frequently wrong or forgotten with multiple errors over the whole stay (e.g. tuna steak came well done instead of rare, chicken wings came out under cooked, potato salad potatoes were raw, dinner bread was stale, osso bucco was underwhelming all around to name a few instances).

front desk/ concierge: from the moment we arrived, it was apparent that this was the key factor that had most to improve on. We arrived at 6pm, no bellhop, no valet (understood w/ COVID times), no guidance what so ever when you get out of your car. The front desk doesn’t guide you to where elevators are/ where your room is, they were unhelpful welcoming you to the property and giving a general overview, and were unaware of basic questions like where is the bellman or where to park. When asking about dinner options were advised to talk to the concierge, who was actually hiding under the desk to take what seemed like a personal call. Shortly after we were met with a bit of destain when talking about a lack of diner seating options since no reservation was made in advance. We called ahead nearly 2 weeks in advance and were not told about the need to reserve dining options, not advised of the hourly activity options and therefore were unable to partake in many of the weekends options.

Staff: overall everyone serving at the bars & restaurants were pleasant and attentive, however may have been lacking some training since errors were frequent and constant. Our bartender didn’t know her own wine list, our waitress was quickly overwhelmed when several tables arrived at once and others forgot whole part of our order completely.

Ambiance/ experience: the main lodge, grounds and inn are all charming and rustic, everything you would want from this sort of experience. However there was a suggested dress code that was clearly not enforced what so ever. We experience people wearing sweat pants, tshirts, hiking gear and hoodies… definitely detracting from the finer dining experience. There were also children running around the dining room, and families were clearly seated all throughout the restaurant instead of separated from couples/ adults looking for a less of an Applebees type of night.

Facilities: The main dining room was charming, however could not regulate temperature & humidity (not sure if it’s over the pool) and the smell of fish wafted from the entrance as you crossed the threshold. There were dead birds out front of the window at the pub style lunch spot and the lake front dining experience could use update but overall seemed the nicest of the options.

Hotel room: what you would expect from an older hotel. We stayed in the main lodge, rooms were compact, but clean and charming and cleaning staff was very friendly and on top of things. Beware that TVs are logged into people accounts who stayed in your room before you… not my concern, but I feel bad for those whose accounts are logged in still.

Ground & outdoor activity: this lived up to the hype and was probably the sole redeeming factor of the stay. Fields, trails, activity areas are well kept and sportsman guides were wonderful.

I hope this review doesn’t necessarily deter future guests, rather sheds light on areas that need to be improved to compete with weekend escape destinations for families or couples that are at similar high price points. Although my wife and I are not planning on returning we didn’t witness many families enjoying themselves and assume we may just have had a “perfect storm” of mishaps one...

I would have loved to give this place 5 stars, but unfortunately few things went wrong. PROS: We were able to get room last minute Grounds are magmificent There are allot of fun activities Our waitress in the Inn restaurant was magnificent!!!!! The air conditioning was working great! Bed was quite comfortable in room 415 Those shuttles are great. . CONS: We got to stay in 2 different rooms, first night in the Inn, second time in the main lodge. The inn we did not like much. Even though Chris is very nice, he is a man of many traits. He cleans rooms, works the reception, carries the luggage and I can't say that he does everything equally good. The room was not clean enough for me and the bed was not made properly, the blanket was hanging out from the sheets and I had to redo it so it would not touch our faces. I would think that getting some duvets would be a good idea. Bed was extremely uncomfortable. The room at the main lodge was smaller and had no balcony but was very clean, comfortable and properly made. Having lunch at the Tea room was a challenge. There was just 1 girl working the counter doing everything. Took us over half an hour to get chicken salad sandwich and only after I went and asked for it because we were late for our activity. The wait for breakfast was outrageous this morning, first time I attempted to have breakfast at the hotel and failed, because I had no time to wait for half an hour to get seated while 3/4 of the tables were totally empty. Thus can't say anything about the food. I can tell that today I tried having nachos at the tap room for lunch. OMG! I never had anything more disgusting in my entire life. Deep fried flower tortilla chips were drenched in oil, clumped together with some cheese what was not melted, everything was stuck together and topped with just a little bit of salsa which was mostly onions. Yes there was chicken, I found 3 pieces of dried chicken between the clumps. In to the garbage went my $12! Decaf coffee was also horrible. Tried to get cappuccino, but they close the shop at 3 or 4 and after that forget it. In the morning it's so crowded that line is half an hour long. So forget that! Really enjoyed the mushroom walk with Rick. He seemed very knowledgeable about all that nature. Boy am I glad I did no listen to him and checked before cooking those mushrooms. He said they were eatable honey mushrooms, and yes, they look like honey mushrooms but they lacked the little "skirt" which was the indication that they are not eatable. Rick said not to worry, they will show the skirt when grown. Wrong!!!! We googled and they turned out to be poisonous "JackOLanterns". Rick please brush up on your mushrooms!!!! I don't even want to mention the fact that everything is outrageously overpriced, like round of ammunition is $12 for 7 shots on top of the guide fee and the gun rental fee. They could not find anybody in 3 days to take us fly fishing. I wish they would have told me, we would schedule it ahead of time. So my impression of this place is that it's really understaffed. Perhaps the owners just like to put money in their pockets rather than give the customers full experience. They've doubled the prices over holiday long weekend, but did not bother to provide service. Also hotel needs allot of updating, the furniture, the carpets everything is dirty and dated. Will I every come back again, I'll have to think twice, even though we had lots of fun, the inconveniences outweigh the conveniences in my opinion.

I wish I had more good...