Peaks of Otter Lodge — Hotel in Bedford

AVOID AT ALL COSTS FOR EVENTS! I was a member of a wedding party this weekend. It started out ok. The rehearsal dinner was amazing. The cook was great and the food was good. The venue was attentive. Day 2... Not so much. Supposedly there was a venue coordinator. Was there? Honestly no one knows because there did not appear to be any coordination. The room for the groomsmen is connected to a hallway in a high traffic area. There are shades over the windows in the doors (that do not completely cover the windows) and no signs explaining that it is a private event. Quite a few people got an eye full... Also, no food or beverage (alcoholic or not) is allowed in. They WILL make sure to let you know and recommend you purchase overpriced drinks from the restaurant upstairs. Skipping ahead to the reception, this is where it went straight to crap. Dinner was supposed to be served at 5:30pm as confirmed by the venue today. A display of fruits, cheeses, and crackers was provided for a cocktail hour for guests while the wedding party took photos. One of the servers was moving a table and broke some plates. Hey it happens, no big deal. What is a big deal is when one of the wedding party hears the manager say it was because of the camera person ... who was on the other side of the room and VIDEOED the plates falling from the table. Next, at 5:50pm (ish), the party asked where the dinner was. We were informed that the restaurant portion of the venue way "backed up" and it would be AT LEAST an hour before we started to receive food. (A sign at the entrance denoted that the dining room for the restaurant did not even open until 5:30pm.) Guests left before food arrived because their blood sugar was dropping. THE BRIDE had to have something brought to her because hers was dropping. Fortunately, and magically, the venue was able to bring in the ordered food "as it became ready". In the midst of this, a special meal had been ordered because of an allergy. It never showed up. This is all on top of an EXTREMELY rude bar tender (one was horrid, the other was awesome). Given that they said they were backed up and couldn't make our food, one would think it was hot food, but alas what was served (and ordered) was cold food. What was brought out had been made for long enough at least to have been saran wrapped. To emphasize how poor the planning was for this, this lodge is on the Blue Ridge Parkway, in the mountain, IN THE FALL when business is at it's highest. They knew this event was coming for MONTHS. They had time to plan and up staff. Being understaffed, as they claimed, is not acceptable. To top off the evening, when the bride & groom attempted to check into the room that was INCLUDED in the package... it had been rented out. Supposedly, no one ever booked it. It was never explained that it had to be booked separately. The hotel was sold out except for one room with two double beds. The manager attempted to get them to accept this ("We can just push the beds together"). Obviously this was not acceptable. After much urging, this small portion of the ~$6000 package was refunded. After understanding how extremely infuriated the entire party was, the manager did call to the next closest hotel and paid for the room for the couple for the night. This was appreciated, but unfortunately it was far too little far too late. The venue itself is absolutely beautiful, but the beauty doesn't save the poor service.

UPDATE: The manager had the NERVE to tell the bride ON HER WEDDING NIGHT "I know you're new to this wedding thing but you'll appreciate sleeping in a separate bed from your husband." Also, the cake maker that was used informed us that the staff were rude to her when delivering the cake. This includes complaining that she closed the door between the private room and the bar because the bar patrons were coming in and TAKING the wedding cupcakes. I would like to reiterate AVOID...

Was looking forward to this trip for my wife and my first anniversary. Saw it had so many great reviews but didn’t look like much from the photos but decided to give it a go anyway. Called and was assured we would have a king bed on the “second floor” with our pet which given the views sounded great. Unfortunately Showed up late due to traffic which i called ahead to inform them but when we got there they must have gave our room away to someone else and put us in a handicap 2 “double bed” room. Why on earth a hotel in this day and age would utilize double beds is beyond me but it was pretty awful experience with such a small bed for two adults (my wife being average size and myself being above average). The furniture consisted of cheap plastic tables from Walmart which was a bit odd for a “3 star” rated lodge. They put us in the main building to boot which couldn’t have dogs in it so we were supposed to use our back porch door which couldn’t unlock from the outside and it was so hard to even open or close my wife ended up hurting herself trying to do so. Woke up first thing and asked about changing our room because I saw several people check out but no concession was given with the response from the front desk essentially being that we were just SOL since they were sold out and already booked those rooms. I’m sorry but you screwed up our room. I obliged one of the two nights and the best you could say was I hope you continue to stay with us. Well if it wasn’t for the fact we drove over 5 hours to get there and thus wasn’t in the middle of no where we would have looked for other accommodations. Not how I wanted to spend our anniversary weekend.

With that said the beds are super hard and bathrooms are super cold with very weak heat lamps that were essentially useless. The handicap shower wand wouldn’t stay attached to the holder it was jerry rigged to fit in and the handicap bench left little room for me to actually fit in the shower. Whoever stayed there before us turned on the alarm for 6am and for whatever reason this was t checked by the staff or reset.

This weekend marked the start of their “astronomy event” where a gentlman with some kind of NASA education to talk about the cosmos was supposed to be there according to their website but we (as well as several other guests) came to find out they cancelled it with no warning to anyone and the front desk could have seemed to care less that some people actually picked this lodge for that experience (not us but another couple).

The restaurant was “ok” at best. Dinner was better than the breakfast buffet which was very lack luster and the same thing every day for $20 a person. Dry biscuits, watery gravy, bland grits, powdered eggs, powdered eggs with peppers, sausage links, bacon, hash browns, and a waffle maker you find at Holiday Inn Express (for free). The $2/glass OJ came in the tiniest glass I couldn’t fit my hand around it which was all but laughable when it was dropped off.

Dinner was a bit better as far as options. Wife ordered the special which was prime rib that ended up coming out cool to the touch. Came back with minimal improvement. I got a turkey breast which was pretty good with some decent mashed potatoes. Best thing about that night was the drinks that were coming from the bar. Rock solid prior Marine bar tender who knew how to make a mean Old Fashioned. Props to him! Especially being alone the whole night having to make drinks for the entire restaurant and the bar.

We enjoyed the location and the walking distance from hiking trails but for what we gave up I’m not sure it...

We booked this place months in advance after Looking at the gorgeous photos on their website. The reality is not the same. The rooms are very run down and there is a cleanliness issue. We found roach droppings in the drawers which prompted us to keep all our things in our luggage. The floor is dirty, as if it’s never mopped, only swept (we stayed in a pet friendly room). I had to go to the front desk to ask for a roll of toilet paper because there was 1/2 a roll on the holder, that’s it. They did have plenty of towels, enough for a month! 😂The worst part was when I took a 10 minute shower, the water wouldn’t drain and I ended up standing in 6 inches of water by the time I was done. It was so bad, we cut our trip short, which was a huge disappointment because we had plans to hike Sharp Top, but we just wanted to get out of there after spending a sleepless night, fretting about was was lurking in the walls and behind the furniture.

We found there are not enough chairs on the property and many patios only had 1 or no chairs to sit and take in the beautiful view Most people I know travel to places like this and both people want to sit in a chair. This place is in very serious need of an update, especially for the price. I know it is owned by the National Park Service, but it is managed by a private company, so they should do better.

We went to have lunch and while they were slow at the time we went (2pm) they were also very understaffed. We waited a good 20 minutes standing at the counter before the hostess finally came over and seated us. Probably so as not to overwhelm the servers, but again it wasn’t that busy. Doris, our server, was a delight and one of the only bright spots. The food was very ok. We had breakfast before we left, and the food was a mix of warm and cold. The eggs were warm, the bacon, potatoes and biscuit was cold.

The other bright spot was the young lady that checked us in. She was so friendly and helpful when I asked for the mini fridge that I requested, but wasn’t delivered to the room.(which they charge for, by the way)

Now the good, and it’s limited. The grounds are beautiful and seem to be well maintained, not like the rooms themselves. We enjoyed the fire pit, and chatting with other guests. The staff we encountered was very friendly and courteous.

We ended up checking out early, so front desk manager did her best to make it right and I’m appreciative of that. She refunded the 2nd night of our stay since we were leaving, and she did a small partial refund of the night we did stay. Again, I appreciate that. I just want people to know the condition of the rooms.

I give 2 stars, because the staff is great and they did try to make it right. Otherwise it would have...