Black Forest Lodge — Hotel in Big Bear Lake

They have no idea how to run an exemplary hotel, which is no doubt why this is rated as a 2-star joint. Katrina and Rita are two of the worst customer service representatives I have ever come into contact with.

Let me take you on a factual journey: My partner and I booked a stay here last minute. Natalie was actually helpful in setting us up. We were going to arrive after hours, so because this business is literally too small to man someone at the desk 24 hours, they leave a key in a random box outside at night. This is not the classic hotel experience where someone greets you at the front desk if you arrive tired and late. You basically get a map of the place and your key. Fine, whatever. Moving on.

Unfortunately my partner and I were not able to make it due to a family emergency. Things happen and we were NOT expecting a refund, nor any special treatment. In fact, we simply called as a courtesy to let the hotel know that we wouldn't be able to make it (mind you they still have our $ because rooms are non-refundable). Not ideal, but understandable.

The next morning we get an extremely rude message from Katrina, the hotel employee, stating that, "we could have rented that room out to someone else and my mom waited up for you." Now THIS is where the confusion starts to set in. You could've rented our room out to someone else when we've already paid for it and you had to do nothing to get that money?? How is that possible? You already billed us, so why complain about not renting out a room that was already paid for and now requires no maid service for the next guests?

Second, how is it possible that your mom waited up for us when there's an overnight box outside with keys for guests to pick up?? Was your mom "waiting" with her eyes closed behind the imaginary front desk you DON'T have after hours? We have stayed here before so this comment comes as a big surprise, and should have not even been mentioned!

How many business owners do you know guilt their patrons after a family emergency? The voice message should have been pleasant and kind with sympathy towards our situation. Instead Katrina's message was rude, not at all professional, and extremely callous. Imagine waking up after a family emergency to hear a rude hotel staff member on voicemail guilting you about not arriving, even though you've already paid?!? I wish we could post the voicemail on here for everyone to hear. It's seriously RUDE.

When we called to address our concerns with how we were treated, we were literally hung up on, and put on fake holds, to the point where things escalated quickly. Can you imagine getting into a heated debate with a business owner when you're the customer and supposed to be shown respect? All we wanted was to address the rude message that was left and have the business owners understand why they were so incredibly wrong to behave in that manner.

So literally, after this family emergency Katrina has the nerve to pass the phone off to Rita, leave us on extended holds, and not answer our phone calls all together. They even went as far as to say, "they were going to sue us for damages and threatening that they have our credit card information." This is verbatim from Rita's mouth when we didn't even stay there and were simply calling to voice our concerns! I now have to cancel my credit cards and report fraud because of the direct threats I received from the business owners. Can you imagine?!? I'm flabbergasted that a business owner would threaten to charge any card with false charges to threaten someone off the phone. The truth is, they were upset that my partner and I kept calling to get a resolution, but truth be told, if we weren't hung up on so many times, we wouldn't need to call back that much.

All we wanted was a resolution and an apology for the rude message, and in turn, the staff escalated the situation when it was unwarranted and unprofessional. I have ever been treated so poorly in my entire life to the point I almost asked, "... ok so where are the TV cameras, these people must...

A VERY GOOD example of VERY POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE.

My boyfriend booked a room through Airbnb as a surprise so that he could propose to me in Big Bear, CA. When we arrived, he kind of surprised that the room was actually at a commercial lodge. That wasn’t a big deal however we found out AFTER we checked in that we paid a much higher price for the Airbnb room as compared to booking directly with the Lodge!!!

Airbnb is the premier platform for unique travel experiences. and Airbnb was founded on the premise of saving people money. therefore Airbnb has been a big disruptor to the hospitality space.

BEWARE: Apparently, there are distrustful and cynical commercial property owners that are using the Airbnb platform as an unethical weapon against unsuspecting consumers.

IN OUR CASE: Rita, the owner of the BLACK FOREST LODGE in Big Bear, CA advertised a Room with a King Bed, Fireplace and Hot Tub by using the Airbnb platform. While we were changing rooms, we discovered we were charged a HIGHER NIGHTLY RATE ($135) as compared to if we had booked directly with the Lodge ($85). The thing that bothered us more than the cost was that the room we booked on Airbnb turned out to be an unmaintained room. A comparable room that was presented to us was a freshly renovated and much more modern room. However, even though it was much nicer it was the 3rd room we were sent to and It ended up having a leaking toilet that flooded our bathroom floor. Also, there was NO landline phone in the room.

SUMMARY OF EVENTS:

1ST ROOM: Located on the 2nd floor we unpacked and discovered the following was not functioning: Gas Fireplace next to hot tub. Several Electrical Outlets.

2ND ROOM: A small Log Cabin Located at the other end of the property was our next option. After we unpacked again, we discovered the following: TV did not work. Dirty bath towel was on window ledge. No Landline Phone in Cabin.

3RD ROOM: A newly remodeled room located back across the property was our next option. After we unpacked once again, we discovered the following: Toilet in bathroom was leaking. Also, no Landline Phone was in the room.

3am: My boyfriend was so humiliated and embarrassed that he broke down in tears. He then told me he was planning on proposing to me that evening.

CHECKOUT TIME: During the time we were moving from Room 1 to the Cabin we advised the desk staff we were planning on staying another night. Rita knocks on our door around 11:30am to tell us that we needed to move to another room because someone reserved the “leaky toilet” room. Clearly, Rita had no knowledge of the prior nights chain of events which we found hard to believe. Even after we briefed her, she seemed unphased and said we still needed to move. Because Rita reacted the way she we declined to move to a 4th room and stay another night.

WATER UNDER THE BRIDGE: 15 minutes later my boyfriend went down to the office to tell Rita we had changed our minds and wanted to stay another night so that we could enjoy the day and get engaged.

ICING ON THE CAKE:

Rita (the owner) said that they never had any problems until we came. Now that we are looking at online reviews for this Lodge its very clear that Rita doesn’t read them. Rita laughed and stated that there is no need for a landline phone in their room. She justified this by saying everyone has cell phones.

Basically, Rita called us liars and said that we made this all up and laughed in his face. SHAME on you RITA!!!

My now fiancé is a combat Veteran and has served in the Marines and Navy both. He has challenges with PTSD and Anger so I must say I AM PROUD OF YOU HONEY for not losing your cool and being a gentleman in dealing with such a RUDE AND IGNORANT PERSON.

OUR ADVICE:

There are much better places in Big Bear to stay BUT if you must stay at Black Bear Lodge: Consider booking direct. Bring your cell phone and charger. Plan for the worst but hope...

Husband and I stayed during the week. We checked the other reviews before booking, saw the reviews and thought “how bad could it be?” In our experience, we found the reviews to be extremely accurate.

Lots of pros and lots of cons here….

We stayed in the “Klara” cabin for $100 per night. Stayed 3 days and 2 nights.

THE PROS the location. the availability the price staff was nice -very quiet, sound travels easily here. the bathtub in the room was nice

THE CONS

the dirty upholstery and freaky motel bed covers that can never be washed, …. Ours had old gum stuck to it. These non-washable items, like the throw pillows and unwashable bed spreads, are gross.

the freaky dark carpet! The wall-to-wall carpet has got to go 🤢 (if you could only change one thing here, please get rid of the carpet and replace it with something that can be cleaned daily!!! vinyl or non-carpet asap). Everything about it made our skin crawl

I’m assuming the staff is nose blind to this, but i could really smell pet urine from the carpet near TV in the corner. The overall bonfire smoke smell in the room is heavy at times, strong incense smell with bonfire smoke.

Eventually we adjusted to the smoke smell, and started smelling the pet urine smells only.

We kept our shoes on and wore “special socks” just for this special carpet… I’m not being a Karen, it is really unsanitary for a room to have wall-to-wall thick high-pile carpet in a pet friendly room. The carpet is all the way up to the tub and they have a dirty looking rug on top of the thick carpet in front of the tub. It was truly grey from being old and dirty.

Those familiar with wood rot and water damage will notice it all over the bathroom and parts of the living room right away.

the poor conditions of the room overall. When we arrived, there was a trash in the kitchen from previous guests. it was full of smelly food and cans. & it’s such a quick easy thing to do, it makes me feel how little the room was cleaned prior to our stay… 😬

over all mood killer was the the lack of very necessary repairs & TLC to the room.

Others have mentioned this in their reviews too; No CO2 detectors & fire alarms were without batteries ( we assumed that’s probably because of the wood burning fireplace in the room… the flue is absolutely covered in creosote and soot, we’re assuming the noise of the alarms was probably a nuisance if smoke is clearly coming into the room when people try to light a fire)

no hot water in the shower, but the tub worked fine.

the mismatched curtains don’t really fit the curtain rods properly, they fell on my head every time i tried to open them, so they really are dangerous to guests (this is not a kid safe room at all!)

rotting floors in the bathroom, felt like I was going to step right through the floor in front of the toilet and floor area outside of shower. Very weak wood and has a lot of ‘give’ in certain spots with obvious water damage.

The room is incredibly dark. Anytime I tried opening the curtains, they would fall. I was hit in the head by the curtain rods in all room that continually fell off the wall. Not a single rod is secure. The rods and curtains are not the right size and they’re poorly installed if they’re able to fall and injure me.

Overall, owners need to invest some time and money here. I’m unsure if I will come back till them. The location is ideal. Walkable to the village and restaurants.

If this place did the “bear” minimum like basic safety repairs and sanitary updates to the cabins it would be a real gem. Seriously, even just changing the flooring would be a much needed upgrade to this place. The rooms need TLC. I would be happy to pay a higher room rate even 250-300 a night for better...