Patoka Lake Marina & Lodging — Hotel in Birdseye

AVOID RENTING THE HOUSE BOAT||This is long and our story. The owner will not reach out to you if you have an issue. We have sent several emails and called many times. ||Our group consisted of 10 people and we rented The Admiral house boat Thursday July 11, 2025 through July 14, 2025. While on this boat we experienced many unexpected things. For one we lost steering in our boat around 1030 Saturday morning. We called for help on the radio and was told they would try to help us. The anchor would not hold us where we were. So of course we started drifting. Almost drifted right into a boat on the lake with kids playing in the water around the boat. Luckily they were able to move out of the way in time. We just kept drifting until we hit a bank full of trees and debris. So at this point we were stuck on the boat due to the debris. We just had to wait for someone to try to rescue us. It took about an hour to an hour and a half for them to get to us. The exact time was not noted. They didn't bring enough steering fluid so they had to go back delaying our Saturday of fun even further. While they were gone the guys on the boat found a hole in hose for the steering. We radioed the crew and told them what parts were needed and they came with out them. They then had to go back to get a tool box and more parts. They come back and have to pull us out of where we drifted to and the bald headed man screamed "GET TO THE Fing BACK" and "GET TO THE Fing FRONT!" We are finally out on the lake and the boat wouldn't steer to the left [I think] not to far into this trip to where we can park, a storm comes. We are in the middle of the lake with steering on only one side of the boat and a pontoon boat running into us over and over again without warning. Several on board were crying and struggling to get a life jacket on. We also lost items in the storm and the tarp on the upper deck blew off. The rescue boat saved it but did not offer to fix it. I think we were safely parked by 5:00 ish. This was our whole Saturday. ||We are also extremely frustrated that none of the appliences work. The oven didn't heat up, the microwave had to be ran 3 times on each setting. The toaster didn't work and the gas grill caught on fire from left over sauce from the people that cooked on it last. We had so much food to cook and make and didn't get to eat any of it. We had ham sandwiches all weekend. The shelves in the refrigerator were broken causing stuff to fall out when opening. Due to not being able to eat our food the refrigerator stayed full the whole time. And all our ice in our coolers melted. We asked the rescue guys to bring ice 3 times and he never did. Keep in mind we are still stranded so it is not possible for us to go to the marina. Because once we crashed into trees and the bank we tied down. The guy said they would be back at 930 in the morning and bring us a different boat to go out in while they are working on the boat. They left and said they would bring ice in the morning. ||Next morning the crew showed up at 11ish with no boat and no ice. Once again ordering us around. They didn't test it to make sure it worked. They just said it's fixed and left. We were able to get it there but the power steering fluid was leaking out in the cabin the rest of our trip.||We are all covered in bruises. ||With no owner contact there has been no resolution. ||AVOID THIS PLACE AT ALL COST! AT LEAST...

I was very disappointed with the upkeep of their boats. When we arrived the staff member told us our pontoon needed to be drained, but they were short on mechanics and didn't have time to have it taken care of. He advised us to put all of our coolers/things in the back to weigh down the back of the boat because it was leaning forward. We had to return the boat after just 20 minutes on the water, and lost another hour+ waiting on it to be fixed. Unacceptable that they did not have the boat ready for us at 9 am when we arrived.

The other negative aspect to our visit was the customer service. When we radioed that our boat wasn't acceptable because the water kept coming over the front, we were initially told the mechanic was fixing a motor on another boat and wouldn't be able to get to it. Essentially our only option was to return the boat or deal with it. That person was quickly told differently by someone and they agreed to fix our boat. We were told it was take 45 minutes(wrong) and they would give us an extra hour at the end of the day(irrelevant because there was a storm coming at 6 pm and we would spend our extra hour in a thunderstorm). We asked for a different pontoon that wasn't being used, but were told they were all reserved. However, many pontoons were at the dock when we returned and still there after completion of the draining of our pontoon boat nearly an hour and a half later. We had to wait another 10 minutes because they decided to switch out the propellers while they had us all sitting there waiting too. I believe they should have given us the option of an extra hour(which didn't help us) OR take an hour or TWO HOURS off our fee for renting since we were out that much time due to their neglect of their boat.

If it wasn't for the above problems I would give them 5 stars. Our children loved the boat and were asking to go back out again the very next day. We had a blast while on the fixed boat. This was our first time and we anticipate going back and taking more family. Next time we may try Gilligan's boats that also does rentals and see if they have better service and maintenance on their fleet.

My suggestion for the company is to add another mechanic or have him work overtime as needed to make sure the boats that are rented out to customers are ready for their departure each morning. They could also use some help with their customer service. When you make a mistake, you need to be more flexible in helping the customer to improve their...

We usually boat on Barkley/KY Lake every summer, but decided this year to give Patoka Lake a go. Hoosier Hills marina was our first choice (they are significantly cheaper for slip rental), but unfortunately it was a longer drive from our Air BnB which was by Osborne Ramp. Patoka Lake is gorgeous and we had a great time on the water, but the slip prices at Patoka Lake Marina are astronomical we spent almost $800 for slip rental for two boats for the week (we spend a fraction of that at Buzzard Rock and Green Turtle Bay for a week). Coming into the marina we had to pay $7 at the shack to even launch our boats into the water and check in. Asked the ladies at the desk if we were able to get a pass to get into the park each day so we didn’t have to pay $7 per vehicle for 3 vehicles (16 people) to get into the park and they said we don’t do that. You mean to tell me that we spend WAY more for a slip than someone at a primitive camp site that would get a pass. We ended up having to drive one car into the park pay $7 per day and pick the rest of our group up at Osborne Ramp so we didn’t have to spend $50 per vehicle for 7 days. Super inconvenient and ridiculous that we had to go that route. The dock at the marina looks like it was installed in the 80’s and barely maintained. A lot of the boards felt like you would fall through. Our slips T6 & T7 were janky. As much as they charge you would think the docks would be in great shape. Pulled in to get gas (gas pumps are from the 60’s) and was told that I had to get off the boat and pump it myself. Tried to hand the gentleman at the pump my card to pay “oh sorry you’ll have to pay inside”. What exactly does your staff do? Green Turtle Bay and Buzzard Rock both pump for you and take payment there. It’s part of the service they offer. I would’ve gladly given the young men a really nice tip for helping with those things. If we come back to Patoka Lake to vacation we will just drive the extra to go to Hoosier...