Crane Hot Springs — Hotel in Burns

We booked the Pinecone Suite at Crane Hot Springs back in January for a stay in October. Check-in was quick and easy, and we were provided a guide to show us to our room and tell us about the property and amenities, which included the hot spring pond and a private soaking tub on the patio of our suite.

After 8 hours of driving to get there, we decided to take an evening nap before enjoying a soak under the stars. We woke to find the power was out. Without power, there was no running water, either. Without running water, we could not fill our private soaking tub, take a shower, or even flush the toilet. We decided to go check out the pond, but there was no hot water being pumped in from the spring, so the temperature was tepid bath water.

We had plans to go elsewhere to watch the eclipse, so we woke early in the morning and found there still wasn’t power. When we called the emergency number provided, it went to voicemail. I walked around in the pitch black but did not see any staff anywhere. Other patrons were packing up their cars and leaving, so we decided to do the same.

We tried calling the office all morning; I was able to get through for a few seconds before the call dropped. We hung around Burns for hours hoping to hear from the staff. After leaving multiple messages and not getting any response, we made the call to leave the area since we needed to find somewhere to use the restroom, shower and get ready for the day.

At 11:30 am, we finally received a call back from Heather. She said the power was back on at 6:30 and that it was a planned outage. She informed us that they sent an email 5 days prior to our visit letting us know there would be out from midnight until 4 am. She forwarded us a copy of the email, which came from “Front Desk” and not the same email the confirmation and other communications from Crane Creek was sent from, and it went to our spam folder. We did not have advance notice that the power would be out or that we would not be able to utilize the amenities or essential services as we had planned. We requested a refund for the night but were told that it was out of their hands so they would not be issuing a refund per policy.

We did not receive the email they sent and neither the front desk staff nor guide told us about the power outage at check in, so saying it was out of their hands was not entirely true.  We were left in the dark – literally and figuratively – without access to the amenities we came to use. We couldn’t even use the toilet, shower, or brush our teeth. No one contacted us for hours despite our many attempts to get ahold of the office to find out what was going on. We needed to move on with our day and were forced to seek alternative accommodations. We booked the room for two nights and the resort has refused to refund either of the nights, citing “policy.” When we asked to speak to management or the owner, Heather said we would get the same answer and did not want to pass the message along to have them contact us. We asked her to do so anyway, but never did get a call from them, just one back from Heather stating that they were not going to be refunding our money and suggesting we contact the local power company about getting a refund instead.

This was a terrible experience and the way the resort handled it was completely unacceptable. We did not get what we paid for, did not receive timely communication, and were forced to pay for another hotel room elsewhere. These owners have no business being in the hospitality industry. Anyone else thinking about traveling to the middle of nowhere should consider the fact that if anything goes wrong during their stay, nothing will be done about it “per policy.” God forbid there were an emergency while the power was out because we were told that their phones do not work during power outages so there is no way to get in touch with anyone.

We couldn’t tell you if the hot springs are all they claim them to be, but we can tell you the owners do not know how to take care of...

After a long day of driving what else could be better than a good, long soak in a hot springs, right?

That’s what we thought we were in for.

We called ahead as we’d read there might be camping available onsite. Glad we did! The friendly associate told us that there was zero availability as they were all booked for an ‘event’.

“Not even room to throw up a small tent?”

“No, sorry, can’t allow that and all spaces are taken. But you can still come and enjoy the facilities- we’re open for day use! Have a soak!”

Game on.

To describe the Giant Loop as an ‘event’ is like calling the Tour de France a “bike ride.” We rolled up to hundreds of bikers, a few (quite decent!) food stands and an absolutely packed, DISGUSTING hot springs.

But we didn’t know the water was quite THAT dirty at first, nooo, not until it got dark enough that we saw the particulate swirling in front of the underwater lights of the springs. I counted three Bandaids. Three.

There was in excess of 100 filthy people in the springs, I say filthy because the line to use the showers to rinse off was 30+ long. Many of the attendees clearly had no interest in washing off given the wait.

It made sense it would be dirty, but I think the attendants enthusiasm, our desperation for some relief on our drive and just naïveté led us to not connect the dots.

They wouldn’t be open for day use if it’s that big of an event, or if they couldn’t handle the numbers, right?

I’ve swam in some horrid, disgusting water, but I’ve never rushed so fast to get out of it like I did at Crane Hot Springs. Cut to having to then wait in line for almost an hour to rinse off… we had a fresh layer of everyone else’s skin dried on us!

Spoke to the attendant on the way out to suggest maybe closing the springs to the public when there is quite so many people in the event… or to at least “be a bit more specific about how large the group is.”

“Oh no, was it dirty?”

“It was disgusting, and there were tons of drunk bikers with GoPros on selfie sticks splashing thru the pool while we just wanted a soak.”

“Ahh sorry to hear.”

I might have offered a refund if it were me, but hey- maybe they needed my $20? Clearly they were struggling on that day.

Note: I’m sure it’s a nice, clean experience ANY other day. Just don’t go at the beginning of June, I mean, unless you’re into filthy,...

I have stayed at Crane Hot Springs almost every year since 2017 and I will not be returning. Instead of renting a small cabin by the hot spring, my friends and I decided to go big and enjoy the Quail Nest RV. We really wanted the kitchen it provided and since my friends are getting ready to move we wanted to all be together.

The website said that it slept 6 people, one queen bed and two pull out couches. However, when we got there, the two fold out beds were pretty much completely metal frames. After driving for nearly 10 hours to get there and our son being sick along the way, we were really excited for the rest and reprieve that we expected from Crane. We were charged for the additional people and dog (over 2 covered in the base price) within the group, however no additional bedding, towels, or robes were provided. The fact that they thought these beds were suitable to tell anybody that they could be slept on is an absolute insult. When we told them we were not happy with the beds, they said "Kids usually don't mind them." I don't know what kids they refer to because my kid definitely did not sleep well and neither did we.

Additionally, we planned our trip around being able to use the oven that the Quail Nest provided, which did not work. They acted as if this was no big deal because there's a camp kitchen near the pond, but it wasn't easy to use, given it's distance from our lodging, life juggling, and general exhaustion. We reached out to Crane to request a refund. As of today it's been two weeks and no one has even bothered to get back to us. Clearly, with all of their new developments, their priority is on their earnings and not on the guest experience.

I'll be taking my yearly getaway somewhere else...