Abe Martin Lodge — Hotel in Columbus

TL;DR – Indoor Water Park – Great; Hiking – Spectacular; Lodging – Mediocre; Restaurant – Mediocre; Reservation System and Customer Service – Abominable

Comedic Spoiler: Our overall experience could be summed up by watching the Seinfeld clips “The Car Reservation” and “No Soup for You.”

We searched several parks in the lower portions of Ohio and Indiana and agreed on Brown County State Park because it had what we were looking for.

In early February, we made reservations for three family cabins and one room in the lodge. The reservation was accepted, the deposit was paid. All was right with the world.

Six days prior to the stay, on June 19th, we called the front office of the lodge to ensure that (a) the waterpark was functional, (b) the rooms were still available, (c) there were no major closures or issues we should know about. That call also served to cancel one of the family cabins, because the eldest couple decided they would prefer to stay in the lodge. No problem so far; the caller was assured that everything was good to go.

On June 22, three days later, we got a phone call from the front desk of the lodge. That seemed odd. The gist of the conversation was that the cabins that were said to be available on June 19th were no longer available to rent and we were being put into lodge rooms or (and I love this) given the opportunity to cancel without a fee.

The basis for cancelling is important: the claim was that four cabins had suddenly been declared uninhabitable and had to be suddenly taken off the market for repairs. Given some of the reviews about mold, etc., I wasn’t shocked. I was, however, surprised that this was discovered suddenly between Monday and Thursday. (Spoiler: It was not.)

According to Brunhilda the desk clerk (fake name) the reservation system recorded the cabins as having one adult, so we could just move to the lodge to stay in a hotel room. That was a lie from the pit of hell, but we have no way of proving otherwise. And, said Brunhilda, the lodge would compensate us with meal vouchers for the affected individuals for breakfast and lunch.

To that option (hold on for my comments about the restaurant) we had momentary revulsion at the thought of eating restaurant food for nearly a week. But, no matter, the offer was quickly rescinded when Brunhilda was told that there were not TWO affected individuals, but thirteen, because everyone was planning on getting their meals cooked in one of the two cabins.

“Oh, well,” said Brunhilda. “You can always go to one of the grills in the picnic areas and grill there.” This was a dumb suggestion.

Brunhilda also stated that the lodge had multiple open areas where we could congregate as a family. FACT CHECK: This is partially true, but not practical or comfortable.

This is just a mediocre hotel as far as spaces and resources go. If we had booked a hotel, none of this would have been a concern. It would have been par for the course. Brunhilda’s assertion was that this was just as good as a cabin and we should be thankful. It was astonishing how magnanimous she made her offer sound, especially given how mediocre...

The area is beautiful and Abe Martin Lodge is nestled in the middle of it all, so for location, it was great! However, we booked through booking .com and some of the issues were on them and others on the lodge. First issue, was the amount of people that could be held in the room. We booked for 5 adults and we were provided with 2 full beds. Clearly, this is not meant for 5 adults. There was no couch or anything that could consititue a 5th sleeping spot. When my husband brought this to their attention, they said they would provide us with more blankets and pillows brought by maintenance so someone could sleep on the [hardwood] floor. They never did. We sucked it up and made it work. That alone was not enough to really frustrate us and we did not go down a second and even ask, because we thought we would just shrug it off and make the best of our visit. The pet policy if why I am frustrated. We purposely booked this room because the location says some pet friendly rooms We have a 65 lb puppy named Sophi and she we was coming with us. I chose a pet friendly property, and even made special notes stating such. When we checked in, my husband and was outside with her in the vehicle while he unloaded. The attendant asked said "Do you have the dog with you?", and I stated I did. She proceeded to give me my room keys and mention nothing of it. When I went to check out, I brought my puppy up front with me. It was then, they decided the were going to charge and extra $100.00 for a pet fee. When I mentioned I booked there because of the pet friendly, she said it was not on my reservation and they had to charge this. I paid it and said I was going to call asked for it to be removed. She said "okay". And then I said do you have a Manager there I could talk to, she motioned to the woman who was standing next to her through the entire transaction. When she did that, the "manager" acted like she was not listening even though she had been staring at me through the whole transaction. When I explained the situation, she DID in fact refund my money, but tried to make me feel like it was my fault because I should have book directly through them. She stated she can't see the notes from the booking website (even though the lady who checked seemed to have an idea I was bringing a pet that wasnt even in the hotel yet), and that it was my fault because I didn't call them directly. Long story short, if the charge does not get removed from my account, I will call back, but in the meantime, if you have a dog traveling with, call them directly. Unless you like being berated by the manager for information they supposedly did not have! On the bright side, the food was good and the Angie the waitress is...

We stayed at the Abe Martin Lodge on Wed May 28th for one night. It is definitely a beautiful lodge. When entering our room, it smelled of cigarettes smoke. I was thinking that it was probably because the previous guests may have set outside smoking and the smoke entered back into the room. The room was cold (68°) so we turned on the heat to circulates and warm it up and possibly get rid of some of the smell. I left for a while to take pictures. When I came back the temp had not changed so we thought we would go to the pool for a bit. By the time we came back it had been 3 hours since we check in and the temp would not heat up past 69. We called the front desk and gentlemen that answered the phone said he was just filling in for the moment. I told him about our concerns regarding thermostat, said he would pass the information alone. He mentioned that they were currently having water issues. As soon as the front attendant got back, she called the room and said they put a ticket in for the heat but the maintenance had already gone home for the day. She did offer us 2 blankets (one for each bed) which we gracefully accepted. Keep in mind that my husband is 77 years old and generally likes the temp to be around 74° to be comfortable. I thought a warm shower would warm me up so I proceeded to take one. Well, when doing that I guess I found out what the water issue was. Because the water was lukewarm at best. I then decided the best thing to do was just to get under the covers. Finally, I got comfortable but Jim was cold all night. The covers helped but every time you had to go to the bathroom you had to experience the cool. I was definitely not satisfied with the room experience. Once the sun started to come up the next morning the room temp did finally come up to 71° but by that time it was for us to leave. I thought that they would have moved us to a room were the heat worked better or at the very least offered us a discount for the inconvenience or a voucher but none of this happened. I was also disappointed that the hot tub was not working but we were informed of that prior to arriving and decided to come anyway. The hot tub would have been nice to use, but it wasn't a deal breaker. On a lighter note, I will say, the Lodge was beautiful and the room was nice and clean. The entire park was well kept up and a pleasure to visit. In the hospitality business the only thing you have to sell is people's experience and satisfaction. Unfortunately, ours wasn't that great. I email the General Manager regarding our experience, hoping he could make it right, at least in part. Because I never received a response back, not even an apology, I felt like a true review...