Lift Bridge Lodge, an Ascend Collection Hotel — Hotel in Duluth

The staff here, from the manager on down needs to be be educated on how to provide good service, and learn to develop a true desire to strive to help guests enjoy their stay. Unfortunately, The staff at this hotel is unfriendly, vindictive, and downright rude. They all must be extremely unhappy because they don’t even say hi and welcome you when you check in.

You need to know that if you stay here, no housekeeping is provided at all unless you fill out a poorly worded, confusing request form absolutely perfectly and get it out on your door handle at 9:00am sharp. The directions on this form are not clear. We came back to our room at 2:00 one afternoon and our bed was unmade and the entire room hadn’t been cleaned. I was exhausted and simply wanted a nap. I complained, and all hell broke loose! Three catty staff members (all women) talked condescendingly to me and blamed me for not checking the correct box on the door hanger request. They said I didn’t put it out on time when I put it out at 8:36. They should have just said “sorry, we’ll take care of it” but no! They raked me over the coals to the point I cried! They were determined to berate me! My advice to the staff here is to quit blaming your bad service on the guests! I don’t need to hear that you are short on staff or that God forbid, I checked the wrong box! Just calmly say “I’ll take care of it.”

We’ve been staying at this hotel once a year for the past 20+ years, and I can assure you that service has gone way way down while the cost has increased! The location can’t be beat, but that’s it.

As to cleanliness, the drain on the bar sink was black and had some junk in it. The bottom of the shower curtain was tinted orangey-pink because of mildew, and the grout in the shower was black and moldy in places. They are stingy with the toiletries. Finally, the deadbolt on the door...

For the price, I was not impressed. Upon arriving we inspected the room. Unfortunately we came across a big gob of hair in the shower. So it was pretty obvious that the shower hadn’t been cleaned. This was one of the higher priced rooms with a jacuzzi in it. After seeing the shower not cleaned it left us to wonder about the rest of the room. The staff looked rather disheveled each day we were there. The breakfast was decent but it wasn’t self served which is what we are used to. Instead you’re given a meal ticket and have to go up and request the items you want. Not really the most inviting stay. The meal ticket thing makes you feel like you’re in a school lunch room. It also gives off the feel that they’re doing this because just anyone can walk in and take food, meaning security in the establishment probably isn’t the best. After speaking to the front desk about the shower I received less than what one would expect for a reaction from someone in customer service. After the shower was cleaned, we all tried it. Sadly to say, the shower head pressure was as weak as the cleaning. Later we tried the jacuzzi and found that those jets were just as weak. Overall, that was the big letdown. We spent 3 nights here to relax as a getaway for the first time in the last two years, and the things we were looking forward to the most were pretty subpar. When spending an extra $100/night on top of what a normal hotel would be, you expect the amenities to be up to snuff. Sadly, this was a big letdown and we won’t be returning. I will say the positive thing was the fireplace in the room. That was cozy. The bed was super hard, not great. Oh, and they have Nesspresso makers in each room. That was a highlight to start the day.

Overall, sadly not impressed. This place needs...

We stayed 2 nights for the tall ships festival. Location is excellent and the property looks good, from the outside. This property is essentially 2 generations of facility. The older section has no balconies and the new section does.If you want peace and quiet, a good nights rest DO NOT STAY IN THE OLD SECTION! Our first night was in room 201, the old section, and that was problematic. The old section does not have any sound prevention/barriers. We could hear every footstep on the floor above us and when they used the shower, which someone did for an hour, 11 to 12pm. ( At over $300 per night a guest should not be worried that normal activities create enough noise to disturb other guests.) Also, the Amana HVAC Heat Pump unit, which are normally very quiet, was extremely noisy because the fan motor has bad bearings. ( I know because I am a retired HVAC technician.) You can get a free "noise level app" for your Smart Phone, I have one on my phone and at 12 feet from the unit it measured 52 to 53 decibels, which is very noisy. The second day we were able to move to a room on the third floor and that unit measured 49 to 50 decibels. A 3 decibel difference equals a 100% difference in sound pressure so the difference was significant. If you read other reviews, this noise issue is not new, there are complaints going back 1 to 2 years. I understand it is difficult/costly to modify old construction, but seems obvious to me, the owners of this facility have no interest in making improvements or managing maintenance. It is much more profitable to exploit the location and just focus on profitability.

It's to bad because the location is stellar for activities in the area but if you stay in the old section, expect less and lots of noise and no rest at a...