Anchor Inn — Hotel in Elmwood Charter Township

I made a 3 night reservation in Dec 2017 for July 12, 13, & 14, 2018 for a wedding. I am over my due date to give birth and will not be able to make it so I called 2 weeks in advance (they have a 1 week cancellation policy) to see if they would be able to transfer the room to the brides photographer since the rates were better than another hotel they booked. She informed me that was no problem and that they would just need to call with their card information to keep on file in place of mine. After several attempts to get ahold of them, my friend was finally able to talk to them today (6 days later because they don't answer their phone) and they informed her they had no reservation under my name. I called and same story. I found my confirmation email from Dec. and called back and THEN they found my reservation but said it was cancelled. The lady had cancelled my reservation instead of transferring like we agreed and convieniently filled it that same day so there were no rooms available. I explained to her that she made a mistake and she said "no you messed up and now are trying to blame me". Ridiculous. Being a small business, they dont record calls because I suggested if she reviewed our call from Monday she'd hear it was her error. She became silent and when I asked her if I had any other options she would not respond. I sat on the phone to her silence for over a minute and finally hung up to call the bride and figure out other plans. I was never sent any cancellation confirmation because I had NOT cancelled the room. Seems to me like they canceled my low rates from booking in Dec. to fill them with I'm sure much higher rates now that it's July. I found her to be rude, dishonest and unprofessional. Not once was I offered an apology for inconvenience, it was immediately my fault and no sympathy. Her husband is hard to communicate with also and was no help. I do...

I will start off with the positives: the location is great, away from the hustle of downtown and access across the street to a beautiful private beach with kayaks and a bonfire fit. Even with neighbors, rooms were quiet. The staff was friendly at check-in and out and the grounds are kept up well with a large bonfire pit and a nice playscape for the kids.

It's hard to rate this pace on service, because it's an inn - not a hotel with 24/7 concierge and of course no room service. Our interactions with staff were minimal: check-in, occasionally running into them when replacing the towels and check-out.

What initially drew us in was the location and the online pictures of the rooms. They seems well curated and admittedly small and cozy. However, the damp musty smell of the room was overwhelming. Even after attempting to air out the room, there was nothing we could do to negate the smell. It's as if it was in the walls, floor and furniture, almost as if there was flooding and proper repairs weren't done. The walls could use some TLC - some of the walls has signs of maybe water damage, with cracks and paint peeling.

They do admit to the rooms being small, especially the bathrooms - and boy are they right! The bathroom is comically small.

Understandably, these are older cottages - but sometimes the basics need to be done before dressing it up. I notified the staff about the smell/concern - so I hope something is done for the next guests. Even putting Damprid in the room may help.

We felt very mislead in terms or quality, especially for the price we paid. I love supporting locally owed establishments, but this experience made me think that going with a chain may be...

For some context, we are a Canadian couple in our 50s. I travel a lot internationally and across Canada for work (in destination marketing). I have stayed in many high end properties.

We were spending a few nights in traverse city for a mini vacation before travelling to northern Ontario to see family. Exchange rate was a factor. And I thought carefully about access to what we wanted to do (M22 stuff). I read many reviews of this property (and many others) before selecting it, so I understood what we were getting.

I was looking for a cottage vibe … access to the water. This ended up being something we loved about the Anchor Inn. We went over several times to enjoy the chairs provided by the water. We had no trouble crossing the road. You cannot see the TC waterfront from here which is nice …. You see Old Mission and up the coast.

The rooms are quite spacious and they have done a great job with the decor. We had the King with fireplace. In retrospect maybe we should have gotten the one bedroom so we had more of a kitchen, but this room worked well for us. Bathrooms are small but we knew this going in.

I needed some help during the booking process and George was super helpful.

We loved being on the west side of downtown with easy access to downtown but also the peninsulas and sleeping bear.

Overall it was a very positive experience for us and fulfilled our needs. (Location, price, water access and...