Michillinda Lodge — Hotel in Fruitland Township

If I could give it 0 stars I would! Where to start....I booked over 3 months in advance based off false info on their website about a beach and amenities and a photo which shows a cute individual "bungalow." Everything on the site reads as if this is an exclusive luxury resort and I believed it based on the price. Location was of utmost importance to me so I specifically asked in writing for a quiet bungalow with water view. When you get an email back that says "You got it!" silly me, I expected a quiet, stand alone bungalow like the picture, water view accommodation.

So we get there, it's "rustic" and not in a good way. ALL cabins are attached except the ONE they photographed (dishonest) and it basically sits in the middle of a gravel parking lot. I have stayed in some low-rent places in my day and this place takes the cake. Literally not even paper thin walls, it's as if your neighbor is in your space with no walls at all. If I had known it was a shared wall situation I would have booked elsewhere. If I had known the "water view" is outside the cabin, down a path, around a house, up a hill, and then out to some dangerously rickety, weatherbeaten platform missing lumber in places, I would have booked elsewhere.

A cabin behind the dance floor area for weddings (thank God no reception was taking place) tucked back in a tick infested woods, next to a rusty playground I would not let my children play on because it looked like one big safety issue, by a green swimming pool (real quiet location, huh) is NOT by any stretch of the imagination the "water view" I was promised.

The 400' beach mentioned on the website? Um, no beach. A place to eat within walking distance? Only if you mean spending $50 on a box of donuts, case of water, and three lukewarm hot dogs at the camp store down the road a "convenient place to eat" come on. Wifi didn't work. There was black mold all over the shower curtain and we killed 3 HUGE spiders before even unpacking and 2 more in the middle of the night, thanks to the daylight you can see under the door leading outside.

We were up since 3am traveling cross country so we had to make the best of it. Checked out first thing next day with the rudest, most condescending, pitiful excuse of a manager I've ever had the misfortune to come across. She asked why were we leaving early, and I told her-this place is horribly misrepresented. Literally it's glorified camping and that was NOT the experience I was promised. If the website told the truth about the accommodations I would have never booked here.

She then threatened to rescind the refund she was processing because I honestly answered her question. She tells me "Oh is it going to ruin your day, whatever! It's just one weekend of your life!" I stopped her right there and said-look-some of us have limited weekends left. This is the first vacation I have been able to take since BEATING CANCER. We had no reason to come to MI on this part of our trip except for this property. When I am shown a beautiful website and get an experience totally opposite of how you present yourself, on top of being promised something 3 months ago and not receive it, yes, it tends to ruin your weekend!

I held off on sharing my opinion for several weeks because my daughter left behind her pink pony in that hellhole of a room. I thought the manager who said "she personally cleaned our cabin herself, it was fine, a little mold never killed anyone" would do the right thing and mail it back. No such luck.

So THANKS FOR NOTHING! You broke the heart of a child, profoundly disappointed a cancer survivor who looked forward to staying with you for MONTHS, and not only do you do a horrible job with customer service you do a horrible job with cleaning because my husband picked up poison ivy from your sheets! Maybe people would manage their expectations better if you didn't have FALSE ADVERTISING...

Don’t be deceived! We rented a room in the Annex that said it had 2 bedrooms, one bath, and a balcony. The floor plan was as such: from the exterior hall, walk into the first bedroom where there was access to the bat. But the second bedroom was beyond the bath so whomever slept in the second bedroom had to walk THROUGH the first bedroom to get to the bath. NOT well suited for two adult couples. Also, it was August and HOT. There was only one small window air conditioner in the second bedroom so if you closed your door for privacy you were closing off the people in the first bedroom and they had NO A/C. They should state this room ( and there were others like it) are NOT well suited for two adult couples! Walking through someone else’s bedroom in your pjs in the middle of the night is creepy! NO PRIVACY WHATSOEVER!

In regard to staff , we arrived at check in time and walked into the office. The person there looked up at us and never said, welcome, glad you came, or anything beyond, your key is in the bin on the front of the office. THE END. Nothing like; enjoy your stay, if you need anything please ask, or do you have any questions!! And I’ll add there was no smile or welcoming tone in how it was said. Some common courtesy’s would have been nice since we had never been there before. It was obvious we were intruding on this persons space and they didn’t appreciate the interruption.

The view was beautiful though difficult to see unless you were at the tip top of the hillside and the sunsets were lovely. The tent like pavilion was very useful for our group and so was the kitchen in the community room. The beach was non existent so those who wanted to be at the beach went to the local state park very close...

We stayed in the "Annex" and were in room #25. It had AMAZING views out of every single window, and off the little balcony. We loved our room, it was so cozy and comfortable. They have a nice pool area, tennis and shuffleboard. The only thing I wasn't happy about was in the Annex building, there seemed to be a lot of door slamming & noise. This has nothing to do with the management; they can't control people being conscientious of the volume of their voices or closing the doors quietly. It takes effort to close them gently so they don't slam, you have to be paying attention. There is a little market within walking distance that is fun, with the famous "Dan Morat's Original English Muffin Bread", ice cream, snacks, alcohol, etc. Duck Lake is just down the road where you can access the beach, the channel, sand dunes and Lake Michigan. Parking is tricky, you either need to go past it, turn around and park on the south side of Scenic Dr., or pay a fee to park at the Duck Lake State Park parking lot. Michigan's Adventure theme park is less than 8 miles away, the towns of Whitelake & Montague and the bigger town of Muskegon are less than 30 minutes away as well. But just staying AT Michillinda is awesome because it is tucked away enough to feel you're "away" and such a lovely property. Be aware, there are no TV's. It's part of the "experience" of unplugging. Also, they have WiFi, but ours didn't work at all in our room. Either way, we would definitely stay...