Gatlinburg Town Square — Hotel in Gatlinburg

The wheelchair accessible room was pretty clean, and the water nice and hot. There were some drawbacks, though... the only truly wheelchair accessible rooms are the master bedroom and master bath. Our (adult) daughter is the one in the wheelchair, though, and it was nearly impossible to get her into the 2nd bedroom. Fortunately her chair is only 28" wide, and with a little lifting we could get it through the tight 90⁰ turn. balcony is NOT private, and in fact open to anyone walking around 2nd floor. Our room stayed dark, as we felt the need to keep drapes closed 24/7. living room lights, and lights for bedroom are NOT controlled by a master switch (said switches actually removed from both bedrooms, and dummy plates are on walls). So if I were the one in a wheelchair, I'd have to roll myself into a dark room, over to night stand, to turn on a light (and again, in 2nd room this is impossible). Parking is terrible. There are only TWO van-accessible parking spots near each elevator, but both spots were taken by cars or car & a truck. The rest of the parking is extremely narrow, & overhead clearance is only 7' (many wheelchair vans would not even get in the garage). If you were an owner-operator, you would have to utilize 2 parking spaces to exit/enter your vehicle. The kitchen had THREE can openers (1 electric & 2 manual), but no dish drain. The kitchen counters were not wiped down. There was a strong smell of maple by the microwave, and (kind of hard to see in photo) something sticky on the counter at that area. The coffee maker was nice and clean, but if I was in the chair I could never have reached it, based on its location & being pushed against the wall. The unit holds 6, but the table is for 4. There are 2 spots a chair could roll up to, but only one end of table did not require moving furniture to access. The TV is rather small, and channel reception did not always work correctly. We had to move a chair against the wall, to have room for daughter's wheelchair in a spot where she could see TV (because TV is small, peripheral areas have awkward view of tv). I appreciate that the common hallway/walkway is well-lit... but the bright light is outside of the 2nd bedroom window, with only blinds to (ineffectively) block the light. No curtains. I'm including a photo of what the room looks like at night. It is nice that there is an exercise room, but it consists of a single treadmill. I'm not one to exercise often, but when I do it is on an elliptical. It seems like a real exercise area should have options Be prepared to check out on time, and quickly. They're like Nazis in this respect. Checkout is at 10am. Our key-cards were deactivated by 9am, and the cleaning girl was looking in the kitchen window by 9:45am. Finally, a safety issue... I'm not sure the occupant should have access to the air handler. It is at the living room, and a young child could be in there touching wires in less time than it would take a...

Gatlinburg Town Square (GTS) is a time share resort. I have been an owner there for about 30 years. I have stayed there many times in the past. Many friends of ours have enjoyed their visit there. This August 2024 was the first time I came back to stay post-pandemic. Gatlinburg is a wonderful place to visit. GTS was NOT a nice place to stay this time.

The time share management, Exploria, treats its owners like **. I was not given the premium room allotment, 4th/5th floor, that I had contracted with the original developers, Berkley. (Reception said there was no availabilty left.) Even the second resort managers, Summer Bay, honoured that. Instead my rooms were 2nd floor. Those rooms had a "few" problems.

1. The sink's garbage disposal was not working and backed-up horribly on first use. We stopped using it after that because it kept on failing.
2. The screen on the balcony door was ripped and the door was almost impossible to slide.
3. There was a strange vibration I could sense the first night in the unit. It felt like some motor problem in a neighbouring unit or wall. I could even feel it lying in bed.
4. We had two, 2-bedroom units. The 2nd bedroom is a "lockout" but the electronic locks to the outside of the those units are not functioning now which makes it impossible for them to function as private facilities. They used to be proper lockout units.
5. I like to take a shower in the morning however these units were so far from the hot water heating facility that it took a full 4 to 5 minutes for hot water to reach our part of the building.
6. It's nice the unit is so close to the National Park but management needs to do better when it comes to controlling "Park visitors". Every morning there were signs that a bear or bears had been rummaging outside our front door. The morning we left the resort, a large bear was busy ripping open a trash container just outside our door and we had to manouver ourselves and our luggage past this hazzard.
7. We also suspect but couldn't confirm the presence of bedbugs.

I am left wondering what had been the experience of the guests (if there were any) staying in the same rooms the previous week!

I must say that the staff at GTS, for the most part, were wonderful. Their only failing is trying to address the impossible, explaining or correcting the indifference, neglect and mismanagment by Exploria. I experienced some of that when a representative from Exploria called me about a review I had left elsewhere. She listened but nothing else. I had originally been given the names of Exploria senior management but when I had called to reach them, they were unavailable.

I give 1 star or less for the room. I give 1 star for the service. Not because the local staff is bad, but for the "Exploria experience". I give 1 star for the location. The resort location is good but the location of my rooms in the resort...

I went to Gatinlinburg with my parents on vacation the summer of 2017. He has a timeshare and we always have excellent accomendations. This place was not one of them. There was so much that we all disliked about Gatlinburg Town Square that I do not know where to begin. After check -in, we were directed to park in the ridicously small, tight and low underground parking lot. Mind you, the front desk agent saw the vehicle that we were in. My father drives a large SUV. The side view mirrors were inches from touching the side and the overhead height was almost touching the roof of the truck but we had to keep driving because it would have been difficult to back out in the the heavy traffic. There are not enough parking spaces to accomodate the number of guest staying at the resort. A few days later another front desk agent gave us a parking pass to park on top. She said that we should have been given a pass for the outside parking lot to begin with. Much better. My father asked for a room on the ground level because my mother has difficulty walking but we were on the second floor and had to walk several yards down the hall to our room. Our room was right next to the waterfall which was very noisy. The furniture was from another era, possibly, 1950's, mom's comforter was ripped and frayed. The mattresses were lumpy and there were no extra blankets in the room. The staff does not check if you need addtional trash bags, clean towels, dish washing liquid, etc and you can not call to request them. Instead, you have to go to the basement at certain times of the day and get them yourself. I checked every drawer in the room and did not find anything that explained this. Yes, there was the normal binder that all rooms seem to have but most of the listed extentions were incorrect and nothing in the binder explained how to get additional supplies. This is definitely not the place that you want to go if you have difficulty walking. Also, this is not about the resort, just FYI, do not get taken in by the pushy Marketplace Vacation sales men. We attended the presentation and I was slightly interested and told them that we would call them later, but decided that I did not want to purchase the plan. We did not call and THEY CAME TO OUR ROOM. My mom ended up paying cash to purchase the plan for me. The personal phone number they give you if you need help is just for you to leave a voice message. You can't make money, just points. We lost a lot of money, which, of course we can not get back. Don't be fooled. We have visited some excellent resorts, but this was our least favorite. The photos are of the parking garage and how close the building was to the car mirrors and the rips in...