Grand Cascades Lodge — Hotel in Hardyston Township

UPDATE: It's been 5 years since I posted my review of Crystal Springs. In November 2024, I was contacted by Mike (Director of Guest Experience). He noted that he was not with the company at the time when our wedding fiasco happened. However, he recognized the severity of how our family was treated and asked to make it up to us. We were offered a 2 night stay (Fri-Sun) at Grand Cascades with all expenses covered. We agreed to visit on Valentine's weekend.||||Driving up to the resort, my husband and I were skeptical. Based on our last experience, we were so sure that there would be a "gotcha!" somewhere. But there wasn't. Mike not only kept his promise--he met and exceeded all of our expectations that weekend.||||Friday night, we had the opportunity of a lifetime to have dinner at The Chef's Table (part of Restaurant Latour), along with 5 other guests. The experience started with a wine and food pairing that was unrivaled. My husband, who no longer drinks alcohol, was blown away by the vast selection of non-alcoholic offerings. He did not feel like he was missing out on anything. And as it turned out, a few other guests were not drinking either. They all felt included. We got to know the folks we dined with--where they're from, what they've been doing, the things they love. In a world post-COVID where human interaction feels rarer than ever, this experience was a breath of fresh air.||||On Saturday morning, we had mani/pedi appointments and then spent some of the afternoon at the biosphere pool. It was busy since it also happened to be Presidents weekend, but all of the guests were considerate and well behaved. We had left our 2 year old son with grandma and grandpa, but we were wishing he was there on Saturday. There were so many kid-themed activities he could have done. Also, the mac and cheese cups at the pool should not be slept on. They're great!||||We wanted to try the glice skating in the afternoon, but it started snowing and the arena wasn't cleared off to skate. There were 3 people struggling to do anything on the glice. We decided not to bother and went back to our room to take naps. We didn't sleep great the night before. Truth be told, the beds are like cardboard and not very comfortable. I hope Grand Cascades will invest in pillow top mattress covers sometime in the future.||||Dinner on Saturday night was at the Crystal Tavern. Loved our waitress. She was witty, fun, and entertaining. I'm not sure if it was coincidence or by design, but we bumped into the VP of dining services quite a few times as well. Very nice guy--genuinely seems to care about the experiences of the guests and the quality of everything.||||On Sunday morning, we came back to Crystal Tavern for breakfast. It was awesome. Totally recommend the pastrami smoked salmon! After breakfast, we had a 2-hour couples massage at the spa. We added salt foot scrubs and hot stones to our massage treatment--both were absolutely worth it. Our therapists were extremely skilled and seemed to know exactly the right spots to work, without us having to say anything. They were dialed in. True professionals.||||At checkout, I was feeling nervous again. Where's the "gotcha"? Were we going to be socked with fees? Nothing. "Ok, you're all set. Have a nice day!" -- Are you kidding? I couldn't believe it. But there it was. Everything taken care of, just like Mike promised it would be. He wanted to replace our terrible experience with a more positive memory of the resort, and that's exactly what happened.||||A big thank you to Mike and the staff at Grand Cascades--all of whom were lovely. While we'll always remember our first experience, it's nice to know that someone finally cared.||||Prior to accepting the offer to visit Grand Cascades, I informed Mike that I was not going to remove my original review, because what happened to us should never happen to another couple ever again, pandemic or not. I was, however, willing to edit the star rating of my review and leave an honest review of our most recent experience (outlined above). As such, I've updated my review from 1 star to 3 stars (the average between 1 and 5). My original review is below, with one person's name redacted by Mike's request.||||-------------------------------||ORIGINAL REVIEW:||||BREECHED WEDDING CONTRACT||||During this time of crisis with COVID-19, this business showed its true colors -- all of which were ugly. Do not give this place your business. They don't care about doing the right thing. They only care about money, and they will do whatever they can to try to keep it, even if they have no legal right to do so.||||FULL STORY: We booked our wedding back in spring of 2019. Once the coronavirus forced businesses shutdown in February 2020, we knew our June wedding plans would be postponed. We began to express these concerns to the venue in March. When it was our turn to pick a new date in April, everything turned sour.||||By this time, our wedding was nearly paid in full. Our initial deposit in 2019 was 25%. When we went to pick the new date (June 2021 --now 2 years after booking), we were told the deposit requirement would suddenly be changed to 42%, and that we would not be refunded anything more than that amount. Our contract clearly stated no changes could be made without both parties agreeing. By changing the date and deposit requirements, Crystal Springs violated their contract with us. We did not agree to the raised deposit.||||With businesses shut down, there was a good chance they could go out of business and we would lose all our money. We spoke to the sales director, Linda Alloco. Not only was she rude and condescending, but she could not tell us where our money was. How's that for transparency?||||We contacted the Better Business Bureau and even had an attorney write a letter. Crystal Springs ignored both requests. A month before the wedding, we still had no resolution. We finally had no choice but to issue 3 credit card charge-backs with Chase. This morning (July 2020), over a month after our wedding was supposed to happen, we got confirmation from Chase that 100% of our money was refunded to us. In other words, Crystal Springs was in the wrong, and Chase knew it.||||Throughout this whole ordeal, I cannot find a single e-Mail where the staff from Crystal Springs expressed one bit of sympathy for our wedding being postponed. My last living grandparent is 94 years old and might not be around a year from now. The groom's mother is immuno-compromised and would not be able to attend if the virus was still present. This was supposed to be the happiest day of our lives. Crystal Springs could care less about any of those things. They have no moral compass.||||I am writing this review to let other couples know that if they are also being treated poorly by Crystal Springs, there is still recourse. Get everything in writing and document the dates of all your phone calls and e-Mails. Call your credit card company ASAP and explain your situation. File a chargeback and be prepared to fight with all you've got.||||To [NAME REDACTED BY REQUEST], the COO who was "too busy to talk to us" while holding $20k of our money: Shame on you for refusing to hold up the initial 25% deposit. For breaching our contract. For forcing my family to fight with your horrendous managers for 4 MONTHS, when you could have simply done the right thing from the start. Word of mouth will make Crystal Springs lose more business than you realize. Was it worth losing 100% of our business, getting a negative review on every social media platform, and having a black mark on your relationship with Chase? You paid your staff to write hundreds of e-Mails and spend hours on the phone with us, and now you aren't seeing a dime of that money come...

I stayed here with my wife for a wedding we were attending and none of the services -- valet, bell hop, room service, state of the room -- was up to par. I was contacted by a virtual assistant while AT Grand Cascades; after lodging my complaints about the services that had disappointed up to that point, she told me I would be called between 8 and 9 the next morning. I was never contacted. When I checked out, I spoke to a front desk employee about it; she took my name and number (information the Lodge already had in its system and which could be flagged for a customer service team to deal with), and assured me I'd be called after 10 a.m. that day by their front desk manager, Noah. This never occurred, and when I tried to reach Noah at the number on the card the front desk clerk gave me, it rang and rang--no answer, no voice mail. I received a customer satisfaction survey via e-mail and filled that out. No response. I have replied (with information about my stay) to a promotional e-mail about a return visit I will definitely NOT be making to the property, and got no answer. I have messaged the Grand Cascades Lodge via Facebook Messenger on at least three occasions, but again--it yielded nothing, although, when I signaled my intention to leave reviews on major websites with the details of my stay, I did get a response that my stay/complaint were being looked into and GCL would be back in touch. That was a month ago.

To detail our stay:

Upon arrival, bell hop and valet ignored us despite there being 4 men standing at the valet desk. A fifth was helping the occupants of the car ahead of us. We finally got the attention of a valet, who told us he couldn't park our car because we were not on "the list." I had the reservation for months, we had luggage with us, and we had just registered at the front desk, and hoped the valet staff could deduce that we were actually staying at the property. When we convinced him we weren't trying to park our car in the basement of the Grand Cascades Lodge with no room to stay in, he took our car, and we hauled our luggage up to the room ourselves. We promptly set about ordering room service as we were on a tight schedule to be ready for the wedding we were attending at Grand Cascades. Room service never answered despite multiple calls, so my wife went to the restaurant and brought food back to the room on her own. Somewhere around this time I was contacted by a virtual assistant who asked how our stay was; I detailed our valet and room service disappointments, and also gave her some indication that our room was pretty gross. Aside from the gashes in the walls, an enormous rip in the carpet, and the extremely chipped and battered state of the furniture, there were coffee stains on the doors of the closet, toothpaste stains all over the rug in front of the sink, and absolutely disgusting dark colored splashes on the wall beside the toilet. And how, in the age of every hotel offering a refrigerator in the room, does a RESORT not offer such an amenity? The virtual assistant told me I would be contacted, and as I detailed above, I never was--not via the e-mail address that's clearly on file since GC sends promotional messages to me there, nor via the phone number on file and that I gave to the front desk clerk, and which the virtual assistant clearly had in order to contact me via text. The check out process offered no option to speak to anyone who could do anything about our stay, and when we were able to locate a valet to get our car (a task that took 20 minutes), he went to the garage and came back with our keys because he can't operate a stick shift. My wife had to retrieve our car--but we still paid for that dubious service Grand Cascades supposedly offers.

I just want others to know they could book a local B&B, enjoy a clean room with better attention/amenities, and have a delicious breakfast, all for FAR less than one pays to stay in a worn, dirty room at...

DO NOT STAY HERE $1,117.00 for one night (Reflections spa package) ONE night in a dreadful room. Years ago this place was wonderful, please read the most recent reviews before considering staying at this "S" show of a hotel. Rude people, incompetent service, improper Covid protocol, miserable restaurants, and Reflections spa is a huge joke. To spare you from my five page rant to the owners and management (unanswered of course) I will share some hilights:

1. We were not notified when our room was ready because they were "too busy" -There was never more than two people waiting in line at the desk, when I walked by. It had been ready for a couple hours while we wandered about. We were told they would call us. They did not.
2. There were charges on the bill that were not ours-computer was "down" so I codn't get a receipt-had to call for two days to get one and "Pedicures" were still on the bill. We did not have pedicures. It is now three weeks later and no adjustment has been made.
3. Robes in the spa were torn and tattered (for a $200 massage?) Most lockers were broken.
4. Foot soak is included after a massage treatment.....We had scalding hot water and not one around to monitor. (estimated at over 130 degrees water temp)
5. Two identical "Aroma therapy" massages, two different procedures-my other party did not notice any aroma, whereas I was presented with a basket to choose from. When I questioned, the manager was argumentative-ridiculous-she actually said you can't smell the aroma
6. Tavern food is not edible. How does one screw up a Taco? It had been laying out before it was served and the meat was all dried up
7. Room issues: Shower (when closed!) poured water on the floor in our room. Called the desk- one answers (my grand daughter fell, as the water completely covered the bathroom floor. Thankfully, she was not hurt) There were "used" tissues when we opened the pull out couch. I don't even want to know..........The kitchen cabinets are chipped and gross.
8. Concierge attendant eats food at her desk, my guess is they are short handed and she can't take a break, but put a sign up-"back in 15 minutes" We were given a dinner time of 9:30 at night with no helpful suggestions for alternative dining. (there is a great Italian restaurant 5 mins away)
9. $30.00 breakfast credit was included in the package. Went to the tavern (inside) and did not see a Hostess so we sat down and after orderring were told we couldn't eat inside, breakfast credit had to be used outside
10. Breakfast not edible. Runny eggs, poor selection. My grand daughter found a spider crawling in her food so we left. No one is here to serve and the food is not covered, exposing it to the elements
11. Back to the Spa.. One girl is running around, covering the desk, the locker, the waiting area, the foot soak area-no wonder the water was scalding. She probably turns on the hot water and has to run somewhere else. We could not even put our heels in for more than one second. Someone WILL get burned 12 Spa continued-Unsanitary during Covid. No water bottles which would have been more sanitary, glasses and a pitcher for the guests to use-glasses were not covered
12. Spa continued-There were stains on the velveteen couch where you sat to wait, gross
13. Everyone who woks here is miserable. Uncaring, poorly managed. Never any resolve. The help acts like you are botheing them. I have stayed in numeous places throughout the years, this was the worst service.
14. Unresponsive-it amazing me that managment just doesn't care. Got one of those thank you for your comments robotic responses.

Trust me it is not a "Resort" Biosphere is nice, and grounds are beautiful but it ends there. You will probably hear some yelling at the hotel from angry guests-those people do not read reviews and stayed there, unknowing. Wish the views weren't so beautiful. Find another place to stay. I recommend Woodloch in Hawley...