Lookout Point Lakeside Inn — Hotel in Hot Springs

If I could give six or more stars for everything, I would.

I will preface this by saying that my stay here was during Winter Storm Uri around Valentine's Day 2021. We wound up fairly snowed in throughout the stay, but that worked out to be a relaxing vacation even though we weren't able to get out and do some of our planned activities.

The number one thing I want to mention here is the service. They did breakfast for us every day, including days when the roads were too bad for the staff to come in. Breakfast was delicious, alternating between things like and raspberry nutella french toast, eggs florentine, bourbon pecan waffles, and croissant french toast just to name a few. If the weather was better we might have gone out for brunch for a day or two, but honestly I didn't feel any need for anything better than what they made. It was all delicious. There was also daily coffee service delivered to the room, and they always asked if we wanted any more once we put the tray back out, and that's in addition to a keurig with a good selection of teas, coffees, and hot chocolate available in room. In addition, they had fresh baked cookies free for the taking every day (chocolate chip, peanut butter, and alternating oatmeal raisin and sugar cookies) which made for a great midnight snack a few times. They were also very accommodating to some dietary restrictions my wife has. They went out of their way to make sure she was taken care of and had delicious food to eat, and didn't give the least impression that they begrudged her the extra work. The chef even went out of his way one day to help unbury our car from the snow and clear the road down to the inn. Definitely not his job, but showed just how much he and everyone else at the inn care about their guests.

I want to give a particular shout out to the owners of the inn, who actually stayed overnight a few times to make sure we and the other guests were taken care of, and that breakfast would be available for us. They knew the roads were going to be bad the following days, so they volunteered to stay rather than making their staff do it. They even braved icy roads and bought pizza for everyone one particularly bad day since everything else in town was closed and we couldn't get delivery from anywhere. The concern that they had not just for their guests but for their staff is something pretty rare to find these days, and I'd come back to the Lakeside Inn because of that alone.

Aside from that, the rooms are gorgeous. We chose the Romance suite, which had a lovely view out over the lake (especially gorgeous with the snow coming down). The tub was substantial and a great way to relax and warm up (we splurged for one of the packages that came with a spa kit, which was really pleasant to use), and the fireplace did a really impressive job of helping keep the room warm. At one point the heat evidently went out, presumably because the heat pump was killed by ice and single digit temperatures, but we hadn't even noticed before the owners came to check in on us and offer to move us to a different room that still had heat. The fireplace kept the whole thing perfectly warm until their maintenance guy fixed the system, and we stayed there and enjoyed the whole experience. We did a little bit of walking around the grounds towards the end of our trip when things warmed up, and it is gorgeous and well maintained. It's really closer to a mini-resort than just a hotel. They have yoga mats, life jackets and paddles for some canoes and kayaks at a little dock they have, which would have been great in warmer weather, and some very cozy looking hammocks.

Overall, even though the timing could have been better on our part, I don't regret anything about our trip. It was a great chance to get away and relax a little bit. We're already planning on coming back out at some point to experience the national park and some of the hiking around the area that we couldn't do this time, but Hot Springs and the Lookout Point Lakeside Inn is absolutely going into the vacation rotation of...

Like, not love. I don't know that this hotel really lives up to the hype all over tripadvisor, but it was clean and bright, and the balcony from our bedroom was very pleasant in the evening for taking our meals...although, it kind of had to be, since our room was so tiny that there really wouldn't be anywhere else we COULD take our meals.

The Birdsong room was well-appointed, and had a kind of rustic charm to it, but it wasn't dark or dingy. The bed was overly soft to my liking, and I didn't get great sleep, but that's not really the fault of the Inn.

I would say that a large part of their uniqueness is the garden, which is meticulously groomed and manicured...from the trees & bushes to the Zen Labyrinth, the grounds were very pleasant. That said, with the tranquil grounds being a great source of charm and uniqueness, I imagine that in bad weather you're paying a steep price to view these elements from your hotel window...but that could be said of anywhere, I suppose, when the main draw is to "get away from it all."

One minor quibble is that part of their service includes the complimentary use of small, manpowered watercraft, but this service is really far too limited for them to bother making a point of it. The entire Inn is meant to share 2, 1-person Kayaks, a Single Canoe, and a single Paddleboat. My wife and I wanted to Kayak, but they were unavailable when we made it to the dock, so we opted for the Canoe, which ended up being our sole option at the time, because after paddling that about for a few minutes, we decided to trade it out for the Paddleboat, only to have someone else grab it.

For the number of rooms and the obvious popularity of this activity for guests, I would suggest that they really should have at least 6 Kayaks, 4 Paddleboats, and 2 Canoes.

All-in-all it was a nice place to stay, but I don't think necessarily worth the amount of $ paid. The food was pretty good, but the rooms were TINY, and the watercraft were...

I want to start by saying this is the first vacation we have ever been on that we did not want to come home from, and Lookout Point Inn was a huge part of that!

My husband & I love to travel to places that have great ecotourism, and we found Hot Springs, AR to celebrate our 1st wedding anniversary. We tend to stay in AirBnBs more than even chain hotels, and this was our first stay at a B&B / Inn. We were BLOWN AWAY by the service, ambiance, views, and overall appeal of Lookout Point. Lookout Point's staff has set the bar EXTREMELY high for any other Inn / B&B we stay at. The Inn's staff provided service that you'd receive from a 5 Star, Expensive Resort (even better than The Ritz Carlton or Grand Floridian at Walt Disney World).

The Inn's set up on Lake Hamilton is top tier. Their gardens are well thought out for guests' experience from the balcony and also when choosing to spend quality time together outside of the room. The complimentary kayaks and canoes offered a great opportunity for us to explore the lake together.

Special touches that really made our stay 5 Star (..if we could give more than 5 stars, we 100% would!) : Daily complimentary coffee delivery to be enjoyed on the balcony in plush robes Complimentary breakfast every morning (either in room or in the dining room) Welcoming and caring staff that go the extra mile to make sure that all guests feel attended to without "crowding" guests when in public areas of the inn. The unique, daily flavored water located throughout the inn & fresh cookies

You could travel here and have plenty to do without ever leaving the inn.

Don & the other staff were so helpful with recommendations that "the locals" go to in addition to the usual places that visitors like to go. He recommended amazing hikes, local restaurants, and things to do that really fit who we are as visitors.

We would recommend staying at the Lookout Point...