South Shore Harbour Resort and Conference Center — Hotel in League City

South Shore Habour Resort & Conference Center – Not all it seems initially

First, I must say that every member of the staff I encountered was unfailingly helpful, friendly and warm. It’s the reason my review is rated three stars, because – although South Shore Resort is nice – it falls short in some areas that add up to a less than spectacular rating.

The public areas are functional and comfortable. The pool is quite lovely, with an interesting poly-circular outline, pulsing colored lights, and a wade-up bar. The area is scenic, with the marina next door and the expanse of Clear Lake (even if that name always makes me laugh inside) just down the channel, and the small balconies and large window-walls on the upper levels show off the vista to its best advantage.

This “Resort” is geared to conferences and events. I was there for a class reunion, and the service and food were better than average. The restaurant and “bistro” are a bit overpriced, with a very limited wine selection. There were several events going on at the same time, and the hotel (and parking lots/garage) never seemed overly full. I did appreciate a secure garage facility for my sports car, even if there are birds nesting in there that pooped on my car.

My single king room was reasonably comfortable, the bed was very nice, and the balcony was great until it rained, after which there was an inch of water standing for the rest of my stay. The television and channels are good, not great, and the desk was nice but small with a cool power center. The coffee maker was typical.

Where the room really fell down, though, was the bathroom. It was tiny. I mean, really small. And, get this: THERE ARE NO TOWEL HOLDERS. I can only imagine the board meeting where that was decided: “Hey, I’ve got it! WE’LL DO AWAY WITH TOWEL HOLDERS! People can just throw their towels on the counter top, I’m sure that won’t be inconvenient. And we’ll save several dollars per room! I bet people will love that!”

Yeah, right.

The tub faucet leaked, not just a little drip, and you had to hold the toilet handle down for the length of a leisurely flush in order to fully evacuate the bowl. The tank was encrusted with iron and minerals, so I suspect there’s a block in the flush valve. It is possible that maintenance is not being performed proactively.

And there are no vending machines. Instead they have another one of the worst ideas in the hotel industry, the “pantry.” That just means that they have a little alcove that they fill with junk food and sodas, and then instead of only charging two or three times the price of any given item in a convenience store in the vending machine, they charge four or five times that price. AND you have to go down into the lobby instead of down the hall – meaning that you have to get dressed in reasonably presentable clothes instead of just padding down the hall in PJs and bare feet. That’s another major fail for me. The only time I want junk food is late at night, after I’ve settled in, and I DON’T want to get dressed up again and interact with anyone for a Twix bar.

In summary, there’s nothing really horrible in the room I had, but all the little things that were wrong added up to something less than an extraordinary stay. And for a company that claims to want to “amaze” the guests, they seem to be sleeping on the job. But as I said up front, the people were all very nice and seemed to be happy in their jobs; that’s a plus.

It is only because of the wonderful staff that I give the South Shore Harbour Resort three stars – and I almost took one back for the pretentious anglicized spelling of harbor. I would stay there again, but only to attend an event there. ...

When we head down to Galveston it's normally only to cruise and we spend the night in nearby Webster. This time our travels took us to League City for a four night state convention that was held at this resort.||We had a double queen bed balcony room facing the pool/marina. Room was a very good size with plenty of drawer/closet space. Had an easy chair plus a desk with chair. Lighting was good, room darkening shades. A/C and water pressure great. 2 chairs and a small table on the balcony. In room coffee maker with k cups, blow dryer, ironing board and iron. Bathroom was a bit small but there was a small vanity area in front of the closet. Housekeeping staff was spot on and very accommodating when I approached them in the hallway for additional coffee and towels. Beds comfortable but I would have preferred a bit softer pillows. ||Pool area:|Apparently Thursday-Sunday are the party days and when the pool bar and outside cafe is open. When we arrived on Sunday afternoon the pool was jammed and the DJ had the music at ear splitting volume. However, the rest of the week the very large pool was fairly empty. Having the swim up bar open would have been nice as some of us conventioneers would have used it after our programs ended for the day. With the angle of the sun there were very few shady places and also a limited number of lounge chairs. ||Dining:|Not sure when/if they actually open the bistro but it was closed for the entire duration of our stay. Yes, we had breakfasts and lunches provided at our convention but, short of our last night's banquet, our dinner choices were limited to going to Opus, their finer restaurant, or finding a neighboring restaurant in League City. IMHO, I would think that if they knew they had 400 attendees staying at the resort they might have opened the bistro as not many folks were willing to spend the bucks to dine at Opus.||Opus: We bit the bullet and did dine there on Sunday night. Is it pricey? Yes. Is it worth it? Absolutely!!!! In fact, husband and I thought the prices were reasonable for a better restaurant. I had the Opus pasta that was loaded with real crab, scallops, shrimp, and sun dried tomatoes in a scrumptious and very flavorful garlic/wine/lemon. Husband had the Veal New Orleans (I think that was the name) with roasted potatoes, green beans, a few wonderfully breaded veal cutlets topped in a bernaise sauce AND a 5 oz lobster tail. I think that entree was $40 but easily large enough portions for two to share.||As for off site dining, there are tons of places nearby as well as the Kimah Boardwalk.||Convention: I thought this was an EXCELLENT convention facility and want to give a shout out to their catering department as all our breakfast and lunch options were delicious and plentiful. OK- the coffee was terrible so hope they swtich brands.||In all fairness, we did receive a group room discount rate that more than fit into my relatively frugal budget when looking for just a pre-cruise overnight stay. So, if you're looking for something a little nicer with a view and quiet location, I'd recommend...

My husband and I wanted to give our autistic son an overnight stay with a nice pool experience for his birthday. We researched and called to make sure everything would be acceptable. We checked in. Never received our comp drinks as advertised. The pool was nice. However the chairs around the pool were dirty with bird droppings. The bartenders at the pool bar were nice on our first order. Drinks are mixed with cheap juice and taste as such. $10 for a drink in a small cup. Upon a second order only one bartender paying attention to customers and was quite rude. 2nd drink $10 pina colada. Couldn’t taste any alcohol. 3rd attempt at the bar resulted in the bartender ignoring us so she could continue having long chatty conversation with 2 customers while ignoring us and the rest of the bar. We stayed in the pool for 2 hours and left to go back to the room. When back to the room we discovered no premium channels on tv only slight basic cable, when we called to the front desk staff didn’t know which channels were included they had to ask and call back to say sorry. Then we try to connect my husbands laptop to the free WiFi so he can work remotely. It didn’t work we had to call font desk. They couldn’t resolve so we had to call someone else who finally got him connected however if you select the basic “ free” version. There is not enough a strong enough connection to do anything more than load the resorts homepage. The air conditioning in the room is semi comfortable, even if turning it down it wouldn’t cool lower than 75 if that. After all of the above we decided to just chalk it up as a bad experience and go home. Total stay from check in to check out. 3.5 hours. Upon check out the only comment made was oh you just checked in. No customer service or hospitality in trying to make it up to us. The last straw for me and why I’m posting a review. Instead of the front desk clerk paying attention upon check out she charged us twice for our stay and double charged our credit card. Her words”sorry, she checked us in twice. No big deal we should get a refund in 10 business days. Sooooooo we paid 400 for a 3.5 hour stay. My husbands company puts out of town employees up at this hotel ( how we got the recommendation ) needless to say he’ll be telling HR about...