Lodge at Grant's Trail — Hotel in Lemay

Based on the reviews, and how this place sells itself as a romantic getaway, we were very disappointed. From the minute we got there, we encountered reason after reason why we will never stay here again, and we wouldn't have stayed this time if we'd known better. ||||The first is the fact that this is basically a self-service B&B. There is no staff there to speak of on the regular. No one was there when we arrived. They just leave your key in an envelope. This wasn't a huge deal, but became more of an issue when we encountered problems and had no "front desk" to speak to about them. ||||We then got into the elevator to go up to our room, only to find out that the elevator doesn't go to the top floor. For whatever reason, it stops at the 2nd floor (which we were already on when we entered). So we had to haul our luggage up the stairs. OK, still not a huge deal, just annoying.||||So we get in the room and look around. It was a reasonable size, but only because we got one of the largest rooms they had. We look up and see that there's a TV already on, and the TV is about the size of a postage stamp, and mounted practically on the ceiling on the other side of the room from the bed. You would need a pair of binoculars just to watch it. Alright, still not a huge deal. We're not exactly here to watch TV, but still, why even bother having that?||||So I go into the bathroom to wash up, and there's no hot water in the bathroom sink. At this point I had to decide to just let that go. We were only staying for one night, and I didn't want to deal with being on the phone trying to get someone to come fix it, or worse, someone being in our room for an extended period trying to fix it, thus taking up time from our short stay, so we just made do.||||Then I go out on the balcony and it's a rickety wood balcony overlooking... the interstate. This is the part we didn't know about when we booked this place (our own fault for not checking it out on Google Maps first). It is directly up against, I-55. You hear traffic the whole time you're there. There's nothing "romantic" about this location. It's an old building right on the highway. The interior does have woodsy charm to it, but that is more than offset by the exterior view and the noise pollution.||||Shortly after, we noticed that there are actually stairs leading up to our balcony, and that there's no security whatsoever at this place (which, as I just mentioned, is right off the highway and unstaffed). You could literally walk from the highway up to our balcony's sliding glass door without so much as hopping a fence.||||All of these things were annoying/concerning/off-putting, and by themselves they were enough that we wouldn't stay here again, especially for what we paid for their best room, but then the real kicker hit. Sometime in the late afternoon, we heard a conversation. We thought that maybe someone had stopped outside of our door to talk to someone, or maybe it was (finally) some staff doing something around the building. But no, after a while of the conversation continuing, we realized that it was coming from the room next to us. Now, we've stayed in a number of B&Bs, and we know that they're not as "insulated" as regular hotels. Sometimes, you're in a house with a plain old bedroom next to another bedroom, and you can hear muffled conversations or whatever, but this place was next level. There was a (very thin) door that separated our room from the next room, and we could hear everything. Every word of their conversations. Every movement around the room. Every use of the bathroom. Everything. And the guy staying in the next room was a talker. He talked most of the evening. They finally went to bed around 9-10, so we could actually relax in peace after that (I use the word "relax" loosely, knowing that they too could hear every word/sound we made), but then the next morning he was up again talking. And at one point, he was on the phone talking, and we could hear both sides of the phone conversation (his and the caller on the other end). That's how little insulation there was between the two rooms. They might as well have been standing in our room.||||Now, for what we paid, and because this place bills itself as "romantic", I would tell anyone to avoid this place entirely. If you need it for something entirely different (like a large party renting the whole place out or whatever), then I could see it being useful for that, but this is not a place you want to stay as a couple for a "getaway".||||I will say that the only good part about this stay was the breakfast. It was a good breakfast and the atmosphere was pleasant (we even got to see the "talker" that we practically shared our room with), and it was the only time where we ever got to see any staff here, and they were pleasant. But after breakfast was over, it went back to being an...

Picked The Lodge for the location and because it was in our budget and it looked great. We stayed in the Safari room for 6 nights and I am not kidding when I say that it just got better and better every day. The ONLY negative/knock I have is that the standard rooms (not the Mary Lincoln, Lincoln suite, or the Washington rooms) are really not set up for business travel. There aren't closets or chests to unpack into really, nor is there any desk or flat surface to work on if you need to. That being said, if you're just needing a place to call home after being a tourist or looking for a romantic getaway? This is the perfect spot. ||||Details on what I liked so much: ||- Location! The Lodge is conveniently located for anyone looking to enjoy the zoo, the botanical gardens, tower grove park, the muny, etc. It was also not hard to get out to Elephant Rocks and Fort Davidson from here too. Nor was it too far from a metrolink. ||- Staff! Vicky was the sweetest and loveliest woman. She took time to get to know us and made us feel like we were just so welcome. She knew lots about the area, made sure we knew where to go, and made sure we were prepared for the heat too. The chefs were both also amazing, and breakfast was top top top notch. Clark was also extremely helpful in addressing any issues we had with the room, and gave us a tour of the place. Staff were not always around, but I didn't mind that, because it made the place feel more like a real B&B to me. ||- Amenities! AC worked great!!! Which was so needed because the heat index outside was NUTS. The fireplace in the room was just really cool. Definitely not something your average hotel has. Shower worked very well, water was hot and there was a shower head with different pressure options. We also really appreciated having the sink separate from the main bathroom because that made it easier to get ready for the day. ||||Overall, I would recommend this place to anyone travelling to St. Louis for sure, and will definitely be looking to stay again on...

We were in STL to see a Cardinals game so we decided to visit some places south of downtown (like Jefferson Barracks and Grant’s farm). The Lodge was very close to those and also seemed to make a trip to Busch Stadium convenient. We stayed in the Mary Lincoln room, one of 3 rooms on the second floor. We chose it because it had a king bed. The pictures made it look a little campy but seeing it in person, the decorations seemed very themed and appropriate. The bed and pillows were comfortable. The side chairs were ok. Having the big tub in the bedroom was a little weird, but that is the same way that Marriott time shares do it. The TV size and placement are inadequate at best, but we didn’t use it so no big deal. Two big problems for me were (1) that the Wi-Fi signal was so week, it was only good for checking emails, really almost non existent and (2) the noise is pretty bad. Interstate 55 is just across a street and is very loud all night. The second night we ran the a/c all night and it did help mask that noise. The room has doors to the adjoining room and noise come through those doors pretty loudly. The people there had their tv turned up pretty loud (probably also masking the interstate noise) and we could also hear every conversation. My wife thought it necessary for her to only speak in a whisper because of this.||The breakfasts were good, much better than the included breakfasts at most regular hotels (I kept forgetting that the lodge is essentially a bed and breakfast, not a hotel). The menu didn’t really seem to change much the two days we were there. They did change the meats, which actually we didn’t like because they only had smoked sausage the second day, no bacon. It seemed like you could have eggs, omelettes or waffles as your choices either day.||I’d probably stay there again. Especially since my wife prefers low rise...