Lutsen Resort — Hotel in Lutsen Township

After resort reply I add: I found space heater in the closet after 9 hours without heat....when the heat came back on -this caused the breaker to surge. I did find the elect box hidden in the hallway. When you suggest "I created my own problem". I totally take offense to this. Your resort left us to in -22 below temps over night with children in my cabin. When I asked for your protocol - you had no plan. Had I not brought my own extra lighting - we would have been in the dark, in the cold. I also brought blankets cuz those were sparse too. I am sad you thought I created the problem of the 9 hours without power to which you did nothing. Original post edited for length exceeded: I return to this resort to a log cabin at least every year so I do love this area. it is a stunning view from the cabin overlooking lake superior and we are only 2 miles from ski hill. We are given access to the pool, sauna, and jacuzzi. I bring up food to prepare in the cabin and typically some cookware. So why only 2 stars? we came here on one of the most historic winter storms hitting the area so the travel day was exhausting:

1. they told me I had a $100 credit to use in restaurant here when I checked in, just after I purchased a bottle of wine from there which they knew about and put it on my credit card. They said I would have had to charge it to the room to have credit applied, which they could have easily resolved but presented that this was not now possible (10 minutes after I had put it on credit card). I don't frequent this restaurant and only bought the wine because of the weather and travel day I just completed - I had to pay $40 for a bottle of cheapest wine and I could tell they were disappointed I did not provide a tip - even though they were not serving it to me. 2) We had to dig out the cleaning crew before we could access our cabin. 3) The cleaning crew was not so thorough. we lacked the typical basic things like toilet paper, kitchen towels, salt, a broom; and furthermore, the bathroom sink is clogged with hair, in general I would give them a 2 for cleaning; 4) The power went out and it is 22 below. it went out at 10 pm and stayed out for 8 hours. I contacted the front desk and asked their protocol - he told me to light a fire in the woodstove and there was no other remedy. there was one large log in the cabin and no kindling. I had never used a wood stove and no one would show up to help even though I asked. there was no possibility of forging for wood in gail force winds in the dark with no light. he basically said - good luck. Me and my teen boys made it through with candles I brought from home and wearing all our winter gear to bed. I also had brought flash lights and survival charging stations - There is no lighter, candles, or flashlights in the cabins so we would have been navigating pitch black situation if we were not prepared on our own 5) Day 2 we went to the pool in the main lodge. The water was overly cold and the sauna did not work. I did report the sauna issue - the manager assured me it works. well, it was cold and stayed that way every time I checked. so no. it did not work. 6) Generally speaking this is lovely property but it feels like it is getting increasingly run down, the cabins, the lodge, the pool amenities. The buildings could use some TLC. 7) the restaurant is really amazing dining experience - but very expensive. I bring some of my own cookware because the cabin lacks a tea kettle, no tin foil for example...so you have to be prepared. It seems every year I return my experience gets less satisfactory. This is very disappointing for as I mentioned this is lovely area overlooking lake superior and this resort could benefit from leveling up a bit. I feel bad for having to call the main desk multiple times to provide the basic essentials. The cabins are the most expensive places to rent here. Cleanliness, and the typical basic essentials provided are really all I ask. I hope the resort reflects on this as constructive criticism and...

This review is for the lodge rooms. Where do I start? We entered the room with very dark stained walls unlike the light knotty pine shown on their website. One wall was actually painted black. Room was a little stuffy, so we opened the windows only to find one of the windows lacking a screen. Overhead light was obtrusive compared to the lamps on the sides of the bed which were very low wattage . I'm reminded of the movie 'Seven' which had a very low lighting budget. I almost expected to find a dead body in the shadows. (See picture.) There were no wall decorations or a headboard on the bed which were also depicted on the website. Their was only one chair in the room so one person was relegated to sitting on the bed. (We spoke with a couple who said they had two chairs in their room.) Also there was no table or clock in the room. There was a space for a refrigerator but this space was used to store the window fan. There was a Nespresso machine in the room but no where to get a plain cup of coffee. The bed came with a fur covered pillow and some kind of fur thing across the bottom of the bed. I wondered how often they cleaned it. The bathroom sink handles turned the wrong way. The exhaust fan does not work and the bathtub drain was so slow there is no way to clean the tub. If two people are taking turns showering, the second person will undoubtedly be left to standing in ankle deep water of the first persons dirt. This was reported to the front desk but was not fixed during our stay. On the third night, we had a fly in the room. By morning we had three flies in the room. They provided our wake up call buzzing around our heads as soon as it became brighter outside. I don't know where they came from as we kept our screenless window closed. The room was relatively quiet from the inside but you could hear people in the hallway. With the window open, you would easily hear cars and trucks moving from the parking lots. All this for $320 a night for a king bed with lake view with mid week rates and senior discount. This includes a resort fee of $35 each night! My invoice indicated that this was a 'selected option' but I was told it was mandatory. Resort fees are just a scam. Currently, hotel resort fees can be viewed as illegal based on existing state consumer protection laws. If I can't waive the fee because I don't plan to use resort facilities other then my room, then why aren't they included in the room rate? The room amenities shown on the website include (believe it or not) bathroom amenities, bathtub/shower, and toilet, all listed as separate amenities. Luckily there is no fee for these amenities. Also, there is no housekeeping unless requested and the restaurant is not open for breakfast so you need to find breakfast off site. A broom in the room could be useful since the floors are uncarpeted and it's easy to carry sand or dirt from your shoes in to the room.

The following is in response to the owner. The pictures of the rooms on the website do not look like the room we stayed in. I included my pictures of our room and have now included pictures from the website. Can you see the difference? If we had three way lights, don't you think we would have used them? We did not have three way lights in our room. Check it out. The 'feature wall' may be called weathered grey but look at the picture - it's dark and looks black especially under the dim lighting. Considering the maintenance and housekeeping, I assume the faux fur is not the easiest to clean and we are all aware of what a hotel room can look like under a black light. Just something I wasn't entirely comfortable with. None of the other issues were addressed by the owner: tub drain, flies, missing window screen, lack of furniture. If this room was not properly accessorized, i.e. headboard, wall decorations, window screens, furniture, lights, then perhaps we should have been cautioned. Let the owner's response also be another...

When I booked the place, I noted that check in is at 4 pm, so I planned our departure time from home accordingly. When I called the resort at noon, the front desk person said check in is actually 5 pm and also that they were delayed with housekeeping. So we dilly dallied and arrived at 6:30 pm. We were told the room wasn't ready and to come back in 2 hours. We came back at 8:30 pm and were told the room is "being cleaned". Came back at 9 pm and were told the room is still "being cleaned". We got the key to the room at 10 pm and finally settled into the room at 10:30 pm. Tldr: we weren't able to check in until 10 pm.

I picked this place solely because we wanted to ski in Lutsen and we needed a place to charge the car. When I booked the room, the receptionist told me they charge $10 for 6 hours of charging. The Plugshare app said it's free. And when we were waiting for our room, it seemed to be unmonitored. They have 2 standard chargers (7kW) and two Tesla ones (9kW) but realistically only two or three vehicles can charge in the spaces. One night there were two other EVs charging. Several times I observed ICE-holes were parked in front of the chargers, blocking access. If desperate, you can go north and charge in the parking lot for Clearview General Store. Our building is in the Poplar River condos area and has 4 units and 4-6 parking spaces depending on how closely people parked together. One evening all of the parking spaces were taken, so I ended up having to park the car at the main lodge to charge even though it wasn't necessary. 10 minute walk up the steep road and a few minutes in the highway. Tldr: they have free EV chargers but you should have a back up plan if they're not available.

It was fairly quiet until the unit next door arrived with an infant and active toddler. They must have had a two-story unit because I could hear the children screaming and running around above us.

Our place come with a gas fireplace and ski locker. There's a little kitchen area with a counter, small sink, microwave and mini fridge (that's making a really high pitched squeal). I mentioned the squeal to the front desk on the first night and they said they would have maintenance look at it that morning. I got a knock late on our 4th (and last) night there. We can't open the cabinet to the garbage bin unless we opened the fridge door. Supposedly the jacuzzi is another selling point. The giant tub was also our shower that had a tiny shower curtain, so the floor got wet when we showered. Tldr: they have other in-unit amenities but we had issues. Overall disappointing.

The place is outdated, smells like someone's wet dog/grandpa, and the cleaning job wasn't great for having taken 1.5 hrs to complete. Looks like it took less than 15 minutes... Hair and lint all over in the bathroom. I would have done a better job changing the bedding and wiping the place down myself, especially if it meant I could have checked in at 4 pm and actually enjoyed some of the amenities we are paying over $200 a night for.

We paid a $140 resort fee. I'm guessing that includes the pool at the main lodge, ice skating (we packed skates but rink was never cleared); bonfire and s'mores (was never clear to me when/where); free snow shoe and cross country ski rentals; and shuttle to the ski hill. Their website said the shuttle only ran something like Thursdays through weekends, but it was running daily the week we were there. It had a limited time schedule and we wanted the flexibility to leave whenever we wanted, so opted to park at the hill. We used the snow shoes on our 3rd day there and was my favorite amenity. They were basic MSR shoes but they did the job! At the concierge/ hotel receptionist's recommendation, we went up to Cascade State Park for the...