Clarion Hotel Mackinaw City Beachfront — Hotel in Mackinaw Township

If I could give 0 stars, I definitely would. Upon arrival, our door handle was broken, meaning you could get into the room without a key from the outside. We didn’t realize this until we had all of our things unpacked and were about to leave for dinner. We went down to the lobby to see if they could do something, so they sent up maintenance and he looked at it. He had to call someone else, who came to put a whole new door handle on. We waited 2 1/2 hours for this situation to be resolved, which is not the maintenance guys fault, rather the hotels for issuing us a room with a broken door handle. The next morning we went to breakfast and my pancakes were still frozen in the middle so I had to microwave them. We went back up to our room to find that the new set of keys would not work on our door. We went back to the lobby to ask for a new set of keys and if we were able to speak to the manager. We got the keys and were told that the manager would give us a call that same day. Later that evening, the door handle broke again and my boyfriend fixed it on his own. The lobby employees said the manager was still not in hours later when we asked for the second time that day. Needless to say, we did not get a call from the manager that day. The next day (Friday), our brand new set of keys did not work on the door again, so once again, we went down to the lobby and she tried to reprogram our keys. She called the cleaning lady to meet us at our door and have her try her master key, which did not work. The cleaning lady called the lobby employee and she came up with a different master key and finally told us that there was another room available for us to go in. Once again, we were told that the manager would give us a call that day, yet we still did not receive one. We packed our things and went into the new room. The next day, since the manager had still yet to call us, my boyfriend called the hotel on his cellphone and we ended up finally talking to the manager, Ashley. While on the phone with her, she was completely rude and her customer service was awful. All I was looking for was an apology or to get a night or two compensated after going through all of these issues and having paid a large amount of money. She told us there is nothing she can do for us because we are still at the hotel and the issues were resolved. In response, we told her there is no reason to be rude, and our issues were not resolved until two days later. Her exact words were “Just because I say no it’s not rude because you don’t get something for free.” We ended up telling her that we will call and speak to someone else and she said, with an attitude, “Who else are you going to call? There is no one else.” Once again, the whole entire conversation with her was very unprofessional on her part, especially having needing her service for two days. Last but not least, the hot tub was completely disgusting to the point where you could not see an inch into the water. Please do not waste your money staying in this hotel because if you end up having issues, they will shove them under the rug and then you will have to deal with a manager that has a giant...

Staff was very nice, helpful & friendly. Partial view was great & for the most part this part of the hotel was very quiet. The AC and fan worked fine & there were no spiders or bugs in the room at all. Toilet and microwave didn't work at times. Fridge was ok but no freezer really put us in a bind. We were very wary of this hotel d/t reviews but while it was old and in need of a good deep cleaning, most of the fears weren't realized and we enjoyed our trip and the balcony and seeing sunrise & moon. Beds were firmer and worn out but not awful. We received full maid service most days we were here even though it was not needed. We loved talking to the maids and the front desk staff. They were so kind and friendly. All room supplies were stocked up and we could request more at any time, but did not need to. There are no elevators to 2nd floor so be aware of this when carrying up heavier items or if you have mobility issues. The light fixtures in the bathroom were exposed, posing an electrical hazard and the fan was too loud and not able to be turned off on a separate switch. You couldn't open the door all the way d/t the round shower curtain rod. If they install a straight one, this wouldn't be a problem. The shower was just fine and there was plenty of hot water & even a few different shower massage settings. Like everyone else, we didn't like the snacks that were the continental breakfast but I don't see the buffet or regular breakfast coming back any time soon with the shortages and weird events happening since 2020. The bottled water was nice to have on our bike rides and walking about town. The coffee in the room did work. There was no lobby coffee or anything else. It is close to everything and next door to ferry, although we used the one across from Mackinaw Crossings. It is a 4 min bike ride or drive or even walking distance. You can also ask the ferry shuttle to come get you and drop you off. We also took the trolley tour at 6pm that went over the bridge and they picked up right from hotel, which is a definite plus. This hotel has many discount passes, so go ahead and ask. The pool could use updates and there were panels missing from electric & vents. One of the lights in the pool was loose and hanging. It is 8 ft and the temp is on the warmer side so you can jump right in. Hot tub was dirty, water not clear and handle was loose posing a safety hazard. Too many unsupervised wild kids in the pool. They need to reign this in with staff checking to make sure kids are supervised or they need to leave pool area. Bathroom out of order in pool area. Nice workout, laundry and game room. If they fix the electrical and safety issues, I think this would be a top notch place to stay in. And advertise "snacks and bottled water" instead of "continental breakfast." Also add in room coffee, because that would help fellow coffee drinkers decide if this is the...

If you do a general search on hotels for Mackinaw City, one of the first results is a sponsored "Official Website" called "Mackinaw City Chamber of Tourism." This is not a Chamber of Commerce website. If you scroll aaall the way down to the bottom of the web page you see a disclaimer:

"This site and all the hotels on this site have common ownership by a 5th generation local family that has owned, developed, and personally managed Mackinaw City hotels since 1955."

It is this issue I blame for the following review. Coming from a small town myself, I have seen what monopoly and greed does to business. Should have known better, but I took a risk.

We were looking for a reasonably priced hotel (reasonably priced is relative in the summer) and picked the Clarion for it's proximity to the dock, it's beach front, and it's free pass to the water park (also owned by the same family btw). We thought with those things considered, we were getting our money's worth.

We open the door to our room and I get that sinking feeling. We flip on the ceiling light and the room is still dim. My husband thinks, "I'll just turn on the wall mounted lights between the beds as well." He pushes the button and nothing happens. Checks the bulbs; looks down: unplugged. Oh, that's a simple fix. Moves to plug them in, the metal prong barely touches the outlet, sparks fly, and the whole wall goes out, ceiling light included. Call the desk, who sends a very tired-looking maintenance man who is polite, flips the breaker for us, but we can't use the wall lamp. No note, no warning, no apology, no discount.

The rest of the room: drawers in the armoire were broken. Bedsheets were stained and had hair on them, hair was in the bath tub. Shower had a very loud, high-pitched ringing sound that made my ears want to bleed, fan sounded like a major aircraft landing.

The rest of the hotel: Hallways were gritty, stairs were badly stained. Whole place smelled like old chlorine. Pool did not look well maintained, we were not going to be swimming in it. Did not even check the waterpark at that point, free or not, due to iffy reviews and our experiences thus far. Checked out the beach, included pictures... note the pipe with likely polluted runoff water draining into the lake right on their beach. No one maintaining the beach, addressing the seagull problem etc.

Even the front desk's recommendations for dining was a miss. Would not be surprised if they were told who to recommend based on who's a friend or relative of the owner vs which places are actually good. Of course they get a lot of customers anyway... it's Mackinaw City tourism. And they've got little competition.

Our third night we'd had enough. We moved into the Rainbow Motel. I walked into their room and breathed a sigh of relief. Don't buy the gimmick and...