Trailside Inn — Hotel in Mount Carroll

I am a member of the Lake Carroll camp ground and a regular customer of the Trailside General Store. I would generally not address this issue at hand, however due some circumstances involved, I feel it necessary as it pertains to the customer service of this establishment.

I had planned to have my sons 5th birthday on August 24th, but later had to change the date to September 14. I had reserved the Lodge for his party and two rooms from Trailside for out of town family members. Since scheduling that party and making those reservations, our family has experienced a number of unfortunate situations. I had emergency back surgery, my son broke his arm, my younger brother was admitted to the ICU, and my brother whom I reserved the room for, came down with strep throat. This all occurred in a matter of two weeks in our family.

I contacted Trailside to change the dates that the hotel rooms were needed (not canceled). Due to the date moving of the party, my mother nor brother could stay on Friday evening and on Saturday, only my mother stayed, as my brother had been off work with strep throat and did not want to contaminate our friends and family. I understand that Trailside is a business and I take responsibility for the lack of notice, however I believe that anyone who would endeavor all the medical emergencies our family has over the last several weeks, would have most likely missed a few details.

I would understand Trailside's persistence to charge for both rooms and both nights, if our lack of communication had caused a loss of revenue due to not being able to book the room for another customer. However, my parents were the only ones with a room on Saturday, September 14th. Actually two rooms. There were 8 unoccupied rooms. I agree with charges for Friday and Saturday for my parents room, but Trailside was not busy and we did not jeopardize other customers ability to stay in the hotel, and under the circumstances I have shared, I feel that it would have been exceptional customer service to understand that there are circumstances that others may unexpectedly experience, particularly those who are regular customers to the establishment.

Such circumstances could happen to any family at any time and hopefully if so, they would not be faced with the burden that my family felt when they arrived to stay and were charged almost $400 to stay in one room for one night. Lake Carroll has been nothing but accommodating because of our family's sequence of events. I am shocked to be treated in this manner...

Very disappointed with Char. We had booked three rooms and on the day of our check in my brother had a Grand Mail Seizure and we had to have him rushed to hospital. On our way out we stopped by to let them know we were not able to check in due to the medical emergency. Based on the circumstances I was hoping they would be able to work around their cancellation policy. But they didn’t. They changed us for all 3 room, sent Char an email and she chose to ignore it. This is not the type of place I want to do...

I wanted to drive away the moment I saw this place, but didn't want to lose the deposit and decided to give it a try. Place was dirty, needed updating, small frig wouldn't get cold. Hot tub wouldn't get hot! Lobby closed at 7pm so there wasn't even anyone to complain to! Come morning, we voiced our concerns and the manager/owner/employee essentially called us liars and wouldn't refund us the second UNUSED night. Horrible customer service. Horrible experience. Avoid...