Spook Cave & Campground — Hotel in Prairie du Chien

I’m extremely dishearten by the lack of customer service from this privately owned campground and wish we would have just invested our money & spent our annual family camping trip at one of the many fabulous state ran facilities nearby. It’s not really about the money, but at least I would feel better about additional fraudulently charged fees if they were going back into our natural resources, but instead it’s going into these owners pockets... Basically, make sure to read and re-read not just their website & welcome letter, but ALL fine print on booking receipts, etc. Here is what happened- we initially misunderstood the dog fee policy ($50 per dog, per day is what it actually is- seems steep right?) and after finding this out as we were leaving home (3.5 hours away) we decided to turn around to leave the dogs at home to have our friend take care of them. Heartbroken to be missing our fur family members but not wanting to spend that much more, we decided we were going to have a fun “kid-free” weekend camping… Only to be charged $150 for “having 3 dogs” in the pet friendly cabin, when we actually had 0 and have video evidence our dogs were at our home all weekend (one of the many time-stamped pictures attached for reference). Evidently there was an “excessive” amount of fur found in the cabin (fur does tend to stick to animal owners belongings, even when the dogs are not physically there, so I’m confused as to why any fur was an issue when we even booked a pet friendly cabin). When explaining the situation, the office manager was nice enough but “no, we can’t come to an understanding because the owners have said this is what it is, and at least you weren’t charged the $250 extra cleaning fee….”. After reading similar reviews after the fact (really wish I would have focused less on the 4.5 stars and more on what the reviews actually said) I decided to eat the $150 charge since a place like this would just turn around and charge me the $250 probably if I were to dispute through my bank... Even though I would win if I did decide to take them to small claims court with the proof my dogs were at my home 3.5 hours away.||||Ultimately, it’s not about the money here… it’s the principle of customer service. I was willing to admit that there likely was fur on my belongings, not excessive though, and even asked during check out if there was a cleaning checklist because I couldn’t find one and wanted to make sure I was leaving the cabin in expected shape- I was told no, they hire a cleaning crew for that so we were good to go. Then when charged a dog fee when I did not have my dogs, I asked to come to a reasonable middle ground… a $50 cleaning fee seems reasonable to me since all they had to do was run the bedding through a washing machine since there were never actually any dogs in the cabin. But of course, no such luck from owners who would rather ruin a family camping memory and provide terrible customer service all just to see a few extra dimes in their pocket. ||||All in all- if you want to stay in a cabin for camping, with or without your pets, find somewhere else and invest your money back into our natural resources and not some crooked owners pockets. ||||||||Noteworthy details||-cabins are fairly small, especially the lofts- even my 5’0 sister hit her head multiple times and the stairs are extremely narrow getting up/down so be careful! -train goes through middle of campground each night/day, so again be careful & bring ear plugs if you’re a light sleeper! -hiking “trails” are subpar, and we enjoyed the ones at Pikes Peak much more when we decided to leave the campground to have something to do/enjoy. -the “lake” with beach/fishing is more of small pond, decent amount of fish but clearly they are fed well, so you may want to look elsewhere if fishing is an activity you’re looking for. -the cave tour was interesting to see, but you don’t have to stay there in order to see that tourist site and it takes...

Nice facility, clean and friendly. NOTE-this is mostly a review of the campground, not the cave part.

My 3 star rating comes from this: could use some business guidance for the hospitality industry, which is much different than the medical world and farming world that the owners have stated is/was their career industries. We have camped at hundreds of places over the years. Spook has dozens of signs, via email and onsite, some contradicting the other (thus the reason to keep things simple and minimal-no one wants to feel like they are in 'school' with strict directions to follow every where you go) with very bold blunt highlighted directions, which are not warm, friendly or welcoming. Prices for rentals are WAY over priced especially due to the fact there are no kitchen supplies provided due to 'COVID'! Seems like a dishonest reasoning, and more of capitalizing on the virus. Their jobs and thus labor expense, have been simplified, but their prices have been raised-again, seems to have no real connection to COVID, but more an excuse. We have many times, camped, rented condos, homes, etc., since the virus has been in our world. No other place we have visited has done this-take away kitchen supplies-how does that stop the spread of the virus. It isn't like it is going to stay live and active on a plate long enough that the next person would 'catch' the virus. Again, lack of hospitality business sense. Suggestion: If the prices are not going to go down and reflect the inconvenience to your guests (hospitality) how about at least supply some paper products and basic kitchen tools, spatula, can opener, coffee filters, etc.

NOTE: 'lake view' cabins, are blocked by trees, from seeing the water. This campground has signs actually calling it a 'pond'. It has a nice beach area that is roped off, with port-a-potty near by and kayaks, and paddle boards to use, as well as fishing piers. The 'park view' cabins, overlook the 'lake view' cabins, only separated by trees. Their are no TVs in the cabins that we looked at.

Also we saw a sign that said basically NO RUGS bigger than a door mat due to grass damage. REALLY!? It is a campground, people with kids, etc., use camping rugs. This keeps their campsite usable, clean, and welcoming. Have you camped before? No one brings a door mat. Have NEVER seen this requirement in years of camping. Suggestion: Maybe state-'PLEASE keep your camping rug on the gravel camping pad, and minimal use on the grass, as possible. This helps keep our campground grassy area looking nice.'

Friendly, accommodating (hospitality) customer service goes along ways.

The campground is gravel/dirt, has a great play area, nice laundry and bathroom facilities. Ducks to feed and watch. Fun store with great offer of inventory selection, supplies and fun things to purchase. Younger staff were awesome as well as those recurring residents that we happen to talk with around the campground that weekend.

I hope this is helpful to future visitors and the...

Updated: We spoke with a couple of the staff members and they asked us if there was anything they could do to make our stay a little better. They had sites opening up in a different section that would better suit our needs if we would like to move for the rest of our stay. They wifi is better in the 100's and now we are by the stream. I still would like to let future campers know that sites 50-55 are not pull thru and sites 50-52 are on a hill. Site 50 is on the end but part of the hill is steep and there isn't much room for error. When they say they have WiFi and it is spotty, they are not kidding. So, if you are "true" campers and you don't have two teenage girls then site 41-55 will be great for you. It is great that they have shower rooms, but if it is hotter than 80 degrees, the shower is useless besides getting your hair clean. A fan in the shower room would be nice. Flies are horrible in some spots. The wood they sell do not come in bundles, they give ya 10-12 pieces per "bundle". On our visit the wood was rotten, there were three other sites that were having a hard time getting a fire to go. If you value sleep and you are a light sleeper this is not the place for that.. there are 2-3 trains that come through between 1am and 5 am. Riding the brakes the whole time. They rent golf carts for $50 a day. The fire pit is a big hole in the ground and if mother nature decides to weak havoc (storm/rain) you won't be able to use the pit in the morning.

The good: didn't see one mosquito. When the WiFi is working it is good. The shower area is big and they have a door and a bench. The lake is a great size, the water fall is pretty. The playground area is great for kids 7 and under. They deliver the wood to the site. If you forgot a lot of stuff there is a Walmart on the other side of the Mississippi River (there is construction right now on the bridge so it takes a little longer to get there and get back). Marquette city is a cute little town that is nice to visit and look around. There is a scenic lookout but beware you have to walk up a gigantic hill to get to it.

As of this post we haven't done the cave tour, which...