Beachfront Hotel Houghton Lake — Hotel in Roscommon Township

My family has been visiting this hotel for about 4 years now. We rent about 5-8 rooms each year on the ground level for the beach access. The location has been perfect for us especially having lots of little kids in our large family but unfortunately, that is about the only good thing I have to say. The trip started off with a few rooms not being ready until well after the 3pm check in time and when we asked why the hold up was it was said that they allowed the party before us to stay longer and they didn't have the staff to clean in time. When we all were in our rooms we could tell they were hardly cleaned and I am guessing it is from being understaffed and then allowing the prior party to check out late. One room had a large brown stain on the bedding. One room wiped the table down and the cloth was black. We had to all take it upon ourselves to wipe down and clean the rooms we were staying in for the first hour of our vacation. Screen doors on the rooms kept falling off track and some of them never getting put back on. One room had the bathroom sink pipe leaking water. One room had a blood stain on the shower curtain. The beach was not cleaned when we checked in at 3pm so our kids had to wait to use the beach as to not get in the way of the workers. My uncle sat in a lounge chair and the back fell off and was rusted through and broken. The keys in multiple rooms did not work and we had to keep going to the front desk to reset them, to still not have them work. At one point 2 babies were locked in a room (napping) because the back door locked automatically and it was a key not card access which we did not have and the inside card access was not working. When this issue was addressed with the manager Carla she made it seem as though this was no big deal and the cards just need to be reset again and that you should use common sense with the back door locking. Several of the TV's did not work and we were told to unplug them and plug them back in after 10 seconds, had to do this multiple times during the stay. As we were hanging outside of rooms there was an air conditioning unit from the 4th floor dripping down on us. The air conditioner in one room couldn't be turned on at night because the smell was so musty that we could only run it during the day to cool the room down as we hung at the beach. There was a water main box that was sticking out of the ground this year and 4 people cut their foot on it. When any of our issues (because there were several other minor things) were addressed with the staff there they jumped right on it and were super friendly. However, I can't say the same about the manager Carla. The managers response was "well you can check out early". Carla is by far the rudest person I have ever had to deal with and is not cut out for managing a hotel or any establishment in my opinion. Ownership really needs to look into replacing Carla if they want to continue to have happy customers and return customers. Our family has been going there for several years but I for one will not be returning next year due to the way things were handled at this last visit and no one in my family has rebooked either. I can only hope that the owners seriously look into their reviews to better their company, that is what they...

Had stayed at this motel 3 years ago and really liked it. Unfortunately this time around was not as good. The room was generally clean, and the breakfast food was good. But there are several negatives that have us deciding to stay at another location next time we are in that vicinity. Only one elevator that is extremely busy in a hotel with 4 floors. Check in time was 3:00 but the room was not ready. Some staff not at all friendly. As we were waiting for our room to be ready, an employee walked past us, threw her blue staff shirt on the floor by the office door, which is right in the lobby, and walked out. Very unprofessional. Our room opened out onto the lake. But the sliding glass door providing access to the lake looked like it hadn't been washed all year. Very dirty. Sink in our room was clogged and took forever to drain. 4 light-bulb bar above the sink had one light bulb burnt out. The pool was supposed to open at 8:00, but there were days when it was 8:15 before someone came to unlock it. Also there was trash around the pool - candy bar wrappers, empty pop and beer cans. And the drinking fountain in that area was scummy and dirty. There was a pop and vending machine on our floor, as well as an ice machine. The pop machine had a note taped on it saying it was empty at the time and they were waiting on the vendor to deliver more pop so it could be refilled. But that note was somewhat tattered and torn and you could tell it had been there for more than just a day or two as they would have you believe. The vending machine was not very well stocked, and I wouldn't have trusted what was in it to be fresh. There is a game room, but there is a note on the door saying it's not open at the time. That note looks to have been there as long or longer than the note on the pop machine! There was a 2 foot patch of dirt/mud in the hallway that was there when we walked in at 6:30 at night, and it was still there when we left at 10:30 the next morning. Although the breakfast food is good, the room where the food is kept is very small and gets congested very easily. The actual dining area is ok, but also gets crowded very quickly. The biggest draw of the hotel is that it opens onto the lake; however it was overshadowed with how noisy it was in those rooms, both inside and out. Well past 1:00 a.m. it was loud outside, and also inside with people going in and out of their rooms. Very disappointing as we were very much looking forward to this visit. However, 80% of these problems could have been fixed to have provided a nicer stay. Maybe new...

The good certainly outweighs the bad! The hotel was VERY clean. When I walked in it smelled and looked very clean! They seem to be short staffed (like many places right now) and We stood at the desk for about 10 minutes before someone came to check us in. She was very nice! We had a beach view room which was beautiful and clean!! The toilets don't have lids so we had to be very careful about shutting the door for my exploring 1 year old and there are almost no outlets in the room. Those are my only 2 complaints about the rooms (so they are good for me!) the balcony had a nice little mat on it which I loved for my daughter walking in and out of the room! (I saw comments about bugs on the balcony... YES there were spiders but you cannot do anything about that really you are on the lake and it is outside! so no big deal!) The beach was very clean! There were lawn chairs, picnic tables, firepits, and propane grills for guests to use along with a mini playground!!! We loved the outdoor options (and none of it "closes" you can go out there whenever you want) The only WORTHWHILE complaint we had was.... The second day was very gray and rainy so we decided to go down to the pool...... I've NEVER seen anything so gross... the pool was full of sand, there were no vents or any type or air flow in the room so there was condensation building up on EVERYTHING and it was literally RAINING in the room from the humidity... There was no circulation in the pool so everything was just still and not flowing... There was rust everywhere. The white tiles were black/brown. It was hard to breath bc the air was so thick. There was mold growing on the windows and ductwork(that was no turned on) and then water dripping off the ductwork so basically mold water raining in the pool. There were little black bubble clusters in one corner... It was REALLY BAD!!! We feel kind of scammed for what we paid for being stuck with nothing to do on the rainy day and not being able to use the pool but OH WELL.... OVERALL The hotel is GREAT!!! We will def. go back!! But if you are looking for somewhere to go and plan on using the pool... It is not the hotel for you! But I mean lets face it you go to Houghton Lake for the beach (which was...