Summersville Lake Retreat & Lighthouse — Hotel in Summersville

To be fair I'm just basing this review on their RV reservation process and policy. I called to make a reservation on 4/23/2021 for Bridge Day 10/15/2021. Their reservation policy does require a minimum 2 day stay as Bridge Day is considered a holiday, but their web site DOES NOT indicate that if you have to cancel the entire reservation is non-refundable. Even though I was canceling 5+ months in advance. Also at the time I made the reservation over the phone Diane the person taking my reservation did not mention this non-refund policy. So when I did call and canceled the reservation (today 4/26/2021) Diane informed me there would be a $25 cancelation fee, which is steep but not completely unexpected. She then called me back approximately 10 minutes later, after I received my emailed cancellation notice, that they would be keeping the entire fee due to this being a holiday. Needless to say I'll be disputing this with Navy Federal.

Just adding to this based on the Response from the owner below as there is some technically correct, but very misleading info in it. Keep in mind the website, at least on 4/23/2021 did NOT show any cancellation policies on the page for camping reservations, even though they do show all the other requirements such as the 2-day minimum stay. So if you schedule for a holiday you have no way of knowing the reservation is non-refundable until AFTER it has been made, which of course is too late. They do send a confirmation email when you make the reservation, but their policies are not listed in the email. You have to select a link in the email and then a page will come up with all the policies. I literally had the reservation for 3 days, cancelled 5+ months before the 'holiday' and they immediately charged me the full amount. I did call them and tried to work something out, but they did not budge even after I informed them that when I called to make the reservation no one informed me about the cancellation policy. While I doubt this is intentional it does seem like a good way for them to rent the same site 'twice'. Especially since I canceled so far in advance. Finally I did refute the charges and my bank refunded me the reservation amount minus the $25.00 cancellation fee, which I thought was steep but agreed was fair. Needless to say I'm NOT ever going to consider them for any future...

I am sad to write my first-ever one-star review, but this park deserves it. Due to a family emergency, I called on Monday to cancel a Thursday night reservation. Figuring there would be a $10 or half-night cancellation fee, I asked the lady what my refund would be. She replied "nothing." She then went on to make me feel stupid for not reading their refund policy. I explained it was an emergency and certainly with four days' notice, they could refund something. Nope. I asked for a manager to call me. Crickets. I called back Tuesday and spoke to one of the managers. To my astonishment, he would not budge an inch on their refund policy and reminded me I should have purchased trip insurance. (They were willing to offer a ONE-TIME change of date for this year but that wasn't going to help me.) I assured him this was no longer about the stupid $58 dollars, it was the principle of it. I called four days in advance, I was sorry to have to cancel but certainly on a Thursday night in July they could re-rent the spot, and that a refund of at least half is not unreasonable. No budging. So, buyer beware. Before you book your trip here, you had better be willing to lose ALL of the cost of your stay if you violate their refund policy and/or do not buy the ridiculous trip insurance. I have no idea what their campground is like. It might be wonderful. I don't care. I will NEVER EVER book a night at this place again because they care far more about their silly fine print refund policy than they do about simply being kind. Giving me half of my $58 back, then renting the spot to someone else would have made me happy and made them money. But no, they wanted to stand on their fine print and make a point. Point made. Here's your...

Nice commercial campground. As tent campers on motorcycles, we try to avoid commercial campgrounds, but occasionally we don't have another choice if we want to camp. This time, we went at the end of March 2012, so it was too early in the season for the State Park campgrounds. Summersville Lake Retreat is one of the nicest commercial campgrounds we've ever been to. Its a relatively large place, they have tent spots that are located away from the RV spots with well maintained picnic tables and fire rings, and they have a nice clean bathroom (with included hot showers), free wi-fi, and no obnoxious dusk-to-dawn lights glaring into our tent. The two gals at the front desk were super nice. Since it was early in the season, and there had recently been a lot of rain, many of their tent sites were a little soggy. We didn't know this when we got there, but they looked out for us and gave us a free upgrade to a higher, drier spot with water and electric hook up. (They weren't crowded, but that was still a nice thing to do, and much appreciated). This meant we didn’t even have to walk anywhere to fill our water bottles, and we could charge the cameras, phones, and laptop. There was a nice soft grassy spot for our tent (not a gravel pad, which I like to avoid). It’s not exactly roughing it. The whole campground is really well kept, and was generally a pleasant place to be. We enjoyed walking around after dinner; the cabins look fantastic if that's your thing (seriously, they are very cute, two of them look new, and are really nice looking) , and the playground looked fun and well attended to. So, two thumbs up to this place, I wish all the campgrounds we visit were...