Red Ranch inn — Hotel in Town of Catskill

Stayed here Saturday night for a nearby wedding. Originally intended to arrive Friday evening but due to the severe weather and road closures, I was unable to and called Friday to inquire about an earlier check in on Saturday. By calling their listed phone number, you would not know that you are calling a business because they seem to only answer the phone with a confused “hello?” I was told that wouldn’t be a problem since I had the room booked for Friday as well. I arrived Saturday morning and apparently this was not communicated to the man working at the front desk as he told me check in was 3pm. Another man emerged from the back room behind the desk and seemed to know what I was talking about so he allowed me to check in. When I asked for a second key for our room as I have done at many other establishments without issue, he told me “no, maybe later I’ll give that to you” so I left it at that and settled for a single room key.

The room was very dated but worked alright for what I needed, which was simply a place to sleep for one night before driving home. Seemed decently clean but outside of my room there must have been a wasp nest because several were flying around out there. What I believed to be a smoke detector with a low battery consistently chirped all night long as well.

Unrelated to my stay personally although relevant to the complaints about service was the fact that the motel cancelled a friends reservation and gave away their room for what they claimed was a declined card. They told the couple that they had the card decline and had tried to call, which is not accurate as my friend did not have any missed calls. The first they heard about their room being given away was when they arrived Saturday evening from the wedding and attempted to check in. The motel told them their room was gone and there was no vacancy, leaving them to scramble to find a...

This place has been going slowly downhill over the last few years since the new owners took over. We've been coming here the same weekend for 20+ years, but I'm sad to report I think we're done here. The previous owners put a lot of love into this place, but I'm just not seeing that anymore. The level of cleanliness has dropped. Not disgusting, but far from immaculate. This year the outsides of all buildings on the property were covered in caterpillars. Not a few here and there, but literally thousands covering the walls, doorways, walkways. You couldn't walk into your room without them falling on you in the doorway. Now I don't know what the previous owners sprayed on them before, but I've never seen that before here, and we come up the same weekend every year. The restaurant next door, which is great BTW, had zero. Thankfully none of them had infiltrated our room, but you definitely had to keep the door closed. There's always maintenance issues with toilets or faucets that don't work properly. The beds are desperate for new mattresses. The rooms smell moldy. No daily cleaning? C'mon, Covid is over people. At least give guests clean towels every day without having to beg for them. In summary, the rates keep going up, but the product quality...

I made a reservation for tonight at the Red Ranch Inn via Booking.com today at 11:01am, at 11:06am I called the inn to inquire if they allowed a dog for an extra fee as it wasn’t clear from the Booking.com page. They didn’t, which is obviously fine, and we asked to cancel. They directed us to Booking.com to cancel, so we put in a formal request at 11:10am.

An hour later Booking.com let me know the inn said the only way to cancel would be to pay a cancellation fee of $120 (same cost as the room). I called the inn to ask about the cancellation, and they just told me it was out of their hands and to contact Booking.com. After some more back and forth on the phone it was clear that the Inn made the choice to impose the fee, and both Booking.com & the inn said there was nothing that could be done even though it was an honest mistake that was addressed FIVE MINUTES after booking.

I would understand a modest cancellation fee after a longer period of time, as we could have deprived the Inn of business, but it was 5 minutes. I can’t comment on the stay here because I won’t be staying here tonight, but I can certainly comment on the customer service. This is wholly unreasonable and a very disappointing way to treat...