The Country Place Resort — Hotel in Town of Durham

We used to stay here long ago every year with our large family when we were kids and decided to go back with our own kids. Unfortunately, while the water park next door had improved over the last 30 years; this place went in the opposite direction. The rooms are dilapidated, musty, etc. while we were, by no means, expecting a 5star resort, we did think there would be some upkeep to the property - there was none. |They leave a sign on the pool fence that says something along the lines of ‘maintenance. Do not use’ when we asked if the pool was open, we were told that the “sign is left up in case the health department shows up cuz they always want to run tests and stuff so you can say, ‘see. We don’t have anyone in it’”. So it’s clear the chemicals likely do not meet health code standards and that’s just the beginning. |ACCOMMODATIONS:|PROS: Ample parking. |CONS: The rooms are old, musty, the paint is chipping everywhere, lots of bugs/cobwebs, broken mirrors curtain rods, shades, most of the lamps were broken, theres random cords sticking out of the walls, the tv was stuck on one channel and it was in Spanish. The staff unplugged it to try and fix it. We finally got it off Spanish but it only had one channel. There was a hole in the bedroom door (looked like someone punched it). The shower head is so coated in gunk that it sprays everywhere. The air conditioning units were all broken, unclean, moldy, and several filled with water and gurgled or froze all night. One was dripping into the bedroom all night so the corner of the room was quite wet. The deck has nails sticking out so watch your feet. Nothing was clean. No smoke detectors until we asked for them. They actually ran to the store to buy them to install. |ACTIVITIES:|PROS: Larry did his best w/ what he had to run activities. He plans a day’s worth of things to do from trivia, corn hole, to name that tune, whiffle ball, & pool volleyball. He makes sure all ages are included. He also coordinated a fire & s’mores night. |CONS: We went to play games in the main lobby.. foosball table had no ball, backgammon had no pieces, tic-tac-toe had no markers, Chinese checkers had no marbles, & pool table was missing all the balls after the first night. Everything is kind of broken, missing pieces, or not kept up. The basketball court was covered in debris, the tennis court net wasn’t fully attached, etc. The pool is cracked, dirty, and very literally held together w/ tape. |there is fishing but we were told it’s better to bring our own equipment since people always return it tangled. So we did some fishing (all catch and release) w/ our own equipment & while the bridge/dock/gazebo down there is all falling apart, we did catch some fish and had a good time. |THE FOOD:|PROS: Eggs can be cooked to order for bfast.|CONS: The food was barely edible and it’s a very strict schedule. (Dinner is at 6:30. If you show up at 6:40 and it’s gone, too bad. You’re out of luck.) They seemingly used the same salad for the entire week same with the fruit - as it was the same every day but looked progressively limper w/ smaller portions. A lot of it is served cold; pasta with cold sauce, ribs were cold, & we think they may have breaded the chicken from the night before for the next night. When they gave us a “light” dinner of burger & fries, we had asked if they would have hot dogs to which the owner said she could “go to the dollar store and pick up some hot dogs”, which should give you a pretty good indication of the food quality. |STAFF:|PROS: Jose. He seems to be their “everything man”. He serves at meals, he cleans cabins, he does repairs, he brings towels when you need them, he fixed our porch lights, cleans our air conditioners etc. it would appear he is single-handedly keeping this place running. He’s absolutely fantastic and willing to bend over backwards for guests. He’s the best one they have there. |CONS: the owner continually asked us for money. They don’t take credit cards so they hold nothing for incidentals & asked us day after day for money (we paid at check out of course).||All the photos seem to be of zoom flume and not the country place. The same owners used to own both but that’s not the case anymore. Zoom flume is great, this “resort” is not. They are not...

We used to stay here long ago every year with our large family when we were kids and decided to go back with our own kids. Unfortunately, while the water park next door had improved over the last 30 years; this place went in the opposite direction. The rooms are dilapidated, musty, etc. while we were, by no means, expecting a 5star resort, we did think there would be some upkeep to the property - there was none. They leave a sign on the pool fence that says something along the lines of ‘maintenance. Do not use’ when we asked if the pool was open, we were told that the “sign is left up in case the health department shows up cuz they always want to run tests and stuff so you can say, ‘see. We don’t have anyone in it’”. So it’s clear the chemicals likely do not meet health code standards and that’s just the beginning. ACCOMMODATIONS: PROS: Ample parking. CONS: The rooms are old, musty, the paint is chipping everywhere, lots of bugs/cobwebs, broken mirrors curtain rods, shades, most of the lamps were broken, theres random cords sticking out of the walls, the tv was stuck on one channel and it was in Spanish. The staff unplugged it to try and fix it. We finally got it off Spanish but it only had one channel. There was a hole in the bedroom door (looked like someone punched it). The shower head is so coated in gunk that it sprays everywhere. The air conditioning units were all broken, unclean, moldy, and several filled with water and gurgled or froze all night. One was dripping into the bedroom all night so the corner of the room was quite wet. The deck has nails sticking out so watch your feet. Nothing was clean. No smoke detectors until we asked for them. They actually ran to the store to buy them to install. ACTIVITIES: PROS: Larry did his best w/ what he had to run activities. He plans a day’s worth of things to do from trivia, corn hole, to name that tune, whiffle ball, & pool volleyball. He makes sure all ages are included. He also coordinated a fire & s’mores night. CONS: We went to play games in the main lobby.. foosball table had no ball, backgammon had no pieces, tic-tac-toe had no markers, Chinese checkers had no marbles, & pool table was missing all the balls after the first night. Everything is kind of broken, missing pieces, or not kept up. The basketball court was covered in debris, the tennis court net wasn’t fully attached, etc. The pool is cracked, dirty, and very literally held together w/ tape. there is fishing but we were told it’s better to bring our own equipment since people always return it tangled. So we did some fishing (all catch and release) w/ our own equipment & while the bridge/dock/gazebo down there is all falling apart, we did catch some fish and had a good time. THE FOOD: PROS: Eggs can be cooked to order for bfast. CONS: The food was barely edible and it’s a very strict schedule. (Dinner is at 6:30. If you show up at 6:40 and it’s gone, too bad. You’re out of luck.) They seemingly used the same salad for the entire week same with the fruit - as it was the same every day but looked progressively limper w/ smaller portions. A lot of it is served cold; pasta with cold sauce, ribs were cold, & we think they may have breaded the chicken from the night before for the next night. When they gave us a “light” dinner of burger & fries, we had asked if they would have hot dogs to which the owner said she could “go to the dollar store and pick up some hot dogs”, which should give you a pretty good indication of the food quality. STAFF: PROS: Jose. He seems to be their “everything man”. He serves at meals, he cleans cabins, he does repairs, he brings towels when you need them, he fixed our porch lights, cleans our air conditioners etc. it would appear he is single-handedly keeping this place running. He’s absolutely fantastic and willing to bend over backwards for guests. He’s the best one they have there. CONS: the owner continually asked us for money. They don’t take credit cards so they hold nothing for incidentals & asked us day after day for money (we paid at check...

We stayed here on Memorial Day weekend and booked through Gavin's who was sold out. The Country Place was not yet open for the season and appeared to be under new ownership. The owners were on premises for the duration of our stay and were very nice people. Their lack of experience was very apparent however. Upon checking in, I inspected the four rooms our group received. The 2 by the pool, (#22 and #24) were the nicest. Clean, maintain, and quite large for hotels in this area. The third #20 was also large, but had a bad toilet and would not flush well and were were told not to flush toilet paper. The last room #18 was terrible. The rugs were wet in places and smelled musty. The drop ceiling was filled with tiles with stains. The back bedroom smelled like cigarettes and there was ash in the bathtub, even though no one there smokes. This room is also below where the staff sleeps, and you can hear them walking around at times. You can also smell when someone lights a cigarette in the middle of the night, on the balcony above he room, even though no one there smokes. ||I am going to give the benefit of the doubt to them as it was before they opened for the season, but small things like no coffee pots or microwaves in the rooms, insufficient toiletries, inexperienced staff. There were not enough towels, and they went to Walmart and bought more. They still had the tags on them when they brought them and when one of us used them, the lint from the cheap colored towels stuck to their wet body. They need to get in a large supply of white hotel towels that they can wash in hot water and bleach the heck out of them. Again, maybe this delivery comes in the next few weeks and solves the problem. ||We also lost power one night at like 4 am and could not find anyone in the office to help as it was locked. Once the staff woke up, they reset the breakers and we were good, but there was no phone to call anyone earlier. ||The resort is not large, the rooms are though. There is so much potential for this to be a great place to stay, but it needs some investment in new furniture, beds especially, and a experience staff to make it run smoothly. The owners and staff were very nice and did what they could to get us through...