Devil's Head Resort — Hotel in Town of Merrimac

My husband and I decided it might be fun to take our three year old daughter on a ski trip. We both only had the Monday off after Christmas, so it was going to have to be a quick trip. We figured it would be nice to stay somewhere the night before so we could have the whole day for skiing on Monday. Devil’s Head seemed to suite our needs, since they have a “resort” at the bottom of the hill.

Our stay there would have been okay. The place clearly hasn’t been updated in a long time. The bed was as hard as sleeping on a piece of plywood. (My daughter, upon entering the room and excited about being in a hotel for the first time, ran to jump and land on the bed and exclaimed, “Ouch! I hurt my neck. This bed is hard.”) I know most hotels have harder beds because they last longer, but this bed was ridiculously hard. Worst night of sleep I’ve had in a long time. The food in the restaurant was expensive, but that’s to be expected in a place that calls itself a “resort”. The food was good. We also had a wonderfully nice waiter who handled the clearly understaffed restaurant with poise. The swimming pool area was dimly lit, in a room that was not heated any differently than the rest of the hotel, and clearly not insulated from the cold outside (if the wet, fogged up windows were any indication). The pool itself was a nice size. I also can’t believe how loud the rest of the hotel guests were. There were people talking and yelling in the hallways until 11pm. But despite all this, we were in a good mood and willing to accept everything for the sake of getting away for an evening and having some fun.

Unfortunately, around 7:30am on Monday the resort lost power. Everything was down, chairlifts included. I realize this was not their fault, and is a terrible thing to happen, but I would have expected better customer service from their management with the situation. They were refunding people who had already purchased lift tickets, however, for those of us who spent plenty of money to stay at their establishment and who were expecting to ski that day, they offered no options other than to tell us they thought things would be up and running by 1:30pm. I’m not sure what they thought we should do with our 3 year old for 3 hours in a place that had no running water, no heat, no food and no entertainment with the bleak hope that things might start working, but apparently, they didn’t care, which is what I’m ultimately upset about. I wasn’t asking for a refund, but just some acknowledge that they appreciated our business and patience with the situation. They could have easily offered a voucher to come back some other time that season, but nothing. In fact, the manager was hiding in the office while he had the front desk staff handle all of the complaints. The way they handled the situation was disappointing and amateurish. Now, instead of returning some other time to try it again, I will just go elsewhere. I can’t tell you whether the hill is better or worse than others in the Midwest and I’ll never find out because I won’t ever be going back. There are plenty of other ski hills where I’ve had good experiences. I’ll be sticking to those...

The check in staff was less than helpful. She gave us a map with zero directions on how to get to our room, just circled stuff. No one was ever at the desk to ask for help the dozen or so times we walked passed and had a general I’m over everything attitude.

The room itself is very basic with no fridge or microwave or a updated anything, including a tv. You can find better value elsewhere just based on no fridge or microwave in the rooms. The halls, especially lower levels do smell like mold/mildew. Our room smelt fine. This place is a maze with very few signs to help you find your way.

We ordered food and drink from the bar and left with a bad taste about the entire place. Our server spent her time complaining with co-workers about how she was upset about not getting tips. She was saying how every other customer didn’t tip her the night before. If your not getting tipped a lot maybe it’s you, not them. It might be her annoyed, uninterested attitude about having to doing anything. What was really upsetting was the server trying to pull a fast one on us. She gave us our total and expected us to pay without a recipe. The total seemed high and we asked for an itemized recipe. When we got the recipe she charged us for an entire soda plus 2 shots for making one drink. Since when has anyone ever been charged $2.50 for the soda to fill their already $12 drink. I do not believe this was an accident as this is a common way to pocket money as a bartender. No ones gonna miss 3 oz of soda from a soda gun but charging customers $2.50 and not ringing it up adds up quick for a bartender pocket when you don’t give people receipts hoping they just pay. It’s also easy to say “oh my bad” and take it off like she did if you happen to get caught and try it again on the next customer. She was trying to avoid giving us a recipe to begin with and never gave us one when we left. We went back later and asked her to print us a copy of what she entered in for our order. She went to the computer, acted like she printed something but pulled our old recipe out of the garbage. If she didn’t mess with our bill after we left why couldn’t she produce a copy that we ask for? Did she charge us for a double shot but enter a single since shot? Since she removed the soda charge so easily she could remove that as well and claim it’s a tip. None of it makes sense and I feel as though she took advantage of us. Maybe people don’t like tipping when they feel taken advantage of when she overcharges for drinks. She tried charging us $14.50 for a small rum and coke so check your bills closely. I did not complain to managers as I obviously can’t prove it unless the managers choose to look into it and even so I don’t know they have enough precautions in place to prove it either. It would be her word against mine if...

I've been there 3 times. Most recently my family and I went there in the winter of 2016. We won't be back. Ever. 1 star because the quality of the hills is overshadowed by my disgusting room and my poor experience with management. Here's the bad and the good and the indifferent:

The Bad: We stayed in the Lodge. The rooms are poorly cleaned, my room had feces smeared on the side of the tub when I checked in; Management does not care about you, after 4 attempts to get in touch with them (3 direct requests and 1 comment card) I have still not heard back.

We checked into our room, dropped our stuff and went skiing. When we came back and used the bathroom, we noticed poo smeared on the side of the bathtub. When I called the desk they asked me if I wanted them to send someone up to clean it up. I said no, that I would take care of it. I was shocked that they didn't immediately offer me a different room. After 3 separate requests over multiple days to speak with a manager, nobody ever called me or got back to me; I never spoke with a manager. Each different individual assured me that I would be contacted by the manager. I even left a comment card saying that I wanted to be contacted. A dirty room is one thing, but feces smeared on a bathtub that wasn't cleaned up is entirely another. The thing that brings them to one star is the fact that I was repeatedly told that a manager would contact me, and that never happened (even when I called back a month later).

The good: The hills are nicely designed runs, with something for every level of skier. The prices are competitive.

The indifferent: Lift lines, and wait times are average. Each of the times I've been there, I've never seen the upper circles open.

Hill maintenance is average. Grooming is done in the morning, but no evening grooming is done (which is done at some other local hills)

The on-property dining is average. The snack bars are as expected. The bar is as expected. The fine dining, "Dantes", is above average quality food (that's not to say excellent, but certainly good), but exorbitant in cost. This is listed in "indifferent" because you don't have to pay the exorbitant cost if you purchase a ski package.

The bottom line: The hills are good, but whatever you do, don't stay on the property. Who knows what you might find...