Minerals Hotel — Hotel in Vernon Township

My rating is 4.5 stars! Coming from a very picky traveler with pretty high standards for hotels, my advice is to take all the bad reviews of Minerals Hotel with a grain of salt. I was hesitant about giving this place a shot due to the mixed reviews, but I'm really happy we took our chances. Our family of 4 had such a fun time, tried almost every activity they offered, and truly enjoyed our stay! The vibe felt like a rustic mountain retreat, so anything "outdated" as so many people mention, just felt like part of the atmosphere. Is it a brand new resort? No. It is still nice? YES! ||The staff especially deserves rave reviews. We didn't encounter a single rude staff member, and most of them went above and beyond to make sure we were having a great stay. Sheryl and Ian who work at the Activity Center both deserve praise!! Sheryl got to know our kids' names and was constantly checking on us to see what else she could do to make our stay special. She was one of the most friendly hotel staff members we've ever encountered anywhere in our travels. We interacted with Ian at archery and rock climbing and he was such a great instructor, friendly, and talkative about the area and the resort, giving us great recommendations.||We stayed for two nights but spent 3 full days (the morning of check-in through the evening of check-out) there enjoying all the amenities. My kids are 8 and 12, so we had to stick with the family-friendly offerings. They are now rock climbing obsessed (we did it 4 times). The pickle ball courts look new, in great condition, and easy to reserve. We also did archery, laser clay shooting, foot golf, and regular golf at the Minerals course. It was all so much fun and included in the stay! FYI - my husband is big golfer and enjoyed the 9 hole course. A fun, family-friendly challenge with beautiful views! Our first day and half was awful rainy cold weather for August, so we were stuck inside doing all the indoor activities which we had more than tapped out by the second day and started to get a little bored. Luckily, the sun came out that afternoon and we were were able to get outside for the rest of our stay.||POOLS: The indoor and outdoor pool areas are both gorgeous and spacious. So many waterfalls that add to the resort feel. Top-ranked hotel pool in my opinion. We really enjoyed the heated pool and the hot tubs. My daughter loved the cliff jump. Kudos to the person who designed the hot tub area (must be 16) to have a mini pool with waterfall literally connected to it, so the parents can soak while they watch their kids right next to them. Genius! Yes, they do allow public memberships and yes it was crowded on our nicest day there. However, it was still enjoyable and we had no trouble finding chairs. The Moonshine Bar & Grill had good drinks and good food (pricey), and fun atmosphere. ||ROOMS: We stayed in a standard 2 queen room, no frills, not even a balcony, and we we thought it was really nice other than the room size being on the small side. We lucked out with a great view of the pool and the room was clean. The furnishings and carpet appear updated. If anything, the tiling in the bathroom could probably use replacing, but not enough to bother me or make it feel unclean. They have shampoo, conditioner, and body wash mounted on the shower wall, which was a nice touch.||FOOD: We had dinner and one breakfast at Kites. Dinner was good (7 out of 10), although on the pricey side. But that is to be expected at these resorts. We had a great server that night. The breakfast buffet is just okay. They were short-staffed and those servers appeared younger and less experienced. The cafe they have in the lobby was better than expected. They have quite a few "healthier" options in their cold case like fresh salads, fruit bowls, and protein snack packs. They even sell semi-healthy packaged snacks and protein bars, etc. The second morning we got protein smoothies from there that we all enjoyed! Prices are a bit high, but again, aren't all resorts like that? ||FITNESS CENTER: Due to the fact this is a membership gym that hotel guests have access to, it was definitely full. Constantly busy at all times of the day, but if you like to workout, it has everything you need and more.||Towards the end of our stay, I asked our kids if they would like to go back sometime and they both screamed a resounding yes! I personally would love to return for an adults-only stay and try out the spa, the wine cave tour, sip and paint, etc. for the 21+ crowd. We didn't make it over to Grand Cascades Lodge like I had hoped, but I definitely want to check out that property too. Overall, I highly recommend giving this place a shot and forming your...

So much potential for this to be an amazing resort/hotel if they addressed some safety, accessibility, and food issues (bring your own food or order out!!) Here are some impressions from this weeks stay:

Safety: We participated in a number of activities, as well as enjoyed the pool. Big safety issue — no helmets for rock climbing! I cracked my forehead on the wall and the instructor said it was because I turned my back (which I did not, as I hit my forehead). The descent was also super fast, and I landed on my butt a few times, bouncing far enough back to almost miss the mat and just miss hitting my head on the hard gym floor. Of course, you sign a waiver to do these activities at your own risk, but I would suggest helmets and more mats. (The instructor was super sweet and it definitely was not her fault, but it is a safety issue that should be addressed.)

There were tons of children (even babies) in the hot tubs despite there being a sign that people under 16 were prohibited from using them. There was no oversight at the hot tubs to monitor this.

There is nobody organizing the kids jumping off the cliff jump, so they were just pushing in front of each other and even jumping at the same time, almost on top of each other. A staff member at the top of the cliff would alleviate this.

Accessibility: If I was an individual with mobility issues, this would be a no go for me. My mother who had mobility issues, but who does not usually need a handicap room, was with us, and a couple things could have made her stay better.

First, it seems the elevators are few and far between. If you are in a wheelchair or have mobility issues, I’m not sure how or if you could access the hot tubs. We were constantly taking long walks to find elevators for my mom to get up to the restaurant, down to the activities desk, etc. I think the walk to the backyard area for pickleball or archery would be impossible as the alternative to the large wood staircase is a path of giant stones. If there was an alternate way, we couldn’t find it easily.

When we went to the restaurant via the elevator, staff did not greet us until I started walking through the buffet and someone found me to tell me I was on the wrong side. It was not clearly marked for people using the elevator where we should actually go, which seems to be an oversight.

Finally, the bathtub is huge and high enough to be over my knee. It was also very slippery inside. This was difficult for my mom with her knee issues and I was nervous she’d injure herself. Ask for an accessible room if you don’t think you can manage a huge step into the tub! I’d love to see this hotel be more accessible for everyone.

Food: BRING YOUR OWN FOOD OR ORDER OUT. The options are so limited at Minerals. The Moonshine food was passable, but $70 for nachos, fries, a chicken sandwich/fries, and chicken tenders/fries. We ordered room service from Kites for about $115 and it was awful! The rustic pizza was cut up into pieces and stacked on itself so it was a congealed mess. Chicken wings were super fatty to be almost inedible. Etc. We got wiser the next day and ordered lunch from Goodfella’s and dinner via Uber eats from McDonald’s. I would expect more from a restaurant at a hotel that I spent $900 to stay 2 nights at. Additionally, the options for snacks after the overpriced cafe closes at 8pm are super expensive vending machines ($2.75 chips; $4 soda). My suggestion for the hotel would be to take a page out of Hilton’s book and have snacks available for sale 24hrs at the front desk. And price them reasonably.

Additionally, the arcade is a waste. Outdated games, way overpriced, and a few of the games just took our money and didn’t work. This would be an easy fix on the hotel’s part to update this and it would be lucrative for them.

I give the hotel 2 stars because the room was clean and comfortable. We had fun in the pools (the large outdoor pool was too cold to go in.) Laser clay shooting was super fun and the director of that was super nice and knowledgeable. And the mountains are so pretty. Staff...

My husband and I and other friends had a stay at Mineral Springs this past weekend. We were in town for our other good friend’s daughter’s wedding. (Not held at Mineral Springs). There were 3 couples staying at MS. This hotel was suggested by the bridal party, and I’m sure they did their research before making recommendations and arranging for pricing for rooms. We had a miserable time at Mineral Springs and would not recommend it to anyone. The facility has a lot to offer, but we weren’t there for the facilities. Why would I not recommend it? Several reasons. But mainly POOR customer service. Check in: We were told that check in as at 4PM. Our wedding, again off premises, was at 5:30. The shuttles to the wedding venue were leaving at 4 and 4:30. One of our party had checked in the day before the wedding , thankfully. When we asked at front desk if the other 2 couples could get early check in we were told, no, and that they “hoped” they would have the room ready by 4. When asked what room we were going to be in, they couldn’t tell us that until the rooms were ready. (That would play a role a little later on.) Again, thank goodness one of the couples in our group already had a room. This inability to check into our rooms forced us to all (6 of us) getting ready in one room for the wedding. We had some time to kill before getting ready, so we headed to the bar. It was apparent that things were chaiotic already. We were able to get seats at the bar, but were told that they could not take credit cards as their computer systems were down. I don’t usually travel with a lot of cash and this time was no exception. I inquired about an ATM and was told they didn’t think it was working either. I couldn’t even charge my drink to my room, b/c I DIDN”T HAVE A ROOM! Next, the bar tender, clearly flustered, alerted us that she was only a waitress, not a bartender, so bear with her. She was in way over her head. She was trying as hard as she could and doing the best that she could. Not a relaxing atmosphere. We headed off to our wedding and at 5:05 PM I rec’d a call that my room was ready. Our wedding was wonderful, the next day, as check out was at 11, one in our party asked if we could check out at 12 (being as we were delayed getting into our rooms by 1 hr.). The answer was no. Told we could stay and enjoy the amenities after 11 but that our room keys wouldn’t work any longer. My husband and I headed up to breakfast at 9:30 put the “do not disturb sign” on our door, took our bags to our vehicle and headed to breakfast. (But had NOT checked out yet). During breakfast we learned that the computer system was still down but we could charge our breakfast to our room. Two of the couples asked for seperate checks. When we rec’d our checks, the amount that was charged to each of the two couples was that 4 breakfasts were charged and that it appeared that each couple would be paying $114. We were told that half of that would be returned somehow to each couple. Rather confusing and we just have to trust, I guess. We returned back to our room @10:15 to do one more sweep to check for articles and use the bathroom, to find the housekeeping cart straddling our door and that the room was already being cleaned. We proceeded to head up to check out and when I told the folks at the desk that we were checking out and that housekeeping was already there b/f we had checked out. I was told “we have no control on when housekeeping gets there”. In closing, it was not a pleasant experience at a hotel that isn’t exactly cheap, but does have amenities and is in a nice location. Basically what we are most upset with is the lack of customer service we felt we rec’d during our stay. Why was check in delayed? Lack of housekeeping staff probably. Why didn’t they have our rooms already picked out for us? Understandably they didn’t know their computer system would go down but they didn’t seem to want to accommodate guests , despite. I will also be reaching out to Mineral Springs/Crystal...