Mountain View Grand Resort & Spa — Hotel in Whitefield

This hotel is visually stunning however it was clearly significantly understaffed with little communication between the staff and management, which significantly impacted our stay.

After a long day of travel, we arrived with 2 hungry and grumpy children. We were told we could order pizza at the bar and eat it outside on the deck. At first glance, it seems like the pizza option is its own restaurant within the hotel, but it is not. It took us 30 minutes to find someone who would take our order for the pizza as staff were few and far between. When ordering, we were told the pizza would be brought to us on the deck. Another 45 minutes later, we went back in to the bar to check on the pizza, to find it sitting on the bar. Other guests seated at the bar told us it had been sitting there for at least 20 minutes. During our stay we were also dismayed to find that the only other kid-friendly restaurant option had only 3 kid meal choices, which were made “upscale” but meant most kids wouldn’t eat them. When we planned to have pizza again since my kids wouldn’t eat the maple glazed chicken tenders etc. there was a dough issue and no pizza was served that night. A simple sign or other communication that there wouldn’t be pizza available for the entire day in the lobby or emailed out to current guests would have been very appreciated. There are never more than 2 other restaurants in the surrounding area open to compensate for the slim choices at the hotel.

When we showed up to the wildlife discovery activity at the barn which is listed on the website and the daily activity offerings printout in the lobby, the staff reported that they don’t know what it is or how to offer it, and their supervisor wasn’t in that day to ask. Luckily a lovely woman threw something together for my son in the farm, but this clearly took her away from her other duties and we felt like an inconvenience though she assured us it was no trouble.

The movie theater is truly just a large-ish TV with a DVD player that only staff can access in a dark room with theater seats. The website implies there is popcorn available, but this is not the case. The movie kept cutting in and out, and the theater room had trash all over the floor under the seats with old candy bars in several of the cup holders of the theater seats.

Waiting to be seated by the hostess for the buffet breakfast took a long time each morning and the waitstaff only provided drinks. Our final morning, we were seated in a back room without silverware or beverages, and it took 15 minutes after we already had food to find someone to help us. It looked like we had been forgotten as the only occupied table in the back room.

Staff to highlight are certainly the grounds team and the farm team as they went above and beyond well outside of their expected jobs, and were thrilled to do so. After our 3y.o. son said hello to two of the groundskeepers, they immediately engaged him in a conversation and offered to show him some of the tools and vehicles they needed to do their jobs. He was thrilled and found the whole thing fascinating. The groundskeepers were so kind to take a few minutes of their day and answer the many questions a 3y.o. can come up with, and they did so with such patience and enthusiasm. The woman in the barn who created a “class” for us using antlers and other animal call devices was so knowledgeable and eager to make a fun experience for us even though the scheduled Wildlife Discovery Program had clearly not been effectively communicated to the staff by management and there was no training to actually execute the program. Overall the staff were kind but frazzled and seemed as though they had too much on their plates at all times.

We spoke to other guests at checkout who mentioned that they had been coming to this hotel for years but this stay was different with poor service compared to their prior stays. Hopefully this is just an isolated situation related to unexpected staffing changes and the typical level of service can resume...

My family and I have stayed here every year for 7 years around the holidays. We love the location and the building and the fact that there are so many great activities for kids as well as adults.

However, the restaurant has never been to our liking in that it is expensive and the options are always the same, year after year (and include zero vegan options and only one vegetarian option) and the service is always very slow. But this year took the cake as far as disappointment. I am one of six vegans in our party. When we arrived on Friday evening to a busy restaurant, I requested that the chef simply sauté some vegetables in pasta for me. The children at the table, also vegan, ordered things like fruit and french fries because they had already eaten Something more substantial and there are literally zero vegan children’s options. First, I was told that the chef was not willing to make me plain pasta with broccoli, that my only option at the restaurant was a salad which multiple ingredients would need to be removed from and not replaced in order to make it vegan,which prompted me to request a conversation with the chef. The kind server went back into the kitchen and returned, saying that the chef was not available, but that he did concede that he would make me pasta with broccoli. I was happy with this and let the issue go, Although this is not the behavior that I think a traveler paying as much as one pays to stay at the Mountain View and to eat in, the restaurant would expect from the chef.

However, we waited over an hour and a half for any of our food. I was the only person who ordered something off menu. Like I said, vegan children in our party had a very simple orders, and other adults had straightforward orders right off the menu. We were at the restaurant well past meltdown time for kiddos and very frustrated. Our server did not return to refill our water, ask if we’d like more drink orders or to check in and say that they were sorry our order was taking so long and offer an explanation or timeframe. I spoke with the food and beverages manager, who was very sweet, but was clearly unable to make any improvements in whatever problem the restaurant is having.

One thing I did appreciate about our stay is that front desk staff consistently sends texts to ask how things are going and when I let them know how disappointed I was in this Friday night restaurant experience they did reimburse $50 of the meal. However, this was a pittance in comparison to the actual price of the meal for everyone, so while it was a nice gesture, it was not particularly meaningful to solving the problem.

My family and I have made similar complaints about the restaurant for years. There are very Few other options for dining in the area or we would not be returning year after a year. At this point, we are left to consider that we may not return to the hotel again because of this seemingly in The restaurant has of offering a variety of foods that could accommodate many diets and/or being willing and able Substitutions to make up for this menu issue.

It’s truly such a wonderful place and such a shame that management would take a stand to not make improvements in this area.

There are a number of other small things which, taking alone would not be worth mentioning, but they add up to a tone set by the new management that seems to suggest an effort to cut corners. There are no longer robes in the rooms. One must call and request them. There is no longer complementary coffee in the morning. There is A hot tub that was shut down a couple of years ago and never repaired. The temperature of the pool was uncomfortably cold this time. not what one expects when staying in a luxury historic hotel. Again, my family, and I make similar comments for years now and Things have only gotten worse,, leaving me feeling pretty hopeless that change will occur, but it would be lovely if the new management was to bring this magical place Back to its...

DO NOT hold your wedding at the Mountain View Grand

We recently held our wedding at the Mountain View Grand and were appalled by our experience leading up to the wedding.

Initially, we worked with Katarina, who was amazing to work with. Unfortunately, she left a few months later and the change of hands set into motion many communication issues. Our interactions with her replacement were nothing short of frustrating as the senior sales manager was (1) repeatedly not responsive by email, (2) repeatedly difficult to contact by phone, even when trying to make contracted payments and (3) offered us options which we found out later were not available on the Mountain View Grand wedding menu.

Thirty days before the wedding, we had not heard from the Mountain View Grand despite multiple attempts to reach the senior sales manager to finalize the details. Finally, we reached out to the day-of coordinator on her personal cell phone to try to determine who the point of contact was for our wedding. We were only then informed that there was a new director of sales. We finally had our “1 month” details meeting 3 weeks before the event. This call was nerve-wracking as the director of sales was very new to the MVG and our wedding information. The director of sales also told us that many of the details (food/beverage choices, seating arrangements, etc) we were promised by the previous senior sales manager would not be possible.

Two weeks before the wedding, we were told that we could not hold our rehearsal dinner and welcome reception in our contracted venue. We were displaced from our contracted venue to accommodate a second party. This was a flagrant breach of our contract, which we had signed nearly a year in advance and placed a down payment on.

We discussed the venue change with Jim Myers (GM/Senior Vice President of Operations of Hay Creek). Jim was not apologetic or sympathetic to our concerns. He was unable to explain the breach of contract and offered unreasonable solutions, like putting our guests on an open porch with rain and cold temperatures in the forecast. Finally, we agreed to move our rehearsal dinner into our wedding venue (Presidential Hall) to avoid further conflict. When we asked for compensation after being displaced from our original venue (room deposit waived, room night comped, or help decorating the new venue we were displaced into), we were told that no concessions were going to be discussed at that time. In both our email exchanges and phone calls, Jim Myers was both extremely curt and often rude, demonstrating a clear lack of respect for us as clients. We were further insulted when we were told that the MVG’s only concessions would be to not add an additional charge for the new room which they had forced us to move into, and that they would waive a $500/hr bar sales minimum policy that did not exist in writing in any of the contracts we were provided.

Other issues we had with the sales department included: (1) an inability or significant delay in providing us with accurate invoices for our wedding despite repeated requests (2) intentional miscommunication around our requests for a signature cocktail list, nearly leading to us not being able to choose signature cocktails (3) the details of our BEO (banquet event order) were not provided to us until 3 days before our first event despite repeated requests.

While our experience until our arrival was detestable, once we arrived at the Mountain View Grand, we could not have been more appreciative of the treatment by the staff on site (servers, maids, front desk staff, bar tenders, etc). Additionally, the wedding would not have been as successful if not for Lia, our day-of coordinator. Lia and her staff immediately alleviated our stress and did an amazing job from the set-up of our rehearsal dinner all the way through to the breakdown of our wedding reception. We truly hope that they are appreciated for...