Pocono Manor Golf Course — Local services in Pocono Township

Not what it was meant to be but had it;s advantages for us. We stayed here for 2 nights to be close to Mount Airy Casino which was hosting a show we wanted to see. Lets start with the Pro's.

They were half the price of Mount Airy which was outrageous at over $400.00 a night. They had a shuttle to Mount Airy which was only 10 minutes away that ran until 1:00am. This was big because the roads are pitch black, no street lights, with some dangerous curves to get up there. If you were drinking you wouldn't want to drive this at night. We needed dinner when we arrived and low and behold there was a shuttle to Desaki (the local Japanese Restaurant) that I had on my list to try) too. They would take you and bring you back when ever you were ready. Again nice perk to save on the narrow mountain dark roads. The driver was very friendly and accommodating. Desaki? which I will comment more on Desaki's Site but let me just say, (Very Over Priced tourist trap, very nice atmosphere, chefs are great, food is nothing special). More pros room is as pictured we had two double beds on 8th floor. You could open the windows. Wow you never see that, but it shows how old this place is. Had the breakfast, very nice, good food, plenty of options, great attentive staff, great view by the window. Staff- I must say EVERYONE I encountered from the front desk staff to the cleaning lady was very polite, pleasant and with a smile.

The CON's . Hotel shows it's age, ware buildt in 1902, believe that! There are only two very small evelvators with scratches on the doors and worn brass edges, and carpet with torn edges, that needs replacing. If you put 4 adults and 8 year old one one you're touching elbows. They did work thought. Bathroom was small the toilet was a joke. It looked like a kids potty. I have never in all my hotel years seen something like this. I'm 6'4 my wife thought she would have to help me get off it because it was so low to the ground. The water pressure was weak in the sink, the bath room water dripped a little bit but no big deal. The sink again was a small pedistal, with no where to lay anything. The shower water pressure was better enough to get the job done. It was Clean I must add, with enough towels the first night. The beds - as pictured but just don't lay on them for support or comfort They sink in like a marsh mellow, but we managed for two nights, would not try past that. No coffee , no refridge in the room. Just a phone, a couple of plastic cups and ice bucket. View was great, and again you could open the windows which was needed because there was no exhaust vent in the bathroom. We stumbled across it on our last morning by turning on the Fan in the bed room. If sleeping late you will be awakened to the Slamming of room doors that BANG like a Jail cell. Things to do: Went to go skeet shooting, all excited. Surprise the machine to launch the birds was broken. No idea of when it would be fixed. Ok just saved $100 bucks. Went to go horse back riding. Surprise the women at the desk whispers to me, how much do you weigh? Ah 275 I replied, sorry she replied, we cannot take you our limit is 240. Hey I'm 6'4 and muscular build and old. But another nice to know. Also a limit on age, height for kids. Ok I just saved $120 bucks. Went to go for an ATV Ride of adventure. Woman at the counter told me "Oh you can fit as a single in a two seater. No Surprise I could only get one leg in. Saved money again. Ended up going to the Garlic Festival at Shawnee ski resort. Went for swim in the indoor pool. Nice and large but in the bowels of the hotel. Only a 4 chair and 4 lounge chairs. Water was ok, nice ledge to sit on in the pool. Again hotel shows its age. rack full of very small towels. Outdoor pool was nicely located, with plenty of lounge chairs but too cool to try. If you need to be near Mount Airy for a night this is the place to stay but don't count on amenities...

First, I would like to say that the Manor has a wonder, vintage charm to it. The room that we stayed at was updated and roomy. We had booked this room through a Groupon offer that we had found. I choose this location due to the many amenities it offered for my fiance and myself. We were so taken by surprise by its unique charm that we even booked a wedding tour with Nickole, who was great by the way. The problem began upon our second day there, that I noticed a charge of $322.00 on my online bank statement. Upon further investigation through my bank I was told that there had been an authorization hold on my account from the Inn at the Pocono Manor. I was terribly surprised by this due to the fact that upon check in, we were told that an incidental fee of $50.00 per day would be held on our card and released upon check out. I signed the document stating this, authorizing a hold of $100.00 for our two day stay. Upon bringing this up to the Manager, Julia, she replied in a very blase manner, "that this is just how it was and had no control over this due to their computer system and it automatically charged incidental fees and two day stay fee ." I was taken aback by this response because clearly the staff had failed greatly in disclosing this pertinent information and explained to her that the stay had been paid through Groupon. I understood perfectly well that the resort fee of $20.00 per day would have to be paid at check in, along with the $100 incidental hold. I pressed the issue due to the fact that I had several automatic transactions that took place with schedules bills and was penalized due to funds not being available. I explained that if I would have been told otherwise, I would have adjusted accordingly and used another card. Her response was simply, "Next time don't use a debit card." Excuse me? I am astounded that she is in the customer service business let alone the hospitality business! She said she could call the bank, but seemed far too bothered to want to do it. The hold was released and would take up to 7 business days to reflect on my account. This was clearly a mistake on their part and her response was nothing but rude and quite frankly dismissive. Upon checking out I was going to use another card to pay for our dining in the manor and was told that there was a balance to be paid. Before I could give her the other card to pay she had charged the same one that was over drafted and stated she could refund it and charge the other one. She is clearly not well suited for this job because as we stood there trying to resolve this issue, three other patrons came to the front desk complaining about extra charges. Her answer was the same for all of them, " This is how our system works." She clearly doesn't grasp how disclosure laws work, due to the fact her staff has their patrons sign one document, but put on hold a higher charge. Out of frustration of trying to get rid of us, she simply gave me the card to the general manager, (which I left a detailed voicemail for), and was everything but apologetic. She was trying to convince us that this is how all hotels function, but I am assuming she has not ventured far due to never having this issue upon my stay at various hotels throughout the country and different continents. Beware of the manager because if you have an issue be prepared to be received with a bothered retort. It is a shame due to the fact that my fiance and I were planning our wedding here for next year, but if this is going to be the service we get, I'd rather not deal with unnecessary stress.

UPDATE: KRISTA the resort manager called and reimbursed me for my overdraft charges. She was incredibly nice and helpful, and apologetic about the whole ordeal. She was a pleasure...

TL;DR: This vacation best suits someone who lives in the city and wants a quick 3 days to escape into the wilderness with easy access for people unfamiliar with the activities on the resort, such as fishing or hiking. The overall service is terrible, there is no night life in and outside of the resort area and it feels as if you need to be a pain in the ass to the faculty to get most of the other activities done .

Activities:

The best: The people working at the horseback range were very passionate about their job and the trail is lengthy, feels like a full experience. We did not play golf but the golf course was taken care of and well managed, to supplement people such as us who didn't play golf the driving range was satisfactory and entertaining.

The mediocre/not so impressive: Activities such as archery, BB gun shooting, field activities such as can jam, are very casually managed. The archery field consists of four large stationary hay bags a short distance from the sports resort and the BB gun targets are just stationary cans hanging from a string. The person running the sports activities manor just nonchalantly gave us the guns/bow and arrow and pointed us in the direction of the field. The hiking trails are short, about a mile and a half and there are only two of them.

The bad: The gun range/clay pigeon shooting was unavailable (nothing too awful about this, but still just sucked).

The resort itself:

The best: There exists an indoor (temperature controlled) and outdoor pool (no heating), during our visit we experienced two rainy days making the outdoor pool's water too cold to enjoy, so the indoor pool served us well in ameliorating this issue.

The mediocre/not so impressive: The food was not bad, and the alcohol was relatively cheap (in price, not quality). The view is nice from the dining room, and there is plenty of space to relax and sit down with friends to enjoy. The fire pit was only lit once during the 4 days we stayed.

The bad: The game room's games were malfunctioned and did not work sometimes, the pool tables had no pool balls (even after asking for service to provide some, we did not get any), the air hockey was missing a puck, the checker/chess board was missing quite a significant amount of pieces. The rooms did not have a microwave or a refrigerator, and constant trips to the ice machine were required. Everything inside and outside of the resort closes past 5pm, no night life.

The working staff:

The best: No comment

The Mediocre/The not so impressive: No comment

The bad: You constantly feel like you are a serious pain in the ass in order to get any of the resort faculty to help. The front desk did not inform us that magnets affect the room key card until three times after making the same mistake. The staff ignored/forgot requests made, such as providing billiard balls for the billiard table and remembering to not charge us for breakfast after paying in advance for the bed and breakfast package. The intercommunication was awful, there exists a frozen drink bar open from noon to 8pm which was closed at 2:30pm for some reason, and I had to go through four different staff members to finally get someone to assist me. The people working at the pizzeria took our money in cash and then waited 30 minutes later to ask us to remind her how we paid for this, only to inform us that there was no more pizza dough left in the PIZZERIA. Among many other problems, the service was simply terrible.

If you can find a neighboring resort in the same area, look...