Daphne Press

Review of The Lodge at Ventana Canyon

If you are here to stay outdoors all day (for the ...

If you are here to stay outdoors all day (for the golf or racquet club) or in a conference room, you are probably better off. But, don't expect a four star experience if you stay as a guest. When we arrived, no one was at Valet, so we parked and went in. There is no check-in desk, but the Concierge checked us in. He pointed out the dining rooms, the bar, the golf pro shop, and the spa, but we had to ask how to get to our room and whether or not there was a pool. When we arrived where we were told to park, there was no lighting and a large curb with no ramp that was difficult with large bags. There is also no signage to direct you on the property (Rooms, Elevator, Pool, Lobby, etc.)
Our room was immensely spacious. That is the only good thing I can say. The AC did not get cool enough to sleep comfortably. It might have helped to have the vents open. But, when we attempted that, we noticed that most of the vents were heavily spotted with a furry black mold or mildew! Upon closer inspection, there was a shoe print with a squished bug on the wall in the kitchenette. There was a good bit of mildew between the tiles in the shower. A VERY large dead black beetle and a Champagne cork that wasn't picked up by housekeeping.
For business purposes, there isn't much lighting in the rooms. We had to bring the room's two lamps to the table near the kitchenette where there is also some dim overhead lighting. The desk area only has one outlet. The other is taken up by a small lamp. There are no USB charging ports in the room. The electrical outlets are spaced randomly and you have to move furniture to get to them. The bedside lighting is very tall and placed on dressers at the bedside, not nightstands, making it impossible to turn out from the bed without rearranging the furniture or lamps. There is also no way to charge your phone at the bedside unless you move the 6-drawer, bedside dressers to get to a plug. Or you can move the entire king-sized bed to get to the plug beneath the headboard.
The switch to the entryway is the only logically placed switch in the entire unit.Of the others, there are two entrances to the large bath suite, but only one entrance has a light switch. So, if you enter at the wrong end, you have to cross the room in the dark to turn on the switch. The switch to the kitchenette is across the entryway by the desk/workstation. The only switch in the kitchenette is to the disposal. The switch to the dining area is adjacent to the switch at the desk in the form of a dimmer-knob. And there are two dummy switches with no apparent function.
Finally, two last points: the king sized bed was oddly firm, but sagged toward the middle too. And, the last, the previously mentioned pool is not at the Lodge per se, it is down the length of the parking lot, past the tennis courts at the end of the property and is shared with the clubhouse and residents of the nearby community. This is not a leisure or resort style pool. It is a lap pool with lanes for exercise. The entire facility screams "Racquet and Golf Club from the 80's turned hotel." The "whirlpools" are not at the pool. They are male-female segregated along with the sauna and steam rooms of each locker room in the fitness center.
I can't speak to the food quality. But, at 7 pm on a Sunday, both restaurants were empty, so we went off property to eat.