King Penthouse Suite is OVER PRICED! Heated Indoor Pool is COLD! Separate Buildings on STEEP Hill.
We stayed in the Overpriced King Penthouse Suite @ $200 a night. While it had 2 rooms; living room with comfy couch that makes into a queen bed with additional club chair, desk and nice rolling office chair, and cabinet with plenty of storage for food, etc., also a nice sized wall mounted TV, and small refrigerator and microwave...then the bedroom had a club chair, a VERY comfy bed, night stands on both sides of the bed, a nice dresser with good sized TV, and a 2 person Jacuzzi bathtub... and a covered patio that can be entered via French doors from the bedroom and living room... the patio furniture was really dirty; not just lime green pollen build-up, but also plain old dirt! We had to change our clothes after sitting on the bar height chairs. The bathroom is set-up with the shower/tub and toilet in a tiny room, with the pretty sink/vanity outside the bathroom with little room around the sink to set out a flat iron/blow dryer, and a very dim light; making it extremely hard for a woman to do her make-up and fix her hair...ended up doing make-up in the car.
Then there was the quite small "Indoor Heated Pool"...the pool is NOT heated! While we were there, several people came and attempted to swim, but left quickly as it was just too cold! My husband and son tried to "tough it out" for a while as we purposely chose this hotel due in part to the indoor pool.
Additionally, you need to be aware of the fact that this is a multiple building set-up. The Penthouse suites are in a totally different building from the pool and breakfast area. You must walk outside with no walkway coverage (if it's raining, etc.), AND the buildings are on a seriously STEEP hill! The hotel will say that this is typical of Branson, but that is NOT true! There are plenty of other hotels that do not require paying customers to walk on extremely steep hills from building to building; including your parking area. I'm not exaggerating...seriously!
Additionally, the Penthouse suites are on the 3rd floor. When we checked in we were told to use the elevator, etc. Yet when we got to the building, a housekeeper informed us that the elevator was not working! No signs were ever put on the elevator, but it never worked that weekend. While stuff happens and elevators have issues from time to time, it was disappointing that the staff didn't communicate with each other so that customers would be warned in advance...I am recovering from a bad back injury so this was a difficult situation; the only thing that helped was that you can park (on the side of the hill! LOL) so that you actually enter on the 2nd floor, so that we only had to carry luggage up 1 flight of stairs.
The breakfast buffet is pretty good :) Biscuits and gravy, make your own waffles, donuts and bagels, cereal, yogurt, fresh fruit. With a nice area with many tables and chairs.
So to recap:
1. The Penthouse at $200 a night is overpriced. Really only worth about $125 due to location and overall hotel ammenities. A regular room is only worth aroun $75 in my opinion.
2. VERY Steep hill to park and walk from building to building.
3. No walkway and no covering when walking from building to building...so if it's raining bring an umbrella and pray your shoes won't slip on the steep hill!
4. Indoor Pool is very small and is NOT heated! Management will say it is, but don't be fooled, or you WILL be dissapointed.
5. Free Breakfast is good.
6. Location to Branson Landing is good (note that you can't see the fountains display on the Landing from the hotel).
7. Hotel is on the Free Trolley route stoping at various places in the downtown area and Branson Landing. Note the Trolley stops running at 6pm each day.
8. The price of the Penthouse Suite is not a good deal! You can pay around the same rate and stay at the Hilton on the Branson Landing and NOT be on a Steep hill, and have a nicer, larger pool....or there are MANY other hotels throughout Branson that have better set-ups for the price.
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