Eagle Ridge Inn - Galena (IL)

1 /5 Morgan Payne: The experience we had here was horrendous and mind blowing! First: the shuttle system on the weekend of the Halloween parade. Being dropped off downtown was fine, our driver Jim was absolutely amazing and the sweetest human! He was the ONLY good part of this experience. Getting picked up after the parade was a NIGHTMARE!! They told us that the shuttles would be on a continuous loop picking people up and dropping off. They did tell us it would be busy after the parade (which I expected), and they told us to go to a Bar and get a few drinks after. 1, what if I don’t want to do that? 2, all the bars were absolutely impossible to even step foot in, and the restaurants were the same! What they didn’t tell us was that we would have to wait 1.5 HOURS for a shuttle to pick us up! There were SO many people waiting, one “shuttle” was a van who could only fit 6 people and the other was a much larger van and that’s it! It was 45 degrees out, now dark. Couldn’t get a uber because obviously it’s so busy. Not once did any of the staff apologize for the service. You know how busy this night/day is and you completely down play how long the wait would be. You’d think they would have this more organized because this happens every year. Figure it out! Again no apologies, just excuses. 2. The room was disgusting! Old food left in the fridge, bugs everywhere! Lady bugs, flies, spiders, dead mosquitoes! There was even a huge cob web with a massive spider in it! Like when was the last time anyone was in here?! Again, no apologies. Just excuses of why it was like this. We ended up leaving and not staying here because we felt so icky!! 3. The staff was not great at all! No one apologized for any of these inconveniences. Not one single apology or ounce of care in the world. Everyone kept giving excuses for the shitty stay/experience. No offers to try to fix it or ask what they can do to help. The ONLY staff member who was great was Jim, the man who drove us downtown before the parade. Amazing human! We asked to talked to the manager and our response was “she doesn’t want to be bothered right now”. Are you kidding me?! We are asking for a refund and will never be back. I can’t believe how many good reviews they have. A friend of mine took photos but they are on her phone. Please document these findings and use them for proof. Please save your money and sanity and just stay somewhere else.

1 /5 William Brammer: Let me start off with this hotel is not cheap to stay in. I stayed in a basic room in the main hotel with a single bed which was almost $400 per night. Which is located in a beautiful location, but was severely lacking in any kind of service or value for that price. We stayed for the weekend as a romantic getaway not affiliated with any events. If you choose to stay here, Ill walk you through the experience. Check in wasnt very friendly and really only explained how to get to our room. Once we got there the room itself is very dated and needing repairs. We had to locate and plug in some of our table and floor lights, the overhead lighting is a joke. We later discovered the "oversized jet tub" was just a large regular bath tub with jets that didnt work. The tile around the tub also had what looked to be mold covered in silicone, and the tub needed re-caulked. It was a hot weekend and we also discovered the A/C was not capable of keeping up during the day time, and if you want to open in the windows in the morning they are painted shut. We also tried to get food at the hotel for most of the locations. The first night we got food in the pub, it was way over seasoned extremely salty burgers. The waitress that took our drink order for some reason told us she had forgotten the previous tables order and was guessing. Our main waitress was excellent. Room service the next morning was eggs Benedict with overcooked eggs and unseasoned hash browns. The following night we tried to eat in the restaurant and was denied. The reasoning was they were "understaffed" while only a few tables had customers, but we could order all the same food from the pub next door. They were serving all you can eat prime rib, which appeared to be raw, not rare. We got the lamb, lobster ravioli and crab appetizer. The lamb was extremely small for the price, with no sides, and cold sauce. The crab was served on a baguette that was hard as stone. The waitresses in the pub were again very nice, it appears they are the only staff who are. Our last morning we ordered attempted room service again, but no one would answer and were given attitude when we ordered in person and didnt want the buffet. The rest of the Hotel wasnt much better. Outdated signs point to a spa that doesnt exist. We wondered around looking for the "amenities" because we already didnt like the staff. The carpet is very dirty. The "arcade" consists of two video game machines, one was broken, and a couple of table games. The pool was decent, no hot tub, but we had to find the lights to turn them on to use it even though it was still operating hours. The steam room was broken, but the sauna worked even though it could use a good cleaning (there were sweat stains on the walls). On our way back to the room from the pool we had the joy of hearing an employee yelling to another employee about how they wanted to assault a guest. Check out was straight forward, they asked a room number and if we were using the card on file, but not how our stay was and were quite rushy. Which is fine, we frankly couldnt wait to leave at that point. Again, the area is beautiful. There are plenty of things to do and we enjoyed the sights, shopping, and traveling in Galena. Lots of hiking trails, horse back riding, and golf courses outside the hotel. But we DEFINITELY will not be returning to this hotel again. I cant figure out how the reviews are so high, except to assume that because its a popular venue for wedding receptions meaning lots of drunk customers staying there not realizing how bad it actually is outside the reception hall. Edit: We also took advantage of the spa. The spark itself is very nice, however when we tried to utilize the website for booking it wouldnt work. When we called, no one answered. When we arrived their system didnt actually work properly either. Inevitably, we couldnt actually utilize all the services we wanted due to a lack of openings because of all these failures.

5 /5 John O: We stayed in one of the private homes, unit 501. The house was well maintained and clean with everything exactly as described. There was plenty of space for three couples. The outdoor fire pit, the hot tub, and the screened in porch were very nice touches. They have an easy checkout just like a hotel. They take care of the trash, food left in the refrigerator, everything you can think of! This was so nice compared to a VRBO where you spend 2 hours cleaning up and worry that you forgot one of the owners 30 items from their list. Additionally, this was the most friendly and accommodating staff I have been around in a long time! Will definitely come back!

3 /5 Stephanie Burkett: The building is old, and I understand theres just certain things that come with that (old musty carpet, cracked/warping balconies, layers of paint slapped over bumps and cracks). But I think what disappointed me for the price I paid was the lack of service and amenities. When I arrived the elderly couple checking in before me received a nice breakdown of check in/check out times, how to locate their room, the pool, etc. I wasnt even asked how many keys I wanted. Not terrible, but kind of set a strange tone for my stay. The room was disappointing, I couldnt use the balcony because of the stink bugs and spiderwebs, not a huge deal but I was looking forward to morning coffee out there. The bed was comfortable however, and the shower was decent. There was leftover congealed soup in my mini fridge. Theres no room service in terms of food, which seems like a missed opportunity since theres a restaurant onsite. Theres also no breakfast provided, or even coffee/water in the lobby. First hotel I have ever stayed at that didnt at least have coffee for guests. I did like that I received a text from the front desk AI to see how my stay was going and if I needed anything. I asked for more coffee for the coffee maker and someone brought it up within thirty minutes. I suppose youre paying for the location, and the scenery is one of a kind, but in that respect the hotel got lucky and rests on its laurels. I was here for a wedding, so I dont have to return to this hotel even though I will absolutely come back to visit Galena.

1 /5 Jennie Muth: Large formal wedding with 100+ guest. Rehearsal dinner, formal sit down meal, house rentals, room rentals, make up and hair appointments, they made a ton of money off us. I had appointments for 2- 1 make up 1 hair.updo. So busy with family I did not have time for these so I cancelled on Friday morning at 547am. (Appts were for 10 on Saturday) I.get an alert that I was charged 114.99$. NO WAY! I cancelled within the 24 hour time frame. What is going on? Called was told I didnt cancel ALL my appointments! What ? When you call and cancel what exactly does that mean to you? You say I had 3 appointments, I had 2 but regardless, cancel is cancel is it not? Still charged me! Poor customer service and I still did not get my money back! Shady business transactions. Would not recommend! Not only did I cancel but left another message the morning of at 1030 and 1238 to make sure they heard my original message from Friday morning, was still charged!