We booked the grass/gazebo area for our wedding at this resort in October of 2016. The grounds were beautiful, the rooms were very nice, pricing was a very good value, and the wedding was absolutely amazing (they just provide rental of the space we did everything else ourself) Our guests that stayed there were absolutely impressed with the entire property and the ones that did not were jealous that they didn’t. Many of them said that they would love to return again.
But the way the business is run made for an absolutely terrible experience and anyone considering spending any money here should strongly reconsider. We contacted Mike, a couple of months out and at the time were told that what they recommended was that we reserve all of the vacant rooms so that we were sure to have availability for any guests that wish to stay.
They have a 72 hour cancellation policy that seems much more than fair and that we could just release the hold on any additional rooms that we did not need as long as it was at least a week in advance.
Not too long after reserving all of those rooms we got a call from the resort and were told that if anyone was booking on a weekend there was a 2 night minimum and they could not accommodate our request. After some back and forth they decided that they would honor the request and they actually told us that they had later fired the person that had told us that we could have some of the rooms for just the one night. So our event and plans on reserving some of the rooms was still good and everything was on the up and up (or so we thought)
Throughout the time leading up to the wedding we kept getting calls from our guests saying things like “they told me I had to book 2 nights minimum”, and “we don’t know what rooms are available, you have to call the bride to find out what rooms are available” Every time we had to call them again and straighten the situation out. It seemed like no one ever knew what anyone else was doing and instead of taking all of the reservations we had to do their job for them. It was extremely frustrating. Not too long later we got a call and due to them changing their computer system they now had no idea which rooms and nights we needed, so since we wrote down everything, we gave them all of the information again (which was annoying and and inconvenience but still not terrible)
They told us that we could just pay for it when we came there, but being that we were planning the entire wedding we just wanted it to be taken care of so we called about 3 weeks out to just pay for everything in advance. (we were paying for some of the rooms that had been reserved in full and splitting the cost of some others with some of our guests as well) At that time we had went through each room that we had reserved and after all of the payments had been made we specifically told them that any other rooms that were reserved in our name would not be needed and should be released. They said “not a problem we will take care of it”
Fast forward to our wedding day….We checked in on Friday and our wedding was going to be on Saturday and check in was normal and nothing out of the ordinary came up. We were personally given keys for 2 rooms that were reserved specifically in our name (not any of our guests) and nothing else was brought up about any other rooms with our name on them. We set up for the wedding and prepared for it the next day.
The wedding was perfect until later in the night one of the kitchen staff from our caterer came up to us and said “hey the front office said that you have 5 more rooms that no one is staying in, we were wondering if we could have one of them” and my heart stopped. I went up to the front office and asked the manager Christine (she was very rude and confrontational) what was going on and she said “yeah thats right, have 5 more rooms that are reserved and no one has checked into them so my owner said to charge you for them” (over an additional $1,000) I told her that those rooms were to be released over 2 weeks ago and we did not need them. Her response was “i don’t know my owner just said to charge you” Which, come to find out, Christine was one of the employees that my wife had spoken to on a couple of occasions leading up to the event. So she should have been well aware of the entire situation. I decided to just go back out and enjoy my wedding reception and deal with it in the morning when we could talk to the owner.
The next morning when we were checking out we went back up to the front office and requested to talk to the owner Lowell Johnson (who lives on the property) He came in to the office to speak with us and we could immediately tell that this was not going to go well. He came in with a terrible attitude (which seeing as we actually filled 7 rooms with our guests, they only have about 20, you would think would get at least a little appreciation) and he proceeded to blame the entire situation on us. He cut us off multiple times not even considering the possibility that his employees could have made a mistake. He went as far as to say “we don’t do business that way” (referring to everything his employees had said to us) and “its your fault, you lose” to us. He even went as far as to put his hands on my wife’s shoulder to push her through the door to get us out. This was the day after our wedding and this man stole over $1,000 from us!
He said that “everything that is done goes through this computer” but will not consider or take responsibility for what takes place in his business. He asked us “where are your confirmations of them being released?” When we hadn’t even got confirmations for reserving them in the first place. He would rather just steal the money from the customer than admit that his business made a mistake. I would never give this business another dime and would strongly encourage everyone to do the same.
Later on we found out that one of our guests that had not booked a room called in and asked to book a room under our reservation (about a week out from the event) and they were told that “those rooms are no longer reserved, they have been released to the public, but there are still some rooms available for you to rent.”
The incompetence of the owner Lowell Johnson and his employees and the decision to take the money from his customers to cover for it is disgusting. The memory of our wedding will forever be tarnished by the actions of this terrible business. Unfortunately, because of the beauty of the location and the setting that this place is in they will get customers by default, but if it had to rely on customer service, ethical business practices, and the idea of taking care of your customers alone, it would be out of business long long ago. Lowell Johnson is a crook and should be publicly shamed for the way he treats his customers.
CONSIDER STAYING ANYWHERE BUT HERE UNLESS YOU WANT TO POSSIBLY GET THE SAME TREATMENT.
Oak Creek Terrace Reviews
We booked the grass/gazebo area for our wedding at this resort in October of 2016. The grounds were beautiful, the rooms were very nice, pricing was a very good value, and the wedding was absolutely amazing (they just provide rental of the space we did everything else ourself) Our guests that stayed there were absolutely impressed with the entire property and the ones that did not were jealous that they didn’t. Many of them said that they would love to return again.
But the way the business is run made for an absolutely terrible experience and anyone considering spending any money here should strongly reconsider. We contacted Mike, a couple of months out and at the time were told that what they recommended was that we reserve all of the vacant rooms so that we were sure to have availability for any guests that wish to stay.
They have a 72 hour cancellation policy that seems much more than fair and that we could just release the hold on any additional rooms that we did not need as long as it was at least a week in advance.
Not too long after reserving all of those rooms we got a call from the resort and were told that if anyone was booking on a weekend there was a 2 night minimum and they could not accommodate our request. After some back and forth they decided that they would honor the request and they actually told us that they had later fired the person that had told us that we could have some of the rooms for just the one night. So our event and plans on reserving some of the rooms was still good and everything was on the up and up (or so we thought)
Throughout the time leading up to the wedding we kept getting calls from our guests saying things like “they told me I had to book 2 nights minimum”, and “we don’t know what rooms are available, you have to call the bride to find out what rooms are available” Every time we had to call them again and straighten the situation out. It seemed like no one ever knew what anyone else was doing and instead of taking all of the reservations we had to do their job for them. It was extremely frustrating. Not too long later we got a call and due to them changing their computer system they now had no idea which rooms and nights we needed, so since we wrote down everything, we gave them all of the information again (which was annoying and and inconvenience but still not terrible)
They told us that we could just pay for it when we came there, but being that we were planning the entire wedding we just wanted it to be taken care of so we called about 3 weeks out to just pay for everything in advance. (we were paying for some of the rooms that had been reserved in full and splitting the cost of some others with some of our guests as well) At that time we had went through each room that we had reserved and after all of the payments had been made we specifically told them that any other rooms that were reserved in our name would not be needed and should be released. They said “not a problem we will take care of it”
Fast forward to our wedding day….We checked in on Friday and our wedding was going to be on Saturday and check in was normal and nothing out of the ordinary came up. We were personally given keys for 2 rooms that were reserved specifically in our name (not any of our guests) and nothing else was brought up about any other rooms with our name on them. We set up for the wedding and prepared for it the next day.
The wedding was perfect until later in the night one of the kitchen staff from our caterer came up to us and said “hey the front office said that you have 5 more rooms that no one is staying in, we were wondering if we could have one of them” and my heart stopped. I went up to the front office and asked the manager Christine (she was very rude and confrontational) what was going on and she said “yeah thats right, have 5 more rooms that are reserved and no one has checked into them so my owner said to charge you for them” (over an additional $1,000) I told her that those rooms were to be released over 2 weeks ago and we did not need them. Her response was “i don’t know my owner just said to charge you” Which, come to find out, Christine was one of the employees that my wife had spoken to on a couple of occasions leading up to the event. So she should have been well aware of the entire situation. I decided to just go back out and enjoy my wedding reception and deal with it in the morning when we could talk to the owner.
The next morning when we were checking out we went back up to the front office and requested to talk to the owner Lowell Johnson (who lives on the property) He came in to the office to speak with us and we could immediately tell that this was not going to go well. He came in with a terrible attitude (which seeing as we actually filled 7 rooms with our guests, they only have about 20, you would think would get at least a little appreciation) and he proceeded to blame the entire situation on us. He cut us off multiple times not even considering the possibility that his employees could have made a mistake. He went as far as to say “we don’t do business that way” (referring to everything his employees had said to us) and “its your fault, you lose” to us. He even went as far as to put his hands on my wife’s shoulder to push her through the door to get us out. This was the day after our wedding and this man stole over $1,000 from us!
He said that “everything that is done goes through this computer” but will not consider or take responsibility for what takes place in his business. He asked us “where are your confirmations of them being released?” When we hadn’t even got confirmations for reserving them in the first place. He would rather just steal the money from the customer than admit that his business made a mistake. I would never give this business another dime and would strongly encourage everyone to do the same.
Later on we found out that one of our guests that had not booked a room called in and asked to book a room under our reservation (about a week out from the event) and they were told that “those rooms are no longer reserved, they have been released to the public, but there are still some rooms available for you to rent.”
The incompetence of the owner Lowell Johnson and his employees and the decision to take the money from his customers to cover for it is disgusting. The memory of our wedding will forever be tarnished by the actions of this terrible business. Unfortunately, because of the beauty of the location and the setting that this place is in they will get customers by default, but if it had to rely on customer service, ethical business practices, and the idea of taking care of your customers alone, it would be out of business long long ago. Lowell Johnson is a crook and should be publicly shamed for the way he treats his customers.
CONSIDER STAYING ANYWHERE BUT HERE UNLESS YOU WANT TO POSSIBLY GET THE SAME TREATMENT.