Holiday Inn Club Vacations Mount Ascutney Resort Timeshare

I took my entire family (party of 6) for a trip all over Vermont and this hotel is no way 4 stars…if much TWO! this hotel was in the middle of nowhere!!!…..the problem started when we arrived. We were told to be extremely careful with their faucet water (not much information was given to us other than the water was not good) We were given only 6 bottles of drinking water (one per person)….we were so scared of touching the water that we decided not to take showers!

We also had no access to the internet (only available at the main Lobby – our hotel Villa was in a completely different building). Cell phones don’t work (which was not a big deal). But what I find unbelievable is that a “4 Star Resort” does not offer breakfast and lunch services…. especially when is in the middle of nowhere!!! Very disappointed …..will not consider going back to this hotel EVER

First of all, I would like to start with the positives. We made our reservation several months in advance & we were impressed we were contacted several weeks before our stay regarding the renovations.

The property & the room were fine. Nothing special, but the location suited our needs. Plus, the room was clean, so from this perspective everything was fine.

The disappointment started when we checked in. The front desk employee on the 3-11 shift on this day was not very friendly & while she told us there was supposed to be an envelope for us she had no idea where it was & the morning shift would take care it it. After asking if this would delay us in the morning, we left and decided to see what the morning would bring. The next morning there were 3 people at the front desk & when we commented about how unfriendly the other employee was, one person immediately left (we thought she was the manager!) and another told us they did not want to hear anything negative about other employees, that we would be sent a survey & could document our concerns there.

The good news was they did have the envelope for us, but we purchased the brewery tour package & we found out on a Tuesday morning the tours were only on weekends! So, we paid $14 a night for 2 nights more than the standard room rate and no one offered us any type of a refund. The front desk personnel asked us to let them know what WE learned about the tour since they did not really know how it worked. So beware if you are interested in the brewery tour.

We paid for something we did not get. The morning shift also asked if we were going for breakfast! The restaurant was closed, so we had no idea. The check-in employee failed to mention this. Since we already ate, we asked about the following morning and were told ‘IF breakfast is included we could go to the country store’. What do you mean IF? Don’t you know? Plus we missed the first day’s breakfast, so it should have been a no-brainer.

The other disappointing thing was this was a vacation club property. We had signed up (and paid) for a future vacation club stay to learn more about the program. You would think they would know this & try to make our stay enjoyable.

The indoor heated pool was cold! It was not a good introduction to their program.

In summary, we would not return to this property. There are other options in the area that would have been better suited for us.

We are vacation club owners and scheduled to stay March 30 thru April 4th. I called the resort to request a building and was told that the main building will be closed for renovations. This includes the restaurant and any other activities housed in that building. This is two weeks earlier than is listed on the IHG reservation site and it is not listed anywhere on the vacation club site. I was not notified of this when making reservations or after. I am very disappointed with the Holiday Inn Brand for not communicating this information to its guests. Very poor quality service.

One of my greatest disappointments from the Holiday Inn brand in about a decade. Ultimately, it just came down to expectations – at over $200 per night not even during peak season, I expected a lovely resort built atop a ski resort, as many of the website photos suggest. Not so much! The staff will tell you that in no place on their website do they specifically make any written advertisement in regards to the ski resort; however, the photos do that for them. Again, don’t be fooled – there is no ski resort, at least not one currently in operation – it closed for good in 2010! There were rumours of a possible reopening, but those are no more. Unfortunately, the hotel owners continue to milk those deceptive postcard photos of a vibrant ski area for everything they are worth. Fact: there is nothing to do in the vicinity of the resort – closest “anything” is at least a 30-minute drive.

My review would be a “terrible” if it wasn’t for the fact that the staff tries hard to make up for the hotel’s inadequacies; I suppose you can say that they do what they can, and are actually quite professional. With respect to just about everything else, a definitive no go! Examples as follows:

(1) When you book with this resort, you will inevitably expect to check into a “villa”, which is how the accommodations are described. The definition of a villa is “a detached or semi-detached house” – this is not what you get. Not even close! The resort is comprised of several buildings of severely ageing apartment like condominiums. Villa? Really? Did I mention the abandoned ski resort view?
(2) Internet only works in some places; in many of the rooms it does not work at all. Management is aware, and they claim they are getting an upgrade soon, but based on other reviews this upgrade has been in the works for years.
(3) No cell service for some; nothing like being cut off from the world if there is no internet in your room.
(4) Breakfast is cheap, but here again by 0910 am on a Sunday the restaurant was completely out of eggs – heard the hostess attempt to justify this to a group of prospective customers…amusing!
(5) First room were were given, one not in the main building, smelled of must. Arrived on a rainy day, and it seemed as though water was leaking into the bedroom from the outside. We were moved into the main building…better.
Lastly, my review would have taken on a different tone if the hotel management actually decided to “own” the situation they are faced with, but they don’t seem to. In reading other reviews, the excuse is that the ski resort is unaffiliated with the hotel…SO? If you own lakefront property, and the lake becomes contaminated it is still your problem; independent of whether you own the lake or not. The closed ski resort is your problem…OWN IT…stop making excuses, and perhaps customers with different expectations will be more understanding.

This resort is not a deal for Holiday Inn Resort Club members or people renting by the night.

The unit was hot as it was June and the air did not work. The vent fan came on with the bathroom light making anytime in the bathroom loud and baths impossible. The gym is open to the public and .25 miles away. The ski lodge is closed. The Wi-Fi barely works. The outdoor pool is dirty. The indoor pool is not heated. The tavern on site is awful. The staff get drunk on the patio on their days off and a few of them live on site and will annoy you to death if they recognize you while randomly walking around. Like literally, two of their staff members just plopped down at my boyfriend’s and I table and started trying to drink with us. Then anytime they saw us on their days off…they would just interrupt anything we did on site… So annoying.

Nothing to do Here as the location is crap.

great kitchen and the bed was comfortable with a nice down comforter

BUT our unit was sadly in need of a facelift. the rooms are dirty, windowsills, things behind the end table ( looking for outlet). carpet is horrible. dark brown and stained and not something you would want to walk barefoot on! the wood is peeling on the deck and all the windows. speaking of windows …they were broken as was the bathroom handicap rod which was evidently broken off and not replaced. shower curtains were old yellow and mouldy.

This is in the middle of nowhere and that is probably o.k. when you only want to ski

this looks like it may be a bankruptcy story. if not they need to take a hard look and what they offer as a time share.

We stayed at the resort from Oct. 2-8. As owners of multiple weeks at Orange Lake, we decided to try this resort for a “foliage” vacation since it was a new addition to the “OrangeLake – Holiday Inn” resorts. The upgrades as mentioned were nice but we had a 1 bdr suite that overlooked the parking lot.

As preferred owners, I felt slighted by this location and the fact that the single “hotel” suite was being occupied by very noisy people. I offered to take over the 2nd bdr and pay the extra but the management would not let us take over that bdr suite to eliminate the continued noise from that room. I also was not aware that the bedroom in our unit was on the second floor which means that you climb 16 steps to get to the entry hallway from the parking lot, then another 15 steps to get to the bedroom.

The bedroom has a queen bed which barely fits in the bdrm and the bathroom is very small. We ate at Brown’s tavern twice and although the food is good the restaurant staffing (service) is very understaffed. We later found out that there are 1 bdrm suites all on one level in the main building which we would have preferred. If you stay here make sure you reserve a 2 bdrm suite so you won’t have to put up with the noise from the 1 bdrm/adjoining hotel room lock-off. I just can’t believe Orange Lake/Holiday Inn Club bought this place. Ascutney is also not a very good “hill” for skiing when you compare it to all of the other ski resorts in VT.

We did enjoy our week in VT as we went to Woodstock, Quechee (Simon Pearce for dinner was excellent), Hanover NH (dinner at Molly’s). Went for a scenic ride north on rt 100 for 60 miles, visited the Harpoon and Long Trail breweries and thought the foliage was beautiful. We would visit Vt again but not this resort. One last item – this is the only resort I have been at where you have to pay to access the intenet even if you have a wifi computer and they only have 1 computer in their lounge in the main building.