Holiday Inn Club Vacations Lake O’ the Woods Resort

Never again

I was looking forward to this vacation with my family and three year old little girl. The in-laws had stories of past years they’ve spent here and the great memories they made with family. When we arrived I was pleased with the general appearance and we were a few hours early so we decided to take a dip in the pool. This is where things started to go downhill. There were ants everywhere. All over the pool lounge chairs, the picnic tables by the playground and on any seat. Nothing seemed to be attracting them, they were just everywhere. Pest control should be a priority. Also, all of the pool lounge chairs were filthy with dirt and spider webs. The webs were filled will dirt and leaves and general outdoor debris so it was clear they had not been cleaned in sometime. We checked back into the office at 3:30 thinking maybe we could check in a few minutes early. They said not yet but they could have us in right at 4:00. Turns out they didn’t have us down for 1 cabin like we reserved but 2. They wouldn’t let us lose the 2nd cabin and we had to wait till both were ready to check in. 4 o’clock rolled around and sure enough, no check in. We didn’t get to check in until 5:45 because of a maintenance problem in one cabin and missing inventory in the 2nd. We get to our cabins (back to back not facing each other) and I open the door and immediately start feeling ill. The cabin was 85 degrees inside so I turned the ac on hoping it would cool quickly. We decided to shower after swimming and this is where I really decided I wanted to be elsewhere. When I walked into the bathroom the floor In the corner between the tub and toilet was rotting through. I could see daylight coming from the floor. Rot and mold disgusts me. It was so bad the toilet was sinking into the floor. I have pictures to show how much it was leaning. I felt terrible trying to let my three year old enjoy herself in there and I simply couldn’t let her just be a kid. I had to hold her over the toilet because I was so grossed out and I certainly wouldn’t let her play in the bath. We had to shower and shower quickly because the tub filled up with water while we were showering. If you’ve ever seen inside a drain pipe you would know how disgusting it is. To be standing in water that is not draining through a filthy drain is scuzzy.

The carpet was so nasty and the furniture felt like it had a film on it. I took the extra bedsheets and extra blanket and covered all the furniture and the floor area in front of the furniture just so we’d have a clean place to relax. Relaxation turned out to be hard to come by because the cabin was still so warm.

I checked the ac again and it had only gotten down to 82 after about 2 hours in the cabin so I turned it down all the way and made a call to the front desk. Security answered and told me that their grounds guy had already left for the day and so they were calling “the villages” to see if their certified air technician would come to look at it. An hour passed and I called again. He said it didn’t look like the man would be able to come to help out. I asked him what should we do? I said our in-laws cabin was nice and cool and ours is burning up. He said well is there anyway you can bunk up with them. I said well, of course, we could but we’ve been stuck with TWO cabins when we only wanted one in the first place and we’re paying for it and we should at least be comfortable. We shouldn’t have to “bunk up”. He said I’m sorry I know that’s not idea but we will have a guy come first thing in the morning. I checked the unit outside and it looked so old and sounded pretty bad so bad I knew it was the culprit. Fast forward to the next morning, it was 78 degrees in the cabin at 6:30 am with the thermostat set on 62. No one came until 1:30 pm. It was back up to 85 degrees in the cabin by then. He stuck his hand over the vent and made his judgement. He said well I checked the freon on the outside unit and the air or blowing cold so it’s working fine. I said you may feel cool air but it’s 85 degrees in here and it’s barely blowing. He said sorry that’s all I can do for you. Thanks for nothing man.

I tried to make the best of lake o the wood and enjoy being In nature. Too bad we continually got fresh waves of sewage stink when we were sitting outside. I like sitting outside but I had to do some cleaning first. The porch was COVERED with cobwebs. The windows were also covered in cobwebs and dirt. They had not been washed in a long time.

I called on day two about the sewage smell and was told our cabin L16 and L15 were near the septic and we would have to wait for it to pass. I said well I suppose that’s reasonable but there is a leak under our cabin and it looks like it may be sewage. She said no it’s the septic and asked if I needed anything else. I said what about the leak? She said is it inside? I said no. She said is it bothering you? I said not other than it being pretty gross and bad for the building and plumbing. She replied “oh then it is ok then that it’s leaking, don’t worry about it.” I said wow, thanks then…

I decided to grill out for my family. This grill was COMPLETELY filled with ashes and cigarette butts. It was also covered in cobwebs and spiders all over. Our picnic table and grill were covered in ants. The yard was full of leaves and debris and poison Ivey growing freely. The bucket sitting next to the grill for campers to empty their ashes in was filled to the brim with cigarette butts. Just so disappointing. I should have brought my own grill. Why aren’t these things cleaned?

I mentioned earlier that I felt sick as soon as I walked in the door. I stayed sick the two and half days we were there. We decided to leave a day early because I just didn’t feel good and wasn’t enjoying myself and I couldn’t enjoy myself thinking of my baby girl being in this place. We went home and I washed all of our clothes, bags and we took showers immediately. Lo and behold as soon as I washed clothes and took a shower I felt like a new man. My throat stopped aching and my persistent cough of suffered with stopped. After I shower I went to change over the laundry and as soon as I picked it up (these were the clean clothes we didn’t use on our trip) I started to feel sick again. I feel like there was a terrible mould problem in the cabin.

This place was so disappointing, I would wait till we went into town just to use the restroom in public places because I felt so dirty in the cabin. I truly would have rather been in a tent. The units are in dire need of major updating. They need wifi. They need working air and plumbing. They all need hd tv’s. Only one of ours had an hd and the other had a big box tv. Rotting floors and filmy carpet and furniture is simply unacceptable.

We drove over to “the villages” to enjoy the water park there and I looked out the window at their units in remorse that we weren’t able to get a reservation there. I don’t know if they’re any better but they looked like they were in better shape.