Westgate River Ranch Timeshare Release

Westgate River Ranch is a resort for families, weddings etc. It´s not so suitable for business meetings, courses or workshops (my opinion). There are four rooms for business meetings – three without windows and one with windows. The room with windows is a really big dance hall, suitable for weddings.

The service level is not very high. The people who should care for us as guests were not very keen to help us with for instance having an office chair for a person who needed such a chair. – We do not rent office chairs, was the answer.

We wanted to have a dinner with something extraordinary – steak and salmon. We had to order this meal two months before our arrival. We expected something really good since we had to order this long in advance. However, when the dinner was served, the steaks were small, dry and hard to chew. The salmon was also quite dry and not tasty at all.

We left our room for the day and made sure all our doors were locked. When we came back later that evening, our back door was unlocked; housekeeping left it unlocked. River Ranch confirmed that housekeeping was the last key card entry used in our room.

Our neighbours/friends staying with us in the next room came back to find their front door was left open and unsecured. River Ranch disputes the fact housekeeping was in that room, because there was no key card entry, yet there were clean towels left and the beds were made.

When we told Westgate that, they refused to agree with us that housekeeping was the last in the room, even though there were clean towels and made beds. Nothing was taken from either room and there was no evidence anyone else other than housekeeping was in our room, but the fact they left both rooms unsecured when they were done in our rooms is very concerning.

On top of that, the response we got from River Ranch’s manager (Jodi) and their corporate office (Sara) was insufficient and uncaring.

My husband and I have been Westgate Owners for over 10 years and we have never had such a bad customer service experience.

Westgate was adamant in defending their housekeeping crew and wouldn’t take into consideration our aspect of what happened.

We asked for compensation and/or a discount on our next visit and were denied. I don’t know which was worse, the fact that housekeeping left our rooms unlocked when they were done or the fact that Westgate’s local and corporate customer service was cold and not helpful at all.

It is highly unlikely we will stay at River Ranch again. I don’t recommend staying here if you are concerned about room security or a caring customer service department. If they treat owners like this, I can’t imagine how they treat their guests.

We had put our week at Westgate Villas in the bank and needed to use it or lose it. Wanting to try something different, we exchanged for Westgate River Ranch. Our check in time was Saturday at 4:00pm. First disappointment – Dinner Hayride also scheduled for 4:00pm Saturday. Can’t-do both and didn’t want to leave all our belongings in our vehicle.

The second huge disappointment was that the unit #8 A & B was very dirty. A call to the front desk brought housekeeping to the unit. All floors needed sweeping and mopping, and dinner table seats were encrusted with something that needed a lot of elbow grease to remove.

The third small disappointment was TV. Westgate advertises 51″ flat screen in living room and 40″ in bedrooms. Neither one was in Unit 8 A&B, until the living room tv failed. It was replaced with large flat screen but bedrooms still have the old “boat anchors”.

Next in line was golf. Tee time was made a week before our vacation, and woman running pro shop showed up 20 minutes late. She comped us the cart. Nice. The greens were in such terrible condition and where there was grass it was almost an inch long.

The Smokehouse Grill is the only place to get a half decent dinner. The drinks were excellent (can’t mess up beer), but the kudos end there. My wife ordered salmon which was cooked beyond recognition, my ribs and chicken were dry and overcooked, but they tried to hide that fact with BBQ sauce. Friend’s steak was cooked fine but over seasoned. After a strange explanation regarding the salmon, it was taken off our bill.

We did take an expensive swamp buggy ride and airboat ride. Both only lasting about 45 minutes each. Fun, but not worth the money. Which by the way, you will pay for every activity including archery, skeet, horseback riding etc. Only truly non-pay activity was the petting farm, and how long could 4 adults do that?

Rodeo on Sat. Night was fine, and street party/Saloon were fine as well. But that’s it folks! If you’re expecting daily resort activities you will be very disappointed, as we were. We were so unhappy, that we decided to end our week on Wednesday. There is no activities director that we are aware of and although there were many golf carts, the rental fee was astronomical- $60 for one day, $50. Per day for longer term.

Westgate should consider taking the word “Resort” from their name and signs as it could be as deceiving to others as it was to us. We’re sorry we invited friends to join us although they did make our short time there bearable. We were constantly apologizing for the time they wasted joining us.

This place is probably fine for a weekend getaway, but make sure to check in on a Friday! We know we will never recommend it nor will we ever return. Wasted our exchange week by choosing Westgate River Ranch Resort and Rodeo.

We were attending a wedding weekend being held at the River Ranch.

When we called to make the room reservation, about 6 weeks prior to the event, we were told the time to book for the discounted wedding rate was expired and if we wished to come, it would be $600 per night!! For a room with 2 full-sized beds, not even queen sized beds, because apparently those rooms were all gone. WHAT????

After MANY phone calls to various Westgate personnel, wedding planners, and River Ranch’s event planning staff, that was finally straightened out & we got the room at the correct rate. All I kept thinking once we got there was, “They wanted $600 a night for THIS? They must be joking.” The room was clean, I will give it that, however, you could tell it had been recently upgraded because there were still holes in the wall where towels racks and curtain rods had been changed out. It was also extremely dark. In an attempt to get more light into the room, we actually took off all of the dark western motif lampshades and used bare light bulbs.

As a family traveling with two teenagers of the opposite sex, we requested a cot. Nope. No can do, they don’t have cots, so we had to bring our own air mattress (Please keep $600 PER NIGHT in mind.) Once we checked in, the young lady at the counter couldn’t even show us on a map where our room was, she had to ask someone else. We were given an activity sheet and when we asked about making reservations for those activities, we were told we didn’t need them on the weekends, just go on over to what you want to do. So, on Saturday morning, we went to go Skeet shooting.

Once we arrived, we were told there were no available times without a reservation and they were booked solid from people that had reserved space 1-2 days prior. So, we tried archery. Same story. Along with swamp buggy rides and airboat rides. We had to settle for the petting zoo and putt-putt golf. ($600 PER NIGHT, remember that?) On the second day there, after spending the morning attempting to find activities, we came back to our room in the afternoon to get ready for the family member’s wedding, and we discovered that the maid had been there.

The service consisted of making the beds, laying new towels on the bathroom counter and TURNING OFF OUR AIR CONDITIONER. WHAT???? 85 degrees in central Florida and she turned off the A/C? Why would anyone do that? There was a small sink in our room, and that was left as we left it, with coffee cups in it, so apparently for $600 PER NIGHT, you also wash your own dishes. She did not leave new hotel sized shampoo or conditioner either, and no new soap. If you want additional hygiene items beyond what they give you on the first day, you have to go to the General Store and buy them…($600 per night.)

Once you get to the store, they only sell Pepsi products, so for those of us that think Pepsi tastes like a Coke that has been opened and left out to go flat, well, you’re out of luck. And don’t even get me started on the prices. Outrageous. You’re miles from nowhere in this place and they know it, so they’ve got you over a barrel if you need anything.

I wouldn’t go back to that place if someone paid ME $600 a night to do it.