Hotels near Dr. Pound Historical Farmstead, Dripping Springs

Employees are pleasant but seem poorly trained, which has not changed in 3 visits. Am a Platinum Elite IHG Member but this provides ZERO benefits at this hotel, which basically plagues the entire IHG Rewards Program, which is known to over-hype & under-deliver. Parking lot was basically empty when I arrived at 1:45PM in the middle of the week & approached the front desk to ask if it was possibly to check-in 75 minutes before the 3P check-in time? The front desk employee DID NOT ask my name or made NO inquiry about my reservation, type of room OR any IHG Rewards status. This employee could have been offering the exact same welcome to someone wandering into an IHG property for the very 1st time Worldwide, rather than a Platinum Elite Member with 2 million points. He could have cared less & this is a hallmark of the IHG Rewards Program overall. He looked up from his telephone & simply replied: ”There are no rooms available & check-in is not until 3P” & he then looked back down at his phone. Interaction completed. Love it when unconcerned & totally uninformed hotel front desk employees respond in this manner. It is the same as telling a guest that there is not a single room in the property available NOW, but in 60, 90 or 120 minutes, EVERY ROOM in the property will suddenly become available at the SAME time. Nonsensical at best. Many of the chairs in the breakfast room were so stained we would not sit in them, as was the heavily stained chaise lounge in the room. Housekeeping overall was acceptable this time, & the employees overseeing the breakfast room are a vast improvement compared to previous visits. Other than the older front desk gentleman who does not realize that IHG Platinum Elite status INCLUDES ”early check-in & late check-out”, all other front desk employees were quite pleasant & helpful. Platinum Elite states also supposedly includes ”complimentary room upgrades”, but 90+++% of IHG properties are either totally unaware of this part of the program or are directed to simply ignore it. Do not remember the last time I received a FACTUAL room upgrade at ANY IHG property Worldwide, so this property was no exception.

We stayed for a number of days and loved the room. Everything was clean and very nice. Only one thing was lacking and that was the breakfast. If you didn't get there right away, there was always very little left, and we were always up early. Some days, plenty of eggs, but hardly any bacon or sausage. It was very sporadic. We ended up picking breakfast up outside the hotel. The staff (front desk folks and head of the cleaning staff) were all so nice and helpful!

PRO: Good interior decoration. CONS: Poor management, poor service and communication, unpleasant noise from Air Conditioning. We booked a Lucky Arrow cabin via Trip.com. Shortly after the completion of payment, we received a confirmation email from Trip.com with a receipt attached. ”Please show your confirmation number and PIN number to the reception.” ” Check-in after 16:00.” ” 2- person breakfast included.” We later found out that none of this information was correct. (1) When we arrived at Lucky Arrow Retreat around 7pm, there was no reception to be found and we were trapped outside a closed gate. We tried the PIN number from the email, it turned out to be incorrect. I called Lucky Arrow a total of 8 times and sent a message to an ”assistance number” printed on the lock of the gate. No one answered the phone. We were stuck outside the gate for 20 minutes and very frustrated. While we waited, there was no reply back from Lucky Arrow. We almost drove to Austin to find somewhere else to stay. We eventually got a text message back asking our names and gave us the instruction of how to unlock the main gate and our reserved cabin. After we got past the main gate, we found there was literally nobody managing the property. We did not feel safe staying here due to the lack of any assistance from them if there is any emergency going on during our stay. (2) There was no breakfast despite what was advertised. (3) The exit gate remained OPEN when we were leaving after self check-out. It appears that anyone can drive in from that exit gate which gives the guests no privacy and makes the place unsafe. The Lucky Arrow Retreat needs a lot of improvement in communication, as we did not receive any information regarding the check-in procedure and it was difficult to contact any staff during our stay.