Lanier Islands

"Beautiful and picturesque location offset by many flaws. The “resort” is far from what it could be. It’s poorly managed and operated and the hotel properties and rooms are dated and basic with few amenities. For a hotel that seems to host many events and weddings at the same time, and therefore hosts a large number of guests, they are surprisingly ill equipped to accommodate more than a small number of people. The restaurant and bar options are very few, and what they do have is materially understaffed and undersized. The lake houses are portrayed and advertised in a way that strongly imply a golf cart is included (or available to rent). But it’s not included and if you don’t rent one well in advance they seem to be often unavailable. The lake houses are miles from the main hotel or anything else, so walking anywhere is not an option. If you come with only one vehicle but multiple people, good luck. To go anywhere, you all must all ride together at the same time. If you are on different schedules or want to do different things, there’s no way to get anywhere without a car. Overall a disappointing stay. A new owner could easily make improvements to the facilities and operation of this property and turn it into something really great. Under current ownership and management, it’s not worth staying here."

"The place was very nice and the staff was very courteous and professional. If you stay at the Villas ask for a upstairs room because downstairs is 2 sets of stairs for those with disabilities like me. The food and service at Bullfrogs was great and big portions. The frozen drinks were the BEST !"

"We stayed 2 days for my son’s 5 years birthday. We were very excited based on the reviews. Everything was good until we found out that the TV & phone aren’t working in our room. We also have a newborn and it was too hot for her to stay outside so I stayed in our room during the daytime. I called the front in early afternoon to fix our tv. The first engineer came pretty quickly and tried to fix it but he couldn’t. Then the second engineer came and said he still can’t fix it and he needs to find a new box. At this point my baby was getting fussy because she kept getting interrupted during her nap. I asked the engineer to come back in 2 hours so she can rest. I waited about a few more hours and the engineer didn’t show up. I called the front to check on the status and the staff said he will send the engineer again. We went out to dinner and I stopped at the front and asked if the tv is fixed yet. The staff said he doesn’t know. He wasn’t too friendly and didn’t seem to care too much so I asked him why did we get a room with a broken TV, he said he doesn’t know and just call the front again if it the TV doesn’t work. We came back to our room and realized the tv still doesn’t work. I called the front and the staff seemed annoyed by my frequent calls, he asked if we want to change a room, (it was already 9 pm and we are checking out the next day) I told him it’s too late to change now then he said he will send engineer again. I told him the engineers can’t fix the tv then he said okay. The staff never bothered to say sorry once since this incident occurred. I understand things may not work or get broke, and I wouldn’t be writing this review if the staff was apologetic or respectful while we are experiencing inconvenience during our stay. My son wanted to stay longer so we were going to extend our stay but we decided to leave instead. This is a 4 star hotel and I simply expected a better customer service & experience."

"Lanier Islands was absolutely beautiful. Spectacular is a fitting word! The Bullfrog Restaurant was awesome. The food was fresh, tasty and absolutely delicious Our waitress Stephanie made the experience truly memorable. She was professional while being charmingly accommodating. We'd definitely recommend this Restaurant to others."

"My husband and I stayed for three nights at the Lanier Island’s King Suite Villa on the lake. Being one of the most expensive rooms in the Villa section, our expectations were somewhat high. Although the villa itself was spacious, we would never stay there again. Here is our breakdown: CONS: Even before we got there, we had questions about our reservation. There is no local telephone number available on the website, so you always get some offsite India answering service, and the call gets dropped a lot (it took me three calls to get the answers I needed, which included confirmation of our booked reservation because the confirmation email never came through). I usually don’t mind these call centers, but they weren’t able to answer basic questions, and the English was very difficult to decipher. It was very frustrating. Now to the hotel: The king bed and pillows were terribly uncomfortable. We didn’t sleep well all three nights. The air conditioning was super cold, and you can’t set it at a higher temperature, so we had to turn it completely off, and then back on later, to be comfortable (or turn on the fireplace). The couch was tiny, old, and felt like cardboard. You CANT comfortably sit there. There were occasional little baby roaches on the counters and ceiling, but you are in the woods, so… The sink in the mini kitchen wasn’t connected properly, so when we used the sink, it flooded the living room area and wet the rug, which when lifted, smelled moldy. Obviously this was most likely not your typical event, but, it happened to us and we had to have staff come in and fix it, interrupting our relaxing morning. You can’t see the lake in the spring from your villa because of the trees, but I imagine in the winter you can. You have to get water bottles from the front desk because they don’t provide any in the villa (which we found out the hard way when we got into the villa at midnight and didn’t even have one water bottle waiting for us - also they are half-size bottles.) When the maids came, they didn’t restock our paper coffee cups, so the next morning we had to go get coffee. The lodge isn’t too far, but it’s an inconvenience when you want coffee first thing. No plates, forks, etc were provided at the villa (I recommend having some paperware available for future guests). Also, when we checked in, it’s clear the maids didn’t thoroughly clean the bathroom, as we found blood spots on the underside of the toilet seat from the prior guest. Lastly, the light is so terrible. You can’t see anything in the evening. Even with every light on, you can’t see. PROS: The pool was excellent, as was the soaking bathtub in the villa. Sidney restaurant breakfast was pretty good and the waiters were wonderful. The restaurant next to the pool provide really great alcoholic beverages. The property itself was pretty and well kept. The beach was ok, but callaway’s is much better (The signage is terrible when looking for the beach - you have to ask where everything is to get anywhere) You do have access to good restaurants about 15min away. On a final note, I mentioned some of these matters to the front desk, but aside from fixing the sink and waiting two hours to get water bottles brought to us by the staff, nothing was done about the other matter. We got an apology but no solution. Recommendations for Lanier Management: 1. Have a local number available on the reservation page (after someone books), and if you can bring the phone center in house, I’d recommend it. Also check your reservation email funnel, because I called twice to get the reservation email, and it didn’t come. The email that did come said I needed to complete my booking, though I already had done that (and got the confirmation number). 2. Provide 4 bottles of water for new guests in their rooms. For water and coffee. Replenish them throughout stay. 3. Change the mattresses, sofa beds, lighting, and spray for pests more frequently. 4. Provide a few paper plates, forks, and spoons. 5. Allow guest to change temperature of the cool setting. Thank you!"