Garden Valley Golf Resort, Texas, United States

2Jerry M 5:00 PM May 26, 2017

Very Disappointing Experience
We have played golf at Garden Valley several times over the past 10 years and always enjoyed the course and the lunch at the restaurant afterwards, so we decided to try a "Stay and Play" package for our 28th anniversary. We made reservations for May 23-26th . We were a little disappointed with the external appearance of Hogan Cabin #10. The grounds are unkempt, the windows are foggy and the overall external appearance leaves a lot to be desired, especially for the price. When I tried to unlock the lower door off the driveway I had difficulty turning the key in the lock. After several failed attempts to unlock that door, I went up the outside stairs to try unlocking that door. The key did not work there either. Next I tried to unlock the door at the front of the unit and had the same problem. So I called the office and explained the problem. While I waited, I tried the lower back door again and tried jiggling the key while turning it. It finally turned and the door opened, just as Conner arrived with other keys. He had the same trouble with key as I did so he tried another key. That key also had to be jiggled before it would work, but it was easier to use so he left that key with me and took the other key back with him. Once we got into the unit we were again disappointed with the appearance of the interior. It had very old, worn shag carpet - however, it did appear to have been shampooed and vacuumed occasionally. The kitchen, dining room and living room are okay and comfortable The master bedroom upstairs is very plain and the king bed is very hard. It was so low it felt like sleeping on box springs with no mattress. The bathroom and shower were okay. The downstairs bedroom was pretty ugly with two very hard twin beds that sounded like there was a "whoopee cushion" under the mattress that made rude noises every time you moved. The bathroom there has paint peeling off of the walls! There is a comfortable sofa and easy chair in the living room, but the chair had one broken leg. This was reported immediately and was fixed the next morning. So we arrived at 8:00 the next morning to have breakfast in the restaurant before our 9:00 tee time, only to find out the cook had not arrived yet, so, we drove to a McDonald's to get a quick breakfast before our round of golf. We did get back in time to tee off with no problems, played a very enjoyable round of golf and a had good lunch in the restaurant. After a not so restful night on the hard beds, we decided NOT to try to have breakfast at the restaurant again, so we went to a Cracker Barrel to eat and got back to the golf course about 45 minutes before our tee time. We wanted to hit some balls on the driving range but we were told it was closed! We asked if we could tee off early since there was no one on the first tee, but were told no. We went to the putting green just as woman walked out of the pro shop with a bucket of balls and started hitting them on the driving range, that we were just told was closed! We finally got to tee off just before 9:00 and there was still no one in front of us. We finished the front nine in 1.5 hours and when we teed off on the 10 hole, there was a foursome in the fairway hitting their second shots. Apparently there was a tournament that started on the back nine before we started on the front nine and they did not want us to catch up to them, (but we did anyway) .We were only able to play 3 holes on the back nine before our play came to a screeching halt due to the slow play of the tournament players. We had had enough! Poor communications, poor accommodations, poor planning on the part of Garden Valley to cater to ALL their customers, not just those who live there or that are part of a tournament. We decided to leave. When I turned in the key I explained how disappointed we were with the accommodations, the restaurants hours and the fact that we were not able to complete our final round of golf because of the slow play in front of us. When I expressed my disappointment (for $800 for 2 nights and 2 rounds of golf) I was told "well they (the tournament sponsors) paid $10,000". Really? Shouldn't every paying customer be afforded the same privileges and customer service regardless of how much they pay as long as they pay the price you asked?

2Phillip A 5:00 PM Jul 10, 2013

Yearly stay and play
Have been going to Garden Valley with a group for the past 10 years or so. Started noticing problems last year 2012 while staying at the Lake House. The Lake House is in a great location on the edge of the lake and on the course. That is the only good thing about the place. This property is falling apart, bug infested and has bad plumbing. Do not even think about going out back to the pier, unless you like snakes. High weeds surround the back of the property. This year we stayed at another location on the course and had better luck. The course was in the worst shape I have seen it in 10 years. Three of the greens were dead and being resodded, and many of the tee boxes were dead as well. Our first round played was played through sprinklers that ran the whole round. This management group is doing a horrible job and is in danger of losing customers soon. Our group loves the course; but have started looking at other stay and play options due to these issues.