The most exciting time for our family. Our daughter's wedding! We stayed at the St. Croix Inn…read morealong with about 60+ other friends and family as this is the closest hotel to The Atrium, a beautiful wedding venue 5 minutes away. This place has potential. Our Lakeside Suite was updated and fairly clean. We had a few issues with a broken toilet seat, broken blind in the main living space and ants. Lots of ants. The staff did fix the toilet seat and blind in a timely manner. They tried to spray for the ants, but it didn't work. We, the guests, found an ant repellent and took care of the ants ourselves. Our family and friends had mixed reviews about their rooms. Some said they were fine and some said pretty out dated, unclean, issues with toilets and showers not draining. The cabins that our family and friends rented were not very clean in their opinion. We are NOT high maintenance people! We camp for crying out loud. We can rough it. So if our family and friends are complaining - it must have been pretty bad.
Now, the staff. . . First off, the maintenance/custodian Fredrico was wonderful! He did not speak English, but used the translation app on his phone to communicate with us. There was a concern about the deck steps that lead to the restaurant and down to the back yard. They were unsafe. He took care of it right away and told me how he understood that our daughter's wedding was that weekend and that the rehearsal and welcome party were going to be there in the yard by the lake. He reassured me that everything would be safe. One of the housekeeping ladies also was wonderful! I'm not sure if it was his wife or not, but they were so welcoming, accommodating and gracious. Constantly reassuring us that they had our backs and understood how important this weekend was for us. Miss Becky needs some training from them!
MISS BECKY: The general manager. WOW! Never in my life have I experienced hospitality like that from a GM! Honestly, we felt like we were at a 'crazy Aunt's' house where you didn't know what you were going to get! A bit bi-bolarish! We talked to her with respect and kindness and she was fine. If any of our guests had concerns, she was darn right mean! She promises things, but doesn't always deliver. We were happy that at least the broken toilet seat and blind were repaired, but I'm sure she's under scrutiny by management. If she's not on an improvement plan - she NEEDS to be! Becky promised the bride and groom that the bar/restaurant would be open AFTER the wedding. The wedding ended at 11:00 with guests arriving back via shuttle starting at 10:15 p.m. My sister arrived back on the first shuttle. She said that Becky was kicking other patrons out of the bar. Saying, we have to close now. Those other guests (not from our party) were not happy! When the rest of the wedding guests got back on their shuttles, the bar was closed. This is like `10:30 and 10:45p.m. When they called the emergency number on the front desk, Becky answered and said, "There weren't any people in the bar and when that happens, we have to close it." Which was a lie as we knew she kicked those other guests out to avoid waiting on the wedding party. She then proceeded to say, "There's a bar down the road you can go to." So. . . . we paid for a shuttle for our guests to NOT drink and drive at ALL and she wants them to drive down the road to a bar? This was so frustrating for us as parents of the bride. We take pride in keeping everyone safe and NOT breaking the law! The father of the bride is a retired police officer and this infuriated all of us! So the young adults pooled their beverages and snacks from their room and partied on the lawn till Lord knows how long! They made the best of it!
ERIC: Eric explained to us that he is new to the St. Croix Inn. Telling us that he was 'begged' my management to come up to Wisconsin. I believe he said he came from Florida. He also kept saying, I am the Assistant GM. He seemed more the GM than Becky. He had great customer service and was very helpful and accommodating. I'm hoping that he's there to straighten things out, get trained from Becky and then replace her! That would be a great business plan. Eric had his hands tied, it was evident, but he did make sure all of the guests double room charges (yes this happened to ALL of us too!) were taken care of. Eric - I wish you well and I hope they are paying you well to put up with all of this!
So - if you are having a wedding in Solon Springs, stay at airbnb's. Stay at the cabins at Swanson's Motel Cabins, or stay up in Superior/Duluth. It's not worth the hassle to stay at the St. Croix Inn. As the parents of the bride, this was very embarrassing for us. People traveled 5-6 hours (some out of state) and then didn't have a decent place to lie their head. While I know this is not a reflection on us, I was still very embarrassed. It's really a shame that this beautiful piece of