Margaritaville Lake Resort, Lake Conroe

Stayed here as a celebration vacation trip with my boyfriend and some friends and kind of wished we'd booked elsewhere! First and foremost, I'd like to give credit to the wonderful folks at Joe Merchant’s Coffee & Provisions (in particular, the barista with the cat-ear headband for Halloween was fantastic), the manager at LandShark Bar & Grille as well as the lifeguards at the pools. They were nothing but kind and helpful to us and really made a huge improvement on what was otherwise a terrible vacation. We initially booked our stay at the resort-just myself and my boyfriend-because it was recommended by the Texas Ren Faire website and we were huge fans of Margaritaville as a whole. Thinking it would be lots of fun and worth it, we stayed for over a full week and thus got to know the resort pretty well. The room itself was fine: a cozy two-room situation with two beds and a balcony with a view of the lake. The view itself was pretty cool and only partially interrupted by the boat rental building (which wasn't an issue) and we were on the third floor so getting to them wasn't as much of a problem as some of the other guests might've had on higher floors. The couch was fairly small for two people at most, and though it pulled out to be a little makeshift bed, the metal rods made sitting or laying on it uncomfortable and we only ended up trying it out for a few minutes. There's a TV in the living room and the bedroom, but I do want to note that on the TVs they have a greeting that lists your room number and the name of the guest staying there. In our case, the living room TV was displaying the number for 510 and the name of the guest staying there (if there was one that day), which could have been a huge issue in other cases as you are able to pay for things at the resort just by writing that name and number down on the receipt. Hopefully that is not a common event amongst the rooms. The bedroom was fine. The beds themselves are extremely firm and raised pretty high off the ground so-being 5'4"- I had to do a pretty significant bit of climbing to actually get onto one, and even my 6'1" boyfriend thought getting into them was awkward. No issues with bedbugs (though there were lots and lots of spiders everywhere within the room), but the sheets on one bed were much more worn down and rougher like sandpaper compared to the sheets on the other, which were softer. The bathroom was much more spacious than I was expecting and had both a shower and a bathtub, to my delight, but the drains in both as well as the sink were all really dirty and had difficulty accepting water. We actually had to pull the drain stopper partway out of the sink to get the water to drain at all, otherwise the basin would fill up while we brushed our teeth and I was reluctant to see why they were so clogged up. The shower head was also coated in lots of white substance (limescale?) which caused it to spray in lots of different directions, and even after trying to wipe it down with one of the provided cloths (which were very nice) it didn't offer much help. The attachment into the wall was crooked and looked like it had been messed with too. Ended up going out to buy our own toilet paper since we'd be staying so long and neither of us wanted to deal with the 1-ply they offered us. The resort, in an effort to be more environmentally conscious as a waterpark on a lake, does the room servicing every 3 days as opposed to every day like other hotels, and this wasn't something we really minded as we're usually pretty self sufficient but in the 10+ days we stayed there, we only received servicing once by request (on day 5) and an offer once the day after when it was no longer needed. As a whole, the resort seemed poorly maintained for what it was claiming to be, and a lot of stuff seemed really messy or like it wasn't being taken care of. Directly below us, for example, was the Arcade area on Floor 2 and for every day that we stayed there, the whole area reeked of sewage. To get to the Arcade (which is just a handful of claw machines and games, most of which were Out of Order but I'll get to that later) from the elevator is a super short trip, the room is directly ahead, but for some reason they have a restroom stationed within that hall and something had to have burst or maybe someone was using it during their breaks because there was a Stench that did not go away even after we saw a maintenance cart outside to fix it. Within that same hall and just a few feet away from that restroom is one of their cotton candy machines, which is cool in theory but within that proximity it seems more like a health risk than a fun treat. As for the Arcade room, our experience still irritates me a week later and is the primary reason for my feedback based on how things were handled. I've been a fan of claw machines all my life and have a very clear understanding that the majority of them will be rigged, but this was by far the most frustrating time I have ever had with these games and I was able to actually win some of the prizes. The claws are definitely on the weaker side and in the case of the Pokemon claw machines it is completely impossible to pick up some of the plush toys based on their size alone vs the claw-they simply can't grasp the toy from any angle. The one we preferred, however, was the furthest to the right with the cute snack-themed animal toys. We won a Shrimp Fox toy with more attempts than I'd like to admit, and later were able to catch a cute Wrap Dog by the tag, but it got stuck on the claw and wouldn't drop into the hole when it was brought back. As per the rules of the claw machine itself, we technically won that toy, so one of us went downstairs to see if the front desk could do anything to help us. The front desk informed us that the Arcade was run by a third-party individual and that they'd email him to come out and help us when he was able to, as he lived off-site and quite a ways away. In the meantime, they gave us an "Out of Order" sign to hang up, and told us that the toy was ours once he got it out. We were assured that we would hear back from them within the 24 hours. This happened on the 25th and they asked when we'd be leaving, which wouldn't be until checkout on the 3rd, so they promised we would hear back before then. The time comes and goes and we check back to the Arcade, but the toy has been re-positioned into the machine so we went back to the front desk to ask about it and are greeted by a different individual who tells us that multiple guests had come down to claim the toy, but they'd declined them, saying that "the toy belonged to the people in [our room number] and they've already claimed it". Concerned, we asked them if they've heard anything from the person running the arcade and why the toy was back in the machine when we'd been promised otherwise, and they assured us they'd contact him again and that it was weird we hadn't heard back from him yet. Once again, we were promised an email or call within 24 hours, and that if we didn't hear back then they'd call our room themselves. We went through this back-and-forth multiple times and, I'm a grown adult with plenty of plush toys, I don't need another plush toy, but the fact that we were explicitly promised a resolution and being teased about it really made the whole experience frustrating. Finally, less than 10 hours before we were scheduled to check out and over a week of this later, I notice the toys have once again been rearranged in the machine (implying the guy running them has visited at least twice during our stay and not once have we been contacted) and that the "Out of Order" sign has been removed so I head down to the front desk myself and ask about it. This time I was greeted by someone other than the two we'd spoken to previously, who claimed to be the acting Manager at the time, and she told me that "because the Arcade is run by a third-party, there's nothing we can do if he doesn't feel like contacting you after we've let him know there's an issue". I asked her why we'd been promised a resolution to this issue so many times over the course of our stay, only to be told that it was all nonsense and they didn't really care a few hours before checking out, and she just gave me a shrug and a face and repeated the same thing back at me. It was such a waste of time and energy, and while I would've happily just bought the toy myself the point of us being treated like that despite trying to be patient about it still kind of pisses me off. Ultimately, I would say there are some neat things about the resort if you're only staying for a day or two at most, but you'd be better off just booking a normal hotel with a pool for much, much less money and way higher quality. The on-site food is poor at best-even the fancier stuff-and the only salvation was the little cafe on the first floor. Also, bring bug spray unless you're looking to deal with clouds of mosquitoes and other critters.

5 min after going to bed on the first night I found bed bugs all over the bed. Luckily I was still awake and could caught this to get my family out of the beds right away. We immediately moved rooms and were up all night going through all the bags and clothing. We were supposed to stay 2 more nights but decided to leave the next morning instead. I felt like I should have went around telling people because I doubt the hotel was mentioning it to other guests. This was the offseason for the hotel I guess so we also found a lot of things weren't open. The water slides weren't open and not all the restaurants were open either. This should be clearly stated on the website that the slides and things are closed. We went for dinner at the restaurant that was open and there were half the tables empty and we still were told it was a 20 min wait so they didn't overwhelm what staff they did have working. Staff at the desk were great to deal with but we were disappointed with the hotel.

It's always been an absolute pleasure every time I stay here. The staff is always so helpful and ready to make your stay a wonderful experience. I want to thank the front desk ladies: Alexis, Theresa and Amanda. They went above and beyond to make sure I was happy with my room. A special thanks to the bartenders at the pool bar. Those guys are true experts making these drinks LOL! Overall, a great experience and no complaints. Highly recommended place!

Had a great time! The front desk team was the best! Big shout out to Theresa…! Our room was very clean..! The pool and lazy river was nice. The sun sets were stunning…! Spending the afternoon at the pool and watching the sunset was the best! We will be back!

I am apart of a wedding group arriving in October. Shelley took time out of her busy schedule to help not only once, but twice to ensure my family’s rooms are on the same floor and next to each other. I cannot wait for my upcoming stay. Thank you again Shelley for all of your help ahead of our families big celebration.