Best Western Plus Sparta Trail Lodge

Booked a stay while my son was doing National Guard drill in town. Room was very nice. A little dated and could use a better cleaning as far as dust and such. Breakfast was good. When my son returned from drill Saturday, his CO sent a form for tax exemption due to his military visit. The hotel refused it though he had a copy of his orders in his phone. They claimed I booked thru a travel agent...WHICH I DID NOT....I booked directly thru Best Western website stating military discount. They were for sure willing to argue with me how I booked the room even though I had the confirmation info screen shot in my phone showing the BW website. I was never allowed to show them that. We don't really lean on using my son's military status for discounts. He appreciates the discount but its not a make or break it thing. The tax exemption would have been nice but Im not arguing with people who clearly have minimal customer service skills. And being in a military based area...Sparta, Tomah, Volk Field, Camp Douglas....you would think they would know how to handle things like this. Oh well.....

I've never left a review. I work with people and places and am very understanding. I'm however absolutely disgusted by the treatment that we received. We paid for a weekend stay to celebrate my daughter's 5th birthday as she loves to swim. We picked a hotel with a central location so grandparents could stop and watch her swim and eat cake in our room. When we went to go swim the pool area was ice cold that there were icicles forming on the vent with freezing cold air blowing out of it. The pool was also ice cold that we could only use the hot tub. We also had to wear gloves and hats in the area because it was so cold. We didn't say anything though because my daughter was having fun swimming for her birthday. The hallways and rooms smelled like weed as well. When we went to say something the second time the girl came inside the pool area. We got excited that she was going to do something about the temperature however she became rude stating that people who were not swimming had to pay $25. We went out to talk to her about figuring out what we had to do however she became agitated and wouldn't allow us to see the policy and we were willing to pay for the kids swimming but not the adults who were not. We also asked if there could be a discount because of the limited amenities the kids wanted to swim in based on the temp. We had gloves and hats on because it was so cold so we thought it wouldnt be a big deal to ask about this. Instead the worker became bilegerent and called the cops on a 5 yr olds birthday stay. We ended up leaving due to the hostile environment and not wanting to pay $180 (willing to pay $100 for the kids- which is still ridiculous for a Sparta hotel with only 4 vehicles in the parking lot). We felt very disrespected when we were trying to just have an open conversation that even the cops stated she was being the unreasonable one and we weren't saying anything mean. Feeling embarrassed and disappointed for my daughter and family who drove up to an hour to go there we had to make the decision to leave and go back home. For the amount we paid, the temperature of the pool and the stench of weed even the amount we paid for the weekend was overpriced. There was a lot of things that I was forgiving about- the freezing pool area, the weed smell and the fact that they didn't address the concerns we had the night before. And I stead of addressing the issues the 2nd time she made it a hostile environment and called the cops making us have to make the decision to leave

We booked a couple months back for a hockey tournament weekend and honestly I'm glad only a few parents chose to stay. It started off bad when parents found out that our block rate was significantly more than what they could book themselves. Once we got there we found out they HATE hockey teams and proceed to explain why to a parent, and if the story is to be believed it is pretty insane. But it made more sense as to why I was given a list of "not allowed" and how things shown in pictures online weren't available for use. We play in a U8 league for reference. Our room was clean but the headboard had chunks out of it like others stated. Honestly could've dealt with any of that because the main draw was the pool for the kids. What a disappointment. The pool room was freezing, large pool was so cold nobody could stand to be in it, and the kiddie pool was marginal in warmth. Our kids stuck it out in there however to make the best of it, but every one came out with such a rash. My child was screaming in pain that night from it and now has scabbing all over his body. Any of our parents that were on the 2nd floor commented they couldn't get the elevator to work to go down to floor 1 so chose to use the stairs. I can't confirm as I wasn't on that floor. Front desk service was nice and breakfast had decent offerings. Overall I wouldn't recommend staying if you plan to use the pool, and don't even bother if you're staying with a sports team.