THE place to stay on the lake!

Written by LovetheLake

I do not want to be a walking billboard for Still Waters but we have been down on Table Rock Lake with my family it seems for most of my life. Ideally, we want to live on the lake and so far we have gotten close (Springfield) but we are not there yet. Growing up, we stayed in campers, cottages and for the last several years condos and have finally settled on staying at Still Waters when our family (now much bigger) gets together. The rooms are clean, the condos nice and it is perfect for people who want to be left alone to enjoy their vacation. The newer units have washers and dryers, full kitchens and often we shop at the Branson West Wal-Mart and never leave the resort during the stay using the unit to cook and cool off after coming back from the pools and the lake. Lake access is convenient and easy with several docks and two launch ramps. Until we get a lake home, this is the place we are coming.

No Service & We Won't Be Going Back

Written by wwilli1707

This resort appears to be a do-it-yourself type of operation for the guests. We rented a poolside studio with kitchenette. We called in advance to inquire if the room had a hairdryer and various other amenities. The person who answered the phone went to go check. They asked us what type of room we were in and told us that the room was not equipped with these things. We packed our own and found later that the room did have many of the things the staff had told us it would not including a hairdryer. It would have been nice to know in advance, but when you’ve asked and the staff can’t tell you, who can? The plumbing is pretty shoddy in the rooms. You can hear some of the pipes vibrating violently when guests in other rooms turn water on. You can see where the water has been leaking from the bathroom above and there was always a small pool of water on the front porch.

There is no maid service whatsoever during your stay. You have go to their towel exchange building to trade in towels while it’s open between 9 and noon if you want fresh ones and to pick up toilet paper, soap and trash bags. You must take your own trash out to the dumpsters. There are tons of staff everywhere, but none are very helpful and most don’t appear to be doing much of anything.

On our second night there, after returning from a show late in the evening we could not get back into our room. Neither of our electronic keys would open the door. We called the front office from our cell phone (hopefully we won’t have roaming charges on our next bill.) No one answered and there was no emergency contact number on the recording. So, we decided to go up to the front office, which was about a ½ mile up the road to see if there was anyone there, or at least an emergency number we could call. There was no one in the front office and their phone in the emergency box outside didn’t work either. After calling the emergency phone number on our cell phone we were told someone would be out in twenty minutes. Forty minutes later we were still waiting. All of the pool bathrooms were closed so there was no place for us to use the restroom in the meantime. When the person finally arrived an hour after we had called them the first time they were unable to open the door with their master key. They were not very helpful, ignored repeated requests to unlock a bathroom for us to use somewhere and had to call someone else to try to let us in. We asked if they could unlock a room nearby so we could use the bathroom. The person said they were all occupied. Eventually, they offered to drive back up the road to the office to unlock a bathroom for us there. They admitted that guests ONLY get locked out of their rooms about once every three or four months, but were not sure why it happened or how to fix it. This was typical of the reactions we got from the staff we had to interact with. Eventually, someone else was able to get our room unlocked only after reprogramming their system.

The next morning we got up early to go the office because we were not prepared to stay in a room that we could not both leave for fear of being unable to get back in. They first offered to put us it the room above us and then the room next door. No one apologized for the inconvenience. In fact, the manager stated that everyone was inconvenienced and was very unapologetic. They made the excuse that someone in another room could have slammed a door causing the deadbolt to lock itself in our room. Well, that didn’t happen. However, we agreed to go ahead and move to the room next door. They gave us an additional key to the new room. I’m not sure how an extra one was supposed to help if no keys work when the lock goes out. The room next door was not much better than the first one. Water dripped from the ceiling anytime the guests above were running the shower.

This resort is about 5 miles from Branson and Branson West so be prepared to drive a bit to get to anything.

There were five staff members at the marina when we went and no customers. Three were standing around in the office. We wanted to take a paddleboat out on the lake. They told us we could get a life jacket around the corner and take a boat as long as we didn’t leave the small cove. No one offered to help us get in the boat or offered any kind of assistance though.

Their web page says they offer free Tanger Outlet coupon booklets. We asked for one when we checked in. They said we would need to go to the Tanger mall office and show our room key to get the coupons. We did that and the mall office manger said that they could not give us a booklet. The resorts had to request coupons from them and could then distribute them to guests. The mall sent coupons for free to the resorts, all the resort had to do was request them. The mall was selling them for $5 and could not give one to us though. The Tanger mall office manager called the Still Waters office to let them know they should not be sending people to the mall office for the booklets without a coupon in the future telling them that they could get one for free by using their room key card as that was not how it worked. The Still Waters staff said that is what they have always done. The mall manger said that was impossible because they had never given out booklets to guests showing their room keys. It appeared to be another instance where Still Waters was just too lazy to do what they were supposed to in order to provide their guests with what they promised.

This property has a lot of potential, but unhelpful, lazy staff and improper upkeep of the facility make it a real disappointment. Their processing and cancellation fees are also pretty steep, so if you book you will want to avoid cancellations at all costs. We won’t be going back as long as they are under their current management.

Best place to stay in Branson

Written by barste

We have been staying at Stillwaters for 12 years and found it to be top of the line with everything. We now have kids and grandkids comming there and stay two to three times a year. Any one who is looking for a family fun spot should check out Stillwaters. Barb & Steve Schneider Illinois