Best Western Plus Emory At Lake Fork Inn & Suites

I was visiting friends nearby and stayed a few nights. It was a great fit for what I needed: affordable, clean, and in a safe area, with friendly staff. The free breakfast buffet had coffee, waffles, sausage, muffins, bagels, and more, and I really enjoyed it. They also printed some documents for me at no charge. I noticed there was a small fitness center and an outdoor pool, though I didn’t use either. A great find.

We chose this hotel because the hot tub was the main thing we wanted, and it cost about $80 more than other nearby places. Before booking, I called at least eight hotels and specifically checked that the hot tub here was working and hot. I was told there was a pool and hot tub, the pool wasn’t heated, but the hot tub was ready to use. The online listing also showed a bar on site, which mattered to us because the kids could swim while the adults relaxed there. Only after arriving did we learn the bar had shut down and we’d have to go down the road instead. We got there around 6:00 PM and asked about the hot tub. The front desk said she had to go turn it on and it would need about 45 minutes to warm up. We waited in our room, then came back down about 30 minutes later. It was still cold. She opened the gate and said it was heating, but would take another 45 minutes. Another check around 30 minutes after that found it still wasn’t hot. It didn’t reach a usable temperature until after 9:00 PM, almost three hours after we arrived. The next morning we planned to use it with our coffee, but it was cold again. Every time we left and came back, our key card stopped working too, so we had to return to the front desk to have it reprogrammed just to get into our room. This was very disappointing for the higher price, especially since the hot tub and the listed bar weren’t available as promised.

Big rooms, plenty of parking, and an old-school design are some of the good things here. But over the four years I’ve stayed, more and more has gone downhill, and the management is letting the place run down as if it’s the only option in town. The hot tub wasn’t working, the outside pillars were falling apart, the bed skirt was dirty, and a banquet room was left visible and packed with miscellaneous FF&Es and junk. I stayed several nights and no cleaning was offered. It has some nice amenities, but it’s severely overpriced for what you get and definitely doesn’t feel like a “Plus” Best Western. Emory needs more hotels, and they’re coming soon.

We’ve been staying here for the past couple of weeks and have no complaints. Michael at the front desk went above and beyond for my husband and me. We both really appreciated how much he cared.