Clarion Hotel Mackinaw City Beachfront

We spent two nights here with family in early October. The room was clean, the beds were comfortable, and the view was great. Before booking, we asked whether the pool was inside the hotel. It wasn’t attached, and the water was cloudy and dirty. That was our main issue; otherwise, no complaints. Worth the price.

The room was run down, and the chairs were dirty with heavy white stains that I couldn’t identify. We paid over $300 for two nights. The bed had no fitted sheet or mattress cover. I didn’t see bed bugs, but covers might help keep them away. The pool was cloudy with a white film, and the hot tub was green and very dirty. I wanted to leave after the first night, but figured I probably wouldn’t get a refund. When I asked about the beds, the response was that they had no fitted sheets. The front desk woman was unfriendly. I won’t stay here again.

This Choice Hotel was a poor choice. There wasn’t enough handicap parking, the room smelled musty and wasn’t clean, and the jacuzzi tub was dirty. The floor around the toilet was grimy, and ants were in the bathroom and crawling on the room table. When I tried to check out early because of the room, management said they’d still charge me for all five reserved days. It felt like we were being held hostage. They were combative and offered no solution. At check-in I’d been told to call if we needed linens since rooms aren’t serviced every day, but when I called, they refused to bring the requested linens. Free breakfast was only from 6:30 to 8:30, much shorter than the 10:30 cutoff I usually see at other hotels. Solid no stars from me.

The lakefront location near a ferry was the one good thing. While I was about to open our room door, a handyman was drilling at it, trying to fit a flip-lever lock. He spent the next ten minutes telling us he’d forgotten his tools and asking us to call when we left so he could come back. The room seemed clean, but the hotel was filthy enough to make me wonder. The stairs looked like they hadn’t been swept in ages, and the breakfast-room door was so dirty I didn’t want to touch it. A bathroom panel was loose and left an opening into the “laundry” room below. Breakfast looked unappealing, so I couldn’t say how it tasted. Most Choice hotels ask for feedback after checkout; this one didn’t.