Baymont by Wyndham Duluth/Spirit Mountain

Our hockey association brought two 10-year-old girls’ teams here for a tournament, and from the moment we arrived we didn’t feel welcome. We were treated differently from other guests and given rules that seemed aimed at finding a reason to remove us. We followed curfew. One night we were told to leave the common area before curfew, and we did without arguing. Then the police were called anyway. Even the officers seemed confused about why they were there. After talking with the GM, they agreed we could stay, but had to remain in our rooms, all before 10 PM. Seven squad cars arrived, which terrified the parents and girls. My daughter was sobbing and afraid even to flush the toilet in case we’d be kicked out. Our team manager says Michelle, the hotel general manager, promised a full refund for the team. I and four other families out of 12 still haven’t received it. I’ve been trying to reach Michelle for three weeks and keep getting told she’s in a meeting, unavailable, or couldn’t come in because of a storm. One family was told the hotel had decided to refund only some families. That isn’t okay. A promise should be kept. The office tells me to call corporate, and corporate says the hotel must reimburse us. Please, Michelle, call us back and give us the refund you promised. We’ve waited long enough. This is my second review; the first somehow disappeared from Google, which is strange. I’ll be calling the BBB.

We had several cleanliness problems in our room: trash under the bathroom sink from the previous guests, hair on the bedding and in the shower, and a clogged sink. Other families reported similar conditions, and the common areas looked unclean too. We also had concerns about staff communication and how our youth hockey group was treated. At check-in, we had to sign a waiver because the hotel said it had prior problems with hockey teams. Staff interactions felt tense after that. On Friday, children aged 10-11 used the pool and the meeting room reserved for our team, and we followed the room’s 10:00 p.m. closing time. Later, a staff member entered a guest room without knocking or notice to tell parents and children to go to bed. That was alarming with kids present. On Saturday, after games and activities away from the hotel, families gathered briefly in the reserved room to prepare a team meal. Within about 30 minutes, staff called law enforcement without first raising any concern with us. Officers said mass eviction wasn’t warranted, but staff deactivated room keys, so guests couldn’t re-enter if they went out. We were also denied cleaning supplies when we asked, then later told the room had been left dirty. The police presence frightened many of the children. Families followed directions and tried to calm things down, but the weekend was badly affected. The hotel needs better cleanliness, clearer communication, and better ways to handle families and youth groups.

We had to switch hotels in the middle of the tournament, pay extra, and leave our team behind. Our children were frightened by the police, and the whole thing was humiliating and avoidable. Before we arrived, we called about the pet policy and a staff member explicitly said Rewards members could bring pets for a nightly fee. We checked in with our small dog visible, and nobody objected. The next morning, on our way to our child’s hockey game, staff suddenly said pets were against policy and told us to leave immediately. They said the employee had been wrong, but we were the ones facing the consequences. We asked for a manager to contact us; instead, police were called and told us to leave. We were two hours from home, in the middle of a tournament, and hadn’t done anything wrong. Our children were distressed and confused. Later that day, police were called again while children were eating together at a taco bar in a reserved team meeting space. There had been no warning, and the officers themselves thought the situation was unreasonable. Staff mistakes about policy shouldn’t mean guests get treated like criminals.

The police could see the staff had blown things out of proportion and didn’t think there was cause to remove us. After we pleaded, we were allowed to stay if we went to our rooms at 9:15 and didn’t leave again that night. Staff threatened to walk around checking for noise. My daughter was afraid even to use the bathroom in case flushing was too loud. Fear and intimidation don’t make guests feel welcome or want to return. We were a group of 9- and 10-year-old girl hockey players, with early bedtimes ahead of early games. On Friday, we were in the lobby from 9:40 to 10:00, then left the common area when asked. We were gone all day Saturday. That evening the girls swam, while three parents each had one can of beer in the pool area. A staff member bringing towels said drinks were against Minnesota state law. That wasn’t true, though it may have been a hotel rule. She singled out our hockey group while other families with drinks weren’t approached. The parents she spoke to either threw their drinks away or left the pool, and we complied. At 9:00, seven of us went to the lobby to visit, as we’d been allowed to do the night before. A staff member came in and said we were all being kicked out, without warning or a valid reason. We’d been treated like criminals from the moment we arrived, and the next night we were told we’d be evicted for all the trouble we supposedly caused.