Mountain View Lodge

I am not even sure where to start this one......I had spent a lot of time planning and organizing this stay for my spouse's birthday. He is a huge fan of trains and thought it would be nice to do the Train tour in Ste Sault Marie and stumbled upon the Caboose rental. Excited by my find I call the Lodge directly and booked and placed a deposit of $250 on January 10, 2017 for our stay for September 17th to the 21st. We were booked for the Caboose, so I continued to book all other travel plans and events around our stay. In March I was booking the Agawa Canyon Train Tour, so I yet again called the lodge directly and spoke with a female who confirmed my dates from September 17th to 21st, 2017 and provided me the remaining balance. So I book our Train tour and made final travel arrangements. Fast forward to September 4, 2017, when I decide I should call again confirm the details and obtain any outstanding balance info. I call and speak with the son/part owner, Brendan (I may be incorrect on the name as he was difficult to hear) I explain I am confirming our booked dates and wanted to know the balance remaining...to which I was advised that he does not have us booked in for the Caboose. He then proceeded to ask, if when I called I spoke to an old man, his father. I stated that I could not be sure as I booked at the beginning of the year, however did advise that I also had confirmed details around March/April with a female. He again checked the booking and found that they had mistakenly booked us in for October and that someone else has since booked the Caboose via Expedia and he will have to give them a call and then call me back in an hour or potentially tomorrow morning. Fair Enough, I will wait for him to resolve this accordingly. I waited until 10:30am the next morning (September 5, 2017) and decided to call, as we are 11 days away from our trip. The son again answers the phone and inquire as to what is happening. He replied with Sorry we cancelled your booking as we had already paid Expedia $80 for the other booking. Shocked, I reconfirmed what I had heard and stated, even though we had booked January 10th, 2017, our booking was being cancelled as the lodge was not willing to absorb the $80 mistake on their end. He again apologized and said that there was nothing he could do as his dad owns 66% of the business and he made the decision. I was speechless, I could not believe that a business would simply apologize and think that it was okay to cancel a customer's reservation with no resolution who had booked with more than ample time! This was for a birthday gift! Not to mention we lost out on the cancellation for the Train tour as we had 14 days prior to cancel. Had I not called, we would have drove 9 hours from Kitchener, ON to get there and would have had no place to go. There was not even an offer of another cabin/room at the lodge, simply I can give you the deposit back. I could not believe what I was hearing and was so incredibly upset! At the time I did not have my credit card with me and had to call him back to get my deposit refunded. During this call, he asks if we can make it there this weekend as its available. Are you kidding me? Firstly, we are 9 hours away..not to mention we have jobs with booked vacation time, children that we had arranged to stay with family, Tours and other events booked for our original dates and might I add my spouses birthday doesn't change because you don't have your @*$% together. I will NEVER recommend or consider renting from Mountainview Lodge again. Shame on them for their I could care less attitude and that they have ruined a well planned/organized vacation for a family and a simple monotone Sorry is all they feel we deserve! Renter's beware, as if you call the lodge directly your booking means nothing! Clearly the people who book through Expedia and other 3rd party sites have the upper hand on this one. We hand to cancel all our plans and took loses all around! Think twice before booking with this Lodge.

Very rarely do you find a place as fun, welcoming and just great as this. We checked in not quite knowing what to expect. We turned up after booking a room and what we got was adventure, fun and a great place to stay. Yes the rooms are modest, however they are very clean and very comfortable. No A/C but two windows with mosquito blinds provided a gentle breeze. But with all the surroundings and activities why would you want to stay inside!? We booked an ATV tour and it was so much fun, the guide was fantastic, the scenery was amazing and the trails were intense! Absolutly brilliant. We then refueled at the resteraunt before heading back out, this time with a canoe for a 2 hour paddle down the river. What a day! If that wasn't enough we returned to the resteraunt for an evening meal to be told that Thursday night is open mike night. And a group of local musicians proceeded to play banjos, guitars, accordions and even a kalimba. A real treat! Knocking out some folk and country music, interluded by classical, a Nivarna song and some oringinal songs. To top it off the food was very reasonable, tasted great and was plentiful! After a full day of activity it was a really, really interesting way to spend the evening. The owners were so lovely. Just really nice, they made the stay so memorable and fun. This is a fantastic spot and a great place for a retreat into the mountains. An absolute gem.

My wife and I took our son to the lodge for his college graduation present. We were all very disappointed. The advertising on their web page is extremely in accurate. The television in our room did not work. We had no wi-fi in our room. The open mike Thursday night does not exist. Our biggest complaint about our stay was the river trip we took. We took a canoe and a kayak. My wife had taken a fall before our vacation and could not walk very well. When we finished our river trip she was in a great deal of pain. Our son walked up the hill to the lodge and told Brennen (the proprietor) and asked him to drive his truck down to pick us and our gear up. He told our son we needed to drag the canoe and kayak up and away from the river so they wouldn't wash away and he could not drive his truck down. Our son told him his mother was hurt and could not climb the steep hill. He told him she would have to walk around a longer way and up the steep driveway, then turned away and went in to the office. I climbed the hill and got our car which I was easily able to drive down and get my wife. Tori was wonderful as a hostess, but Brennen acted like he did not want to do anything but play games and let his wife do any work that need to be done to run the lodge. He even had her drive the truck with the canoe and kayak to where we put in on the river. The scenery was beautiful, but we did not come close to getting what we paid for.

Location is prime for SearchMont. Nothing else is closer albeit for the chalets on the hill itself. Owners are super friendly and hospitable. Single bed rooms are clean and simple, and was plenty warm on a super cold night in January. Would go back again...They make great breakfast omelettes.

DO NOT miss the chance to see this beautiful jem in the mountains! The cabins, owners and property are absolutely amazing. Along side a beautiful river and only a short drive into Sault Ste. Marie. Plus the caboose cabin is just really cool.

Top of the line. I take trips out there regularly and recommend this lodge to anyone looking for a beautiful get away in Ontario. Brennan and Victoria are always extremely pleasant to deal with. The rooms have always been top notch. The service's they provide and the food is always amazing. There's tons to do there, always a very welcoming and friendly environment. I HIGHLY recommend this lodge for anyone looking for a get away, a vacation, or an adventure. It's a beautiful and very enjoyable place to stay, no matter what brings you to the area.

I booked a room on line for 1 night, had called 5 times with no one ever answering the phone, wanting to confirm reservation with an actual person. Drove there to find it closed. No lodging available anywhere near, had to drive back to the Soo for a hotel. Minimally they should pull down their on line booking and leave a voice-mail that you are not open. Now I have to cancel the charge as there was no hesitation taking my money. Under new management, maybe you should re think your business model, this is very poor management.

1) No restaurant on site anymore (closed a year ago apparently). Yet, when I called to confirm my reservation I was told that she had just finished cooking breakfast for 33 guests??? 2) The rooms are so small you need to go outside to change your minds. 3) The beds are ARCHAIC. Roll to the middle and stay there, springs are shot. 4) Medicine cabinet in bathroom melamine was peeling away from the OSB. (see pic) 5) Website shows fishing onsite. Not unless you are a mountain goat. You can't actually get to the river. 6) It took many attempts to actually get the room reserved (I should have taken the hint), finally got it confirmed the day of our stay, after trying for more than a week. 7) The scenery in the area is really beautiful, I will give them that. I highly recommend you find another place to stay. We would have been better pitching our tent on any of the nearby crown land than staying here.