Hill Country Resort at Canyon LakeRental Guest Reviews

Great multi-generational vacay - with some caveats

Long story short: we had an incredible time. My 80 year old parents, my elementary school kids, and I stayed at the "Presidential" complex. My parents loved the view, the spaciousness of the room, and the quietness/peacefulness. My kids loved the Internet, the amenities (arcade, billiards table, mini golf, ping pong), and the jacuzzi tub. The nitty gritty details and some caveats when thinking about this location: (1) It is in the middle of nowhere. We had to drive at least 30 minutes to get to the nearest more sizable town. It *is* pretty close to tubing on the Guadalupe *and* Canyon Lake, though. Just not near a lot of eating establishments. (2) The resort is sprawling and divided in the middle by a 3-lane highway. I have never seen this before. We stayed on the 'other' side of the highway, which meant that we had an incredible view of Canyon Lake and the sunset. However, this meant that we had to get into the car and drive to the main area with the mini golf course indoor pool cafeteria ping pong arcade. Mind you - there was an outdoor pool and playground really close to us - but the kiddos, of course, wanted to hit the arcade whenever they could. (3) The resort is hard to find. We ended up having to do U turns until we found it. Trust your GPS and don't look for signs! (4) As far as I know, there is no sundry shop. That is, you'd have to drive 'off-campus' to pick up stuff like sunscreen or Chapstick. Certainly not a deal breaker and we brought all that anyway, but just something to keep in mind. (5) IMHO - this isn't a 'hotel' - it's more like a Airbnb/VRBO/cabin rental on steroids - for half the price. I loved that. However, it also means that you don't get your room cleaned every day, but that was the only difference we noticed.

Great location and comfortable lodging

Great location and comfortable lodging. Amenities looked great but we didn't use them. Hope the check in process has been streamlined.

Great Place to Stay

We were only there for 1 night and were impressed. The room was clean, quiet, and comfortable .

1st time stay better that expected

The only issues was low water pressure in one bathroom and a clogged drain in the other. Other than that it was a great stay. Two minor issues that can be fixed.

Last minute trip

Chose to stay here on a last minute trip to San Antonio area. This resort was a nice surprise. The unit was spacious, clean and comfortable. Wish we were able to stay longer but we will be back!

Family get away

Very satisfied with resort and already looking at dates to go back. Family loves all the different stuff to do on property. Great place to go and relax. Staff really makes you feel at home.

Birthday for my wife’s mother

Took my wife’s parents and othe relatives to three room timeshare. Fantastic location. Absolutely beautiful. Wish we could have stayed longer. We all want to go back.

Great customer service, but dirty room

Room could have been much cleaner. The bathroom was dirty upon check-in. (You could see urine on the toilet seat and down the toilet.) Great amenities for the kids and close to the lake.

Not what it's billed to be

My family and I had a terrible experience at this "resort" for what was supposed to be a two night getaway. However, we had such a poor experience that we actually just forfeited our second night stay and decided to go home. First of all, we were using two free night certificates for our stay. By design, these have to be booked separately. After I booked them I called three times to ensure that these stays were combined and that we would have the same room for both nights. My last call was the day before my stay and they confirmed that they had been combined. Upon check-in I was informed that my rooms were not combined to be in the same room for both nights, but that the room for the second night would be close by. This was eventually resolved, but shows that they don't have their act together in booking. Secondly, I arrived for check-in at around 4pm. I was told that my room had still not been approved to be rented out and that it would take around 20mins while they sent someone to inspect it and approve it and they would give me a call. I am a Platinum IHG member which is supposed to allow for priority check-in so this was unacceptable, especially at 4pm. Then they sent me over to the vacation desk so that I could "get my parking pass", but they really send you over there so someone can try to sell you a membership (read: timeshare) at the resort. Luckily a few "no thank yous" were enough to get them to drop it. I decided that my family and I would check out some of the "resort" amenities while we waited a short time. We took my young child to the on-site arcade, which had maybe 10 machines/games to play, half of which were out of service. Then we went to check out the mini golf. This might have been a good time, but the course was not well maintained. Every square inch was covered with catkins (the little green tree worm looking things) which made it impossible to get a ball from point A to point B with any confidence. We then attempted to check out any on-site dining options for dinner. They were non-existent save for a small snack stand type operation. After this I realized it had been 45 mins or so since I attempted to check in and I had received no call saying my room was ready. I went back to the front desk to inquire and after being told that they then couldn't find my reservation it somehow magically appeared and was ready to go, without them calling me to let me know like they promised. Then, they explained my room was going to be across the very busy road from the main activity center of the resort (one that I would not be crossing on foot with my small child). The rooms were actually like small apartments at best, motels at worst. Ours was on the third floor with no elevator access which makes getting luggage in and out a chore. The inside of the door had a security latch installed, but it was only installed into the door frame trim, which was falling off the wall. It appears that someone kicked the door in from the outside at some point with the latch closed. No attempts to fix this could be seen. Then, there was the previously mentioned busy road. Our bedroom window was basically right on top of it allowing us to enjoy the sounds of cars cruising by all night while trying to sleep. This was not a pleasant experience to say the least. It's bad enough that I wasted a free night certificate to stay here for one night, but we were then forced to make the decision to either stay a second night or forfeit our second certificate and leave. Sadly, forfeiting the second certificate and going home was the easy choice. This stay may very well prove to be the reason I drop IHG from my rewards portfolio and stick with another brand. IHG just doesn't cut it anymore, especially with rising costs and reduced benefits of their IHG Rewards Credit Card. Good bye, IHG.

Holiday from cold Canadian Winter

Great service, friendly staff, clean, and well maintained.