Rend Lake Resort & Restaurant

We were greeted by a young woman who clearly was not fully trained to sign us in. She did not explain the hotel’s policy regarding when you initial certain boxes, you are committed to pay for the four nights you booked. She said nothing about AARP or AAA discounts. No manager on duty.
When we entered the room it had a very musty smell, the bathroom floor had not been cleaned and the coffee pot still had the used grounds in it from previous customers. The shower piece was coming off the wall. When we tried to leave after one night we were told we’d be charged for the full four nights.
Run as fast as you can from this tired and collapsing hotel and head for Seasons at Rend Lake. The owners obviously do not care about good service.

I had to check at least one star to leave a review but honestly I’d like to put a negative two stars. I don’t leave feedback on places or restaurants and I’m extremely open minded on a lot of things but felt I have to forewarn you on this place. I am extremely disappointed with this place. It’s disgusting. Filthy!!! My brother came here a few years ago and said it was nice. Apparently a few years ago was the last time they cleaned, painted or did any maintenance work around this place. Bugs everywhere, splattered dead on the walls, alive in each corner of the room and all over the outside of the building. Needs a good pressure washing outside. Go somewhere else. If I didn’t have to be here for a work conference I would have checked out within the hour of checking in.

This place is the worst! It stinks, smells, and is falling apart. Not deserving of the 1 star. Check photos to see the condition of the room. Sleep in your car.

First of all, if I could give negative stars, I would. I usually do not leave reviews because I feel my opinion is just that… my personal opinion. But, I feel I need to say something about our stay here. First of all, we stayed at the Flagship. Our room was filthy. There were crumbs on the love seat cushions from the last people that were never cleaned up. The mirrors and windows looked as if they had never seen window cleaner. The walls inside our room had smudge marks on them from bugs that were killed, but never cleaned off. The outside of our room was very dirty, but we were willing to overlook that due to the location. The entire place feels very run down. My biggest disappointment, however was when we noticed things missing out of our refrigerator. My son also had something fairly expensive missing out of his opened bag that he never even took out while we were there. Not wanting to jump to conclusions, we looked thoroughly throughout the the room. We ended up not finding it. We checked out and looked in the car just to be sure. I notified the front desk girl about it, as well as our missing snacks from the refrigerator. I received no apology and her only response was she would let management know. She was not concerned about the missing items. I have never been so disappointed in how something was handled. We will definitely never be back despite the beautiful location. It definitely needs a lot of work as well as improvement in their customer service skills.

The restaurant was a mess dirty tables every where. The one waitress in the lounge area was pushing us to the restaurant side so we went over there and that waitress was crazy busy and told us to have a seat. We looked around all the tables were dirty even the clean ones. So we walked out and so did the people behind us.

3.5 star, really.
First of: the waitresses: sweaty, tired, they practically run… no, they actually run around serving people. And they’re very nice while doing so. I have a great appreciation for their hard work.
I walk in and ask for the wine list. Not existent. I already know, not to order anything like a steak. It is a burger place. And sure it is! No complaints, my burger is actually very good. Overpriced as hell, bud very good. I have not tried the onion soup, but others loved it. And again: per someone else’s opinion, the steak was awful.
Oh, very limited beer list, too. And no excuses for the no-​choice of alcohol: plenty of local wineries within 100 miles, breweries even! And, if you don’t want to support other local businesses: go ahead, import. But allow me my choices!
Somewhat long wait for the food.
My personal experience was quite fine.

So what to say, what to say… I am a guy who travels alot for work and for pleasure. I hate camping, but love a good hotel. I have high expectations when I stay at hotels because I should have high expectations at those places. If I stay at a Motel 6 (never) I will have lower expectations. However, the Rend Lake Resort came with moderately low expectations and I was happy there. There are bugs and mosquitoes outside and around the doors. You are staying ON a lake. Expect that. Stay in the cabins so that you can spend your evenings outdoors by the fire-​pit overlooking the lake. You won’t be disappointed. The place is generally clean but I would always check for the standard bed bug before sleeping on the bed. That is true anywhere, however. Service is good for what you should be expecting in So. Illinois. This isn’t a hospitality hotspot. Food? If you are looking for fine dining, you have the wrong expectations. This should be about roasting hot dogs, grilling, etc. If you want good food, travel down to Marion to the 17^th Street Bar and Grill (world famous barbecue). But just to validate what has already been written, stay away from the restaurant. It’s called Windows, but it is more like a Window to Hell. Go here for fishing, boating, or pseudo-​camping trips if you are a non-​camper (need a shower and a bed at night).

They advertise this ad a world class resort. World class my a$$, more like 3^rd world. Filthy, moldy, broken, broken down. We had an evening arrival. Our first room had no water in the shower. The front desk told us they did not have maintenence on the property, someone would look in to it tomorrow. That’s not good enough. It took over 90 minutes to decide to move us to another room and they had no one to assist us. Handicap means the shower floor is slippery and the exit bar is over the toilet. The A/​C vent is full of crud. There is some lime green crap dripping down the wall. The deck is falling off the building and there is green mold everywhere. The Internetwas very unreliable. See photos.

The 3 stars are for the great fishing and comfortable cabins this place has. If the word «restaurant» did not appear on the title I might even give it 4 stars. Definitely a fisherman’s paradise. Tons of boat ramps, great fishing and even a nice bar right off the water with great service. Just stay away from the restaurant as the food is overpriced for the quality. I’ve been to the lake many times and have only eaten there once which was the first year I was ever there. Food is awful. You’d think they’d have great food considering there’s nothing around there to eat. And everyone I know stays away from the restaurant and takes the 15 minute ride to Benton for some good ‘ol fast food.

Me and my wife recently decided to try Windows restaurant.
We will not be going back anytime soon.
I can’t say the service was bad at all, it wasn’t.
But the food was not worth what they charge for it.
My wife ordered the sirloin steak and rice, with a baked potato and salad.
The sirloin was very thin and looked like a ribeye that came frozen in a box. Tasted like it too. She liked the rice, potato and salad. And especially the vinaigrette dressing.
I had the fried catfish filet, mixed vegetables, Cesar salad, and rice.
I ordered a baked potato instead of the vegetables. Didn’t say anything about them messing that up. Wasn’t that big of a deal.
The catfish was extremely undercooked. There was zero crisp to the breading, and by the time I got around to eating the second filet, it was sauggy. The Cajun seasoning and dipping sauce was very good.
I thought the rice was very bland and tasteless.
Didn’t even try the vegetables. Wish I’d have said something and got the vegetables replaced with the baked potato like I originally ordered. Because I ate one piece of fish, and my salad, and was hungry at the end of my meal because I couldn’t finish what I was served.
My Cesar salad came with the dressing on the side. Which I have never been to a restaurant and ordered a Cesar salad and the salad wasn’t already tossed. The salad was good though.
Each of our meals cost over $ 17.00 apiece. Add in a few Blue Moon beers, and a couple mixed drinks, that put our bill around $ 60.00 probably. For a meal that was honestly worth maybe $ 20.00 total.
Nothing seemed to be fresh except the lettuce and baked potato. Everything seemed to be frozen and come from a box. I KNOW the fish was frozen, because I asked.
I would not recommend this place to anyone. Especially if you have to drive very far to get there. It just isn’t worth it. Too pricey and the food isn’t quality products.
And honestly, that makes me sad, because this could be a great eatery. Revamp the menu with FRESH seafood, steaks, and poultry, and you have a recipe for success. It’s great to be able to sit right on the lake with a great view while eating. It’s just disappointing to get such low grade meals. Especially for being as overpriced as they are.

Did not eat at the restaurant. Stayed five nights at the «botel.» Won’t stay again. The location is attractive, but service is bad. The room was noisy from upstairs foot traffic, and we had to call maintenance twice to unstop the toilet. The intenet never worked. From looking at other reviews, I’m now convinced that they’ve decided to make excuses rather than to actually fix it. That seems to be the attitude of management in general. Rather than do things right, just make excused. Too bad, because this place could be a showcase for southern Illinois.

This has been the location of our dog cub’s National Specialty four times in the last six years. Each stay has been a week long. Suffice it to say, I’ve stayed here.
It seems ideal for fishermen and groups that want to stay with large numbers of dogs. That’s about it. Don’t come for the food, don’t come for the décor and certainly don’t come for the customer service. It’s just awful. The Wifi has NEVER worked, not one time in my four visits.
I asked for a cup of hot water. I was told they didn’t have that, just what was out. I stood there holding my cup, wondering if I’d heard correctly. No hot water? Could she check? BIG SIGH, she went and checked. Fiiiine (another sigh), water retrieved. Yikes. This happened twice more during the week. Seriously.
It’s just so basic and so run down, I do not know how they call it a resort.

If u love fishing then this is the place for u. Open docks to park ur boat & bait shop open at 7 am. May not be a 5 star hotel but for fisherman it’s the place for u. Room rates are very reasonable.

Looks like we all agree, this place stinks. And I mean that literally, at least in the dining area. Food tasted a bit off and took forever. Very lazy staff, in an empty restaurant, it took us 20 minutes just to get our drinks. Both the server and hostess seemed way to busy talking with other employees. We had high hopes for this place — but yuck. I feel like I need a shower.

We had a Flagship room which is a suite and supposedly the best they had to offer. It was clean and had a nice view of the lake. However, the entire physical plant desperately needs updating. It’s the kind of place where it’s obvious the management and ownership just don’t give a damn. How hard is to pick up trash and cigarette butts from the lawn in front of the rooms? Paint isn’t very expensive and this place needs it in the worst way. If I had paid $ 60/​night that’d be one thing. $ 130 a night is something else again and should have gotten me one of the premier lodging experiences in southern Illinois. No WIFI, ten channels of TV, décor straight out of 1977. You get the picture. Heck, the maid didn’t even attend to the room after our first night (we stayed two because of a family function.) The restaurant is overpriced with food that’s mediocre and a slow kitchen. This place could be so much more but right now it just doesn’t pass muster.

After all the negative reviews, I contacted this property, told them I was concerned about their poor reviews, and they promised me that it would be a fantastic stay, let me tell you, for $ 130 per night in Southern IL, you would expect a nice room. The views are spectacular from the balcony, but that’s it. We stayed in their Flagship, for starters, this place needs a pressure washer and paint in the worse way imaginable, the outside elevator is very frightening, my woman could not even press the button hard enough to summon the elevator, the steel stairs and decking are so weak, they sag, and you feel frightened of falling through, the ceiling is missing large pieces along your journey, and the birds nesting above you are not pleased that you are there, bird droppings everywhere, then you get to your room, outdated to say the least, our box spring on the mattress was broken, fireplace did not work and the glass doors look like they have never been cleaned, the whirlpool tub was missing its jets, there is an electric hazard from putting an electric ice maker on the ledge of the whirlpool. Also, the WiFi has been down for a month, they told us it was working when we made the reservation. We took pictures that I will be posting so the rest of you do not get taken. We reserved this dump for 4 days, and checked out after 9 hours. The lady at the desk told us we could move to a better room, but understood why we were leaving, she told me that management will not put money back into the place, that’s why they are always empty.

If I could give this horrid excuse for lodging negative stars I would. Let me start by saying I am very fair and never complain. In fact even with the laundry list of complaints I have I have not complained. Mainly bc I feel sorry for the front desk staff. Housekeeping and maintenance are basically non existent. There is Nothing Nothing to do. Their restaurant is run down, not good, and incredibly overpriced. The pool is lackluster. It’s just run down. Our hotel was nicer than many of the rooms and we had mismatched paint, dead bugs and cobwebs everywhere and mold. No guide for the tv, not great reception, no children’s channels. Not one. Occasionally the power just shuts off. More than once a day. There is mold in almost every room. We are here for a conference and one couple left after one night it is so bad. Sheets were clean but blankets had hairs that were not ours. This is a sad little place surrounded by sad little towns and nothing at all for kids or adults that don’t fish or hunt. This place needs new ownership and hundreds of thousands of dollars invested in it. Sad.