The good: internal room design is fine. The grounds are well kept. The location is fantastic - 35 min from TC, minutes to Sleeping Bear activities North and South. Staff tries to be friendly. Cafe Manitou is a nice restaurant with a great location.
Nice access to beach! And nice view from room. The room is a little dated. I'm not sure it is worth the price but probably one of the best options on this side. I saw a comment posted a month ago that they don't do gay weddings. We just saw two brides getting their photos taken on the beach right outside our room -so I'm aubergine they do. I commented here because I thought that was worth being said.
The bad: room maintenance (57, Fiddler Pond) and upkeep is poor. Our room had a busted toilet seat, black mold in the tub, broken tiles in the tub, buzzing lights, bed has badly sunken, and shower nozzle was badly corroded. Room was not ready at 3:30, which is disappointing but fine since they do advertise a 5PM check-in. Logistics are difficult - you need to park in a commuter type lot to use the beach or activities. The lot itself is a mess (see pic). They offer shuttle by golf cart but they only seat 4 people. In short, you need to strategize. Staff, though friendly, sometimes doesn't know locations of hours of resort activities.
The Homestead is the embodiment of "America's Fresh Water Resort".
Our family has been going here for over 30 years. We taught our sons to snow ski & enjoy winter sports there. It's always part of our fall color trips and summer time there is breathtaking with views of the dunes spectacular sunsets!
Very nice and clean. Stayed in Great Lakes condo and had wonderful view of the river. Short hike to the beach or the beach club for pool and hot tub. On Saturday, the bar at the beach club was severely understaffed. It took some members of our group more than 30 minutes to get a drink. One area that needs some improvement and/or modernization is the equipment rental on the beach. The staff member (who was super attentive and personable) had to constantly run from the beach to the shop to communicate what equipment was available. A walkie talkie would make that job way more efficient and improve customer service. One other suggestion is to give the beach rental staff a tablet or smart phone with credit card reader and allow them to do all rentals from the beach.
The worst: things have no set hours. Many facilities were closed. I tried to rent a kayak at 5:45PM and was told they were closing down. I called the desk and found out they do last call at 6 for all rentals. I wasn't even afforded the 6PM which itself is strange for a resort. Think about it: check-in is 5PM and they stop rentals at 6PM (even though I was told "no" at 5:45). I tried again at 9AM but no one was there. It is bad enough you even need to rent kayaks at a 400/night resort.
The Homestead is a complicated place. It has potential but seems short on resources to realize that potential.
While it looked fine at the Lodge, I could not help but think that everything was overpriced. Entire layout of grounds was confusing and hard to find where we should go for eats. Food contained the ability to keep you alive, and drinks were mostly bottom shelf. Staff I ran into were courteous and professional. We were part of a large group and most of what I saw could be part of this. However, when a large group drops in you should pay attention and make sure they are well taken care of.
The Homestead is a US Lodging based in Glen Arbor, Michigan. The Homestead is located at 1 Woodridge Rd, Glen Arbor, MI 49636, USA.
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