Kalahari Resort, Sandusky

I have made a good faith effort to resolve a credit issue with Kalahari Resort after a horrendous visit on June 10 – June 11, 2012. After a horrendous visit including waiting hours and hours in front desk lines, being assigned to a room that was not cleaned and ready, wet carpet in our room, and unreachable management, we were promised a full refund. We checked out as required. After waiting 30 minutes I spoke with a front desk manager, Faris Pallacey. I explained our outrageous experience to him including sharing images of the rooms condition and he immediately agreed to credit my Visa for all charges related to our visit ($132.69 + $115.08). I asked him for a credit receipt and he said one was not available but he assured me that it was taken care of. I asked again and he showed me a screen where he just processed the credit/return. On June 18, 2012 I reviewed my online Visa statement and there was no credit. After many attempts I finally spoke with him on June 21, 2012. He acknowledged speaking with me on the morning of June 11 and crediting my account for all charges. He again said that they processed the credit and it must be in there accounting system. He promised to check and contact me. June 21, 2012 was the last time I heard from him. I have called weekly since then to no avail. I've attempted to reject the charges through Visa but Kalahari disputed my rejection stating that I was offered a late check out and should not have expected more. Well I did expect more since I was promised numerous times by their own management that my credit card was credited for all charges. After taking my frustration to Social Media, Kalahari offered: Dear Kelly, Thank you for taking the time and the diligence you have to getting this matter solved. I have bits and pieces of the situation and I believe I spoke to you at one point as I have put notations in the reservation. Fares is no longer with the company and I see that you spoke with him as well. I have directed your response to our finance department and they did in fact confirm that you had filed a dispute with your credit card company which was over turned in our favor. I am sure at this point you are very upset and rightfully so. Unfortunately I will not be able to refund your money for the past stay as it was a fund raiser for the PTA and a percentage of the revenue went to the school and has been disbursed. You did not check into your room until after 5:00 and that is a little later then the norm and it does appear there was water in front of the refrigerator which sometimes happens when the refrigerators are turned off and they defrost. None the less we offered to move your room and you declined. I do not want you to remember your stay at the Kalahari as a bad experience so I would like to offer you a free upgrade to visit us again in the future giving us the opportunity to go Beyond your Expectations.. I would like to upgrade you to an African Queen Suite at the rate of a desert, our most economic room. You should receive the voucher in the mail in the next 10 days and it will be valid for a year. I hope that you will accept the upgrade along with my sincere apologies and return again in the future.

I reserved a room in the Sandusky location on my credit card. At the exact same minute I was charged $134 from the premier inn in the UK. The next day I was charged $500 from the same place. I believe thier system has been compromised. The resort its self is a wonderful place but now I'm scared to use my credit card when there!!

We didn't stay at the hotel as it was just waaaay too expensive. But we did visit the water park. It is beautiful and has a great variety of things. For my husband and I, it ended up not really being worth the money as we could only go into one pool and the hot tub due to my husband's handicap. But for peoplr who can enjoy all of the stuff there, yeah, it would be more worth the cost of admission.

I have been to Kalahari Sandusky three times. The first two times were great. However, the third time that we went we had so many problems with scheduling that there is no way I would ever go back. It's a shot in the dark of how much you're going to pay. We were going to go one weekend but THEY accidently booked us for the week ahead of what we requested and in the end we were the ones that had to pay $70 more. We would have just gotten our money back except for we had already rescheduled before. They were also going to charge us even more money even after I insisted we already had a $60 credit, which they finally agreed I did. It is also ridiculous that two people can't go and stay in a room. The minimum amount is 4. It's all a con to get your money. The hotel part of the experience is honestly not worth the price you will pay. If you are going to go, pay for a hotel near by and buy a day pass. Not only will I not be going back but I have also told my extended family and none of them will be going back as well. PLEASE save your money!

From the moment we walked in to the moment we left we were very happy. I have many pros and just a few cons reguarding this place. I'll start with the pros: Lobby- When you walk in the lobby, you hear wonderful African music, which is very calming. The layout is really cool and there were alot of shops, restaurants, and signs pointing towards everything. They have a gigantic window that you can see the waterpark from in the lobby, and my 7 kids, ages 1-9, were extatic to see the waterpark when we first walked in. Wasn't busy, but we went during the week in January, so that's probably why. With 7 kids it was nice not having it be busy in lobby, so we didn't lose track of them. I liked how it was on the second floor, too. Room- The room was clean, nicely decorated, and big. We got the 2-bedroom suite. It was hard with 7 kids, and some slept on the floor, but that is obviously not the resorts fault. It had a kitchen which was perfect for making breakfast and lunch. No bed bugs! And there was no noise at night either. We slept VERY well after a long day in the water park. Water Park- It is huge! Perfect for our kids, aged 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, and 9. Daddy took ages 6-9 on the bigger slides and I stayed in the kiddie area with the younger ones. There is lifeguards everywhere which made me feel safe about having a bunch of kids running around. The snack bar was really good and reasonably priced. I did get a chance to go on the family slide with my 5 year old and it was very fun. Lines were nonexistent during our stay and it wasn't as loud as past posters have said it is. They play good music; 97.9. My husband did say that the "toilet bowl" was really fun, and a big thrill, but I did not get a chance to go on it. Overall, it was really nice and clean in there. Now I'm gonna name a few cons, but theres not alot... -Restaurants are a little pricey -Tree top play wouldn't let my 9 year old play because of his height (limit is 52", he is 54") -Front desk was out of wristbands, so they had to restock before they gave us any That's about it for the cons. Our stay was wonderful and I recommend this resort to anyone reading this. Great for families!

well we came there under a long weekend and paid alot of money and spent alot of money and and the room we had checked into was not even cleaned and it was not a very clean room in any expectations..we called and complained and they moved use to another room and that room was not the cleabest as the toilet was nasty and the drawer in the bedstand had alls kinds of garbage and cracker crumbs and it was nasty and when we complained about that room they sent someone to clean it as we refused to mive again and we love kalahari but we had never experience this until this last time visiting and with the cost and all the money spent there we spoke to a manager as he said he was and promised we would get a free long weekend in return with some coupons for the arcade and free food food for our troubles and we never recieved anything so i do not trust this place and i feel we were mislead and this is totally so wrong... i hope people will read these reviews before going there and spending all there money....thank you

I liked the way the place is run , i like the food. I didnt like the way they give discounts on room that have a view of a wall and dont tell you when you reserve a room...I dont like that my kids and i got bumps on our bodies in places we missed when showering after going swimming. And i didnt like the way they responded when i told them the dr said it was a water born fungus....will never go in a public pool again !

Likes - Waterpark is quite and adventure play land for the family. Lines on some tubes can get long, but if you ride the more popular ones first thing in the morning it seems to be less crowded. My family had a great time exploring for 2 days. In some instances it is important to learn the tube names. Some lines are for several rides and the signage does not include slide color (and the names are not always descriptive). The food was very good. Especially the Reserve (try the sweet potato fries, pizza burger, and The African Queen.). Note that they changed the name of the reserve a few years ago, but some of the materials reference old names. Room size, cleanliness, and decor was great. Dislikes - Our biggest gripe was the room noise. Although we were not located in one of the main hallway rooms, the hallway noise was very loud going late into the night. We could also hear word for word conversations from our neighbors on both sides. Scooting chairs from above and some sort of banging. Did not get much sleep. I have stayed at motels with quieter rooms than this place. I am not sure if it is a construction flaw or a trade-off so the wifi works better in the rooms. Whatever the reason, bring earplugs and be prepared...hopefully you will have a quiet room.

Horrible customer services!!! I wanted to take my daughter and friends on an overnight trip for her birthday, I called in for reservations, and the date I had chosen on a Saturday, they had a "minimum two nights" stay. What type of mess is that??? Told me I could not reserve a room unless we stayed two nights and if I decided to just walk in, they still would not be able to accommodate me unless we stayed for two nights. I asked so if the room is not reserved for two nights you just keep it empty and he told me yes. I AM LIVID!!

When we arrived check in didn't take very long and our room was ready. We had a two room family suite on the first floor. The room appeared to be clean. We used the water park for the rest of the day and returned to the room at 8:00 PM. We noticed a sign at the beginning of our hall that reminded guests to please be quiet and no running. Our 3 kids slept in the room that faced the outside of the building away from the interior hall. My husband and I were in the room that went directly out into the hallway. I have to say we have stayed at several resorts. I have never even written a review about anything before but I have never experienced anything like the noise level we endured at Kalahari. We tried to go to sleep at 11:00PM. We could here people walking down the hall talking in loud voices. All I can say is the walls must be drywall only with nothing inside to absorb sound because we could hear every word people were saying as if they were inside of the room with us. This was a very high traffic area. We tried to sleep for 2 hours. We heard people running, bouncing basketballs that they must have won in the arcade, screaming, and laughing. We finally called the front desk when at 12:30 midnight someone beat their fist on our door and started laughing. My husband called the front desk and they said they would send security. At about 1:00 Am we heard what sounded like a security persons radio out in the hall. About ten minutes later we heard more of the same noises all over again. My husband went down to the front desk and they admitted that noise was a problem in that hall and that it should settle down soon. He came back to the room and the noise still continued. At 1:45 we finally realized that nothing more was going to be done to address the situation and we went to go sleep with our kids in their room. The next day we told the manager what happened and suggested they keep security in the hall at night to keep the noise under control. She had an attitude and told us security isn't going to walk that hall at night! We asked if we could be charged for a single room since we couldn't even sleep in our room and she said they don't give cash refunds. She never apologized and would only offer us an upgrade to an African safari room at the price of the two room family suite the next time we visited. We were told that all of the two room family suites are all in this hall. They know they have a big problem with noise in this hall but choose to do nothing about it. Guests unknowingly book a $400.00 plus room only too find out they can't sleep in it. We won't be going back.