Rend Lake Resort, Whittington

well, came prepared for the worst based on reviews but was surprised, it was nothing like the reviews! Came for family reunion and had food catered- it was good, pool was fun- no one bothers you, room was neat and clean with flat screen tv, fridge, nice balcony overlooking the lake. breakfast on the deck at the restaurant was pleasant. can't complain, the price was affordable.

This resort is wonderful! Everyone was so nice and helpful. The meals we ate at the restaurant were tasty. Our room was clean and spacious. They have a nautical/nature theme throughout the whole resort. Boat docks and launch. Good fishing even for early March. They offer spa services. The spa came and picked us up in a cute mini bus and took us to their location right down the road. European quality spa treatments!! I loved it! We were there during the off season and look forward to returning during the summer! The Rend Lake Resort is a great place and the state park it is located in is full of wildlife and natural beauty!

(1) dirty, (2) run-down, (3) extremely slow service, (4) "children" in charge, (5) tissue thin walls. Look out for the hunting dog theme. To them the limp duck in the hound's mouth is the customer. Once it goes under I would turn it into an ecological retreat and petting zoo for orphaned fawns to compensate for years of butchery by "GED scholars."

Stayed in a cabin. We were with a group of people but were placed out of the way because we got there on a different day. Cabin outside was rusty, moldy and covered in spiders and all sorts of bugs including wasp nests. Inside was sad... the previous reviews hit the nail on the head. Needs updating and a really good cleaning. Had a musty funky odor to the room. There were spiders and webs in the bathroom. Only had 2 towels for 4 guests. Had to call and get more which they brought within an hour. Next day 4 towels were left but 2 were the dirty wet towels I left in the bathtub. How do I know they were the same...my 7 year old didn't quite do a good job wiping after using the potty and after getting out of the bath and drying off, left some on the towel which was now nicely folded and with the other towels. Gift shop was a joke...handful of non useful items. We went to have lunch in the restaurant and walked out after the same 7 year old complained of the stink and once we saw that the kids meals were priced at $7 each. Had no cell service while there either and no wifi. The lake itself was nice and the state park areas were much nicer than this "resort". Would only go back to camp in the campgrounds and if our group chose it again for our group outing. Will not stay at the cabins or resort again. Oh...and others in our group were charged for things like roll away beds and room service when they didn't use them. I guess you end up paying for the scenery and not the actual "resort" because it was completely overpriced.

Door at our room was covered with mosquitos!!!! Outdoor light wasn't even on! Okay so I know it is July and humid, but you pay 145.00 a night and felt like you were in a tent being chewed by mosquitos. Worst of all management can't even offer a discount on the room and so awfully rude! Even asked front desk before asking for discount if they could spray our unit to get rid of the mosquitos that were already inside but they were out of bug spray!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I read all of the reviews before I booked a long weekend for my family at the Rend Lake Resort. I should have paid more attention to the poor ratings. I always think those reviews are just from a few sour people--now I'm one of those sour people! I was SO DISAPPOINTED! The staff at the resort were not helpful. I never worked with the same person twice while trying to set up a family gathering at the facility. Information was lost. Rooms requested weren't assigned. Service was slow and inconsistent. Once I arrived, the service didn't change. The rooms were buggy and dirty. Nothing seems to be very well maintained. We were even in the new "Flagship" they boast about on their web site. It's rusty, dirty, noisy, and not very well maintained for a "new" building. Our toilet was broken and the tub leaked. Housekeeping was a joke. Our bed wasn't made and towels were rationed. We ate at the restaurant (Windows) for two meals. Our reservations were messed up the first night. The service was terribly slow. We watched staff walk off the job while we continued to wait for our food. One staff member even told us they loose another employee just about weekly. If the staff are miserable, how do you think they are going to make the guests feel? We foolishly returned for breakfast the next day, and had comparable service. I won't go back again. Another writer mentioned staying at a Hampton Inn. I wish we had. The experience would have been better. Don't get me wrong. The lake and recreation area are wonderful. The "Resort" and its restaurant are a joke!!!!

The Rend Lake Resort is the perfect place to take a family or a special someone. We found the Resort to be very accommodating and the staff was friendly. The rooms are outdated but what business has the money in these hard times to remodel? The resort does sit on the waters edge and while we stayed many people complained of bugs. The Resort sits on the waters edge! There will be bugs. Yes, the Rend Lake Resort could be better, as could every other place in the world. The Rend Lake Resort is special. The Resort is isolated and it is almost its own community with so many different buildings, a restaurant, gift shop, and bait shop. The room was very clean, as was the restaurant. We had a wonderful weekend and we are planning on coming back soon. We did check on reservations for the summer and they are getting full fast!

After reading all the reviews we arrived looking for something to find fault with. We looked hard for two days and the only thing we could come up with is satellite TV doesn’t work very well when there is a bad storm. (Not there fault.) Customer service was Outstanding they were very nice. The restaurant food was great I had the most awesome chicken sandwich there. The resort is teamed up with a fantastic Fishing guide service "Rend lake fishing guides". The live well had a lot of fish in it at the end of the day. Thank you for a wonderful weekend with my son.We will be back in the fall.

Got reservations for room (Flagship) for New Years Eve 2009. Excited to stay. Bubble soon burst. Room like a freezer. No heat...just gas fireplace that kept going out during night. So cold that had to take shower after driving home next day. Called to speak to manager to try to justify spending almost $150 for room. She promised to check into situation but never called back. Called next day..still no manager....Tells people what Rend Lake thinks of guests. Guess that it's foolish to think that $150 room would include heat in the middle of winter.....What was I thinking....Can only be fooled once!!!! Beware

The customer service department is horrible!!! 2 years ago while staying in a cabin we were awakened in the middle of the night by a squirrel in our bedroom! We trapped it in the bathroom and the maintenance person removed it in the morning. The desk personel promised us a free night voucher, but after many calls were eventually told by the customer service dept. that they had no record of sending us a voucher, therefore they couldn't send us one. They accused us of lying, although the girl at the front desk who answered the phone remembered who I was! Finally, I wrote the owner, John Reilly, three times, who had the customer service dept call and ask me why I was calling....they were very rude!!! I was also told that the rooms there are very expensive and they couldn't just "give us a night in the hotel" I responded that we enjoy the Rend Lake area and will stay again many times and "wouldn't it be worth it to send me the voucher so I will be a repeat customer in the future?" The girl in the cust. service department told me they have plenty of customers and they don't need my business. We will never stay there again.