Grandstay Apple Valley

Waited about 8 minutes at the front desk for someone to check us in. Room has a vinyl floor that definitely needs to be cleaned, there are food crumps, pieces of plastic and what looks to be mouse droppings. Room appears to be in the middle of renovations.

This place is in someways lovely and in many others needs a lot of TLC. Our room although advertised as a well equiped kitchen had not one pot/pan or any cooking utinsels. The cooktop is a little useless without them. The breakfast left a lot to be desired. Hot food wasn't hot. The biscuits and gravy was awful - gravy not hot, biscuits like rocks. There are a number of safety issues. The disabled door assist buttons on the back door did not work for incoming and there wasn't one on the front door. The back door key card reader did not work and we got locked out late at night after returning from an event. The door was locked well befoe the poste time. The single elevator was broken down for several hours one night. The trash at the back door wasn't emptied for several days leaving trash piled up and falling on the ground. The toilet tissue was almost see-through. On the positive side, the bed was comfortable enough and the staff is friendly and helpful.

First, the good - the front desk staff was really great! The floor in my room was dirty, and needed to be swept. The WiFi didn't work in my room (up on the 4th floor), but did work on the 1st floor). The breakfast was very average. The faucets in the bathroom, and kitchenette were very dated, and covered in lime. There was a big spider in the bathroom I had to take care of. The reason I gave this hotel a try was for the workout room that the AmericInn does not have. The equipment in the workout room was filthy, and had not been cleaned for a while. The equipment was also in desperate need of maintenance - squeaking and flexing at the joints. The following morning I discovered dead bug carcasses in the bathroom (on the floor & sink counter). The bathroom did not have a fan, and my brief shower fogged the entire room up. With only 2 hotels in Apple Valley, MN it seems like each one is only trying to be slightly better than the other instead of making the hotel the best it can possibly be.

I love where this property is located. It's close to several restaurants and bars for evening activities. The hotel also has a fairly large convention center attached to it. Parking was a little off, but I would stay here again. I would definitely use this for business meetings or small conventions. They were just beginning some renovations on the convention center in early September. The Celts Craft House is a major bonus. It's a restaurant and craft beer bar inside the building between the hotel and convention center.

Booked a king suite with a whirlpool for a little staycation on my wife's birthday. Made the reservation a few days beforehand from the Grandstay's website. When we arrived at the hotel we were given keys only to discover upon getting to the room that we were put into a queen room with no whirlpool. Went back to the desk to find out what happened and it turns out this is a very common problem at the Grandstay right now due to their renovations. Apparently their manager just switched us from the room we booked to a totally different type of room a day or so before our arrival. No communication from the hotel just made the change I'm sure hoping we would just go along with it and not complain. When I went to the desk to resolve it there was another guest dealing with a very similar issue of not getting the room she paid for as well. In talking to the poor guy stuck working the desk it sounds like this has been going on for a while due to poor planning on the part of the hotel and not properly blocking off the rooms. Their solution, a refund or a 15% discount on the room if we wanted to stay. We took the refund and found another location. Going to take quite a bit for us to consider going back to the Grandstay after this BS. Thankfully for us we didn't travel far to stay there so we could adjust. Would have been much worse for someone coming from farther away. I could have understood if we had been contacted before arrival to say the room we wanted wasn't available. But to make the change without telling us was just shady on the part of the manager. So if you book at the Grandstay in Apple Valley I would highly recommend calling ahead and making sure they are actual going to give you the room you are paying for.

We reserved a 2 standard queen room. Upon arrival, we waited 10 min. At the front desk. No one was around. It was 8:30 at night. While waiting in the lobby other customers were telling us about their atrocities. Two of our teammates and families had been turned away as their prior reservation was not kept. Another told us that they had no shades on the windows, so she had gone to Target to get a sleeping mask. One family had a broken bed and another found dirty underwear in their room. Another told us to look behind the counter for the worker because when they arrived for check in, the worker was lying on the floor sleeping(in the afternoon!) Finally after calling the front desk, a worker showed up and told me my online reservation for a 2 queen room would not be honored, but they did have a 1 queen room. There would be no shades on the windows and no roll away cots for my kids. All 6 of us were expected to sleep on 1 queen and 1 pull out couch. They offered me a $25 discount. I stayed because our other team families were here and my kids wanted to be with their friends. The TV did not change channels in the bedroom. The hallway carpet was covered in what looked like sheet rock/chipped paint/construction dust. The pool and hot tub were tiny. The pool said it had a max capacity of 17, but with just 10 teens in the pool and it was more than crowded. The hot tub could fit 4 people. This was quite the disappointment all around. We will not be back. I will tell everyone I know to stay far away.