THE RANCH AT DEATH VALLEY

Very rude and unprofessional service. Would not recommend!!!

Death Valley is incredible and definitely worth a visit. The landscape is stunning. The Ranch at Death Valley needs some help. Though they mention that a major renovation has been done, the rooms are very basic. The mattresses (we had a room with 2 double beds) were awful. I am getting a massage today because sleeping on them hurt my back. The food in all the restaurants is overpriced and nothing special. But the buffet restaurant was especially awful. The food was horrendous, the tables were never bussed, no service at all. In general the service at the hotel was non existent. No one answered the phone at the front desk. I have been charged 3 times on two different credit cards for the same stay and have not yet been able to get the charges reversed. This hotel is a major dissapointment.

The 80s called and want their rooms back.
It was incredibly hard to get a reservation at The Ranch, and once we did, we felt that because of the cost per night there was no need to bring our own food since the local amenities (2 restaurants, one buffet, one ice-cream parlor, and a general store) would be more than sufficient.
The website photos are very outdated. The rooms were old and weathered. We were told upon check in that there would be no room service provided during our time there, so to call the front desk if we needed anything (thankfully we didn't, and we were ok with no room service).
The restaurant (the saloon) on the property requires reservations which you can ONLY make it through the website, which if you don't have a good internet connection while you're there, and you do it two days in advance, you can't get a table. The restaurant hostesses were very inattentive and rude on both occasions I reached out the them (I walked over to make reservation and was told they were sold out for both nights). When we were finally able to get a reservation, the wait staff was kind and understanding, but the menu is very very limited.
The first night we ate at the buffet ($40 x person) since we didn't have another option. The best thing was the salad. Everything else was very overcooked and over flavored (burgers, hotdogs, steamed vegetables, a lasagna, brisket that seemed like puree, and mashed potatoes). Even the desserts were pretty bad.
With that experience, the second night we bought ramen cups from the general store, Hawaiian bread and packaged sliced cheese and just ate ramen (with hot water from the coffee maker) and cheese sandwiches in the room.
We also tried the ice cream parlor and it was a huge disappointment as well. The parlor is cute, but the ice cream (we each got a different flavor) all tasted exactly the same.

We travel a lot of and have visited most of the national parks on the west part of the US and the hotels and restaurants are owned by the same hotel group (Xanterra) and the experience is just as crappy everywhere. Because of the website we thought this one might just be different, but it was not the case.
Splurge on the cost of the room because it's inside the park and after a long day hiking it's good to have a shower close by, but bring your own food and lower your expectations way down in terms of amenities.
I want to support the staff that works at these parks so that we can all have a great experience, but these corporations need to do a significantly better job of investing in their properties and their personnel.

Rooms dated and not clean.
Staff grumpy.
Great location. Sadly a captive audience hotel with so much potential.

Luxurious retreat midst wilderness of the desert. If possible book two cabins side by side