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Well, no Presidential Unit this time. I must say the two bedroom Lodge unit feels quite small by comparison! Still, we have a nice brook view from the balcony, though the downside is that the spot attracts a lot of picnickers - so there are some noisy large groups out there often from lunchtime through dusk/dark. I imagine this wouldn't be so bad if not prime summer.
While I'm not thrilled with the small unit, Silverleaf has stepped up their service incredibly. We called for a new coffeepot (old one was gross) and to fix the overhead (super noisy) and maintenance and housekeeping were both at our door within 5 minutes. Maintenance took down the fan and completely rebalanced it, then tried hard not to accept the tip I insisted on giving him, but rather asked that I leave it in the housekeeping envelope at the end of the week to be shared with the staff. They've also been very gracious about scheduling midweek housekeeping on Tues/Wed/Thurs instead of checkout Friday (we are staying more than one week and don't have to switch units, something else they worked hard at for us).
So here are some pros and cons:
Pro: Location. This is a great spot from which to launch a good Berkshires long weekend or vacation. THIS is the reason I come back.
Service. Much improved, as per above
Pretty grounds
Nice mini-golf course for the kids. They would prob also like the rec room.
Limited food available in the rec room - hot dogs, chicken fingers, grilled cheese, etc. Mostly kid food, nothing fancy, but better than nothing.
Cons: NO WIFI in the units. Wifi is available in the main building, but it is noisy and crowded in there.
STAIRS. I have always been put in a third floor unit, which is actually six flights of stairs up. I don't complain because it's better than having a family above us, which brings me to another con in terms of shoddy construction allowing noise from other units. If you really can't do stairs, ask for a handicapped unit, but they are few and far between so please really need one.
BEDS: really hard. For this stay I had a foam mattress topper shipped up there. No joke. On the plus side, the front desk was kind enough to have it sent right to my room so it was there waiting for me (to my excellent service point above).
BUGS: there are a ton of mosquitoes here - they really need some zappers and other mosquito control, especially outside the units. The outside lights attract the mosquitoes and they come flying in as soon as you open the door. This has been a particularly buggy stay, even Tanglewood has been a bit buggy at night.
CELL SERVICE: Really spotty here. A problem in the area generally, but very bad in places at the resort, including at checkin building where they will often offer to call your cell when your room is ready. Which brings me to...
CHECKIN: Checkin is very slow here compared to most resorts I've stayed in. Lots of 'splainin to do, stuff to sign, etc. A LOT of people checking in at once, only a few agents to check everyone in. They could def benefit from stepping up available staff and computers for checkin days/times.
POOLS: The main pool is so crowded in prime summer it's worse than the public city pool in uptown NYC. They really need to add more pools to accomodate all the extra units that were built after the first ones went in. The "presidential" pool is very small, but if you are lucky enough to get a presidential unit that gives you access, that pool doesn't seem as bad, though it was the weekend before prime season when I last saw it.
PETS: Clearing up any potential confusion to date, the resort is absolutely enforcing its "no pets for RCI'ers" rule. Personally, I find it discriminatory against exchangers, and the resort needs to do a better job about communicating that to guests, but that's the story.
While I'm not thrilled with the small unit, Silverleaf has stepped up their service incredibly. We called for a new coffeepot (old one was gross) and to fix the overhead (super noisy) and maintenance and housekeeping were both at our door within 5 minutes. Maintenance took down the fan and completely rebalanced it, then tried hard not to accept the tip I insisted on giving him, but rather asked that I leave it in the housekeeping envelope at the end of the week to be shared with the staff. They've also been very gracious about scheduling midweek housekeeping on Tues/Wed/Thurs instead of checkout Friday (we are staying more than one week and don't have to switch units, something else they worked hard at for us).
So here are some pros and cons:
Pro: Location. This is a great spot from which to launch a good Berkshires long weekend or vacation. THIS is the reason I come back.
Service. Much improved, as per above
Pretty grounds
Nice mini-golf course for the kids. They would prob also like the rec room.
Limited food available in the rec room - hot dogs, chicken fingers, grilled cheese, etc. Mostly kid food, nothing fancy, but better than nothing.
Cons: NO WIFI in the units. Wifi is available in the main building, but it is noisy and crowded in there.
STAIRS. I have always been put in a third floor unit, which is actually six flights of stairs up. I don't complain because it's better than having a family above us, which brings me to another con in terms of shoddy construction allowing noise from other units. If you really can't do stairs, ask for a handicapped unit, but they are few and far between so please really need one.
BEDS: really hard. For this stay I had a foam mattress topper shipped up there. No joke. On the plus side, the front desk was kind enough to have it sent right to my room so it was there waiting for me (to my excellent service point above).
BUGS: there are a ton of mosquitoes here - they really need some zappers and other mosquito control, especially outside the units. The outside lights attract the mosquitoes and they come flying in as soon as you open the door. This has been a particularly buggy stay, even Tanglewood has been a bit buggy at night.
CELL SERVICE: Really spotty here. A problem in the area generally, but very bad in places at the resort, including at checkin building where they will often offer to call your cell when your room is ready. Which brings me to...
CHECKIN: Checkin is very slow here compared to most resorts I've stayed in. Lots of 'splainin to do, stuff to sign, etc. A LOT of people checking in at once, only a few agents to check everyone in. They could def benefit from stepping up available staff and computers for checkin days/times.
POOLS: The main pool is so crowded in prime summer it's worse than the public city pool in uptown NYC. They really need to add more pools to accomodate all the extra units that were built after the first ones went in. The "presidential" pool is very small, but if you are lucky enough to get a presidential unit that gives you access, that pool doesn't seem as bad, though it was the weekend before prime season when I last saw it.
PETS: Clearing up any potential confusion to date, the resort is absolutely enforcing its "no pets for RCI'ers" rule. Personally, I find it discriminatory against exchangers, and the resort needs to do a better job about communicating that to guests, but that's the story.
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