hot lake springs

awesome experiance. History, hot springs, art, museum, relaxation, clean, friendly, work in progress, steam heat in rooms, clean!!!!!!!

We were driving through the area on a scenic RV trip from Portland to Coeur d'Alene. We heard about this spot and thought it was worth a brief side trip. Unfortunately, that was not the case. The hotel is quite rundown. We thought we would at least get lunch, but were told 'we don't serve that kind of lunch.' We can only assume that meant any lunch at all because the restaurant was completely dark. We started looking around the grounds only to be told that it was a $10/person ticket to walk around. We quickly got back on our way. Our advice is to just stick to the main road and drive on.

Wow. I am astonished with this place. What could have been an absolutely amazing tour and experience turned into blatent self promotion and absolutely no history on the building. We did not stay the night but have. Heard so much about the building we wanted to check it out. We walked in and wandered about for a couple minutes before being asked if we wanted a tour. We did, and dished out the $10/piece for what we expected was an informational tour on the building. We first sat and watched a 15 minute video "to get an overview of what we would see". There is about 1 minute of building history and 14 minutes of story about how the owners met and then how the bronzing sculpture process goes and how "valuable" Mr. Manuel's work is. No arguing his work is beautiful but it was not what we wanted to see. One funny thing; during the video, lee states how he wished he could chat with every guest about his work, it says that if you get the chance to see him working to come and spark up a conversation. But when we did see him working, there were large signs saying do not disturb the artist and he would not speak to us as we were 5 feet away commenting on the work he was doing. Once the video was over our "tour guide" was nowhere to be found. We wandered around looking for her for about 10 minutes before she came and hurried us to the history museam. Expecting to finally hear some stories about the place, we dissapointedly walked around looking at an expansive hisory collection of non-related objects. They were cool, but if I wanted to learn about WW2 and indian history I would have went elseware. After that we wandered around again looking for our tour guide. She deposited us in the "surgical ward". We tried to ask her about the building history and some of the stories and she brushed us off showing us a photo of how it originally looked, told us to explore and ask if we had more questions. There were a few cool things to look at but 80% of the rooms were remodeled for the b&b. Fine, but could they at least have had some plaques or something with actual history. We came here to learn about the building. After we were finished we couldn't find the tour guide so we just wandered about the grounds. So glad we did not pay to soak in the "hot springs" as they were some lukewarm dirty hottubs. My home hottub is hotter. I am so happy that this place is for sale, hopefully the new owners will embrace the buildingg history and not just brag about what they do, while ignoring the client desires and questions.

We were on the road and thought a hot springs soak would be fun. The reviews were sketchy but we stopped by to look in. Nice old building and grounds but these places take so much work and always need more.Nobody inside to greet us so we wandered looking for the pool. Still nobody. Picked up literature looking for prices but only the big prices for staying there were listed. We did see that "tours" of the hotel cost $10 each. Hmmmm.Finally the wife of the couple that owned it wandered in and we asked the price. She was insistent that we watch a orientation movie for 20 minutes. It gave the history of the family business and let us know they had accepted Christ and that we could buy a bronze. We asked the price again and it was $25 each for a short soak. Quite a bit above the prices we had seen anywhere, ever. We wandered out but did not wonder about the empty parking lot. It seemed to us the "soak" we would have gotten was not the soak we had been seeking.

I am very frustrated with the delivery timeline for my bronze ------------- Shoshone Moon. I ordered the bronze in Oct 2012, with a 2013 delivery window. Quaint hotel, but very unique business.Lee has gone so far as to state the likelihood of delivery is now very remote, unless I pay the full price upfront -------------- payment criteria Lee did not make apparent during the ordering process. Lee though assures me the casting process will proceed with my 50 percent deposit (non-refundable). In either event, no commitment for a delivery window --------- states too many unforeseen events could make a schedule commitment meaningless ----------- e.g., prior year train wreck across the highway from the factory. Please note: the casting process progresses at appr 2 bronzes per week, for the 100 bronze limitation run ---------- according to Lee. My casting process has been ongoing for more than 12 months ! Recent sales brochure Lee releases indicates the bronzes are still available for ordering, even though Lee stated my order in 2012 was the last available ---------- only due to cancellation of a prior customer's order. Even though I have paid appr 50 percent of the full price upfront, I understandably am hesitant to make another payment with no firm commitment. To pay the full price with no product for a customer to inspect is very unique in the business community. Note: other than the initial deposit, the contract has no requirement for partial payments prior to final delivery ---------and no firm delivery date (other than year). Lee assures me the art industry is very unique, and unstable. If so, what an expensive way to discover this business model !FYI: This is the third complaint I have identified on this web site regarding delivery issues with Hot Lake Springs Bronzes. Almost appears to a Fonze operation.

Summed up all the 1 stars reviews. Do not buy any bronze. I pre-ordered the "Shoshone Monn" on July 6, 2012, promised to be delivered sometimes on 2013. Charged my credit card in full by February 2013. It is now Feb 2014 and the item is not receive yet. There is no communication with Lee Manuel, the owner who sold me the item. Always getting the right hand named Darlene. Until now, I have not heard from them. Send them a certified mail with return receipt. Hopefully something will happened. Cost of the bronze, hefty $9,950.00. Grunted costumer Lilia A.P.S. Time of visit is July 2012. Not July2013. No choice for 2012

My elderly parents had a terrible experience there. Lee Manual is uncooperative, difficult person we have ever done business with. Our experience dragged on for over 2 years. If you want to buy a bronze statue , please buy it else where .

We had been somewhat excited about staying at Hot Lakes,,,,until we got there. Although peacocks and geese are fun to watch, seeing all the poop on the ground, sides of the building and windows and in the "hot tubs" turned us off. We decided to go in and ask to view a room just for fun. Upon entering and going to the front desk a young woman seated towards the back did not greet us or even acknowledge our presence. We asked to see a room and she told us to go left and look. We got a big laugh out of what we saw. Dirty outdated thrift shop furniture, bedspread and icky bathroom. We proceeded on to the gift shop where a woman offered to let us walk around the property for $20.00. We paid it just for kicks, then we were told we had to wear these big green stickers identifying us as "visitors" with a warning that the staff can get really upset if we didn't have a sticker on.Now come on! That was just plain weird.Our self guided tour outside went from bad to worse. Upon the last leg, we opened the door of the chapel to be greeted by wasps, dead and alive. Hundreds of dead ones all over the floor! It had not been cleaned in a long time. We decided to leave in a hurry! Too bad as it could be a really neat historical destination.P.S. I wouldn't eat there after the cleanliness issues we encountered either.

I would recommend to any interested party to do a walk through before you put a dime down.We found the staff and owner quite friendly upon checking in. We were given a tour and wasreally taken back with what we saw. The Garden Area had multiple hot tubs with debris in themand bird droppings surrounding them. The staff said it was to difficult to maintain and keep upwith it. They were experiencing water and eledtrical problems so only 1 tub outside was actuallyworking. Had open trenches surrounding the property and stumbled in one. The museumson the hill you had to look through windows which we declined. Now in the bedroom the windowsappeared painted over and unable to open. Outside the window were piles of bird droppings. The furniture and interior pieces were odd and the room smelled wierd. We decided to make a run for it and ran into Lee and staff on our departure. We were there maybe 2 hours and departedand informed staff. Not sure about the positive responses here if they were actual guests or employees that wrote them. Anyway I wish I had a heads up on this one. The pictures on the web didnt look like what I experienced. Remember the no refund policy and walk through before you put a dime down.

If you mugs are look'in for a slick upscale stamped out hotel room like you find in the alleys and by ways of every city in America this isn't it. When my bro needed a place to lay low with his dame for a little private celebration, this was it. I saw to that.It's a blast from the past. It's history come to town with bells on. It's being immersed in an "experience" you can't find anyplace else. I know a guy, who knows a guy, that knows a guy who can tell you how to get here.The guys and dolls that run this joint are "the heat". They'll take care of you while you're here and see you aren't bothered.Yeah, it's haunted all right. But if you're weak of heart what would you be do'in here anyway ya mug? My pal author Derek Pell said once: "You've wandered into some strange new territory. Mean streets after hours, where jazz and noir are swirling , and mysteries drift like the smoke from a discharged 6-shot .38 snub nose. You've stopped in the middle of a genre without a name." I checked out the place he was talk'in about. You might check out Hot Lake.

We enjoyed a tour of the museum and facility along with a visit with David Manuel. His art in bronze is amazing. Lee's passion for the project is fantastic. I would love to have one of their bronze's. One of these days.

When we visited Hot Springs Lake over two years ago, we had a truly unique experience. Lee ushered us into David's studio where we were privileged to watch him work and hear him tell the history of the piece he was sculpturing and took pictures. We bought three bronze sculptures, one we took with us and ordered the other two that were still in clay form, of which we paid for in full. Lee was extremely pleasant and helpful through this process. She explained that our bronze would be done in about 7 or 8 months. We were willing to wait for such beautiful pieces. In 7 months we began to contact Lee to see when our bronze would be ready. And that began the long drawn out process to receive what we had paid for. We wrote e-mails and left many messages for Lee to return our calls, with little or no communication from her or anyone on the staff. The few times we actually were able to speak personally with Lee, she would give us a timeline that came and went without receiving our bronze.After two years and no satisfaction, we unfortunately had to hire a lawyer. After a letter from him, a date was set to pick up our bronze. We called the day before to make certain it was ready for us to pick up since we would have over a three hour drive. Kelly told us yes it was ready. When we arrived, we were informed by Kelly that it was not ready. We ended up waiting four hours before we were given our bronze that we had already waited over two years for. Lee snubbed us but her son, Larry was a very pleasant young man who took a lot of time with us and explained the process. He apologized for our long wait and we very much appreciated his honesty and caring attitude. The staff were also pleasant enough, but they are not in charge of the business end, Lee is the decision maker and business head of this family. She needs to change her tactics if she truly cares about her customers and have a successful endeavor. We understand the difficulty this family is having with such a huge project, but all we asked for was some communication and honesty from Lee. Our originally pleasant experience turned sour very quickly and we will never go back to Hot Springs Lake Resort. This is most unfortunate and we genuinely hope and pray for the Resort's success.

If you want a really unique experience this is the place gor you. 5 atar hotel? No, but plenty atmosphere. Each room uniquely decorated. Food was ery tasty and plentiful. The museum was wonderful, as was exploring the whole 3 floors. We met David Manuel and his vivacious wife, Lee. We were very fortunate to be there during the off season and had a lot of freedom to roam around. Highly recommend a stay there. Everyone was super nice and all the little extras were wonderful.

I had a really nasty email exchange with a person who apparently has the authority to speak for the business. I am a retiree who is fortunate to be quite stable financially. I wrote an email stating that $25 for day use of the hot springs is ridiculousy high and that I would just drive by. This is the reply I received: "Thank you....that's how its suppose to work." The intimation is that the prices are set to weed out the riff raff. It all went downhill from there. I responded with a comment of snobbery, which I think it is, and, in the ensuing emails was informed I should get a job and maybe I could scrape up $25. I noted my circumstances and received the following: Wonderful.....we are so disappointed to not have had the privilege of becoming acquainted with such an expertBusiness advisor, mathematician, museum volunteer,Hot springs specialist, As well as a people greeter.We look forward to meeting you some day.I can tell your (sic) full of personality, you are fun.Travel safe...SNOB, with a little sense of humorObviously, I will not be be driving bythis resort. Make sure you are of their preferred caliber prior to making application to stay at this place. I still think $25 for day use is prohibitive. This individual did nothing to inform me of why he or she thinks the service is worth it. I could have been convinced. Might have been "Lee," the person cited in 85oceanic's review below.

We had the opportunity to stay the night on our way to Idaho. The family really enjoyed our time at the Hot Lake Springs bed and breakfast. I believe they will talk about it for the rest of their lives. Glad we stopped by and stayed.