Paws Up aspires to be a five star resort. It certainly charges like one - we spent $16k for three nights for six people, including activities. The land around it and the variety of activities are truly impressive, almost breathtaking. But overall very uneven and falls far short of the quality of experience typical at that price point.
The food at Trough, the casual restaurant, was pretty bad, particularly the buffet items. The restaurant was chronically understaffed and people felt undertrained. Service was incredibly slow. Whole thing felt like being on a low end cruise ship.
The service at Pomp, the fancy restaurant, was excellent. Waiters were as friendly and efficient as they could be. But the food seemed stuck in the 1980s. A lot of fried food, heavy sauces and soups, and misuse of good ingredients. We expected more sophisticated, lighter options. The executive chef seemed MIA.
Our Wilderness Estate was worn and somewhat dirty. Clearly the housekeeping and maintenance are lagging. Drawers were beaten up, old rugs, overlaundered sheets, etc. No one vacuumed the dirty rugs when we arrived until we demanded it on day 3 of our stay. Housekeeping didn’t show up one day until 6:30pm after multiple phone calls. At these prices, Paws Up needs to invest more in keeping things in great shape and much better staff training.
We had a lot of difficulties getting our initial concierge to plan everything with very slow response. A different concierge cleared things up and was much better.
The activities are priced too high for what they deliver. Some like our fly fishing guide and our shooting instructor were exceptional. Others like our horse riding guide was rude to our kids and didn’t even bother to bring water for a two hour ride. Same happened with our hike. Need better training and more consistency when charging $200-300 per person per activity, which feels extortionate. The variety of activities are excellent and it is the best reason to come, if you are ok paying up.
Paws Up has the potential to create an amazing resort. But currently it is inconsistent and doesn’t deliver what it promises. Hope the ownership renews its commitment to be a top destination. It could be really great.
