Kalahari Resorts and Convention Center, more commonly called Kalahari, was founded in 2000 by owner and former CEO Todd Nelson, in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin. The company operates a chain of indoor amusement parks, water parks, hotels, and convention meeting rooms.
The resort is named after the Kalahari desert in Africa, which explains why Africa is the theme of the hotel rooms and convention rooms, as well as mascots. There are three resorts, the first being in Wisconsin Dell, Wisconsin, the second in Sandusky, Ohio, and the third in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. The Sandusky location is billed as the largest indoor theme park in the USA. Hotels range in size from 750 rooms to 996 rooms, as well as multiple convention or meeting rooms for business travelers.
Kalahari Resorts also have full-service restaurants, and playgrounds for children, and include free tickets to the Timbavati Wildlife Park for customers who book rooms.
In January 2023, Kalahari Resorts announced that they were expanding their Texas location by several thousand square feet to accommodate its busy schedule.
Kalahari Resorts maintains a corporate office in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin.
Kalahari Resorts and Convention Center, more commonly called Kalahari, was founded in 2000 by owner and former CEO Todd Nelson, in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin. The company operates a chain of indoor amusement parks, water parks, hotels, and convention meeting rooms.
History
The resort is named after the Kalahari desert in Africa, which explains why Africa is the theme of the hotel rooms and convention rooms, as well as mascots. There are three resorts, the first being in Wisconsin Dell, Wisconsin, the second in Sandusky, Ohio, and the third in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. The Sandusky location is billed as the largest indoor theme park in the USA. Hotels range in size from 750 rooms to 996 rooms, as well as multiple convention or meeting rooms for business travelers.
Kalahari Resorts also have full-service restaurants, and playgrounds for children, and include free tickets to the Timbavati Wildlife Park for customers who book rooms.
In January 2023, Kalahari Resorts announced that they were expanding their Texas location by several thousand square feet to accommodate its busy schedule.
Kalahari Resorts maintains a corporate office in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin.
I called four times today was on hold for a total of four hours with four different responses and answers. This resort cost much too much to display such disorder.
We’ve stayed at the Kalahari in the Dells for the past 5 years and I’m dissatisfied on how our complaint was handled concerning unruly guests next door. My entire family was up all night listening to the screaming and yelling of intoxicated guests. Even though our room was in close proximity to the front desk not one employee addressed the situation. When I complained this morning the only remedy that the manager had for us was to change rooms. It’s not acceptable to expect us to pack up an entire family (6 of us) and move because the staff/ security aren’t walking the hallways after hours.
I really need to speak with someone from corporate or a higher up as soon as possible please. My family stayed at your Pocono PA location 1/28/21-2/3/2021. There were a few serious incedents involving two of my children, I would like to remain private. Along with some very dangerous issue that happened to myself that all could have been avoided. Please contact me as soon as possible. I have reached out to that location several times and I have not heard back. Thank you so much.
Sincerely,
Janice and Shawn Mundie
Do not go to the Ohio resort!!!! Weekend from hell and no help from workers !!!!!
I was at the Sandusky Resorts over Presidents’ Day (expensive!) and immediately when I arrived in my room, I took my shoes off and my socks were soaked by an unknown brown substance on the carpet. (I have pictures) I promptly went to the front desk and asked to speak to a manager. The girl called someone on the phone and the person on the other end asked why. I told the girl the issue and the person on the phone refused to come talk to me and said to call housekeeping. No on in house keeping answered. After about 45 minutes I was annoyed that my family was enjoying the water park and I was in the lobby being refused service for something that was your fault! The concierge ending up helping me and sending housekeeping to check it out. They came in and threw the towes used to soak the brown liquid and threw them under my sink! They didn’t even take them out! At check out I again tried to speak to someone and the line was miles long so I decided to leave and just call. I called and Kraft a message, I did the survey that was emailed to me and filled the “contact us” form on the website. No one contacted me. I then posted the pictures and complaint on the FB page and got an immediate response! (Whoever monitors that page is better then anyone in the resort!) I was contacted by the “guest services manager”, Vanessa. She was very nice, apologetic and offered me a free night for up to 8 people to come back. I was happy with her response and what she was offering. This was on 2/22/19 and I have not yet received what she was sending in the mail and have been trying to contact her to let her know. I called and she was on vacation, I left her a voicemail on 3/22/19 and called again on 3/28 (since she didn’t respond) and was told she was busy and left my name and number again, still nothing. I am not sure what the issue is, I’m simply trying to reach out to see if she sent the voucher and let her know I don’t have it. If it is lost or stolen (snail mail sucks) I want her to know. This is the worst customer service I have ever had in my life anywhere. So Vanessa “fixes” things and doesn’t follow through? I would really like to talk to her boss, or anyone who doesn’t work at that resort since everyone I talked to seems to lack customer service skills. Extra training might be needed in that resort. I can’t belive I saved for months for one night and this is how I’m treated for my room being dirty upon arrival. I hope to be contacted by someone at cooperate about this issue. I was understanding at first but this is ridiculous. I would also suggest using email to give customers any “comps” to ensure quick and gaurenteed delivery.
I used my phone to type this so excuse the autocorrect and can’t edit it.
I stayed at the PA location on 7-20-18 my third visit to this location but there is one person who ruined the first day for me and my party he is John the bar tender at the Thirsty Turtle my daughter politely ask him was her drink supposed to be frozen and was told she should read the menu better then rudely told her she didn’t give him the correct room number for the credit slip and when she put zero on the credit slip he snatched it and said thanks for the gratuity guys he didn’t give us a chance to get the money out because we tip in cash he was just so rude and annoyed with us from the time we ordered our drink and we did absolutely nothing to deserve this treament
My family and I visited Kalahari Resorts in Ohio on July 7th through July 9th. The accommodations were registered under my husband’s name, Justin Fowler with the telephone number 219-561-XXXXX. Our registration code was R0177XXXXX. Our room number was 1403. This was our first visit to the resort and we were quite disappointed and would like to share with you the issues we encountered.
Unfortunately, our room and other areas within the resort were unsanitary. When we first entered our room, we noticed white stains on the top sheet/blanket of one of the beds.(I do have a picture) The shower closest to the bedroom that had a king bed, had black hairs in it. The yellow, raft waterslide that is located indoors had clumps of black hair floating in the water. I mentioned this to the attendant and nothing was done to clean it up.
General issues experienced include poor wifi quality, no towels or washcloths in the second bathroom, and low water pressure in the showers among others. Several of the games in the big game room were not operating adequately as they were taking double credits to play or not playing at all, but still withdrawing credits off the cards. I let the attendant know, and he just asked me if I wanted to let the kids pick out a prize. I just wanted either money refunded or credits added to my card, but I was told that this could not be done. The gift shops did not have prices on many items, and the gift shop near the entrance did not have prices on anything. This was a stressful experience because when our kids picked out their items, it was a real surprise as to what the cost was. It is deceptive to guests and creates disappointment for families. Never the less, we purchased the items, but felt almost scammed in a way with the lack of transparency.
Also, we felt intruded upon as we had a “do not disturb” sign on our door, but came back to our room to find a gentleman cleaning (more like looking around) our room. The person cleaning the room took most of the towels, but did not replace them as well. In addition to this, the day we checked out, a room attendant was knocking on our at 10am. We considered this to be rude and unwelcoming.
Also, I had a sexual harassment encounter on Sunday night (7/8). There was a lady (about age 50, brown hair) walking around being loud and obnoxious earlier in the afternoon that we noticed. Several attendants at Kalahari noticed this lady as well. Later that evening, my husband and I were at the café and I bent down to get a drink out of the cooler and she came right up behind me and made unwelcoming remarks. The attendant or cashier noticed her, but did nothing to stop her behavior. My family and I witnessed her smack a girl’s butt. Then, when we were walking back to our room, she continued to make sexual, unwelcoming comments to me. These comments included, “you have a nice a**” and “nice t*ts.” This was uncomfortable and inappropriate to say the least. Making a rationalization for her behavior to my children was embarrassing and unpleasant. What is more reflective of the resort is that the staff did nothing to stop this.
To resolve these issues, I would appreciate a refund of my entire stay and additional compensation for the intolerable conditions that we had to endure.
Hi, I am very upset with how Kalahari Sandusky Ohio handled their service during our two night stay in May 2018. They locked one of our rooms because we decided to stay a second night and they weren’t sure if we had to switch rooms or not for our second night. One person would say one thing and one person another. Well they ended up locking our room, taking a big bag clothes of ours and not being able to find our stuff. I asked many people for help and they would walk away and not return like we did not matter. We took at least 6 hours of our second night stay trying to deal with this issue and it was very stressful and not even our fault. It was their lack of good customer service and lack of communication within the employees. I spoke with several managers and all they told me was they would contact me when they found our stuff. I was so upset, We were left with hardly any clothes! There was 13 of us staying and we took our children to have fun and distress, not to have their employees steal our clothes and not offer anything in return.
The manager called me to say she only found some of our items as we were already home, 3 hours away! She said our items would be here overnight and they never arrived. I wish she could have offered to return the money I spent on our second night stay because it was very expensive and we hardly got to enjoy it because of what happened! the staff was very rude about this issue and not eager to help us whats-so-ever! There was one nice security guard throughout the whole issue. I hope these issues can be fixed and i hope this does not happen to another guest!
Thank you.
The worst customer service ever. They charged my card and sent me a confirmation email but the booking agent claimed my card was declined. Although I provides her with a confirmation number and pretty much they called me a liar. Screw kalahari, I will be filing a big complaint with BBB
We checked in and were told we had to pay the entire balance in order to get the room keys. We didn’t want to pay for our last night because we were not sure if we would be staying. We asked to cancel it at least 36 hours before we would depart and we were told we couldn’t get our money back because we paid it in full. We were told we had to in order to get our keys. Very disappointing and will not be staying here again.
Well I booked my stay for a Christmas present for my kids were to arrive Ded. 23 and check out December 25th. Well I became very ill had 2 surgeries that week and a week in the hospital so I called to reschedule. We rescheduled for the following weekend but would not match my rate
The whole stay was an extra $400. I asked if they could just honor the previous rate due to my cirXXXXstances. He was very rude said no. The weekend I changed it to was their business weekend of the year and he didn’t care of we energy showed up for our reservation. My doctor even asked if he could write a letter to help out but kalahari is not a family fun bisiness. It’s only about the money. Now my kids are out of Christmas presents. Thanks for making this the worse Christmas ever.
I arrived at the Sandusky Kalahari the representative when I made my reservations explained to me about my room I was receiving was an family suite! Well when I arrived I was giving a regular suite and on my way to the suite I was called back down to the front desk but I had already went to the regular suite and it wasn’t clean cake or cookies all over chair and table so as I was on my way down to complain that’s when I was told that they were given me the Family suite I was supposed to have gotten from the start! So ok that’s good news because that’s originally what I reserved anyway so me and my family heads over to the suite gets there and see ok nice suite but there was an DEAD RAT in there! We screaming kids traumatized and I runs out of room my husband calls and I run upstairs back to front to where reservations are and whisper there’s a Dead RAT in the room! They gave me another suite! That’s all and said call Corporate maybe they will compensate you! So we missed must of our time trying to get a room! My babies to small to go to the water park alone! Just terrible not to mention all that time traveling we to tried!
I see nobody gives two hoots about your complaints! Wow!
HAD THE SAME THING HAPPEN. COMPLAINED TO HOUSEKEEPIING, FRONT DESK AND MANAGEMENT. RECEIVED AN UPGRADE FOR NEXT VISIT.
Hi I just wanted to tell how terrible the security and service is. We went there and spent the night; overnight parked in the parking lot my catalytic converter was cut out from under my van. I contacted the manager on site and the local police and they were like well that happens with no apologies. Contacted corporate and they were not sympathetic in the least either. Terrible customer service and security. Pretty sad you can’t even park in the lot without risking damage to your vehicle. Sad..
Going to Kalahari this weekend, call center booked our reservation wrong and no one ever called to inform us. We called to make final payment which was over 200$ more then what we were told. All customers service reps have been very rude and even hung up on us at one point. So one day before we leave and had to except downgrade in package if it weren’t for the 4 year old in our group this vacation would be canceled after how we were treated. They didn’t even offer anything for their mistake. Worst customer service I’ve ever experienced!!!!!!!
August 27, 2017
Very disappointed, my family was so excited to visit the resort in PA. When we arrived to register at 3:30 I couldn’t believe how long the line was, I had to walk down the hall were the guest rooms were. I stayed in line for a hour and half. When I finally was seen, the registrar told me my room wasn’t ready and that she had no ETA. After waiting another hour (6pm) I went back up to the front and asked to speak to a manager, the young lady refused and then miraculously I had a room available. I never received a real apology and the only compensation for this was a free bottle of water
Hello, I just got back home from your resort and calmed down a little. I booked For 1 night and am very disappointed. Checked in at 12:30, knowing my room wouldn’t be available till 4:00. Places our belongings in the storage room and parked our car.
4:00 comes and goes and never received a text that our room was ready. Stood in line for a good half hour asking why just to be told it should be ready by 5. Mind you, walking around in wet bathing suits for over 5 hours is not comfortable at all.
5:00 comes and goes, stood in line AGAIN only to be told our room wasn’t available. The girl at front desk tells me to “just go and have fun and we’ll text you when your room is ready” Finally at 6:14 I get my texts that our room is now available. Get to the room to discover the mini fridge doesn’t work, I brought food and drinks from home. Call the front desk, woman says she’ll send maintenance up to get it working. Nope, no one ever came!!!!
8:00, I went to gather everyone together to change their wet suits so they could play in arcade. Get back to room and all 5 of our wristbands don’t work to let us in the room. GO BACK to front desk and explain to them and they fixed it.
Too much nonsense for the money I spent in your resort. $400 for a room that wasn’t ready at time I was told. I was disregarded every time I spoke to anyone on your staff. Very disappointed and frustrated. As life isn’t frustrating enough, you have made this single mother with 4 teenage boys an experience from hell.
I would appreciate a response,
Tamela Hill-Shelly
Front desk was very rude I asked to speak with an manger she was rude as well my kids eyes was burning from the water we spent over 2,000 dollars to get talked to and treated any kind of way
I stayed at the hotel yesterday and had an issue with the check in desk people. After checking in and going to the water park I came upstairs and asked one of the ladies at the check in desk for an adventure club brochure. As I walked up there were 4 of them standing and talking to each other and didn’t really seem like they want to help me. After one finally came over I asked out the club and events it was having. The lady rolled her eyes as she walked away to get one saying to the other 3 people “can’t we just get a minute to ourselves” which was EXTREMELY RUDE and not called for. I had some questions but didn’t ask because clearly she didn’t want to be bothered or help me (there were no other guest at the desk at the time). I liked the resort but not sure if it’s worth coming back if that’s the treatment and attitude I’m gonna get. Not professional at all. Many of the restaurant employees were rude as well which made the experience not that enjoyable. I was planning to come back at the end of next month but I don’t think I will be. It’s sad that I had this kind of experience my 1st visit there. I’ve heard great things about the place and the employees but unfortunately that wasn’t the case for me. I hope this changes for other guest and customer service is improved.
I have had an awful “vacation” here and DO NOT recommend this resort. The first night we had kids running up and down the hallways at all hours of the night knocking on doors. We called down to the front desk at least 5 times. they said they had security taking a look the first time but then on the third call down they said sorry all of our security was at another part of the resort handling a different issue. we ordered room service for dinner one night and the was a mess. order was totally wrong then an hour later they had finally sent up another order that was still wrong. They did nothing to make it right all they said was “oh im sorry about that”! Then the kicker was the last day at the water park I had my foot stuck on a ride and my entire toenail got ripped off. medics took 20 mins to get to me. I was bleeding everywhere and they put me off to the side and kept the ride going. then brought me a wheel chair and had my husband wheel me back to our room and NO ONE CONTACTED ME TO SEE IF THINGS WERE OK. WORST RESORT EVER!!!!!!!