We are two young families with small children who came to stay in Meeker for the 4th of July holiday. While the White River Inn is well-kept, the front desk staff professional, and the rooms were adequate and clean, I cannot say the same for the owner (L.D. Grove), and his language, as we were met with a torrent of profanity within the first few sentences of his interaction with us. This experience prompted us to look into past google reviews and we were shocked to learn this owner has a habit of threatening guests with a gun (for real. I’m not kidding!) and immediately evicting them from their booked room. While thankfully he relied on the police instead of a gun in our case, we were abruptly evicted without any refund.
At the time of our booking, the White River Inn website stated in all caps, ‘PETS ALLOWED’, which is why we chose this establishment, as both families have a dog and Meeker is a very outdoorsy, dog-friendly town so we felt comfortable bringing our pets along. When we arrived, we took the pups past the lobby for a walk and the front desk attendant told us kindly but firmly that there is only one room in the motel where pets are allowed and it was booked. We apologized profusely, referred her to the website pet statement as the source of our confusion. Apparently, lower on the page, the statement “limited availability—please call” was not in reference to their booking process in general, but to to the pet-friendly space. We again apologized and asked if it was possible to put down a damage deposit, as we were far from home on a fully-booked holiday weekend with no alternative options. She said that she would connect with the owner and he would reach out to us.
The owner called my sister-in-law a few minutes later and immediately started yelling at and berating her, accusing her of intentionally trying to sneak dogs in to his motel. She was extremely apologetic and attempted to explain it was a honest misunderstanding. He proceeded to call her a f***-ing liar and told her to put her man on the phone. The verbal abuse continued for several minutes. Through all this, she never raised her voice nor deviated from calling him “Sir” and she had the presence of mind to start recording, as the course of the conversation is truly something hard to believe. We were floored.
I do not fault this owner for enforcing the policies of his establishment, confusing as they may have been. He has the right refuse service and we had made assumptions—we should have clarified at the time of booking. We were in the wrong. I even get that on paper, families with young children and dogs may not be considered desirable guests, though we work hard to insure our pets are well—trained, our kids are not disruptive to those around us, and the spaces we stay in are treated with respect. But I cannot excuse his communication approach, which is the most unprofessional, belligerent, ineffective, and downright nasty that I have ever experienced.
At one point, the owner mentioned a kennel, and we promptly offered to try and place the dogs there for the weekend, but he abruptly pivoted and said he did not want us staying at all. After reducing my sister-in-law to tears because we had nowhere to stay with three children under 5, he relented and said things could be sorted out further the next day. In the morning we were met with 2 cops, sent to escort us off the premises.
In the end, things worked out okay, as the Blue Spruce Inn had some cancellations for the weekend and they truly allow pets. The whole situation was made a bit better as Blue Spruce is a newer establishment that backs to a beautiful park for the kiddos (along with fishing for the dads), is an easy 2 block walk to the town square and all the festivities, hot breakfast is included, and there was a hot tub and nice lobby area down the hall for the grownups to gather (with kid monitors) so the kids could fall asleep in peace and we didn’t all have to do lights out at 8pm.
Blue Spruce’s very sweet front desk person treated two distraught families with compassion and understanding and went above and beyond to help us get a roof over our heads and salvage the family time we were striving for when we planned this trip. We are incredibly grateful and look forward to staying with them in the future.
Based on the many positive reviews, it seems often people have an acceptable stay at the White River Inn, as long as they are fortunate enough to avoid an interaction with management—or perhaps as long as you have a man on hand to talk for you, things go a bit smoother. However, the multiple gun threat reviews lead me to doubt it. Now knowing this business owner literally troubleshoots issues with a gun, I’m grateful we were able to depart with our families safely, without further escalation.
L.D., as a service to future families who might also misconstrue the policy as written and incur your wrath, I would urge that the wording on your website be changed to “Our establishment includes one pet-friendly room available for booking. Please call for availability information regarding this space.”
We are so grateful for the support we’ve received from so many Meeker locals after this experience. My sister-in-law’s family has deep roots in this community and it is a comfort to know our story is being shared widely and may save others from enduring such treatment.
