Wildcatter RanchReviews of wildcatterranch.com

We were coming for our honeymoon, this was our first stop. We had planned our entire trip day by day, every state and activity accounted for. It’s safe to say our trip was planned around visiting the ranch. All socials advertised 1.5 hours from the Fort Worth airport, multiple posts and even going as far to put this on there Instagram bio page (I’d like to add this has since been changed, they did not own up to there mistake yet changed it for others. Noted) we are from the UK and coming to America for the first time so everything is new, including driving on the other side of the road. When we arrived it was estimated at a 3 hour drive, I’d accounted enough time for 1.5-2 hours at most, we aren’t familiar with the traffic nor were we warned. It was advertised as 1.5 hours not miles, hours. Not to mention this was the first time I’d be driving on the “right” side of the road after a long flight. I’d paid $500 for us both to do a sunset ride, based on the advertising we had plenty of time so I booked this well in advance. 1.5 hours on the road I could handle, certainly not 3. What they fail to tell you is it’s non refundable and cannot be moved due to ANY reason. I tried to arrange with them to swap our sunset rides for the sunrise rides the following morning (hundreds of $ less btw) they said we had to join the waiting list and it wouldn’t be guaranteed. We also would have to pay this on top of what we had already paid, we were not able to exchange. For a total of 12 hours (one nights stay) I’m not driving 6 hours in total for a 8 hour nights rest to pack up and leave. Unfortunately we had to make the tough decision to scrap the night completely and pay $300 for a night extra at our hotel in Fort Worth, which was planned for the few days after before moving onto New Orleans. I would never have booked it in the first place if I’d known the true travel time. They sold a complete lie and for us, newly weds with every minute of the trip planned our time was worth more on our once in a lifetime trip. They let us down big time, customer service was a complete brick wall. Over and over again told no refunds, nothing was done to help of reassure us. I completely understand not refunding the room on a days notice, but rides? Plenty of time was given in advance to not wrangle the horses. Not to mention our slots on those $500 rides were most likely filled thanks to the waiting list. They just pocketed $800 from us. Karma is real and it will return. Please beware before booking any extra activities.

The view from the ranch was amazing. Other than that, the stay was ridiculously expensive and not worth it. The decor inside the hotel is dated and creepy - very ‘the shining’. Service in the on site steakhouse was painfully slow, we waited 50 minutes for one medium rare steak. There were only 4 other tables in the entire restaurant so no idea why it took so long. We were charged $5 for an ‘extra plate’ - charging for an extra plate to allow you to cut your food properly is ridiculous. Breakfast is not included in the stay cost. We were charged $12pp for an extremely basic buffet breakfast. There were approx. 20 dead bugs in the restroom of the pool area and many more scattered around the floor of the dining area/restaurant. There’s a broken tile in the pool on the steps. There’s no signage warning of this and it isn’t clear to see when getting in the pool, I cut my foot on the sharp edge. We completed 4 paid activities and were charged a non-optional 20% gratuity per person on EACH activity. This was not made clear to us when booking the activities and we were not given a receipt clearly detailing this. This meant that we paid $405 dollars for 4 activities. The activities were all completed with the same 2 staff members. We would not have completed the activities had we known this, the overall price was extortionate and not at all worth it. I wouldn’t recommend any of the activities. I have contacted the hotel and booking.com disputing the ridiculous gratuity fees but no one has responded.

We wrapped up a 4000 miles road trip from seattle to Dallas with a 3 Day stay at wildcatter ranch. After 21 days on the road we needed complete relaxation, and that was exactly what we got! What a great place. What great and serviceminded people working there. Whether it was in the reception, in the restaurant or during one of the fine activities offered, we always met hosts with a genuine interest in us, and in making our day just even greater. So nice, we can only recommend others to go. Thank you wildcatter Torben and Annette, Denmark