Indoor pool
Check availability

Reviews of Ramada Tropics Resort & Conf Center by Wyndham Des Moines

3 out of 5
Ramada Tropics Resort & Conf Center by Wyndham Des Moines
5000 Merle Hay Rd, Urbandale, IA

Reviews

6.6
Rating 10 - Excellent. 217 out of 1001 reviews" "
Rating 8 - Good. 267 out of 1001 reviews" "
Rating 6 - Okay. 213 out of 1001 reviews" "
Rating 4 - Poor. 150 out of 1001 reviews" "
Rating 2 - Terrible. 154 out of 1001 reviews" "

6.8/10

Cleanliness

7.2/10

Staff & service

6.4/10

Amenities

6.4/10

Property conditions & facilities

6.2/10

Eco-friendliness

Reviews

10/10 Excellent

Maksim, Prior Lake

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Good
Stayed 1 night in Apr 2024

10/10 Excellent

LINDSAY MARIE

Traveled with family and small children, Traveled with family
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities
I was SUPER skeptical to book this stay based off the reviews here and the price seemed too good to be true. Hotel rooms are a bit outdated and dingy. But for the price of the room and the pool it's completely worth it! It wasnt dirty by any means. We stayed in a poolside suite with a hottub. The room is HUGE! The pool is the highlight of the place, my kids loved it. There is also quite a few lifegaurds they have working while its open. Which I did not expect but was cool for the peace of mind with 2 crazy kids running around. The arcade was fun and the restaurant was okay. But the ladies working the bar were great! The breakfast was hot buffet style. Eggs, sausage, pancakes, and hashbrowns. Nice to actually have the hot breakfast though. We also had an issue with our reservation through Expedia and the staff was more than helpful and handled it all awesomely. Everyone we encountered was great and friendly.
Stayed 3 nights in Apr 2024

8/10 Good

Aurora

Liked: Staff & service
Nice place but needs a good cleaning
Stayed 1 night in Apr 2024

4/10 Poor

MaKayla

Traveled with family and small children, Traveled with partner, Traveled with family
Disliked: Staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
The staff need better training. I tried asking simple things about the hotel and they were clueless. The elevator was broke and they had no idea. I informed the night shift about this and then in the morning asked about it and they had no clue so I’m guessing the night shift worker I spoke to had not said anything to any manager or anyone. I tried asking the breakfast hours to the night staff and the best they could say was I don’t know I work nights not mornings. This was frustrating as we wanted to know when to be up by to make sure we could make the free breakfast. Hotel room was in decent shape other than mold on the ceilings and lamp shades but we were pool side so I guess that’s inevitable??? The pool was nice other than not having the hot tub open. The life guards were amazing at doing their job. I could tell they took the safety of the kids swimming seriously. Restaurant staff were nice other than being clueless also. I placed a to go order and wanted to know about the dessert pizza and was told I don’t know what it is it’s a newer item. I had to look online and figure it out for myself when he could have just asked the cook or something to tell me. Morning staff were a lot better. Very kind and welcoming.
Stayed 1 night in Mar 2024

6/10 Okay

Derek

Traveled with family and small children
Disliked: Cleanliness
Pool is nice, hotel is musty
Stayed 3 nights in Mar 2024

8/10 Good

Miriam, BRITT

Liked: Staff & service
Stayed 1 night in Mar 2024

6/10 Okay

Harriett

Stayed 2 nights in Mar 2024

2/10 Terrible

Annaleyza

Traveled with family and small children
Disliked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Room didn’t have towels, dirty things left behind by previous people, dirty carpets, pool area dirty and slick, “breakfast” in the morning had AWFUL options.
Stayed 1 night in Mar 2024

4/10 Poor

Kassi

Traveled with family and small children
Liked: Staff & service
Disliked: Cleanliness, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Check in is 4:00, our room was not ready until 5:45 after driving 4 hours with 6 kids I had to find something for us to do while we waited almost 2 hours until our room was ready, and spend money I was not expecting to. They refused to allow us to go into the water park while we were waiting on our room. I called to speak with the GM first thing Monday morning and still has not returned my phone call. The facility was not the cleanest. We will not be returning.
Stayed 1 night in Mar 2024

10/10 Excellent

Nancy

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities
Stayed 1 night in Mar 2024

6/10 Okay

Juliann

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities
The hot tub was broke and not on the site.
Stayed 2 nights in Mar 2024

8/10 Good

Jess

Traveled with family
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Staff here are very kind and helpful with any questions
Stayed 2 nights in Mar 2024

8/10 Good

Alicia

Stayed 1 night in Mar 2024

6/10 Okay

Jerusha

Traveled with family
Liked: Staff & service
Disliked: Amenities, property conditions & facilities
I called before hand to see if the slides and hot tub were open as that’s what we really wanted and they told us yes and when we got there both of them were shut down. We were really disappointed.
Stayed 1 night in Feb 2024

4/10 Poor

Candace

Traveled with family and small children
Liked: Staff & service
Disliked: Cleanliness, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Do not book on Expedia, call the resort. The staff here are so friendly, I enjoyed every interaction with them. Unfortunately for us, we booked this hotel for the water park. It was our sons birthday and we were in town for my daughters gymnastics meet. The main slides and hot tubs were shut down. Not only that but the splash pad and tinny pool is not even open Monday-Friday from 11-4pm. We checked in on a Thursday for a pool day on Friday. Paid extra for a suite to have room to open presents in-between pool time. The room was run down a bit, missing closet door, living room TV would turn off and you would have to mess with the cord every few minutes among other things I would say if you have a family and want to have a good time at the water park. The staff is friendly enough to look over the conditions. But you NEED to call them to verify if the pool is open and the hours. Other wise it is just money down the drain and a disappointing stay and very upset children.

8/10 Good

Holly

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities
Stayed 2 nights in Aug 2023

2/10 Terrible

Sumara

Traveled with group
Disliked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities
Don't stay here
So this is a wild ride but here we go. We checked in for a 3 night stay and had a poolside room. The key to our poolside door never worked with our key despite going to the desk 4 times. No biggie, we could just use the other door. Our room inside was dark and humid and had paint chipping on the walls near the bed. The bathroom door never fully closed. On the last night of our stay we made the mistake of exiting through our poolside door and realized when we arrived back at 9pm that we had our other door latched. We went to the desk and asked for help. We waited around an hour and kept checking when they'd send someone. Finally a woman came and tried to open our door with a master key. It still did not work. She said maintenance would come. It was close to 11pm at this point when I went to our car to grab something. I came back into the lobby only to hear two employees absolutely screaming at each other over our door issue. I didn't feel safe interjecting so I went to wait back up by our room with my friend. My friend went down to see what was going down and he mentioned to me that the police were now outside. Apparently the argument had escalated and I am not sure how. Mind you, my room is still locked with my stuff in it, a long with a medication that I need to take in a timely manner. My friend came back up (time now closer to midnight) and said they were putting us in a different room for the night and we could access our old room in the m
Stayed 3 nights in Aug 2023

8/10 Good

Rodney

Liked: Staff & service, property conditions & facilities
Stayed 2 nights in Aug 2023

8/10 Good

RaKeisha

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service
My family and I stayed while at the AAU Junior Olympics. The staff was nice and courteous. It is not a bad facility. I was able to get in the hot tub. The major slide was not working and the hotel sent a notification in advance. The hotel was on top of things. The restaurant was good. After we had a late arrival, I was happy the restaurant was still open after being on the road all day. Overall, my rate would be 8.5 out of 10.
Stayed 7 nights in Jul 2023

6/10 Okay

Kathy

Traveled with family
Liked: Property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Disliked: Cleanliness
The front desk agents were very helpful and friendly. I was not thrilled with the key situation. We had to go to the front desk at least once a day and reactivate our keys because we kept getting locked out of our room. We were there 5 nights and our rooms were never cleaned. We had to go to the front desk to get new towels and toilet paper. Also the trash was never taken out of our rooms. Our children did enjoy the pool area very much.
Stayed 5 nights in Jul 2023

2/10 Terrible

Alex

Stayed 8 nights in Jul 2023

4/10 Poor

Verified traveler

Traveled with family
Liked: Cleanliness, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Disliked: Staff & service
Solid Hotel, Disappointing Service
The beds were good, and the shower was good. But we were really frustrated about the pool. The hours are not listed anywhere on any signs, not shared at check-in, and not printed in the room. We found out only on the morning of our stay that the pool doesn't re-open on weekdays until 1pm. Had we known there is no morning pool access, we would've stayed elsewhere at a hotel with normal pool hours. The lack of transparency was disappointing. For as cool as the water park features were, this loss of pool time was even more disappointing for my kids.
Stayed 1 night in Aug 2023

4/10 Poor

Alisha

Traveled with family
Disliked: Cleanliness, property conditions & facilities
Our room had burned out light bulbs the bathroom door was super hard to open and close. The toilet just ran unless you messed with the handle. There is a plastic bag over the smoke detector. Bugs filled the window and it smelled like stale chlorine. The slides havnt worked in a year but they still claim this as a water park. The ac in the building doesn’t work so it’s sweltering hot and humid. Paint was peeling off the walls and the carpet felt hard and rough. Outside was littered with trash. One door the handle was broken off. Another door you didn’t have to use the keycard because “maintenance”uses it for smoking and taking out trash. The room I was supposed to get wasn’t available even though I called and verified the night before and booked this way in advance.

2/10 Terrible

Shannon

Traveled with family and small children, Traveled with group
Disliked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
No cleaning service outlets didnt work ,paint chipping ,waterslides dont work and hot tube doesn't work and the arcade has limited games
Stayed 4 nights in Jul 2023

10/10 Excellent

Robyn, Overland Park

Stayed 1 night in Jul 2023

8/10 Good

Bambi

Stayed 1 night in Jul 2023

4/10 Poor

DeeAnn

Traveled with family
Disliked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities
Tan out of toilet paper. Late getting in our room. Asked for clean an towels and they didn’t bring any
Stayed 2 nights in Jul 2023

2/10 Terrible

Brian

Stayed 3 nights in Jul 2023

10/10 Excellent

JENNIFER, Des Moines

Stayed 1 night in Jun 2023

4/10 Poor

Sarah

Liked: Staff & service
Stayed 1 night in Jul 2023

2/10 Terrible

Jade

Traveled with family and small children
Disliked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities
To begin, we showed up at 4:00 which is the checkin time. They informed us that the room wasn’t ready and we were supposed to check back in “periodically” to see if it was ready yet. We waited for 2 and a half hours to get a room (ours was still not ready but the lady at the desk was kind enough to switch the room) got into the room and it was dirty and the bedding was stained. The bathroom door didn’t shut all the way or lock either. Went down to the pool area to discover that the two big water slides were shut down so there were only slides in the “kiddie” pool area for my kids to play on. We decided to try the arcade instead and put $30 on a game card just to find out over half the games were broken. The hotel refused to refund the money from it. There was a buffet breakfast out in the restaurant so my kids went and grabbed food in the morning and were told AFTERWARDS that it was $10 a person. There was no hot water for a shower. The coffee maker was missing pieces. The hallway was filthy and the restaurant tables were sticky. We went there for my daughters birthday and she ended up crying for most of the stay. I wouldn’t recommend this hotel to ANYONE. If I could leave a 0 star review I would. AWFUL!
Stayed 1 night in Jul 2023

4/10 Poor

Jennifer, DES MOINES

Traveled with family
Liked: Staff & service
Disliked: Cleanliness, property conditions & facilities
The large slides didn’t work, which had been down for over a year and a half. The toilet keep running and the ac didn’t work right.
Stayed 2 nights in Jul 2023

2/10 Terrible

Jill

Traveled with family and small children, Traveled with group, Traveled with family
Disliked: Staff & service, property conditions & facilities
Check in time is 4pm, at 645, we were still in the lobby waiting for our room to be cleaned. Even the lobby staff and other guests commented on how ridiculous it was that our room wasn’t ready. I understand they were understaffed and apparently the hotel was completely booked. We were offered the Presidential Suite, if we wanted to pay for it. Once we finally got into the room, it seemed pretty clean and very spacious, although quite dated. The restaurant site had very good pizza and pasta. The main reason we chose this hotel was for the indoor water park and the large slides weren’t even operational. We are only staying for one night. It’s disappointing, for nearly $300 a night you’d expect better quality.
Stayed 1 night in Jul 2023

6/10 Okay

jason

Stayed 1 night in Jul 2023

4/10 Poor

Kathryn

Traveled with family and small children
Disliked: Cleanliness, property conditions & facilities
We had to wait 2 hours past check in for our rooms. Rooms are dirty. 1 room had wrong amount of beds. Slides weren't open. Pillars on the patio falling apart. No one at desk seemed to care and we were told "we're short staffed and over booked".
Stayed 1 night in Jul 2023

2/10 Terrible

Zach

Traveled with family and small children
Disliked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities
Room joing door had no lock had to wait to send maint. Guy because no other rooms available. Maint. Guy comes and we got another room. Room is not cleaned well, room keys are garbage Will not be back
Stayed 1 night in Jul 2023

2/10 Terrible

Scott

Traveled with family and small children
Disliked: Cleanliness, property conditions & facilities
Slides were broke door was broken in the room mold on the ceiling
Stayed 1 night in Jul 2023

10/10 Excellent

Erica

Stayed 1 night in Jun 2023

6/10 Okay

Annaka

Liked: Staff & service
Disliked: Property conditions & facilities
Stayed 1 night in Jun 2023

10/10 Excellent

Erin

Stayed 1 night in Jun 2023

4/10 Poor

Danielle

Traveled with family
Disliked: Cleanliness, staff & service
Stayed 1 night in Jul 2023

6/10 Okay

Anna

Traveled with family and small children, Traveled with pets
Disliked: Cleanliness, property conditions & facilities
My experience didn’t match with the Expedia rating. The property was over grown with weeds, paint chipped in the water park, the room smelled weird, stains on the lamp shade, and the carpet in the room was sticky.
Stayed 1 night in Jun 2023

4/10 Poor

Michael

Traveled with family and small children, Traveled with partner, Traveled with family
Disliked: Cleanliness
Room was listed as suitable for 5 people, and it was cramped with 4. Asked for a roll out bed and was told it was against fire code (won’t hold that against them), and that there was no other option than to sleep on the dirty floor. Was denied an upgrade to a bigger room. Was told I could purchase another room to sleep the 5th person at my cost with no discount. Room description should be changed to avoid false advertising if it only sleeps 4. Half the slides at the water park were out of order, which was the only reason we booked a stay at this hotel. Hotel is located in a “rougher” part of town if that matters to you. With that being said, Boss Pizza, which is a restaurant located inside the hotel is fantastic and I wish the rest of the hotel would match the pizza places staff friendliness and cleanliness. I would not come back for a repeat stay all things considered.
Stayed 1 night in Jun 2023

6/10 Okay

G

Traveled with family
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities
Stayed 1 night in Jun 2023

4/10 Poor

Justin

Traveled with family and small children, Traveled with family
Disliked: Cleanliness, property conditions & facilities
Slides were broke, toilet never stopped running, sink was clogged, main room was very dark, mirrors were worn, no complimentary breakfast, closet coming apart. I wouldnt stay there again.
Stayed 1 night in Jun 2023

4/10 Poor

Casey

Traveled with family
Disliked: Room comfort
Upsetting
We were upset that the water slides were not working. This was the main reason for us wanting to stay. The lights coming through the window on the pool side were very bright making it hard to sleep
Stayed 1 night in Jun 2023

10/10 Excellent

Vicky

Traveled with family
Liked: Cleanliness, property conditions & facilities
Room was a distance from water park
Stayed 1 night in Jun 2023

4/10 Poor

Jennifer

Traveled with family
Disliked: Staff & service
Stayed 1 night in Jun 2023

8/10 Good

Jessica

Traveled with family
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities
Very nice just wish the pool was open during the day time.
Stayed 1 night in Jun 2023

4/10 Poor

Kenneth

Liked: Staff & service
Disliked: Cleanliness, property conditions & facilities
Had to redo my key 5 times didn’t know I had to ask for room cleaning. I really liked the people very kind no place to get coffee don’t feel it was worth the money!
Stayed 6 nights in Jun 2023