The tri-lakes area now has more than 23,000 hotel and motel rooms, more than Kansas City with 17,000 and St. Louis with 15,000. A few years ago it was tough to find a room on the spur of the moment during peak season in the summer and fall. With an annual visitor count of more than 3.5 million in 1990 and fewer than 10,000 rooms, you had to make reservations well in advance in order to ensure space. Between 1990 and 2000 however, the number of rooms grew by 150 percent, but the number of visitors had gone up only 87 percent. An equilibrium has been reached. Only rarely do visitors now have trouble finding a place to stay. The facilities on The Strip usually fill up first, but motels just a couple of blocks away may have plenty of rooms available even during our busiest months, October through December.
Many of the condominium resorts are still adding units. In fact, so many units have been built, it’s a buyer’s and renter’s market. But other than that there has been relatively little new motel construction since 1995. One of the newer facilities is the 304-room, upscale Chateau on the Lake, which opened in 1997. You can still find plenty of mom-and-pop places, most of them with fewer than 30 units. The owners are usually retired couples who came to the area 20 years ago from some place up north and decided to live out their years making friends with their overnight guests. Their places may not have a list of amenities as long as the major chains, but they take your business seriously and will go out of their way to see that you leave with a good impression of our town.
Visitors today also have a variety of national chains to choose from, including Howard Johnson’s, Sleep Inn, Holiday Inn, Comfort Inn, Travelodge, Best Western, Quality Inn, Residence Inn, Days Inn, Hampton Inn, Econo Lodge, and Super 8. We have profiled a few of them here, but you know what to generally expect.
Since they are located in the Live Music Capital of the World, many accommodations offer to set you up with show tickets. They find out what shows you want to see, then they call the theater box office to make your reservations. They hand you a voucher and charge the tickets to your room. You present the voucher at the box office and—voilà—you’ve got your seats. A few of the hotels charge a $2 to $3 fee per ticket for this service.
If you came to town years ago in January or February, trying to avoid peak season rates, you may not have found a soul in sight. That’s all changed now with the efforts of a group of local businesses and the Branson/Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce. Their Hot Winter Fun promotion has really taken off in the last few years. Now more than 25 shows and dozens of attractions and major shopping centers stay open during the winter months, as do plenty of hotels. For a complete list of all Hot Winter Fun business members, log on to www.hotwinterfun.com. Unless otherwise noted, the ones we have listed here stay open year-round.
The room rates are very affordable in the winter months, with some properties slashing their prices by as much as 40 percent. There’s no such thing as a traffic jam in January, but you’d better come now before the whole world finds out.
Branson motel owners are setting their sights on families with children these days and have constructed playgrounds, miniature golf courses, volleyball courts, and basketball facilities, as well as video arcades and small water parks, as enticements. The biggest enticement of all is the kids-stay-free plan. A few places let children up to the age of 12 stay free in their parents’ room. We have noted those that do. You can get baby cribs for free at some places and for as little as $5 at others. Little junior may have to leave Fluffy at home, though, since most places do not allow pets. Some charge extra for pets. Call first if you’re thinking about bringing an animal friend.
Because many of the newer establishments were constructed after the Americans with Disabilities Act was implemented, you should be able to find wheelchair-accessible facilities. Ask if such rooms are available. Unless otherwise noted, all the structures in this section with more than one floor have elevators.
All of the establishments listed here have both smoking and nonsmoking rooms unless otherwise noted. Many are entirely smoke-free. Most have high-speed Internet access and Wi-Fi.
This chapter offers a representation of the full range of facilities available in the tri-lakes area. We can’t tell you about them all, so if you need a little more help in deciding where to stay, we suggest you call the Branson/Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce Welcome Center at (800) 214-3661 or (417) 334-4136. Their computerized locator system allows them to pull up a list of all available lodging facilities with current vacancies. The system makes immediate reservations and prints driving directions to the facility. The system can also be used to make same-day attraction and show reservations. The one drawback to the system is that it is not an advance reservation system. If you need a room or ticket on a same-day basis, it is a good system to use. After 5 p.m. call (417) 336-4466 for access to the Lodging Locator system. For advance reservations you may call the Branson/Lakes Area Lodging Association’s Centralized Reservation System toll-free at (888) 238-6782. They have a comprehensive list of all the association’s members, with information on each establishment’s rates, amenities, and policies.
You can make same-day and advance reservations via the Branson/Lakes Area Lodging Association’s reservation system online at www.bransonarealodging.com or via www.hotels-rates.com/Branson/MO/USA.
Bed-and-breakfast inns, or B&Bs as they are called in the British Isles, where they are a time-honored option for travelers and sightseers, are beginning to catch on as an option in this country, even here in the Ozarks. One local inn owner estimates that 80 percent of her guests are first-time bed-and-breakfast visitors. The homey, often quaint accommodations with individually appointed and themed rooms offer a refreshing departure from what some would consider the cloned, cookie-cutter sameness of motels. You can expect bed-and-breakfast inns in the Ozarks to be sprinkled with romance, a sense of quiet retreat, local history, and splendor.
Often, large older homes in the British Isles are converted into bed-and-breakfast inns, but the Branson area does not have the lengthy history of the mother country nor a legacy of old, elegant architecture. Some of the area’s old homes have made the bed-and-breakfast conversion, though most area bed-and-breakfast inns are newly built for that purpose. There are also quite a number of nice “regular” homes, owned by people who like people and whose kids have flown the nest. These folks use extra space in their homes as bed-and-breakfast inns “just for the fun of it,” and they lavish attention on detail and their small number of guests.
Unlike their counterparts in the British Isles, Branson bed-and-breakfasts have private baths as the rule rather than the exception. Some inns are almost decadent in their luxury: fireplaces, private spas, libraries, king-size beds, and neat, one-of-a-kind appointments. Some of the inns are furnished with antiques. Many of the inns are off the beaten path, a plus for some visitors, and often feature a peaceful river valley or a mountain hillside with a panoramic view. They can be romantic and peaceful, and the personal service one gets transcends that of chain motels. Quite a number are built on Table Rock Lake and offer docks for fishing and swimming, and some can accommodate boats overnight, so you can arrive to your destination via water if you want!
And, of course, there are the famous breakfasts you expect, a meal so substantial that it should tide you over the entire day. The heart of the bed-and-breakfast inn is the personal care and attention for guests at reasonable rates, with breakfast. Many Ozark bed-and-breakfast innkeepers seem to believe that the way to your heart is through your stomach! While bed-and-breakfast inns may have smaller buildings than hotels and motels, they definitely have big hearts.
Overview
There is a good deal of variety within the realm of bed-and-breakfast inns in Branson. Some are new and some are old and historic. Some allow children but not pets—and vice versa. Some have showers; some don’t. Some allow smoking; others are smoke-free. Most of them are wheelchair accessible. Whatever your individual concern, ask when you make your reservation.
There are so many inns in the Branson area now, space limitations preclude describing each, but we list the best, which offer good rooms, an interesting decor or location, and a friendly atmosphere. We’ve given you a price guide for a one-night stay for two with a double bed and breakfast, though some offer only a continental breakfast or a reduced rate for a continental breakfast. We’ve given directions for some inns; others said they don’t take drop-ins and indicated they would give directions when reservations were made. Unless otherwise noted, all accept credit cards.