The Boatyard Chain of Lakes Boat Rental

Steve was very helpful, he refreshed us on the operation of the motor, provided us with a towel to wipe off the morning dew, life jackets, boat cushions, whistle, fire extinguisher all provided as well as the gas. He advised us about the wind warning coming later, our safety was foremost on his mind. His wife made the reservation process easy as pie, and you have to try the pizza vending machine outside, it delivered us a hot pizza in 3 minutes, made for a perfect lunch on the go.

Stay away… totally. Rented past summer and they called me to bring boat back early for “25% off my next rental.” My boat was in the shop so I didn’t need the next rental. So I said no. They charged me a ridiculous late charge! Then added lost bumper fee (lie) lie all the other stuff (random charges for this or that). Yeah won EVERY SINGLE ONE of my disputes I had to do for their charge after charge after charge that were unauthorized. Stay away in my opinion

RENTERS BEWARE: LETS SEE HOW KRISTEN (OWNER) SPINS THIS:11/14/2023I rented a boat in June. The first boat wouldn't start. But the owners husband came to fix and after I got an up grade that didn't start the owners husband gave another boat. Ok all good. They never tell you how much gas will be, they dont tell you about extras. I wrote a nice review bc I had a nice time.But now I am an upset consumer. Rented another boat for Sept in the middle of the month canceled on the 5th Kristen was all good about canceling....but haven't gotten a response to my $201.76 deposit that is supposed to be returned minus visa and cancelation. Hmmm girl you best get it together.All these ppl can't be living. I won't be back want my money BBB has been notified and now I'm going to my bank.

DON'T RENT HERE!Paid for a premium boat, got a old used one.Deposit of $500 was taken PLUS the full price of the rental, still fighting to get back the deposit. Which I think won't be hard since the owner got arrested for fraud with owning this company.News articles informed customers to call the Lake County Sherriff's office to those who experienced this fraud like we did.BYEEEEE Boatyard - I'm sure you won't be in business much longer!

We rented the 14 ft boat with 9.9HP motor. The motor worked flawlessly and starting instantly every time. The staff was nice the two times we went. We rented two boats originally but decided against it. They just kept the deposit which is understandable and refunded the rest.We also launched our personal boat 2 weeks prior and we had no issues. You can pay for parking for your car and trailer in a box so you can launch whenever you want.

Family rented a boat. it differed from the one we wanted and there was a “small” up charge last minute. It smelled awful of old beer and (can’t name it for the sake of readers) but you can imagine it if someone were to have an accident on board. We mentioned this to management and the lady stated that due to the high demand on rentals, they can’t all be cleaned as regularly as they should. I get it but with my retired parents, it was an unpleasant experience overall. We get home out of state to find a few extra charges from the rental company. We call and they state that they charged us extra for cleaning and damages however we didn’t bring anything other than water and sandwiches with us and removed our debris prior to returning the vessel. These people give me the creeps to say the least. Please be very cautious when making transactions here. If you can, use a prepaid debit card. It’s been a couple months and we’ve had to have separate charges refunded back to us by our bank because they definitely won’t honor their mistakes. You have been warned.

This lady time and time again blames her customers for damage that was already present on the boat prior to renting and then takes it upon herself to charge whatever she feels like to your card regardless of said prices. This is honestly the worst business I have ever encountered, and it's just a matter of time before they're out of business, and sitting in jail. Unless you want to deal with a mentally unstable business owner, just go somewhere else.

Update***since i added this review, my card is pending another $344 charge. We could not have possibly used that much gas. Hopefully, I can resolve this. -- We rented a smaller pontoon this time, as they were only 2 of us. It is advertised with a bluetooth radio, ladder and easier maneuvering. The swim ladder and radio were broken and unusable. It was difficult for me to get in the boat from swimming with no ladder and certainly not safe. The steering was awful, wrenched my shoulders to turn and did not maneuver well. The motor made clunking noises the whole day. We told the staff about the steering and motor upon return. We were told yeah, it's an old motor and we know the steering is messed up. What?!? I still paid almost $400 for the boat and expected it to work well. I knew it was smaller, but was not advertised as older with broken parts for the price or i could not complain. I thought I was paying less because it is a smaller boat. Disappointing. Our 1st experience here was good and Karen was very nice to us, despite other reviews of unprofessional behavior. We will give it 1 more chance and decide from there.

Wow!!!! So, we arrived and we're put on a boat that had upholstery all ripped up, and a prop will 3 blades missing at least half. So I stated to the younger lady there that this boat won't move as it should I would like another boat. They obliged, I looked at the prop, took a picture because it took was beat up but not as bad. We proceeded with our trip, moving slowly as we weren't in a hurry. Once I tried half to 3/4 throttle it revved and stopped repeatedly so I reduced throttle. Inspected everything including the waters we were in, tried again and the same thing. At this point we were almost 2 lakes south approaching the route 12 bridge. I contacted the boat yard, explained what was happening, they verified my trim setty(which was correct) and said they MAY have a different boat for us when we got back. At barely 5-7 mph we headed back. The female owner looked at the prop quick to accuse me of damaging it, until I showed her a picture I took prior to departure. Her husband then appeared, I described what was going on, and he said 5-10 minutes and he'd throw a new prop on. He did and the boat magically was able to travel at 17 mph. Still not 100%, meaning I couldn't go over 3/4 throttle without the motor surging. We finally met the rest of our group, rafted out then returned at 6pm. 2 young boys took possession of the boat when we returned. I raised the motor to show him the prop was still like new, and explained the other motor issue. I also watched how much fuel they put into the boat. Another group returned that also had previous damage issues. We all waited for the female owner, she inspected the other boat and again quick to blame the boat problems on the last renters. I chimed in and mentioned that they don't inspect their boats accurately. She threatened me with police so I walked away and waited for her undivided attention. As our first 3 hours of the rental was ruined I wanted to discuss a rental credit, something a reasonable business would do. Yet again suggested I needed to leave private property, and that I was belligerent and drunk(BTW this is being typed 30 minutes after I left). As my wife and I were leaving we decided to exchange information with the other customer that was having problems and she told us we couldn't. Naturally we laughed and said we could. She then asked how we knew them and if we were friends. I stated no, just new acquaintances but most likely soon to be friends. Bottom line, the premium boat rentals has ripped seats, half missing props, moderately dented side walls, stains, and knots in every single rope and bumper line.Be very careful if you remotely think of letting this place have a credit card #.Response to the owner: no police arrived, in fact when you pretend called them and acted to describe me I offered my full name, DOB and SS # if they wanted it! I welcomed PD as you threatened to kick me, a paying customer off of the property as I suggested I wanted a refund. I smell class action suit, for fraudulent business practices and charges. I claim Libel , seeing as I never caused any damage, just reported what was found as it was used.

Do NOT rent here. UPDATED RESPONSE TO OWNER: I left a review about severe safety hazards on one of your boats. Rather than indicate measures taken to mitigate the risk you imposed on my family for the benefit of future customers, your response was to “apologize” that my budget doesn’t allow for a better experience. Now I’ll be reporting you to BBB and will also be filing a complaint with the IL AG. Your abysmal boat maintenance put my loved ones’ lives at risk. The boat is literally falling apart with seats not bolted to the deck which was communicated to your staff after we docked (we docked early due to the experience). In light of that information from a paying customer, your response is pure negligence. Also, there are NO pictures on your website that show the physical disrepair and filth of the boat we rented, nor is there any description other than “older boat”. I have screenshots of the site and the boat at the time of rental.Original review: We rented an “older” boat which should absolutely not be allowed on the water. Not only did the boat die multiple times for no reason during our trip, but one entire side of the boat was not even bolted to the platform, causing the the seats to lean back toward the water and lift up from the entire boat. The person I told after we docked seemed pretty uninterested in this giant safety hazard. So dangerous, although the fact that the motor barely went above cruising made for an unintentional safety feature (and a ridiculous gas bill). The boat was also SO FILTHY, ripped seats everywhere, my hands were so dirty from the steering wheel alone. It was honestly disgusting. What a joke that they wanted to charge us an $80 cleaning fee if we had brought our 19 lb dog. I wanted to charge them a cleaning fee and then some after spending 4 hours on that death trap. The one star is for the very sweet front desk staff who checked us in, but that’s not enough to ever bring us back here.

This company does not even deserve 1 star. Please believe all the negative reviews and save yourself some trouble by staying away! We had a terrible rental experience with a poorly maintained "premium" pontoon boat. A large portion of our rental time was lost due to mechanical issues, including returning to the boatyard and waiting for the male owner to replace the propeller (see Erik Mandel's review for a description of the mechanical issues). When we returned the boat at the end of our rental time, a member of our party attempted to discuss the issues we experienced with the female owner. Instead of listening to the concerns of a customer, she falsely accused him of damaging the boat and threatened to call the sheriff if he didn't leave. The audacity of this business owner is simply astounding! You can see what kind of business ethics she has by how she responds to negative reviews. She lies about her customers and accuses them of trespassing and damaging property, or she insinuates that they can't afford the cost of her rentals. I repeat, stay away!!!

Our 2nd visit to The Boatyard was an awesome time on the water! Though our pontoon broke down after only 100 yds out, we were given options. ?. Take a better boat at a later time that day, get a refund or reschedule. We were reluctant to wait but were given an awesome recommendation for lunch on a lake. Once our promised time came, we were having fun! When we came back in, I thanked the owner and she told me that we will also get ?20% off our next rental! We had a great experience with ALL of the staff! We would recommend this rental business! ??

Stay far far farrrrrr away from this place. I rented a boat yesterday online about 2pm and I JUST now received a call from a woman named Kristen telling me that there was some glitch in the system and they have no boats available. She then proceed to say they have been booked for weeks. But then tells me she can get me a boat for tomorrow. Absolutely unacceptable!!! They ruined our entire day. Calling one hour before we are suppose to be there to tell me it's cancelled? I wish I could rate this place 0 stars. Horrible horrible business.... not to mention I just found out one of the employees was arrested for throwing a guests phone in the water. DO YOURSELF A FAVOR AND STAY AWAY FROM Boatyard.

Boat was not rentable! Overall, this was the most horrible boating experience we've ever had. We are experienced boaters however, it was my first time renting a pontoon and after going to the other lakes about 30 min in the boat nearly capsized and we all thought we were going to die! We first got a gush of water inside the boat and thought it was a one time occurrence so we kept going. Then shortly after about 1/4 of the boat was flooded and it was obvious it was not powered enough to go on the lake and it took about 1 hr getting back but we were all absolutely terrified. The pontoon boat was 1. severly underpowered and 2. way too old 3. leaned to one side and 4. looks like it has been wrecked before. I wish I would have checked the reviews before because it is embarrassing that we would rent a boat in such condition. Additionally, when we were thinking the boat was going to sink, we became aware how inadequate the life jackets were (probably 20 years old) and the bare min if even able to save a life.When we finally made it back to the dock after about 1.5 hr total to the young boy (maybe 15) who was the only one there helping people (which we had to wait a long time to get on the boat in the first place) he gave a card to call Kristen which we did immediately that day on Sunday, then Monday, then Wednesday and still no return call.I'd also like to mention that when I made the reservation she told us to ignore the weather warning of potential rain. She said that 9 times out of 10 it doesn't rain in that area even if the weather indicates so. Omg, that is so laughable now as it did indeed start to rain as we were dropping the boat back off.I hate to write such a bad review but this was honestly our experience and had the owner just returned our call and or had an email on her business card, we could have explained all this.The only thing left to do is dispute with our credit card. All in all this boat for sure needs to be retired as it is a complete safety hazard. I have tried to upload photos but it says server rejected for whatever reason.

WORST EXPERIENCE WITH KRISTEN (NEW OWNER). I have been using this boat ramp for over 15 years. The previous owner was a very nice man who knew how to run a business and work with people. The new owner should sell and take classes on how to run a business.My boat couldn't start on the water and I called for a tow. She said they don't do that. I asked her for a number or name of a company that tows in the area, and she mentioned a name. I asked her if she could text it to me, and she said LOOK IT UP ONLINE. I told her how my father had less than an hour left on his oxygen tank and she hung up the phone. I tried calling back, and she wouldn't answer.Complete disregard for people. Seeing the other reviews online, I hope she will no longer be in business next year.