Hoosier Hills Marina

What a fabulous experience with pontoon rental at Hoosier Hills Marina! Friendly Staff and well maintained boats…. We will definitely rent from Hoosier Hills again!

It was a Beautiful day in the Lake
A lot of Synshine and a little Rain.
So Relaxing!

We had a great experience and couldn’t be more pleased. The people are friendly and helpful unlike some of the other boat rental companies on Patoka. The boat was clean and nice. They make sure they have a tube for every boat. Plus the pizza, root beer floats and cookies afterwards are all amazing. I talked to one of the owners afterwards and told her how great of job they are doing. Keep it up!

Staff was disrespectful and uncooperative. The man behind the counter was lazy and not willing to work with our group. The store was cluttered and overpriced. Highly recommend selecting a better marina with more options and better pricing.

DO NOT RENT FROM THIS MARINA UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES!

The owners wanted to fight with us from the moment we walked in. There was a problem with check-in and we were leaving to go and correct it on our end and the owner followed us out continuing to argue with us when it wasn’t a problem. He then proceeded to cancel our boat. We suspect he wanted to rent it to someone else that day for a higher price because the lake marinas were completely sold out.

His comment states that we were rude, but we were not rude at all. We just questioned why we were not told something on the phone when I had called that morning, asking a very similar question. Again, we were simply leaving to drive an hour to take care of the problem. It required us to go and get one more person in our party. If questioning why we weren’t told something on the phone a half hour before we arrived is being rude then they are either super sensitive or they wanted to rent the boat for a higher price that day. I suspect the latter.

We ended up renting a beautiful boat from Gilligan’s because the Lord watched over us and provided a boat after this horrible experience at Hoosier Hills. I can tell you exactly who was rude in the situation and it was not us. There was absolutely no reason to cancel our boat! They may have even sold more boats online than they had that day, so that’s why he canceled. There was definitely something else going on to cancel our boat.

I have been renting boats here for years and always has been a good experience. Rented the luxury pontoon yesterday and had a good time. That is until I traversed under the forbidden bridge. Warning to future boat renters, don’t break this rule or you will be treated like a felon. Rebecca called and left me a voicemail explaining my wrong doing. I guess they have GPS trackers in the office. It must work better than the GPS on the boat, because it ‘t work at all. Anyway, upon checkout I continued to get questioned and berated by Rebecca. I feel bad for any of the employees that have to work with her daily. We will take the business elsewhere in the future. So sorry for taking the boat under the bridge through the 30 feet of water.

Two days ago, we reserved a pontoon to rent for yesterday. During the reservation process, we were advised of the cancellation policy, and that there was to be no fishing on the pontoon boat we rented. There were no other rules or prohibitions mentioned.

We traveled 45 minutes to the marina yesterday to finish the rental agreement and enjoy a day on the lake with our children and our small dog. When we arrived, we were told guests could not bring dogs on the pontoons. One "value" pontoon allowed dogs, but it was rented for the day. When we asked where this information could be found on the website for reservations, we were simply told it was there. After looking at the website again at the marina, we attempted to show the employee that there was no notice about dogs anywhere. Rather, the "value" pontoon had a sentence in its description that renters could "be their dog for a day." That is hardly notice that dogs are prohibited on all other boats. And we didn't want to "be our dog for a day." We wanted to bring our dog with us for the day. Details matter...

The employee was rude and short with us. He refused to consider whether we had any other options. And he refused to refund even a $1 of the rental fee, even though we had not signed or formally agreed to anything, other than what was advertised on the website, which clearly failed to state the terms of the rental. We will NEVER do any business with them again.

We have rented luxury pontoons before and never been told dogs were not allowed on the boats. Given how prevalent dogs are, we figured any prohibition would be clearly stated on the marina's website. One cannot take a reservation with a no-cancellation policy without clearly stating all material terms of the rental agreement.

Thankfully, our day was not ruined. We went to Gilligan's Boat Rentals instead. The employee was friendly and helpful, and she put us in a great pontoon for the day. We were able to bring our dog, and there was no additional fee for doing so.

As for Hoosier Hills, we are disputing their fee with our credit card company. If they are going to accept online reservations with no refunds, they are required to clearly lay out all terms of the rental agreement. Otherwise, the agreement is not binding.

I will never recommend this business to anyone, especially when there is a much better pontoon rental place just a few miles away.

RESPONSE TO BUSINESS: we do not have to confirm that a vehicle is pet-friendly before renting. We have rented boats and other vehicles for years; never once have we been prohibited from transporting a dog in a vehicle. Your boat is a vehicle. You bore the responsibility of making clear your vehicle was not pet-friendly.

If you claim we were advised of that in the reservation process, prove it. Share a screenshot of our reservation that shows we confirmed that dogs were not permitted in the boat and decided to reserve anyway. I shared screenshots showing the lack of an advisement.

I would never recommend this business to anyone. We used their online reservations process to rent a pontoon for the day. We have rented other luxury pontoons in various places. Never had a problem bring our small dog with us. We reviewed the rules and prohibitions carefully on the pontoon we were reserving. No mention of dogs. We traveled 45 minutes with our children and our dog to the marina. It was there that we learned they had ONE boat that allowed a dog. and it was rented. We asked where the prohibition on dogs was provided. The employee was rude and short with us. he claimed it was clear on the website. It was not. There is only one place on the website that mentions a dog, and that is in the description of the value pontoon rental. if the person rents that pontoon, they get to "be their dog for a day." I didn't want to be a dog for the day. I wanted to bring my dog on the boat. When we tried to see what other options we had, the employee refused to talk to us about it and told us he would not refund even a dollar of the rental fee. We are now forced to dispute the charge through our credit card company. Given the lack of understanding of basic contract law by the marina, we doubt we will receive a credit prior to the formal dispute process. Thankfully, another marina was just a few miles away. Gilligan's Boat Rentals had pontoons to rent. They allowed dogs and did not even charge an extra fee. Overall, they were great to work with.

Nice facility. Limited fishing items, lots of shirts and hats. Nice rental pontoon boats.

We visited the marina on July 6th for fuel and pizza. They were SLAMMED busy because it was the night of fireworks. A young man fueled us up, and he was great. We went up to pick up our pizza that we had pre-ordered. They were running behind on orders, and no one was getting their pizza at their promised time. The kitchen staff seemed to mainly be made up of teenagers. I just want to say that those kids were doing such a great job! They had so many ADULTS yelling at them asking where their food was, and from what I was witnessing, they handled it all with grace, especially a young man in a bucket hat. You, sir, were on it and were obviously doing your best to keep everyone happy. Great job, kids!
Also, the pizza was great and hit the spot!

We have enjoyed Hoosier Hills Marina for several years. As a previous boat owner a and a current boating renter, it’s a place place to enjoy Patoka Lake and beautiful views from the pizza shop and deck!

We’ve been renting a doc for our pontoon boat and waverunner at Hoosier Hills Marina for 5 years now and absolutely love it! The owner’s are always working and improving the entire place. They arevery professional and truly care about the people and making it a 5 star environment for everyone to enjoy. Bathrooms are clean, restaurants and bar have good food, someone is always available to answer questions, and the other boaters are so friendly. We watch out for each other and it feels like a happy place in general! ?

Friendly staff and amazing food and service

Great place to hang out for the day. Good food

We rented a John boat initially but when I saw the boat I was very concerned about safety. I am somewhat handicapped and walk with a walker and use a motorized scooter. I was very happy when they allowed us to change to a pontoon boat. Of course we paid the difference but it was worth it. Here comes the real concerns. This facility is NOT handicapped friendly! By the time we walked all the way down the steep ramp and then all the way down to the boat, I was already exhausted. They provided us with a cart to help carry our items to the boat but no help getting it down to the boat. My husband was very worried about me getting down safely. They went over the boat and we left the marina hoping for a great day. At the first attempted stop we was told to stay away from the bank. No problem EXCEPT the anchor line was so short it wouldn’t even hold the boat. We tried about 3 more places but the same problem. Unfortunately, we had to go back to the marina for a restroom break. I used my walker and started the LONG way back up the steep slope. I just about didn’t make it. I was absolutely exhausted. We couldn’t find anybody inside the store so we went outside. I told the young woman that I had to get to a restroom quickly! She told me I had to walk to a different building uphill with a few stairs. They probably didn’t think it was far from where they were but no consideration for me trying my best to make it. I was almost in tears by this point. So we sat down to rest knowing we had another long walk back to the boat. All I asked for was a glass of water. Well my husband came out with a bottled water and a bottled drink for himself. No glass of water was even available. So after resting for a few minutes we headed back down and the long walk after we got down the slope. We told the young man about the anchor rope but nothing happened. We still had several hours left on our rental. We made it back at our designated time. A nice young man helped us load the cart and we started the walk again. Again, no help getting the cart back up the long walk and the steep slope. Needless to say I was FINISHED for the day and so was my poor husband. I’m really uncertain how you could possibly help older handicapped people like us, but we aren’t dead yet and was really looking forward to being on lake Patoka as we used to do. We really didn’t get to enjoy the day as we wanted. My legs just killed me after the first walk down that steep ramp and long walk to the boat. Needless to say, we won’t use this marina anymore. However we have found a much more handicapped friendly marina. Might want to consider speaking with someone who can assist you with the handicap situation!