Five years ago, Flat Creek Inn was rated #44 of all Jackson hotels on Trip Advisor. That was last place. Yikes. Now we are rated #15. How did we rise from the ashes? Since the rankings are generated by customers' ratings, we can't know for sure. I contacted our summer staff manager Connor Kunz, and he made the following list of improvements we have made in the last five years:

• The property came under new management in 2012.
• Every room has been renovated, including replacing the carpet, curtains, bedspreads, and towels.
• We replaced the septic system.
• We introduced a stringent room inspection system to make housekeeping spotless.
• We instituted a more thorough system for training employees.
• We now have a free airport shuttle.
• We have free hot chocolate and coffee for every guest.
• Management reads and responds to every Trip Advisor review to make sure we know exactly how guests feel about their experience.
• We created our mission statement: "to provide a quality, consistent experience to every guest, every night, every time," and we had every employee memorize it. Management comes and visits randomly and hands out ten dollar bills to any employee who can tell him the mission statement off the top of their head.

One more thing: of the top 15 Jackson lodging locations on Trip Advisor, as of September 25th 2017, Flat Creek Inn has the best price. (Note: the rankings and prices fluctuate daily but 15th is generally where we hover. Go to Trip Advisor and sort by “traveler ranked" to see where we are at). We are pretty proud of how far we have come. Here are some of our latest reviews on Trip Advisor: by Jessica Heath