Is Anyone Actually Staying at the Bass Pro Shops Hotel?
A brutally honest viral TikTok review of the company's hotel leaves us with many questions.
In 2015, the Memphis Pyramid, a somewhat local Tennessean landmark, was rebranded. Since then, it became a Bass Pro Shops megastore, which now flaunts, in addition to the store itself, restaurants, aquariums, a shooting range, a cypress swamp with alligators, and, among other rather interesting photo ops, a hotel.
What could a Bass Pro Shops hotel possibly be like, you ask? Luckily for you, Marc Sebastian, host of a quite amusing TikTok series dubbed A Gay Explores, took it upon themselves to show you.
"Hello, I am staying at the Big Cypress Lodge inside of the Bass Pro Shops Pyramid, so I thought I would give you a little room tour," Sebastian says at the beginning of the video. "This is the lobby that you walk into. I'm pretty sure there is a gun-and-bow check, which is like a coat check, but scary."
Inside, the room features a very similar hunting-friendly theme. The light switch covers all feature different fauna, but that's not where the animal obsession ends.
"What you will notice about this hotel is that they love to take an animal and stick it to a wall," says Sebastian, while the video pans to a taxidermy peacock. "Fish, ducks, birds. I've seen some mammals. Squirrels." Later in the video, Sebastian shows a massive deer head peaking out of a wall.
There is also a relatively large Christmas tree in the room, which was no surprise to Sebastian, as he noted that Christmas trees are everywhere in this hotel. In fact, he was more "surprised they didn't put one in the elevator."
The odd amenities and features keep going. A voyeuristic window from the bathroom's hot tub into the bedroom; an odd-looking lantern in the toilet room, described as a "One if by Land, Two if by Sea" lantern; a slightly unsettling decor picture that looks like "the set of The Blair Witch Project;" an interior balcony facing directly over the Bass Pro Shops store; and, last but not least, the shocking absence of Bibles.
There are also good things about the room, though. It's large, features a fancy bathroom with a lovely mirror, has relatively ample closet space, and even has a switch-operated fireplace.
If you read the pricing information found inside Sebastian's room, you'll learn that a nightly stay in the same deluxe king accommodation will cost you $500, however, so budget accordingly if you're interested.