Interesting property, horrible service
TL;DR: Interesting property, horrible service. Don't take it from just me, read the other guest reviews for consistent experiences. I wish I had before booking.
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The property is interesting, and they underwent a pretty substantial renovation back in the 90s. The hotel has a lot of potential, but unfortunately it's wasted by ego and greed from the owner.
Service is a real issue for guests and potential guests here. Upon walking into to the front door, you are abruptly asked of your intentions. Instead of welcoming a guest or potential guest, they are mostly interested in ensuring a person who hasn't paid yet will not enter their building. Once we said "we're checking in, we have reservations" the tone awkwardly shifted to a forced politeness. That was our immediate impression on the way in.
The next issue was that upon check-in, the front desk associate let us know that our 13 year old child/minor is, to them, considered an adult, and we would be paying an "extra persons" fee. I said he is a minor, and that we booked a room that sleeps 4, so we should not be charged for "extra adults". We paid for a room that slept 4 and had two actual adults. He said it was on the Guest Rooms and on the Reservations pages of the site, which I said it was not there when I booked the room. That evening I confirmed that neither the guest rooms page or the reservation process stated that 12 year children are charged as adults.
Another quirk during check-in was that we arrived ~3:30p, they said that our room was not yet available but we could upgrade to a room with a view that was available for an additional $20. We hesitantly agreed so we could unload our bags and move the car parked in the loading zone out front, and then head out for an early dinner. There were no rooms being cleaned by the staff - you can see all the rooms and their doors from the open atrium.
The next morning, we were in the lobby waiting to head out for breakfast and overheard the overheard a manager training a new employee in a hushed tone. She was explaining how to address people who came in, not let anyone get "free tours", make sure that they're paying customers if they step in the door, etc. She also mentioned that when someone is checking in early that they are to offer an upgraded room (paid upgrade of course), which is exactly what happened when we checked in. She became frustrated that my wife could overhear her shameful guidance, and asked my wife in a rude tone if she was looking for breakfast.
When checking out, there wasn't anyone available to ask about the extra person charge, so we left the key card in the drop box and rolled out. About an hour later they called to see if we were going to check out before Noon (we were already gone) and I asked the new front desk employee about the charge, since it wasn't on the webpage for the rooms or reservations. He had no clue, but said he'd research it with his manager. I asked for a call back to discuss. Immediately after that, I received an email from "[email protected]" with the subject "Website policy." and literally just an attached screenshot from their website (see included photo). I had to search their website and found it buried on the "About Us" page. Lesson learned: If you are booking a stay with a hotel that has a meager 3.8 rating, search far and wide for fine print buried on an About Us page (but not included in the details for the room or during the reservations process).
If you are looking to stay at an interesting older property in decent shape, and don't mind rude service and surprise charges, then this place is for you.
