B&B Critique

I went with extended family to a B&B in a nearby town this weekend for a 2-night getaway. And it was relaxing and nice. But I've got to fuss a bit, and since I don't have the spine to complain to the owners*, and I'm not about to post a negative TA review, I'll just post it here.
First the nice:

• This B&B also houses a restaurant and the food and service were excellent.
• The inn is on the edge of a "cliff" above a river valley. These are some views from my bedroom window: view1, view2, view3. What you can't get from the photos is the view of the rapids in the river, and accompanying roar of white water. Wonderful!

Now for the only things I could focus on...the negatives:

• Could not find a side of either pillow of my bed that didn't have a stain.
• There was also a stain right in middle of the wrinkled sheet. I'm sorry, but if you refuse to use microfiber sheets, you need to iron or get them out of the dryer sooner!
• There were only 3 hangers in the closet!
• Glass glasses in the bathroom. Bathrooms should not have breakable glasses. The glasses had plastic wrap over the top, but were not clean. I had to wash them myself.
• MULTIPLE nails in the walls that used to hold pictures. Really, if you decide to remove a picture from the wall, at least remove the nail even if you won't take the time to patch the little hole and place a little touch-up paint.
• They had bathroom rugs. The thick furry kind. Anybody would assume they are not often washed. I pitched them aside, along with the flowery bedspread.
• The only "welcome booklet" in the room was a single page that didn't contain the word welcome, but did list 11 "do not" commands.
• Every single electrical outlet in the room was behind a piece of furniture. The desk was already pulled out from the wall and at a 30 degree angle from the wall because the last guest had to pull it out to plug in their computer, and the staff just left it that way. Is a powerstrip THAT expensive?
• No corkage fee in the restaurant. We invited friends to join us in their restaurant while we were there, and the friends brought a special bottle of wine to share. The owners told them to get it out of there, and didn't smile about it. You buy THEIR wine or you don't have any. It's an expensive restaurant...about $50/person for appetizer, meal, dessert & drinks. They could at least accommodate by having a corkage fee so people could bring their own on special occasions. Our friends got even by ordering free tap water with their meal.
• No in-room temp control. There was an in-wall AC unit, but no heat at all. None! All the room gets is what filters up from downstairs. It got down below freezing both nights we were there. I was OK under the covers, but I know some people would have been cold, and it's only early November! This place is open all winter!
• Regarding the worn, discolored TV channel lineup guide, with half the channel numbers cut off when they photocopied it: I tried 15 channels from the guide, and not a SINGLE ONE matched the channel on the TV. The guide was completely useless. Could only flip channels to find what you want to see.
• Sign by toilet: "Please put all paper products in the trash can." Does this include the toilet paper?? A bit more explanation would be nice, such as "put nothing in the toilet except toilet paper" or "put no paper in the toilet, including toilet paper". I realize some older places on septic systems can't flush toilet paper, but I don't think that was the case here. Just inadequate signage.
• A 2-foot section of rope light is not a porch light! Some in my family were in a room accessed via an outside door, and all they had for a porch light was a short string of rope light that was about equivalent to lighting a match to see. Totally inadequate.

I'm not fussing about the 1918 house being very cheaply remodeled about 1970 with no improvements since. I won't fuss about all the furniture and wall hangings obviously being from yard sales. But the bullet points above result from just not caring. All but the lack of heating could be solved by caring, and about $200. If they have electricity there for rope lights over the outside door, they could easily install a real porch light!
Thanks for putting up with my vent. They charged about $100 for a room, so not overpriced, but really, this was not a great experience. They could easily close for a week, fix most of these issues, and raise their rates with no problems. Everybody would win!
_______________________
*And let me say about these owners, they had owned the place since 2002, sold it a couple of years ago, and after 15 months had to take it back due to the buyers not being able to make the payments. So they are tired but still "pluggin' away at it" with a smile. They just need to care a little more!

Are you sure that the wine wasn't state/country law that prevented outside wine from the restaurant? Around here, if a restaurant has a licence, any bottle lacking the special government label on it, could mean the loss of their licence. No outside alcohol is allowed. They can't even buy at the government stores, they have to buy at special outlets that have this special labels on them.
I'm sure that if you put the TP in the can there would have been a fixed sign... likely they don't get many international visitors, because in some countries, TP is always put in a garbage can, never down the toilet.

trouble is what baffles me is when people want to sell and they let things go - that is the time to really pull it out of the bag! you want good turnover and good reviews to make the sale -neither of which they are going to get running it that way!

Aaaah you had a Happy Hour before you arrived and you were actually at a Motel 6 ............ : )

How disappointing. I'm sure like us you don't often get the chance to stay away, so when you do you want it special.
If they've had the place for 11 years and still not sorted out things like the sockets and a welcome pack then the failed sale is no excuse.

My big complaint from my last B&B was that it should have been clear on the website that it was a 'homestay'. You are in their home completely. They have no private space so you, the guest, are sharing all of their space. The TV was on from the moment they got up until they went to bed. Altho it was muted in the early morning, it was turned up right after breakfast and it was on the whole dang day.
I can't fault them for living in their space but where are the guests supposed to hang out when the owners have their friends over for drinks? We got all the local gossip while trying to enjoy some down time. Sigh.
Otherwise it was gorgeous!

Highlands John said:

How disappointing. I'm sure like us you don't often get the chance to stay away, so when you do you want it special.
If they've had the place for 11 years and still not sorted out things like the sockets and a welcome pack then the failed sale is no excuse..

Click to expand...

Highlands John said:

If they've had the place for 11 years and still not sorted out things like the sockets and a welcome pack then the failed sale is no excuse.

Click to expand...

They just don't care about the place's shortcomings. Sure they are busy and tired. Everybody is. But if you care, you notice things, put them on the list, and eventually get them done.
The thing is, 68% of their TA reviews are 5 stars (or Owl eyes, I guess). Only 14% rate the place below average. So maybe I'm too picky. But an innkeeper needs to be picky!
One reviewer from a nearby large city said, "i think they are just so far into the Ozarks they don't know what people expect." People like the owners and give them a break on the critiques. I guess there's a lesson there!

I think what happens a lot is that some innkeepers (not any of us here!) live in a little bubble. I really think they don't know any better a lot of the time. I've seen it a lot in our state. I work with our state association and through recruiting I see it often...they don't interact in a business sense with other innkeepers. They think it's still ok to do things the old way. Why heck, they stay pretty busy they say. They take it personally when given a suggestion that their website needs attention or that guests these days need "xyz". Once you get them interacting with a group of innkeepers, they start to see the light.

Before I even read this I am laughing, visiting non Innspiring B&B's is always innlightening and innspires us to not be like them! I know that sounds harsh, but I see a list...so I will now go and read.

I love this one:
[h4]
"The only "welcome booklet" in the room was a single page that didn't contain the word welcome, but did list 11 "do not" commands."[/h4]
[h4]
11? Sheesh the "good book" only has 10. Who do they think they are!! haha [/h4]
I read an interesting book while on vacation, and in the book there were many one lines of contemplation for me. One was being introduced to someone, where the writer mentioned they were friendly, but not warm.
Another time she mentioned she thought they were sucking on icicles...
Smiling at someone and acting welcoming is not the same thing as actually being welcoming. I think this is the facade that some inns/innkeepers have. The old watch what I do, not what I say conundrum.

Breakfast Diva said:

I think what happens a lot is that some innkeepers (not any of us here!) live in a little bubble. I really think they don't know any better a lot of the time. I've seen it a lot in our state. I work with our state association and through recruiting I see it often...they don't interact in a business sense with other innkeepers. They think it's still ok to do things the old way. Why heck, they stay pretty busy they say. They take it personally when given a suggestion that their website needs attention or that guests these days need "xyz". Once you get them interacting with a group of innkeepers, they start to see the light..

Click to expand...

Breakfast Diva said:

I think what happens a lot is that some innkeepers (not any of us here!) live in a little bubble. I really think they don't know any better a lot of the time. I've seen it a lot in our state. I work with our state association and through recruiting I see it often...they don't interact in a business sense with other innkeepers. They think it's still ok to do things the old way. Why heck, they stay pretty busy they say. They take it personally when given a suggestion that their website needs attention or that guests these days need "xyz". Once you get them interacting with a group of innkeepers, they start to see the light.

Click to expand...

When I watched the Miami HOTEL IMPOSSIBLE where the bed bugs and roaches were crawling by the gazillions over the room, and Anthony said how he had never in his life...
and the owner stood there and said "Nobody has ever complained" I was laughing my head off! Every so often here on this forum we hear those same words, it is fine, no one has ever complained... Do we HAVE TO COMPLAIN about this stuff? doh!

I was in a CCC built cabin this past week (checked out this morning) and the one complaint we had from this original log hewn cabin was the toilet was in the bathroom and wedged into a corner cubby area with walls on either side.
On the survey for the park manager I left a comment about it. I know there is nothing they can do other than remodel the original structure (which I am not asking for) but if you are large, or in my husband's case BRAWNY then this baby potty in an enclosed corner cannot meet your needs. DH said he would just have to go in the woods like the old days...
Of course when this was built, there would have been an outhouse. So it was added on inside the structure later.
Which reminded me of how many of our B&B's add toilets/bathrooms later (but we have gone from the quaint - put a toilet/bath in a closet to really requiring small bathrooms now). This has to be the latest trend, imo...from the jacuzzi tubs a few years back to the reg sized bathrooms.
Worst case in this cubby toilet was the tp holder was there and would knock your eye out when you tried to stand up.

Arkansawyer said:

Highlands John said:

How disappointing. I'm sure like us you don't often get the chance to stay away, so when you do you want it special.
If they've had the place for 11 years and still not sorted out things like the sockets and a welcome pack then the failed sale is no excuse..

Click to expand...

Highlands John said:

If they've had the place for 11 years and still not sorted out things like the sockets and a welcome pack then the failed sale is no excuse.

Click to expand...

They just don't care about the place's shortcomings. Sure they are busy and tired. Everybody is. But if you care, you notice things, put them on the list, and eventually get them done.
The thing is, 68% of their TA reviews are 5 stars (or Owl eyes, I guess). Only 14% rate the place below average. So maybe I'm too picky. But an innkeeper needs to be picky!
One reviewer from a nearby large city said, "i think they are just so far into the Ozarks they don't know what people expect." People like the owners and give them a break on the critiques. I guess there's a lesson there!
.

Click to expand...

Either that or they figured the low rate compensates for the lack of attention to detail. That is one reason we do not stay in low priced B+Bs or hotels. I know that a higher rate does not guarantee that I'll be happy with the level of quality and service, but it sure does mean that I will write a less than perfect review if I feel like I have been taken advantage of.

Silverspoon said:

Arkansawyer said:

Highlands John said:

How disappointing. I'm sure like us you don't often get the chance to stay away, so when you do you want it special.
If they've had the place for 11 years and still not sorted out things like the sockets and a welcome pack then the failed sale is no excuse..

Click to expand...

Highlands John said:

If they've had the place for 11 years and still not sorted out things like the sockets and a welcome pack then the failed sale is no excuse.

Click to expand...

They just don't care about the place's shortcomings. Sure they are busy and tired. Everybody is. But if you care, you notice things, put them on the list, and eventually get them done.
The thing is, 68% of their TA reviews are 5 stars (or Owl eyes, I guess). Only 14% rate the place below average. So maybe I'm too picky. But an innkeeper needs to be picky!
One reviewer from a nearby large city said, "i think they are just so far into the Ozarks they don't know what people expect." People like the owners and give them a break on the critiques. I guess there's a lesson there!
.

Click to expand...

Either that or they figured the low rate compensates for the lack of attention to detail. That is one reason we do not stay in low priced B+Bs or hotels. I know that a higher rate does not guarantee that I'll be happy with the level of quality and service, but it sure does mean that I will write a less than perfect review if I feel like I have been taken advantage of.
.

Click to expand...

Silverspoon said:

Either that or they figured the low rate compensates for the lack of attention to detail.

Click to expand...

I noticed some of their TA reviews said, "not what I expect for $200/night" or "not worth the $175/night". So I think we paid the off season rate, and in high season people are paying double for the same list of problems.

Mary at Bridgewater Inn and Cottage said:

Aaaah you had a Happy Hour before you arrived and you were actually at a Motel 6 ............ : ).

Click to expand...

Mary at Bridgewater Inn and Cottage said:

Aaaah you had a Happy Hour before you arrived and you were actually at a Motel 6 ............ : )

Click to expand...

Mary, This is the best laugh I've had in a long time.

Joey Bloggs said:

I love this one:
[h4]
"The only "welcome booklet" in the room was a single page that didn't contain the word welcome, but did list 11 "do not" commands."[/h4]
[h4]
11? Sheesh the "good book" only has 10. Who do they think they are!! haha

[/h4]
I read an interesting book while on vacation, and in the book there were many one lines of contemplation for me. One was being introduced to someone, where the writer mentioned they were friendly, but not warm.
Another time she mentioned she thought they were sucking on icicles...
Smiling at someone and acting welcoming is not the same thing as actually being welcoming. I think this is the facade that some inns/innkeepers have. The old watch what I do, not what I say conundrum..

Click to expand...

The PO here was a two-handed hand shaker. Annoyed me to no end. Maybe because there was no warmth in the rest of the greeting.
I don't shake hands. It's just not me. Most guests have an armful anyway.

Arkansawyer said:

Highlands John said:

How disappointing. I'm sure like us you don't often get the chance to stay away, so when you do you want it special.
If they've had the place for 11 years and still not sorted out things like the sockets and a welcome pack then the failed sale is no excuse..

Click to expand...

Highlands John said:

If they've had the place for 11 years and still not sorted out things like the sockets and a welcome pack then the failed sale is no excuse.

Click to expand...

They just don't care about the place's shortcomings. Sure they are busy and tired. Everybody is. But if you care, you notice things, put them on the list, and eventually get them done.
The thing is, 68% of their TA reviews are 5 stars (or Owl eyes, I guess). Only 14% rate the place below average. So maybe I'm too picky. But an innkeeper needs to be picky!
One reviewer from a nearby large city said, "i think they are just so far into the Ozarks they don't know what people expect." People like the owners and give them a break on the critiques. I guess there's a lesson there!
.

Click to expand...

Arkansawyer said:

The thing is, 68% of their TA reviews are 5 stars (or Owl eyes, I guess). Only 14% rate the place below average. So maybe I'm too picky. But an innkeeper needs to be picky!

Click to expand...

You are NOT too picky. I cringed when I read your critique. All very understandable complaints! Thanks for sharing. It keeps us on our toes

The more I read about other experiences and reflect on my own, I am wondering how many places are perfect. I have come to the realization that there are flaws in almost all of our places. I am reminded of one guest that stays in B&B's exclusively who stated it is the uniqueness and little flaws that she loves.
Things that we see, notice even more because of our business. We want the industry to be perfect. I agree that things like nails in the wall are a bad reflection and the lack of electric outlets available shows lack of needs of guests and prices should be in tune with what you offer. But all in all it is the uniqueness that brings people to stay at B&B's.
B&B's are not for everyone and not for all occasions. I can't believe I am actually saying (writing) this. I have always thought the opposite.

Innkeep said:

Mary at Bridgewater Inn and Cottage said:

Aaaah you had a Happy Hour before you arrived and you were actually at a Motel 6 ............ : ).

Click to expand...

Mary at Bridgewater Inn and Cottage said:

Aaaah you had a Happy Hour before you arrived and you were actually at a Motel 6 ............ : )

Click to expand...

Mary, This is the best laugh I've had in a long time.
.

Click to expand...

Innkeep said:

Mary at Bridgewater Inn and Cottage said:

Aaaah you had a Happy Hour before you arrived and you were actually at a Motel 6 ............ : )

Click to expand...

Mary, This is the best laugh I've had in a long time.

Click to expand...

Yes, a good laugh for me too! I only wish there had been a happy hour!

copperhead said:

The more I read about other experiences and reflect on my own, I am wondering how many places are perfect. I have come to the realization that there are flaws in almost all of our places. I am reminded of one guest that stays in B&B's exclusively who stated it is the uniqueness and little flaws that she loves.
Things that we see, notice even more because of our business. We want the industry to be perfect. I agree that things like nails in the wall are a bad reflection and the lack of electric outlets available shows lack of needs of guests and prices should be in tune with what you offer. But all in all it is the uniqueness that brings people to stay at B&B's.
B&B's are not for everyone and not for all occasions. I can't believe I am actually saying (writing) this. I have always thought the opposite..

Click to expand...

copperhead said:

The more I read about other experiences and reflect on my own, I am wondering how many places are perfect...B&B's are not for everyone and not for all occasions. I can't believe I am actually saying (writing) this. I have always thought the opposite.

Click to expand...

Indeed, nobody's perfect. But some are less perfect than they ought to be! The place I stayed would still be unique if they fixed some of their flaws, and people would enjoy it even more!