We can’t actually find a word bad enough to describe our stay. we read enthusiastic comments from the past so we were glad to stay here, until we actually got there: we don’t know what happened but the situation has to be completely changed.
We were coming to LA from Sequoia National Park. The day we were supposed to leave the park, we received two lines from Sylvester, the innkeeper, saying that he had made ‘a mistake’, so no room would be available for us (we had booked one of the cottages in the garden for two nights). Really upset, we wrote him back to ask for some kind of solution, and he offered us his own bedroom, with 20 $ discount. That sounded us really unusual…We got to LA in the evening: the place is almost hidden from the street and therefore hard to find from the street, no parking is allowed in front of the house and the private parking is ridiculous. At the main door, the ring bell was out of work, all the contacts (mobile phones) stuck on it were mute…we waited for 15 min. until finally Sylvester came and opened the door! No apologies of course from him. The house is prehistoric, and it hasn’t seen a vacuum cleaner since years. On the shelves in the corridors were empty bottles of milk, sticky shower gel, repellents for bugs ….Sly then took us immediately to his room on the second floor and it had not at all been tided up for us: the room was tiny, filthy, stinking, completely messy with dirty linen and towels thrown on the floor and dust everywhere; the shelves were overwhelmed of bags, boxes, shoes. No words to describe our faces….we asked for a different accommodation in the house, or at least for some help in finding a different place to stay in the surroundings, and the answer was ‘that’s the only option you have, girls!’. We were forced to accept because the innkeeper had our credit card details and we were afraid to be charged for the room. There were three of us, and the room had no sufficient place for three beds and our luggage. Sylvester added an extra bed which consisted of bedding thrown on the floor in between the dust and the dead bugs. There were dead bugs everywhere on the floor. The bathroom was dirty. The shower was out of work, and there were mould and snails in the bath tub. We came down to ask for some explanation, but the innkeeper was impossible to find: he disappeared. When he came out eventually, he acted extremely rude, and appeared reluctant to answer our questions. We asked for some help in setting up our visit to the city and the only answer we were given was ‘use the computer over there’. Due to our complaints, Sylvester took us to the bedroom of Mr. Austin, who spends all the day lying in his bed. He appeared to suffer from some serious illness, which we are of course really sorry for: nevertheless, this cannot be an excuse for the treatment we received. Mr. Austin’s room was stuffed with medicines, syringes, catheters, and a full urinal on the table. Last but not least, Sylvester told us that ‘the main door’s always open 24 hours a day, we’re all friends in the neighborhood’. So no key and no problem for coming back late in the night…. The first night we came back at 11 pm and the main door was locked. We found the rear door opened and we managed to go to our room passing through the kitchen…..our room was still filthy, we actually wanted to walk out right now, we would have preferred to sleep in our car than touch that beds. Second day: the breakfast…Sly simply didn’t care about us, we asked for some tea, butter and breakfast stuff, and the reply was always ‘please, make yourself home’ which meant exactly ‘don’t bother me’. When we came home at night, at about 11 pm, the main door was locked again, and so was the rear door: we had been left out of the house. We tried to call the mobile phones on the door….all mute…and, obviously, the ring bell was always out of work. We tried to knock at the door, we yelled, all useless. We waited for half an hour in the courtyard, we were about to call 911, then one of my friends tried to climb up the wall of the backyard and succeeded in entering the house and unlock the door, without breaking her legs, thanks God. The day after, we left at 7.00 in the morning, refusing to have our breakfast. And again, the last surprise was that to pay for the stay with credit card you have to go to Sylvester’s office which goes through the bedroom of the poor Mr. Austin. The only good thing is that we refused to pay for the entire stay, considering the shameful accommodation we experienced….and Mr. Austin accorded us a discount: we paid only for 1 night, and no taxes. Our entire stay has been horrific. We are very disappointed about this, because it very recommeded even by friends and the result has been terrible.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
