We spent 3 nights stay at Villa Valdermosa. The B&B is in a lovely setting about 8 miles east of Paso Robles. The view from the back patio is truly stunning. There are five rooms which range in size and appointments. Our room was nicely sized with a refrigerator, TV monitor for watching DVDs, but only one chair. My brother’s room was fairly small and Spartan with mostly a bed and end tables. The room pricing reflects these differences. The inn has tremendous potential, but alas in what is billed as a high end B&B it is the details that are important.
When we arrived, the proprietor was on his way out for the evening, and for most of day and in the evening there are no other employees. He left a bottle of wine, directed us to our rooms and told us that breakfast would be at 9:30 and coffee available at 8:30. Unfortunately, we discovered after he left that there was no toilet paper in our room. There was also none in the public bathroom in the main house and only the roll in use in my brother’s room. The innkeeper mentioned before leaving that he was sorry if there was anything amiss because had a new housekeeper that “doesn’t quite get it”. He then left his untrained dog tied up in the kitchen. When we returned from dinner, the proprietor was still out and the dog barked constantly until after midnight when he returned.
The next day when we returned back to the inn we found our rooms had never been made up. I’m not sure I believe there is a new housekeeper that “doesn’t get it”. There may not be a housekeeper at all. Even if there is, there are only five rooms and it would take the proprietor only a few minutes to run through each one after the “housekeeper” is finished to verify her work has been done satisfactorily; or at all. Additionally, our room had two bath mats and no hand towels, we had to request toilet tissue a second time during our stay, and the lever controlling the water pressure in my brother’s shower is not actually attached and comes off in your hand.
The breakfast was consistently good, however 9:30 is a little on the late side. Other guests commented on this as well. On our last morning, the innkeeper gave the person who assists with breakfast (the only other employee we saw) the day off. He did not get his act together to compensate, so breakfast was not until 10 and did not warn us until 9:30. This threw a minor crimp in our schedule for the day.
The proprietor told us on our arrival that he had spent the previous two days on his sailboat. He later said he intended to spend the next two after we left on the boat. Perhaps if he spent less time on his sailboat and more time attending to Villa Valermosa it could live up to its great potential. I have noted that others have left very positive reviews and feel one could have a great experience here on days when the proprietor is on point. Sadly, our experience did not reach this level.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
10 February 2012
It is unfortunate that this visitor had so many problems here. Much of their report is exaggerated and untruthful. The writer was constantly arguing with her husband, which made other guests ncmfortable.
Their stay was on a groupon coupon and they stayed the 3rd night as their choice AFTER spending two evenings here. We did have a new person on board, as a temp due to my regular person being out with the flu. This party was clearly not used to,and did not understand the B&B model, which became obvious when the lady in the party wanted to know about room service and other features that are hotel oriented. When her husband tried to tell her this was not a hotel she told him "so what"-When she said there was no toilet paper in her room we took care of it right away. That particular period was also a week in which I had off site obligations which forced me to be away during part of the day and evening. This review is similar to the other one with similar complaints. You just can't please all the people all the time, even when they are getting a 50% discount. Sad.
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