I bought a voucher for the Ben Maddox house from "living social escapes" for a two-night stay. My boyfriend and I accidentally drove right past the house at first because it blended in with every other ghetto house on the block.
The outside of the house:
The grass looks like it has never been cut or watered. The front gate was difficult to use. The paint on the house was mainly chipped off. The plants on the back porch were growing out of control on to the staircase blocking the doorway to the porch. Spiders and spider webs were a really big issue on the outside and the inside of the house. We stayed in the cottage right next to the main house. The front door and the steps to reach the door were covered in spider webs. It was also covered in dirt. The plants next to the cottage looked like an out of control jungle.
Inside the cottage:
The first night was decent because my boyfriend and I had the cottage all for us. The next night made our experience even worse because people rented out the next room. The walls are extremely thin, and since the floors are wooden, and extremely squeaky, every step someone took sounded like they were stomping. We had a hard time sleeping. The inside of the house is filthy. Spider webs were EVERYWHERE! They were all over the ceilings, bathrooms, and walls. We stayed in the larger room of the cottage. The bathrooms are disgusting. The toilet seat was so worn out that the plastic of the seat was ripping away. The bathtub has never been cleaned. The faucets were moldy, so it made you feel dirty all over again once you turned the shower off. The water had no pressure at all, so that made taking a shower very difficult. The bed sheets had ink stains on them. The sheets were never changed during out stay. The rugs, chairs, and appliances (microwave, toaster, fridge) were so dirty and smelly. One of the chairs in the kitchen area is actually broken. It was too hot to sleep, the air conditioner is broken, and apparently has been for a while. The doors don’t stay shut unless you lock it.
Staff:
Lucy, the innkeeper, is fake and slightly rude, when you actually see her. The rest of the time, she wasn’t around. Two of the girls working there had their kids hanging around the b&b. Breakfast was nicely prepared by one of the girls working there, because Lucy is never around. The girl who prepared my breakfast wasn’t informed that I don’t eat eggs, even though I made several calls in advance to let Lucy know. I ended up eating a bagel. The glasses and cups smelled so bad that I couldn’t drink my coffee without gagging.
I told Lucy that I am terrified of dogs. She said that it wouldn’t be a problem, and that she would keep her four dogs away during my stay. Not true. To make it worse, one dog was in the kitchen while our food was being prepared (isn’t that a health code violation?) and they were all running loose in the front yard while we were checking out of the b&b.
A lady went into the cottage to clean while we ate our breakfast. I am not sure what she did, because our bed sheets weren’t even changed and nothing looked clean to me. Her coming in the room to “clean” is one thing, but while we went to the Sequoia national park, the workers came into our room again. I know this because I had shut the room door and left the light in the room on, but when we came back, the room door was open and the light was off. I felt violated because no one should be coming into the room while they knew we would be gone for a while.
No one came to check on us during our stay to see how we were doing or if we needed anything. The people running the house are very unfriendly.
How we felt:
I am really mad because this is my first and only b&b experience. I had to drag my boyfriend to stay at this place because I thought it would be a cute and romantic stay. I guess it was romantic hearing police sirens every night and cute while we were wondering if a spider will come crawling down on our bed.
This bed and breakfast is basically a pile of garbage. I can’t believe this place is still running. They are doing a good job at false advertising. This completely ruined our trip to the Sequoias and is actually 1.5 hours away from the forest. I am happy my trip was purchased through living social website because they were extremely helpful and professional when I called to complain.
Don’t go to the Ben Maddox House. The good reviews are clearly written by the people that work there. This place couldn't be worse and is totally run-down.