Having been to the White Inn many times, we were not hesitant to rely on this old chestnut yet again this weekend. My fourth neice is attending SUNY Fredonia and, over the years, my brother- and sister-in-law have made this hotel our home base, hosting dinners, meeting for cocktails, and booking multiple rooms for school events. We have all enjoyed the property and shown respect for the facilities because of our intent to return. However, a billing dispute this weekend was met with such a degree of obstinance and rudeness by the current management that I am certain we will not return. Management stopped just short of calling us liars. They showed no interest in mediating the dispute or even listening, frankly. Confused, I starting reading the reviews here to try to learn something, and I see that the new management has decided to run their new business into the ground by showcasing a complete lack of understanding of hospitality and customer service. I have to add that we all agreed that the slightly rundown facilities were fine because the place is being renovated, but in light of the poor treatment, the facilities' shortcoming have become less tolerable. To illustrate the problem with the management, I need only direct you to their responses to other negative reviews. They put their lack of interest in arriving at equitable solutions to disputes in writing, in sarcastic, unproductive, and disinterested responses. Their tone there says it all.,

stayed here for our 40th wedding anniversary.also was a car show and band up the street at the American Legion#59.we had a good meal on the porch.service was fine as was the room#251.good time,we'll be back.

Recently my family stopped at this wonderful old Inn while driving through the quaint Village of Fredonia. Upon walking into the lobby I was impressed with the decor. The lounge and dining rooms looked wonderful! We had a wonderful waitress that was more than happy to explain the history of the Inn from the day it was built to the present! Our food was absolutely amazing!!! The lamplighter chicken which is on their lounge menu is wonderful, the seafood linguini off of the dinner menu was also above expectations. I would recommend this Inn for its food and beverage to anyone who asked. We did not have the opportunity to stay at the Inn, but after hearing about the possible haunting it is likely we will do so after they have completed the room renovations. Again, the food is wonderful!!!!!

Let me preface this review by saying that I travel, a lot. So while I may not be an expert travel writer I believe I know what I'm talking about. My sister, who never goes on holidays and was looking extremely forward to this trip, and I decided to go to Fredonia for a few days to stay at the White Inn. I checked the Tripadvisor reviews and was a little concerned about some of the comments. Despite the cautions, I made my reservations for three nights simply because I had previously stayed at the inn on a number of occasions and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. How could new owners change a place in such a short time? I was wrong.

The Inn is going through renovations, the dining room and lobby are beautiful. The halls and rooms are not. A musty, "old" smell permeates these areas and at one point we purchased fabric softener sheets to hang in the closet and put in drawers to reduce the odor. While I could go on about other inconveniences... beds not made, dishes not removed, drinking glasses not replaced, carpets not vacuumed, people checking it in the wee hours (3 a.m. and dragging stuff and stomping around above us, etc.), this was the deal-breaker.

Any savvy traveller knows that in the absence of a refrigerator, a waste can, lined with plastic and filled with ice makes a great substitution. And that's what we did. Created a "fridge", filled it with beer, ice, another plastic bag filled with cheeses and yogurt and then I inverted a plastic bag over top and placed it in the room far away from everything else so that it would not be mistaken for trash. In fact, the can probably weighed 10 to 15 pounds at that point! When we returned to our room later that day the can had been emptied! I was shocked. There was simply no way that someone could have picked that up and dumped it without realizing what it was and what was being disposed of. Perhaps an accident..... it happens. The young girl at the desk looked everywhere for our things. She asked what she could do to help and while I was disappointed at losing the food, I said perhaps a few complimentary drinks from the bar could replace our loss. She called back to the room and said the innkeeper said that because they are separate from the bar she could not provide me with drinks. She offered nothing else..... well, o.k. but that's pretty bad customer service. But it gets worse.

The next day we decided to go on the Chatauqua Belle, a great paddle wheel ride on Chatauqua Lake I might add, and have a picnic. We were in the midst of filling our picnic hamper when we noticed that the large unopened bottle of cranberry juice that had been sitting on the dresser was nowhere to be found. We looked under the beds, in the closet, just in case, but it was gone. Now the trash can might have been an "accident" but this was an item removed from our room without our permission.... stolen!

I spoke with the person at the front desk who was horrified, especially after the previous day's incident. She assured me that the innkeeper would be in after 11 a.m. and would most likely still be at the inn when we returned later in the afternoon. I must say at this point that our holiday was beyond repair. We went on the two hour boat ride in stunned silence.

When we returned, a new person at the desk, no the innkeeper had not come in and she usually left by 3 because she had small children.... hmmmm. O.K. I said, get someone to call me... because I am absolutely beside myself. I did get my phone call, from the owner who is also the innkeeper's husband. He knew of the problem but wanted to hear "my side of the story." After making a point of telling me that he had been called away from a well-earned holiday with his family somewhere in another state...... how come nobody told the people at the front desk and, when the two most senior people at an establishment go away on a vacation why is there not some other management person left to hold the fort? Why micro-manage from another state?

Here are just a few of the comments he made,
"I've never heard of anyone making a waste can into a fridge.... why didn't you ask housing keeping to get you a real fridge?" Really, I didn't know that was an option, where would I find that tidbit of information? "I'm sure you're a nice lady... " Don't patronize me, I am a guest in your establishment and something has been stolen from my room! "Perhaps you misplaced the juice, my wife does stuff like that all the time, why just last week......." Wait a minute, something was stolen from my room, of course I looked everywhere before making my claim and, his wife's memory should not even enter into this! "Well, it was only a bottle of juice.... good thing it wasn't something more expensive!" I see, if it was perhaps my computer that would be theft but because of the diminished value it would be........ what? He went on to tell me how the housekeeping staff had been with them forever and they'd never had a single problem before. First, they have only owned the hotel for a matter of months so I'm not sure what the definition of forever is, and second, the young lady I saw that was part of the housekeeping staff was exactly that, young. And, the tripadvisor comments reveal that there have been other complaints made about the inn. The owner went on to question my motives and integrity... as well as repeat again and again that he had been called away from his holiday to deal with this inconvenience. His final comment, "what do you want me to do, replace your juice, would that make you happy?" Nothing was ever resolved.

I am reminded of a cartoon where a sign is placed on the wall behind a Customer Service desk, it says, "Number One: The Customer is Always Right!" When a new employee asks, "but what if the customer is wrong?" The mentor says, "See number one!"

In the hospitality industry customer service is key. You can have state of the art beds with 600 count sheets, spa inspired toiletries, large, flat-screen t.v.s but if you can't provide a good, solid measure of customer service, to make each guest feel like they are the only ones in your establishment, then all the fancy decorating and embellishments are for nothing.

I will end with this, often you will find signs or words on comment sheets that say, "if you have no complaints, tell your friends, if you do, tell us." Well, Mr. Gambino I told you and you were arrogant, dismissive and called my integrity into question. So now I'm telling everyone else. Our holiday was ruined. I will never, ever return to the White Inn.

Oh yes, they did deliver a small fridge to our room with an apology for our lost "drinks," but by then, it was too little too late. My sister stopped talking to me half-way home!