The Chrysalis Inn & Spa Bellingham, Curio Collection by Hilton — Attraction in Bellingham

I booked a two night stay and massage as a splurge to get some much needed alone time (#momlife). On my first night, I received a voicemail that my massage the next day was cancelled, as the therapist was sick. Disappointing, but understandable. I had a nice meal and friendly, quick service in the bar, and a lovely walk along the boardwalk/trail to downtown and back. The next morning, I awoke to a large puddle on the bathroom floor in front of the shower and a steady drip from the ceiling. I wiped up as much as I could with the bath mat, placed the garbage can under it, and called the front desk to alert them. A man whom I assume was the manager, said without missing a beat, "Oh, that's the HVAC -- sorry! I'll send up the engineer to look at it." Since he quickly knew the cause, and upon closer inspection of the tile under the leak revealed that slate was delaminated / water damaged, I assume this is an ongoing issue. The engineer arrived soon after, inspected the HVAC, told me it was likely from the room above mine, and said I'd probably be switched to another room. He put the one remaining clean washcloth into the waste bin to sop up the water dripping there. I went down to breakfast on the deck (lovely service and yummy food again), and came back to my room assuming there would be a voicemail about what the plan was. No voicemail, and I still wasn't equipped to take a shower, so I went out to walk around Lake Padden. Upon my return, I inquired at the front desk about the status of my room and was told that they were moving me to the suite next door and would let me know when it was ready. I realize and appreciate that this upgrade was likely an attempt to make up for the hassle of the morning, but really wanted to take a shower and retreat to my room at this point -- not go pack up all my stuff. When I got to my room, the housekeeper was outside and my door was open as though she was cleaning or about to clean it (though I had asked for no housekeeping, and the mess from the leak was still present in the bathroom). She looked confused and asked if I was checking out, and I let her know that I would be waiting there until my new room was ready. A bit later, the young woman from the front desk knocked on my door and gave me the keys to the suite. Upon entering, I immediately noticed a musty smell, and in hindsight should have said something to management right away. However, I just wanted to get settled and enjoy the rest of my stay, so I drew a bath in the amazing bathtub and watched TV while I soaked. I kept noticing the musty smell when I was in the "kitchen" area (it's just a coffee maker, sink, and mini bar), but could not find the source. Eventually, I got a pretty bad headache, ordered a yummy dinner from room service, and went to bed. I woke up still with a headache, opened the door to the shower and was hit with the musty smell again. As I took my shower, I noticed that some of the the slate tiles seemed to have a mold-like pattern on them, and one looked like it had mold/mildew where the grout should be. I took the washcloth and wiped at some of it -- it wiped away fairly easily and left dirty stains on the washcloth. Yuck. After my disconcerting shower, I packed up my things, went down to breakfast on the deck (not quite as good as the day before, but not terrible), and went to check out. I let the friendly young man at the front desk know about the mold, and he wrote a note on a post-it for housekeeping and said he would pass it on. Overall, not the respite I was hoping for on this trip. The Chrysalis has an amazing location, friendly staff, and good restaurant, but seems to need more upkeep. Dark slate tiles can hide a lot of dirt/issues in the bathrooms if not examined regularly and closely, and I would hope that more attention would be given to ensure that they stay clean would be a priority. I would also hope that an ongoing leak in a room would be 100% remedied before renting out...

This is the second time my boyfriend and I came to stay at the Chrysalis.

When we stayed here in 2020 our stay was fantastic. We booked the corner suite, we booked spa experiences (massages and facials) that were the highlight of our stay for sure. The spa staff on both occasions were incredibly friendly, personable, and professional. We ordered room service from the onsite hotel during our stay in 2020 and the food was so good! We loved their bread pudding breakfast so much and we're excited to try their food again on our next stay.

Unfortunately this time our stay our stay was not anywhere near as enjoyable as our first stay. My boyfriend booked our room months in advance for us to celebrate our 9 year anniversary. He booked their king suite with a full bay view. He booked this room a few months in advance because he wanted to make 100% sure our room reservations matched up with the spa reservations. Due to this he ended up paying DOUBLE the rate of that room.

When we got to our room I immediately noticed the window had a huge smear of something on the outside, which was not appealing but as it was the outside of the window I figured it probably wasn't worth making a complaint about. (At this point I wasn't aware that my boyfriend paid 350-370$ for 2 nights in this room. So we settled in and ordered room service from the on site hotel. We hadn't eaten all day because we were looking forward to eating at this restaurant. As we were watching TV and waiting for our dinner I kept seeing the huge dirty spot on the window, in daylight and it was visible. I ultimately decided to go talk to the front desk to see if theres anything that could be done about it. I spoke to the night manager Tim who was super nice, he let me know that he would talk to the maintenance staff in the morning and see if they had time to clean up the window while my boyfriend and I were in our spa appointment at 9am. If the maintenance person wasn't available to clean it he offered to move us to a corner suite. I was more than happy with this, even cleaning the window would have been good enough for me.

I went back to the roomand our food finally came, I ordered the lamb chops (40$) and my boyfriend ordered a lamb meatball pasta (46) and we got bread pudding for dessert. I took a few bites of my food and the lamb was extremely tough and was barely warm, the vegetables on my plate were partially burnt but also seemingly not cooked all the way. My boyfriend was enjoying his pasta and as hes almost finished he finds a hair in his food(he said it looked like a pube). At that point I had no intention of eating any more of the meal.

I went back down to the front desk to let them know about the hair in the food and there was a different staff member at the desk. I told the woman about the food and showed her a picture and she handed me 2 vouchers for 30$ each for breakfast. She told me she would try to get the food item that had the hair in it comped off our bill. At the time she didn't explain the breakfast vouchers couldn't be used on one order, since we we're staying for two nights the vouchers were for two different days. That night I had horrible stomach pains from the food I ate from the restaurant. The following morning while we had our spa treatments (which were great!) they did come to clean the window but it was still visibly dirty when we got back...

We stayed here over the weekend and for the most part, it was great! And I would come back, in fact we’ve already scheduled to come back in a few months.

Pros: We stayed in the large suite on the 3rd floor. I’m glad we did because I read other reviews that people could hear everything upstairs (which makes sense because the walls are paper thin!) Our room has a bedroom & a little living room area and with that door closed & the bathroom door closed I could still hear my mom snoring LOL we could even hear the people closing the blinds in the room next to us because the walls were SO thin The view is gorgeous! It’s absolutely stunning. And almost every room has a view. The lodge is adorable and all the employees are super nice! The restaurant is amazing! Great food & service. We ate 3 meals there over the course of just 4 days! Awesome location! Walking distance to fair haven and it’s on the board walk, so you can walk to woods coffee!

Cons: The train is LOUD. And when I mean loud I mean loud. Woke me up 2-3x a night every night, and I’m from Seattle so I’m not new to noise. Obviously you should know before you book & we were fine with it but it was significantly louder than I imagined it being. The spa is terrible. I got a manicure and quite honestly, not too be rude, a child could have done better. The paint was all over my cuticles and my skin, (which they don’t even cu your cuticles or soak your hands in water), and it was so freakin expensive. Luckily, the management was nice & refunded me. $82 I would have paid for a gel manicure that I could’ve paid $25 at any other traditional salon and it would’ve looked so much better. That was super disappointing as I came with my mom for a mother daughter weekend and specifically chose this place for us to have a spa weekend together. I will say though the lady who did my nails was awesome, super kind and amazing customer service but even with her 4+ years of working there I felt like I got a manicure from someone who had never done nails before. (See my spa review for pics) The bed was pretty terrible… it was extremely uncomfortable- I woke up with neck & back pain every morning. The pillows are flat. You put your head down on top of the pillow and your head is literally on the mattress there is absolutely no fluff. My mom chose to sleep on the couch & found it more comfortable. Paper thin walls, you can hear everything. And I mean everything…

Overall, I would come back because the pros outweighs the cons for us. But I do not...