The Bard's Inn Hotel, BW Signature Collection — Hotel in Ashland

The Bard's Inn just ruined my weekend in Ashland, OR. I reserved a room in May 2022 for a reunion with old colleagues from Alaska over Labor Day weekend. Folks were flying in from all over the country for this first-time event. I drove down (7 hours) from Olympia, WA just in time for the opening event on Saturday evening. I had received an e-mail from the Bard's Inn confirming the reservation on Monday, just a few days before the stay. When I arrived, I was told there was no record of my reservation. When I retrieved the confirmation e-mail, I was told they could now see my reservation, but it had not gotten migrated over to their new computer system. So they had no room for me. The first employee wasn't particularly rude, but totally unhelpful and unapologetic. She said I didn't pay anything (which I wasn't sure was true or not), so I could just leave and find another room. I knew from my efforts to book THIS room over a holiday weekend that there would not be any other rooms available. She called their "sister property," found there were no other rooms, and said I was out of luck. I told her that they had confirmed my room a few days earlier, I was now late for the event I had driven 7 hours to attend, and they needed to help me find a room. She said I would have to talk to a manager and left the lobby.

15 minutes a later another young, male employee entered the lobby (did not say he was a manager, act like a manager, and did not seem to be old enough to be one), and he had an even more aggressive attitude, right from the start. He made it clear he would do nothing to help me find a room, and said "this has happened to a lot of other people." I told him that it didn't really matter to me that it happened to other people --- I had a reservation at Bard's Inn, I was now late for my event, and I wanted help. Admittedly, I was upset, but I was most upset about the completely unhelpful attitude I had gotten from the two employees. This was 100% the hotel's fault, not mine, and there was ZERO effort to take responsibility and help a customer who was in a very difficult bind, completely because of them. The employee said, "Let me tell you something ..." --- very aggressively --- which caused me to stand up out of my chair and say "Yes, please tell me something!," at which point he literally screamed, "GET OUT OF HERE RIGHT NOW! I'M CALLING THE POLICE!"

This was absolutely appalling. I have never been treated so hostilely by employees of ANY business, especially when this problem was 100% their fault. No one should EVER stay at this...

Disappointing Stay at Best Western Bard's Inn in Ashland

As frequent visitors to Ashland, my partner and I were hopeful that Bard's Inn would become our go-to spot. Unfortunately, this experience was nothing short of frustrating and disappointing.

We booked a pet-friendly room with a jet tub for some much-needed relaxation, but the stay quickly went downhill. When we filled the tub, black mold and debris came out of the jets, making it completely unusable. Attempts to contact staff were futile—the front desk was unstaffed, and the manager’s contact number posted on the door was incorrect. At 8 PM, my partner had to go buy cleaning supplies to try to salvage the tub, but while cleaning, the faucet fell off.

After a lot of searching, we finally found an employee who was filling in for someone else. He informed us that we had been placed in an “allergen-free” wing by mistake, even though we booked as pet owners. He offered a $14 discount and moved us to another room.

The second room wasn’t much better. There was a burnt-out kitchen light, stained towels, exposed carpet tacking that cut my foot, a flickering lamp, and a falling curtain rod that punctured my finger. These issues were just unacceptable.

We reported everything the next morning with photos and were told the manager was on holiday and would follow up. Despite repeated calls, the only response we received was the same $14 discount on a future booking, which does not come close to addressing the extensive problems we faced.

While I understand occasional maintenance issues, this many problems in one stay—coupled with the lack of responsiveness—suggests poor management and upkeep at this location. I cannot recommend Bard's Inn to anyone, and this experience has made me question the Best Western brand entirely. EDIT: The manager refused to speak directly to my fiancé, even though I gave permission and he was the one that booked the room and dealt with the staff and issues. (I am dealing with a bad chest cold and illness and he was trying to keep me from to talk on phone.) I also attempted to outreach via email several times. We were not offered anything above the $14 discount. I understand maintenance issues, but this was a lot of issues to happen to one person. And I am not leaving a review because I did not get comped as the manager has stated, but because of the lack of follow up, the rudeness of the manager in refusing to speak to my parter, and honestly in their follow up email after...

We stayed at the Bard’s Inn for one night, in the Sonnet Building, on April 1, 2025. The room had some issues, all of which we were willing to ignore. The afternoon of April 2, we returned from a day excursion. There was a female in the parking lot, (the parking lot is very small), with random bits of property spread out over a section of the lot. I stepped out of the passenger side of our car, and this woman violently threw a glass bottle at me and my husband, which thankfully, broke on the ground and did not hit us. The woman proceeded to yell and scream at us. I was terrified. Neither of us felt safe or secure. We were worried this woman was going to attack us, vandalize our car, or cause some kind of harm. My husband told me to call the police. I called the hotel staff, and then called 911. The Ashland Police Department responded to the hotel. Based on the set of rules they must follow, they were unable to escort the woman away because the hotel owner refused to have her evicted from the property. My husband and I decided we could not stay at this property because it was obviously an unsafe place, and we feared for our physical safety, due to the fact this woman acted violently toward us. I packed our belongings while my husband stayed outside to ensure she did not vandalize our car. She proceeded to become more belligerent, to the point that the police had to respond to the hotel a second time. To make matters worse, there was a group of high school students staying there, and they had to be evacuated by the hotel staff, due to her behavior. Also, a neighbor who lived next to the hotel called the police, because her children were playing outside and she feared for THEIR safety. The police eventually had to arrest this woman. When I checked out, I told the clerk I expected to NOT be charged. She put me on the phone with the hotel owner who told me I was definitely getting charged. I have sent a complaint to Best Western and am now in the process of having our charges from this property refunded, $348.41, and so far BW is failing in this regard. I was furious. We had to leave that night, drive to a different hotel and stay elsewhere because the hotel owner person did not care about the safety and security of his guests, nor did he care about the safety of the people in that neighborhood. Do not stay here. The hotel owner does not care about the safety and security...