The Palm — Hotel in Ashland

I had a horrible experience at The Palm last Sunday (6/16).

I am a 62 yr old Grandpa who travels from the SF Bay Area to Ashland very often to visit my daughter & 2 grandkids. I stayed at The Palm before and had my grandkids come over and swim with me, briefly while I stayed there.

This time when I checked in and said I was looking forward to swimming with my grandkids, I was told we could not swim in the pool. Since I had a small room with a 2 person occupancy and I would not be allowed to swim with more than one other person. Brittney in the office said that was their policy and she would need to call the manager (Linda) and one of them would call me back. To see if there could be an exception made for that day. Where there was only one other guest staying at the hotel that day and no one using the pool at the time.

I do understand policies and have no problem with general rules and policies. Thinking that there would be no problem with making a slight exception in my case. On this slightly rainy day with hardly anyone else staying there. I got a text back from Linda the manager. No phone call as I was promised. The text again stated there policy and there would be no exception made for me in my case. I was told to use a community pool or YMCA pool somewhere else. I was not welcome to use their pool with my grandkids.

This was the main reason I booked the room there. Since they do have a nice pool and very nice grounds, etc. So since I would not be allowed to use their pool, I had no choice but to leave without any refund. I was shocked and appalled to have such rude treatment and being so strict on their policy. Which would have been appropriate if I was trying to bring over a bunch of guest on a busy day, etc.

So I left, having paid in full for a night there and went to the Best Western there in Ashland instead. Where I called and asked if it would be ok to bring my grandkids swimming and they said that would no problem.

The Palm lost a loyal customer by not even trying to accommodate me at all. I will get this message out to everyone possible. To avoid this place if they would like to have even one other person come over to swim. Even on a very slow day with no one else around.

I gave 2 stars since the facility is nice and they did allow me an early check in. Can you imagine to be told to go to the YMCA to go swimming after checking into a hotel?...

We booked at The Palm because they were the only hotel in the area with a L2 (220v, 6 amp) J1772 Electric Vehicle charger. Speaking with the staff we were thrilled when they said they would put a cone in front of the L2 charger so I could charge my Bolt as we traveled through. At first they confused the Bolt EV for the Volt, which is a plug in hybrid. I made it clear we had the Bolt EV and needed the L2 to get on our way the next day. When we arrived they indeed had a cone blocking the spot right in front of our reserved room. Sadly, it was saving a L1 plug (common 110V house plug). In speaking with the manager present she said she thought we had a Volt and had moved the cone from the L2 to the L1. Fortunately, a spot close enough to the L2 was still available and no one was using it so we were able to get a 100% charge for our departure the next day. The room was clean all though a bit on the smallish size. The grounds were well done and relaxing. There was no microwave in the room, but I took a sticky bun I had purchased from our previous stop to the front desk and she heated it up and put it on a glass plate and gave me a real knife and fork with which to eat it. She told me to just leave it in the room and the maid would take care of it. The next morning as we loaded up the car my wife asked me to get some ice for our cooler. Spotting no ice machine I again went to the front desk and the morning manager was there holding a bag of ice as I came in. He said he saw me with an empty plastic bag and thought it would be as easy as ice, and he was right. Overall, I give it 5 stars even with a couple of issues. The mess up of the charger reservation was only because they were willing to mark it as reserved for me. Any other place would have said, first come, first served, so I can't fault them for that. The staff we encountered were friendly and helpful -- even anticipating our needs. The only real nit I have is my wife noted it was the only hotel room she'd ever been in without a tissue box. We'll be be back. It is our new stopover place -- mainly for that L2...

If there was a chance to post less than one star, I would. My daughters purchased a Gift Card from the Columbia Hotel and its sister facility the Palm Cottages in Ashland. They also purchased a Gift Card for the Brickroom restaurant. After having to wait months until the COVID epidemic had waned somewhat, we decided to use our Gift cards for a three-day holiday in Ashland. We made arrangements for our animals, took off work and made reservations at the Palm Cottages for two nights. This was the first glimpse of the inconsideration of the owners of the Palm Cottages. They would not honor the Gift Card we had for their business, with the excuse that they were the new owners. That type of current liability would have been included in the negotiations of the purchase of the establishment and should have been honored. It was not.

I went ahead and paid for the rooms with a credit card, and thought nothing more of it, until the day before our trip. My wife started experiencing COVID-19 like symptoms a couple of days before, so we decided, out of an abundance of caution, not to spread a deadly virus to the other guests at the hotel, the restaurants, the shops downtown and the local wineries we planned on visiting, we canceled our trip and attempted to cancel our reservations. The General Manager refused to give us a credit, after refusing to honor our gift card, or issue us another gift card to use at our convenience. She did, however, offer to move our reservation to a future date if we came up with a specific date that day. We did not have a date in mind, so we chose not to pick a date out of the hat, so we are out $287 on our credit card, my daughters’ $125 gift card, and the sour taste of Ashland hospitality in my mouth that will take a long...