Huron House Bed and Breakfast — Hotel in Au Sable Township

I'd like to start by saying that we are NOT B&B fans in general. We had a bad experience at one, plus we are both somewhat introverted and not comfortable making small talk with strangers around a breakfast table or in a common room. But this place is different -- oh so different. You can have as much or as little interaction as you would like with other guests and the staff, which was perfect for us.

We spent two nights here as a romantic getaway celebrating our anniversary. We were met at the door by Pam, one of the innkeepers at Huron House. She started by making sure one of our special requests was fulfilled (which she kindly informed us via text before our arrival). She took our breakfast order for the next morning (three choices given, all very tempting, and special dietary needs were accommodated with a smile) and showed us to our room. The room was VERY spacious, impeccably clean, and perfectly lovely. There was a handwritten note on the bed, personalized to us and our anniversary celebration. There were snacks in a basket (two of everything!) both sweet and savory, a coffeemaker with pods, extra plates and silverware, a refrigerator, a 3-sided fireplace, a spa tub, fluffy white towels, a rainfall shower (and beautiful tile work in the shower), and a VERY comfortable bed with soft, lovely bedding. And the view of Lake Huron from our private balcony was amazing! They even provided binoculars in our room so we could watch large freighters in the distance. We went to explore outside, and we found two amazing fire pits with comfy circular seating for each, a soft sand beach, and plenty of seating provided for guests on the beach. There was also a beautiful lanai with a large grill and table/chairs available for guests to use. After enjoying the beach for a while, we grabbed a bite to eat in town, and when we returned there was a knock at the door. Dessert was left on the tray outside of our room! Not just any dessert, this was professional pastry-chef level, and beautifully presented. So delicious! We both enjoyed a great night's sleep listening to the gentle waves on the beach below. The next morning, we were getting ready when there was a knock on the door with a pleasant "Good morning! Breakfast!" being sung outside our door. Breakfast was left on our tray -- blueberry pancakes with real maple syrup, the juice of our choice, coffee, hot chocolate, fruit, and bacon/veggie sausage (I'm a vegetarian). So much delicious food, I couldn't finish it! We spent the next day on the beach enjoying the sand and water, went to dinner at a local restaurant, and enjoyed another amazing dessert brought to our room in the evening. We were contacted via text for our breakfast order for the next morning. The next day was our checkout day, but not before we enjoyed another sumptuous breakfast brought right to our door. They even remembered which juices we preferred without us reminding them.

I know this is a long review, but I just cannot say enough good things about the friendly service, the lovely location on the lake, and all of the personal touches that made our visit so very special. I am already looking forward to...

We spent the weekend in the Huron room for our anniversary. I chose Huron House for our getaway based mostly on outstanding reviews from other guests, and I will say that the inn’s location right on the beach as well as the grounds and outdoor facilities are great. The Huron room was also clean and comfortable, with a beautiful view of the lake. But, there were several things about our visit that left me feeling like I was not provided the service that I was expecting and that I paid for. The first surprise was the bathroom in the Huron room, which is in need of updating and features a small plastic shower stall that is difficult to use because there’s no where to escape the spray when using soap, and cracked, stained tiles on the floor. It was clean though, so not a huge deal. The first issue we had with service came on our first night, while we were trying to sleep with our windows open so we could listen to the waves. There was a couple from another room that were talking and laughing pretty loudly out on their porch while we were trying to sleep and shortly before midnight I used the innkeepers text number to ask that those guests be told to keep it down. I got no response to that message until the next morning, apologizing for sleeping through the text alert. Despite no assistance with the other guests disturbing us, thankfully they went inside a little after midnight and we were able to get some sleep. The following morning our breakfast of French toast and sausage was delivered, and though it smelled amazing we were extremely disappointed to discover both were burned black on one side. While we were out that day, housekeeping tidied up the room, and we didn’t discover until the next morning that they forgot to leave extra toilet paper. We had to use the box of kleenex in the bathroom. Breakfast that morning was also a huge disappointment, I love eggs benedict but what they served was an untoasted muffin topped with undercooked, snotty eggs and barely more than a drizzle of hollandaise, together with a small pile of over cooked, crusty hash browns that could have been used as a hockey puck. We left and got breakfast at McDonald’s. Huron House is a beautiful place but the service leaves a lot to be desired. I suspect it is corporately owned and the staff, though nice, is not providing the level of service that B&B guests usually receive from an owner/proprietor. Last year we stayed at a B&B on Lake Michigan, and the owners there catered to us day and night. Their service puts Huron House to shame, and it cost us less to stay there! The staff at Huron House stay on the property overnight under the pretense of 24/7 availability, but as we experienced that is not entirely consistent. For what we paid to stay here, we could have rented a private cottage with private beach frontage and that’s what we’ll do next time. And we will make our own breakfast, at least it...

My husband and I just got home from a weekend stay at the Huron House. We were given a $500 gift certificate and took advantage of it. First the good: we stayed in the Newaygo room. It was gorgeous. The view of Lake Huron was absolutely incredible. I didn’t realize this place was smack dab in the middle of other establishments on Lake Huron, but you couldn’t tell…at least in late October. The bed was so comfortable. My husband and I both have bad backs, and we slept incredibly well in the bed. The sheets are so soft. The fireplace was a nice touch, and the jacuzzi tub worked well and was clean. The young lady was very inviting when we checked in. Our breakfast arrived on time both mornings. And their beach/patio area is very nice. All of these things made our stay quite nice. Now the bad: Our breakfast was cold both mornings. What could have been very pleasant meals ended up being rather gross due to the food being cold. There were a bunch of fruit flies in our room. I couldn’t understand where they were coming from, because we didn’t have open food in the room. They were in the bathroom and were flying in front of my face when I was trying to eat the cold breakfast. They were flying around when we were laying in bed as well. My husband tried to watch the Netflix they provided on the last night we were there. Unfortunately, it seems like they only pay for four accounts to watch at one time, and people were already using those, so he couldn’t watch TV. That isn’t the biggest dealbreaker, since it’s not really the type of place you go to watch Nextflix. It’s just something to consider. The ceiling fan is too loud to be used, it probably needs to be tightened. Lastly, when we were checking out, there was a customer in front of us complaining about her sticker shock at the price. She was charged $500/night for her room, $1,000 for the two nights. She had asked if all of the rooms were $500, and the woman behind the counter said yes. Our bill was only, $636.00. I guess she was trying to just end the conversation with the customer, but it left a bad taste in my mouth knowing the young lady was lying. The customer asked me about it outside and I let her know the staff had lied to her and told her the amount of our bill. All in all, if we had to pay for the full price of the room, I would have left feeling more disappointed than I was. Hopefully the cold breakfast this weekend was a fluke and the bug problem goes away with...