The Rigdon House — Hotel in Cambria

I booked a suite for my husband and myself based on the glowing reviews and beautiful website photos as a treat for us after enduring a hard season of my husband's cancer and chemo treatments. The location and the well-furnished/beautifully decorated common areas are definitely the strengths of this inn. They also had some nice touches in the room like fridges, microwaves, cute cups and saucers, as well as a common kitchen area with some snacks and jugs you could fill with filtered water for your room. Unfortunately, that charm and comfort disappeared when we walked into our suite (two queen suite, Room 16). It was gloomy and drab, making the large space feel cavernous and cold. Turning on the lamps in the living area didn't help as they were bright/harsh bulbs surrounded by clear glass, so we were either blinded interrogation-style or sitting in gloom. Besides some wood chairs at the little table, our only option for sitting was an old pull-out couch whose cushions were so flattened, you're really just sitting on the hard pull-out, which made loud farting noises every time we sat or moved. Our room was also the only one on the first floor with no curtains for some reason, and the blinds were not very effective at keeping out the courtyard lights. Beds were okay, though you could hear/feel the springs a bit. There were dark scuffmarks all over the walls, the one sad throw pillow on the couch had a stain on it, and our sink was clogged our first evening/morning. All the effort at this inn seems to have been put into the common areas and very little into the actual rooms. Ours looked nothing like the website photos (my attached photos show what's on the website and the actual room appearance). The strangest part was the total lack of available staff. There was a nice young woman we saw briefly who checked us in, but she was gone by the time we came back from dinner our first night even though it was an hour before they supposedly 'closed' the front desk. I thought we could tell someone about our sink when they 'opened' at 10:00 the next morning, but there was still no one to be found. I called the inn's phone number (which rang unanswered in front of me) and left a message. When we returned in the afternoon, the sink was better, so someone clearly got the message, but there was no return communication. There was also no employee other than the room cleaner on the premises all day or evening. Dirty dishes and trash were piled up in the common kitchen area, no one showed up to provide happy hour as promised, no coffee was available the next morning (trash and dishes still piled high), and worst of all, there was zero communication from anyone. All us guests were left completely on our own with just a sign listing a number to call "in emergencies," which baffled all of us who gathered for the nonexistent happy hour. There was a young man around our final morning, but all he said to us when we told him we were checking out was, "just leave your keys in the tray." No question about how our stay was, no explanation for the total lack of amenities promised or complete absence of staff the previous day, no "thank you for staying with us." If anything, he seemed annoyed that we had searched him out to tell him we were checking out, although I don't know that I blame him given the mess he had to clean up. Bottom line: if you are willing to pay over $300 a night to be completely ghosted by staff and stay in a large, depressing room seemingly furnished with random thrift store purchases, I wish you the best. Spend as much time as you can in the lovely back courtyard or living room/library (which has all the comfy armchairs/seating our suite was missing) since those will be far nicer...

I booked a suite for my husband and myself based on the glowing reviews and beautiful website photos as a treat for us after enduring a hard season of my husband's cancer and chemo treatments. The location and the well-furnished/beautifully decorated common areas are definitely the strengths of this inn. They also had some nice touches in the room like fridges, microwaves, cute cups and saucers, as well as a common kitchen area with some sacks and jugs you could fill with filtered water for your room. Unfortunately, that charm and comfort disappeared when we walked into our suite (two queen suite, Room 16). It was gloomy and drab, making the large space feel cavernous and cold. Turning on the lamps in the living area didn't help as they were bright/harsh bulbs surrounded by clear glass, so we were either blinded interrogation-style or sitting in gloom. Besides some wood chairs at the little table, our only option for sitting was an old pull-out couch whose cushions were so flattened, you were really just sitting on the hard pull-out, which made loud farting noises every time we sat or moved. Our room was also the only one on the first floor with no curtains for some reason, and the blinds were not very effective at keeping out the courtyard lights. There were dark scuffmarks all over the walls, the one sad throw pillow on the couch had a stain on it, and our sink was clogged our first evening/morning. All the effort at this inn seems to have been put into the common areas and very little into the actual rooms. Ours looked nothing like the website photos. The strangest part was the total lack of available staff. There was a nice young woman we saw briefly who checked us in, but she was gone by the time we came back from dinner our first night even though it was an hour before they 'closed' the front desk. I thought we could tell someone about our sink when they 'opened' at 10:00 the next morning, but there was still no one to be found. I called the inn's phone number (which rang unanswered in front of me) and left a message. When we returned in the afternoon, the sink was better, so someone clearly got the message, but there was no return communication. There was also no employee other than the room cleaner on the premises all day or evening. Dirty dishes and trash were piled up in the common kitchen area, no one showed up to provide happy hour as promised, no coffee was available the next morning (trash and dishes still piled high), and worst of all, there was zero communication from anyone. All us guests were left completely on our own with just a sign listing a number to call "in emergencies," which baffled all of us who gathered for the nonexistent happy hour. There was a young man around our final morning, but all he said to us when we told him we were checking out was, "just leave your keys in the tray." No question about how our stay was, no explanation for the total lack of amenities promised or complete absence of staff the previous day, no "thank you for staying with us." If anything, he seemed annoyed that we had searched him out to tell him we were checking out, although I don't know that I blame him given the mess he had to clean up. Bottom line: if you are willing to pay over $300 a night to be completely ghosted by staff and stay in a large, depressing room seemingly furnished with random thrift store purchases, I wish you the best. Spend as much time as you can in the lovely back courtyard or living room/library (which has all the comfy armchairs/seating our suite was missing) since those will be far nicer...

I booked a suite for my husband and myself based on the glowing reviews and beautiful website photos as a treat for us after enduring a hard season of my husband's cancer and chemo treatments. The location and the well-furnished/beautifully decorated common areas are definitely the strengths of this inn. They also had some nice touches in the room like fridges, microwaves, cute cups and saucers, as well as a common kitchen area with some sacks and jugs you could fill with filtered water for your room. Unfortunately, that charm and comfort disappeared when we walked into our suite (two queen suite, Room 16). It was gloomy and drab, making the large space feel cavernous and cold. Turning on the lamps in the living area didn't help as they were bright/harsh bulbs surrounded by clear glass, so we were either blinded interrogation-style or sitting in gloom. Besides some wood chairs at the little table, our only option for sitting was an old pull-out couch whose cushions were so flattened, you were really just sitting on the hard pull-out, which made loud farting noises every time we sat or moved. Our room was also the only one on the first floor with no curtains for some reason, and the blinds were not very effective at keeping out the courtyard lights. There were dark scuffmarks all over the walls, the one sad throw pillow on the couch had a stain on it, and our sink was clogged our first evening/morning. All the effort at this inn seems to have been put into the common areas and very little into the actual rooms. Ours looked nothing like the website photos. The strangest part was the total lack of available staff. There was a nice young woman we saw briefly who checked us in, but she was gone by the time we came back from dinner our first night even though it was an hour before they 'closed' the front desk. I thought we could tell someone about our sink when they 'opened' at 10:00 the next morning, but there was still no one to be found. I called the inn's phone number (which rang unanswered in front of me) and left a message. When we returned in the afternoon, the sink was better, so someone clearly got the message, but there was no return communication. There was also no employee other than the room cleaner on the premises all day or evening. Dirty dishes and trash were piled up in the common kitchen area, no one showed up to provide happy hour as promised, no coffee was available the next morning (trash and dishes still piled high), and worst of all, there was zero communication from anyone. All us guests were left completely on our own with just a sign listing a number to call "in emergencies," which baffled all of us who gathered for the nonexistent happy hour. There was a young man around our final morning, but all he said to us when we told him we were checking out was, "just leave your keys in the tray." No question about how our stay was, no explanation for the total lack of amenities promised or complete absence of staff the previous day, no "thank you for staying with us." If anything, he seemed annoyed that we had searched him out to tell him we were checking out, although I don't know that I blame him given the mess he had to clean up. Bottom line: if you are willing to pay over $300 a night to be completely ghosted by staff and stay in a large, depressing room seemingly furnished with random thrift store purchases, I wish you the best. Spend as much time as you can in the lovely back courtyard or living room/library (which has all the comfy armchairs/seating our suite was missing) since those will be far nicer...