Beard and Lady Inn — Hotel in Chester

My wife and I visited this place this past weekend.| |The GOOD:|First and foremost, I have to say that the building is really cool. Love the history. Likewise, you can tell the owners have spent some money refurbishing the place. It still needs some additional decorating, but it's ok as it is. The rooms are clean. The AC worked good. Shared bathrooms are a little weird, but doable. The Apothecary is also a neat little shop and the lady running it was quite nice to speak to. ||The BAD:|Oh my god, I have to be honest in saying that this is the worst stay we have ever had ANYWHERE. But it was a guest issue more than anything. There are 11 rooms. Most of them were occupied by a family from Texas. One was occupied by a couple of ladies from Oklahoma. And then of course, there was us. ||We arrived shortly after 3PM. We actually arrived much earlier than anticipated because there was a fair going on at one of the battlefields we had hoped to visit. Upon arrival, our room wasn’t ready. Wasn’t a big deal, because we were starting to get hungry anyway. So, after hanging out in the Apothecary for a little while and buying a few things, we headed over to the pizza place in the next town (great pizza by the way). We got back around 5:30PM or so. We were both exhausted from a long day of traveling and sightseeing and just wanted to lay down for a little while and sneak in a quick nap. And that’s when things took a turn for the worst. The TX family members had a handful of kids, whom they were happy to let run up and down the hall, and up and down the stairs. Klomp klomp klomp klomp klomp klomp klomp klomp klomp klomp klomp klomp klomp klomp klomp klomp! And of course, the kids were yelling and screaming as well. This being an 1887 building, it is wood floored and very thin walls... no sound deadening whatsoever. So, everything going on out in the hall resonates and echoes and you hear each and every bit of it in your room. Needless to say, our nap never happened. So, we sat in the room and watched videos on our phones since there are no TV’s and/or radios. Come 9 PM and the nonsense was STILL going on. Likewise, there is seating right outside the room we were in (Room 2). So, despite the fact that there is a HUGE unused dining hall on the first floor with tables and chairs galore, the family had the brilliant idea to congregate in front of our door and play board games. Naturally they were laughing and talking in their ‘outside voices’. FINALLY, they went to bed some time after 10PM. Come 7:00AM, we are awoken to people yet again congregated outside our door and laughing and using outdoor voices. I won’t state what I yelled out, but I’ll be honest in saying I blurted out several profanities. Good lord, if you want to sit and have morning coffee and yack it up, be considerate and GO TO THE DINING ROOM, OR OUTSIDE, OR JUST GO SIT IN YOUR CAR. But whatever you do, BE CONSIDERATE!!!!!!! Finally, I headed out of the room and across the hall to use the bathroom. During my trek, one of the ladies looked at me and said “I hope we didn’t wake you”. Seriously??? How could you not have??? So, I said “Yeah, maybe just a little” as sarcastically as I knew how and definitely not in a friendly voice. After that, my wife showered, we packed up, and we got the heck out of there. I don’t think either of us ever wanted out of a place as bad as we did here.||Oh, and then there's another wonderful part to our story... since the folks from Tx had most of the rooms rented, they pretty much acted like they owned the place. Wherever they, or their kids, felt like taking their shoes off, they did... and they left them there. In the hall, on the stairs, by our door, outside the front door, you name it. So you had to watch wear you walked as not to trip and fall over their shoes. ||In the the bathrooms, well at least the men's for sure (as of this moment I haven't asked my wife about the women's room), there were people's personal hygene and dedorant and whatnot left laying about. Why people would just leave their toiletries and whatnot laying about in a shared bathroom is beyond me. ||Then, also, the Tx famiies just left their doors open as they were trying to get their kids ready. Not that if they had closed their doors it would have helped much, but it would have been nice for them to have closed them while they were hollering at their kids to put their clothes on. | |So, take our experience with this place and think long and hard before you stay here. If you could stay here ALONE, or with friends/family, it would probably be a very nice stay. However, the reality is that there are 11 rooms, so you’re looking at there being as many as 20+ people that could be there at the same time as you, and you are entirely at their mercy if they are loud and/or obnoxious. Every noise echoes and resonates. So, you are subject to every single noise that the other people make. If you’re a light sleeper, good luck. And god forbid that anyone is there that has kids and just lets them run all over the place unchecked. Likewise, all of the rooms share common men's and women's restrooms, so if someone gets up during the night to go to the bathroom, you get to hear their door open and close, the bathroom door open and close, then the bathroom door open and close again, and then their room door open and close again. Like I said, good luck if you are a light sleeper. | |As much as we like the building and the history and whatnot, we have to give this a place a 1 because it was the most miserable stay we’ve had anywhere. We felt more like prisoners than we did guests. I wish there was a way for me to charge the people from Tx...

The place has potential, but… We went for a combination of my birthday and our anniversary, chose the “commitment room”. The hotel is cool and historic vibe, and that’s why we booked it. Should have read into how everything was described from the website as to how bad our experience was going to be but took a chance.||Lets start with our arrival, we arrived at 6pm, when we knew there would be no one from the inn working at that time, the door was nearly impossible to open, the directions to which didn’t match the instructions on the door, and you would need to be a safecracker to get in, push this pull that, this is an original 1887 door, etc., luckily on our tenth or so try we got the door to open, as there was no one to call if we had any issues. Really, if we couldn’t have gotten the door open, we would have had to leave and find another place to stay, and we almost did. After booking there is no one to help you, period. Soon found out there were people inside who must have been listening to us trying to get in and not helping. When we finally got in we were stopped by someone who asked who we were and then told us they were friends with the owners and they could help with anything we needed, as they were cooking in the restaurant area, which was not available to guests no matter what the website and pamphlet says. The stairs to the upstairs portion, where the rooms are is steep and very old, not for anyone older or with mobility issues, we are in great shape and still had issues holding on for dear life using it. We found our room, which was the only one in the building with its own bathroom, the others having communal ones. We found that there were only two towels in our bathroom, no washcloths, no soap or shampoo or any amenities we expected, in fact the coffee maker in the room had no coffee and two dirty cups for our use. The bathroom was also filthy, long hair, short and curly hair (you know what I mean), and other stuff littered the floor and counter (see photos). The toilet was disgusting as someone before us had gastrointestinal issues that had not been cleaned up (see photos). It was also obvious that someone had just used the clawfoot tub in our room as well as there was quite a bit of long hair in it (neither of ours), in it, in fact the person who had greeted us told us it was great and we should try it, since our room was wide open and unlocked when we checked in, I can only imagine it was communal bathing until we got there. Dead bugs on the floor as well (see photos). In the room there is also no TV, or any type of entertainment of any kind except some dubious old board games and national geographic magazines from the 1950’s in the hallway for use. The website calls this “time period décor”, which means no modern amenities except a shower, electricity and wi-fi. We went to the communal bathrooms to find soap and shampoo, found the shampoo and wash cloths and went and asked the people in the kitchen if they knew where we could get soap, and one searched the building and couldn’t find any, which is funny because they supposedly make soap there. So another guest and “friend of the owner” went out and bought us some when they tried calling and texting and couldn’t get ahold of the owners. Since there was no using the restaurant in the hotel we asked where someone could get some food and we were told there was one place about 10 miles away, luckily we had a granola bar in our bag. Also, wanted to smoke and the patio was locked and off limits to guests so we had to hang out in front. Went to wash our hands, no hot water for 20 minutes of letting the water run and it barely got warm. The bed comforter had some stains on it I can only describe as dried and white and can only assume was human DNA (see photos). I know this was called the “black and white room” but should have been a black light room. We tried to get some sleep; however the whole place is quite noisy, even though we apparently were the only paying guests. We had a woman out singing and whistling in the hallway on the complete other end of the hall and it was like she was serenading in bed with us, it was so loud. Also, some time at about 10:30, someone decided it would be a great time to stomp around and drop heavy objects on the floor in the hallway and wake us up. I’m sure the owners would say it was the “ghost” that supposedly haunts the place (place eyeroll here). Was wondering why there are earplugs in the room, it’s obviously because the place is noisy, and we apparently were the only paying guests at the time, as the other rooms were used by “friends of the owners”. Good luck if you are a normal to light sleeper, you aren’t getting any if you don’t use the earplugs. It looks like there are bands and parties as well, I can’t imagine trying to sleep or rest if any of that goes on while you stay. Also, at 4:22 in the morning the train went by and honked its horn and woke us up again. Got up the next morning and the “breakfast counter” is only Keurig coffee, tea and granola bars, hope you like them, because that’s it. Thought about trying to use the shower before we left and decided against it because of the cleanliness and the fact we would have had to wait 30 minutes for hot water to show up. One of the most pretentious things I have even seen in my travels was a tip jar in the room on the nightstand, and one in the hallway (see photos). Needless to say we left nothing. We took off and never looked back. Our room was called the “Commitment Room”, we are committed on not ever coming back! Ruined our Anniversary and my Birthday. Do...

We arrived at 6pm, when we knew there would be no one from the inn working at that time, the door was nearly impossible to open, you would need to be a safecracker to get in, push this pull that, this is an original door, on our tenth or so try we got the door to open, as there was no one to call if we had any issues. If we couldn’t have gotten the door open, we would have had to leave and find another place to stay, and we almost did. Found out there were people inside who must have been listening to us trying to get in and not helping. Finally got in and was stopped by someone who asked who we were and then told us they were friends with the owners and they could help with anything we needed, as they were cooking in the restaurant area, which was not available to guests no matter what the website and pamphlet says. The stairs to the upstairs portion, where the rooms are is steep and very old, not for anyone older or with mobility issues. Our room was the only one in the building with its own bathroom, the others having communal ones. We found only two towels in our bathroom, no washcloths, no soap or shampoo or any amenities, in fact the coffee maker in the room had no coffee and two dirty cups. The bathroom was filthy, long hair, short and curly hair (you know what I mean), and other dirt littered the floor and counter (see photos). The toilet was disgusting as someone before us had gastrointestinal issues that had not been cleaned up (see photos). It was also obvious that someone had just used the clawfoot tub in our room as well as there was quite a bit of long hair in it, in fact the person who had greeted us told us it was great and we should try it, since our room was wide open and unlocked when we checked in, I can only imagine it was communal bathing until we got there. Dead bugs on the floor as well (see photos). The website calls this “time period décor”, which means no modern amenities except a shower, electricity and wi-fi, no TV, etc. Went to the communal bathrooms to find soap and shampoo, found the shampoo and wash cloths and went and asked the people in the kitchen if they knew where we could get soap, and one searched the building and couldn’t find any, which is funny because they supposedly make soap there. Another guest and “friend of the owner” went out and bought us some when they tried and couldn’t get ahold of the owners. Went to wash our hands, no hot water for 30 minutes letting the water run and it barely got warm. The bed comforter had some stains on it I can only describe as dried and white and can only assume was human DNA (see photos). I know this was called the “black and white room” but should have been a black light room. We tried to get sleep; however the whole place is quite noisy, even though we apparently were the only paying guests. We had a woman out singing and whistling in the hallway on the complete other end of the hall and it was like she was serenading in bed with us, it was so loud. Also, some time at about 10:30, someone decided it would be a great time to stomp around and drop heavy objects on the floor in the hallway. Was wondering why there are earplugs in the room, it’s obviously because the place is noisy, and we apparently were the only paying guests at the time, as the other rooms were used by “friends of the owners”. Good luck if you are a normal to light sleeper, you aren’t getting any if you don’t use the earplugs. It looks like there are bands and parties as well, I can’t imagine trying to sleep or rest if any of that goes on while you stay. Also, at 4:22 in the morning the train went by and honked its horn and woke us up again. Got up the next morning and the “breakfast counter” is only pod coffee, tea and granola bars, hope you like them, because that’s it. One of the most pretentious things I have even seen in my travels was a tip jar in the room on the nightstand (see photos). Our room was called the “Commitment Room”, we are committed on not ever coming back! Ruined our Anniversary and my Birthday. Do...