Fullerton Inn & Restaurant — Hotel in Chester

I’m writing this after personally coming to the owner/manager with my concerns and getting completely blown off. To begin, we came in around 6:30 after a very long drive, completely famished and dead tired. We came in hoping for a cozy, quiet solace and found an absolute madhouse of noise and people. As it turns out, they were hosting a wedding reception of 150 people in the hotel. Now, I book events for a living, and I would NEVER book a party of 150 without alerting the other guests of the hotel. In fact, I would require a full space buyout for an event of that size as it inevitably will completely overwhelm the staff - and that’s exactly what happened. Dinner: We decided to get dinner in the restaurant since it was apparent we weren’t going to sleep anytime soon. We were brought to our seats by the server, and then COMPLETELY IGNORED FOR 45 MINUTES. And I’m not exaggerating that. We sat there for 45 minutes waiting for anyone to look at us, let alone take our order. Once again, it appears all servers were dealing with the wedding part and weren’t even in the dining room to accommodate us “regular” guests. Once we ordered, the food took an HOUR to arrive by this point it was around 8:30 and we were absolutely famished. Bringing the food was the only time that we were checked in on or talked to by the wait staff. The food: the soups were delicious. The clam chowder was spectacular and the French onion was very good. We also got the meatloaf which was nothing special, but hit the spot. We were talked into dessert by the server when we asked for the check, who recommended the Vermont apple pie - she sold it well so we got it. It was terrible. It had clearly been microwaved into oblivion and the crust was the texture of wet flesh. It was genuinely the worst apple pie I’ve ever had. The room: I had asked for a cot or room with a sofa to accommodate me, as I’m traveling with my elderly father who needed his own bed. This was ignored and we were told it wasn’t possible. I had also mentioned it was his birthday and asked for something nice in the room to celebrate. This wasn’t acknowledged either. I don’t even think they read the request even though I had booked months ago. The room was much smaller than I thought and the only working plug was on the other side of the room. The bathroom didn’t even have a toilet paper holder and the toilet paper was just sitting on the ground next to the toilet. It was just sad and gross and motel-Esque. We had booked a room with porch access because we wanted to sit out there and toast to my dads 70th birthday. It became apparent we couldn’t do that the second we got out there, as the wedding party had chosen the area directly below as their designated smoking area and it reeked of cigarette smoke and was incredibly loud, with people screaming and talking. Trying to Sleep: we could not sleep at all for hours due to the noise from the wedding. They were incredibly loud, incredibly disrespectful, and not only did the sound carry from downstairs, the wedding party repeatedly ran up and down the stairs and into their rooms making so much noise our floors actually shook a bit. At around 10:30 the entire party screamed together for a solid minute. Breakfast: We woke up groggy and hoping to salvage the stay with breakfast. We came down to a demolished cold buffet that they told us could not be replenished. There was no hot water and no one around to ask if they could refill it. The dirty dish bins were still overflowing from the night before so we couldn’t bus our table.

Even with all of this, I wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt that they didn’t know how bad it was and spoke to the owner manager. He listened to our experience and only kept saying “ok, we’ll keep that in mind”. He offered no apology, no acknowledgment that he could understand our frustration, let alone any compensation for the room issue or our inability to enjoy even the smallest measure of the hotel. When I told him I never would have booked if we had known about the event, he said “ok”. Terrible...

We stayed here last night, and got TRAPPED in our room. The door had been sticking a bit for the days we were here, but last night -- humidity, maybe? -- it was not possible to open it from the inside. Believe me, we tried. ||We get up early, and from 4:30AM to 7:30 we were unable to get out. Finally the day manager arrived and listened to our phone messages and came upstairs. He opened the door from the outside -- easy to do with a bit of a shoulder push or equivalent -- but more or less shrugged the incident off: "That door sticks a bit". He then opened it from the inside, which proved NOTHING since it had already been released from whatever was sticking badly. ||After some back and forth he has put us in a different (smaller, less comfortable) room for tonight. He spoke with the owner -- some mysterious person whose name the manager is not allowed to give to the guests (but possibly our lawyer can find out who it is) -- and the owner is going to refund us for last night, meaning one of the three nights we will have spent here. We don't consider that adequate recompense for having been sealed in a room for three hours. But, like the Wizard of Oz, the owner is behind a curtain, so to speak, and the day manager just relays the owner's decisions. ||The door sticking slightly may be charming and quaint. Being trapped in your room IS NOT CHARMING OR QUAINT. The push-back from the manager was unpleasant and a waste of our time. ||If you must stay here, avoid room 10. I think it's extremely unlikely that they'll fix it; the attitude seems to be a kind of "Works for me!" reaction, rather than, say, calling in a carpenter. ||I'll add that this has soured us on the hotel in general. Reading reviews about how badly maintained and ill-equipped it was used to make me feel defensive on the hotel's behalf. I don't know what's happened recently -- it was much more pleasant last year -- but it really isn't the find I thought it was...

We stayed here last night, and got TRAPPED in our room. The door had been sticking a bit for the days we were here, but last night -- humidity, maybe? -- it was not possible to open it from the inside. Believe me, we tried.

We get up early, and from 4:30AM to 7:30 we were unable to get out. Finally the day manager arrived and listened to our phone messages and came upstairs. He opened the door from the outside -- easy to do with a bit of a shoulder push or equivalent -- but more or less shrugged the incident off: "That door sticks a bit". He then opened it from the inside, which proved NOTHING since it had already been released from whatever was sticking badly.

After some back and forth he has put us in a different (smaller, less comfortable) room for tonight. He spoke with the owner -- some mysterious person whose name the manager is not allowed to give to the guests (but possibly our lawyer can find out who it is) -- and the owner is going to refund us for last night, meaning one of the three nights we will have spent here. We don't consider that adequate recompense for having been sealed in a room for three hours. But, like the Wizard of Oz, the owner is behind a curtain, so to speak, and the day manager just relays the owner's decisions.

The door sticking slightly may be charming and quaint. Being trapped in your room IS NOT CHARMING OR QUAINT. The push-back from the manager was unpleasant and a waste of our time.

If you must stay here, avoid room 10. I think it's extremely unlikely that they'll fix it; the attitude seems to be a kind of "Works for me!" reaction, rather than, say, calling in a carpenter.

I'll add that this has soured us on the hotel in general. Reading reviews about how badly maintained and ill-equipped it was used to make me feel defensive on the hotel's behalf. I don't know what's happened recently -- it was much more pleasant last year -- but it really isn't the find I thought it was...