Heritage House Spa — Hotel in Fort Bragg

We visited The Heritage House Resort this past week for our 15th Anniversary and we thoroughly enjoyed our stay. We wanted a dog friendly place to take our two girls with us and found it. The views are breathtaking. I could just sit and watch the coast all day. We arrived late in the afternoon so our room was ready. Check-in was quick. We booked directly on their website and used the Social Channel code which got us 20% off normal room rates plus a bottle of wine on arrival. Just tell the staff on check-in so you get your bottle as it was not ready in the room (my mistake for assuming it would be). The fog can set in quite quickly so take your photos while you can like we did. I do not recommend an overnight stay as there is just too much to take in. Two or more nights is best. We opted for room service for dinner our first night to unwind and so the pups could acclimate to the new surroundings which they did right away. Food was good but they forgot our order of soup. We also expected the folded napkins had all the necessary utensils (spoon) for the whole meal including our dessert but it did not. So we "drank" the soup after eating the seafood. Some of the reviews had warned about service being slow, it was not in our case. They just missed some items. There is a mini fridge, microwave and coffee/tea station in your room which is convenient for any items you bring in. Please bring your own water. We did but when we ran out, we just got our reusable bottles refilled at the restaurant without a problem. The porch is great. We stayed at Carrousel House #1 (how they spell it). There is an outdoor faucet which is handy to rinse out your feet if you go to the beach. A very good idea in my book. The room was a five minute walk to the main House for the restaurant and lounge. Breakfast was delicious, service very good and they have a lower area for families with their dogs. Our girls felt right at home. We did not get to visit the lounge or bar at night as we were worn out from all the exploring the resort and other places. Fort Bragg was around 20 mins away and Mendocino 10 mins away. The bed was comfortable as advertised. The headboard had some broken areas as did some of the tabletops in the room. The bathroom was beautiful. Soaking tub was a plus. We expected the claw foot one like in the picture but what we ended up with fit two which worked out to our advantage. Ladies there is a black towel just for makeup. They have all the bath essentials. Make sure to call ahead for refills in the day time as their housekeeping leave for the night. We chose not to get clean up service as we were there for just a few days. We were needing some refills which I got after our morning walk at the main house. If you like to iron while travelling, they have one in the room. I bring a travel steamer which I did not even need at all this stay. The grounds are beautiful, plenty of benches along the perimeter to soak in the views. Also trash cans placed strategically if needed with bags for pup potty breaks, we actually needed a couple as we ran out. The wifi in our room was best on the porch. We were bummed out at first but you know after a few hours of being there, we did not mind it at all. We were celebrating a milestone in our lives after all. It is good to disconnect every once in a while. The beach was really nice. The wooden staircase leading to it was old and the greenery a bit overgrown. There is a warning sign go at your own risk which is good because it can get tricky for anyone. We have a tripawd and I had to carry here across some logs. Wear proper footwear. After that we just explored. We love the sea so we did not mind the natural access to the shoreline. Now, I wanted to save the reason for my four stars for last. We arrived to a room with the previous guests' trash in the trash can in the living area and in the drawer of one of the closets. We always carry disinfectant wipes so we got rid of them that way. That is not okay with us at all. I would have given three stars but the place is...

I really wanted to like this place but everything just felt underwhelming and my recent experience with their staff dropped my opinion into the negative. ||There would always be positive things counter balanced by a negative. Some examples below:||The location is great. The view is impressive depending on the angle but getting around inside the “resort” is rough. Once you’re actually on site the poor signage with blind turns makes it difficult to navigate at night so make sure you arrive during the day and if you have bad knees make sure to get a room by the restaurant otherwise you’re driving back and forth. So far mostly positive. ||Rooms. The rooms themselves are old with some modern touches. Too few outlets for chargers and lack of AC or Fans of any kind make it stuffy and hot during the day. None of our windows had screens or opened easily so we had to open our door to get fresh air in the cool off the room. But that also lacked a screen so bugs were a constant problem. Eventually we got this fixed when housekeeping gave us a fan but I had to ask for one. It’s in the 90s folks. Think ahead. So yeah our first night there was horrible and hot. We almost left the next morning. Now we’re in the negative. ||Food options. The food was ok at best. Boring at best. Undercooked at worst. One breakfast the savory biscuits were undercooked and a health hazard. The dinner options were fine if generic. Too few options if you’re staying for more than two days. They didn’t serve lunch. The bar was fine and the drinks were decent enough. Net neutral here. ||Spa and fitness center. They existed. That’s about all I’ll say. Nothing special. The massage was ok. Not worth the price when compared to other places. Net neutral again. ||Room Service. Didn’t exist. Take it for what it is. ||House keeping. I saw them around but they never came to our room even when I called and requested it. Later in the evening when we returned to our room we were told “sorry” and that was it. So definitely negative here.||Staff. This is a mixed bag. Some of the folks were good. The bartender and waitress we saw each time we visited the restaurant were great. The receptionist fine. The maintenance guy was great. The folks working the breakfast buffet made me worried about basic food handling best practices. Neutral to negative. ||Now what really shifted my opinion to neutral or average to less than was after I left. So dumb of me but I left a nice shirt in my room next to the ironing board. When I got home the next day I called them and asked them to send it out when they had a chance. Since I have eyes and a decent memory I told the person exactly where it was. They told me they would leave a note in their system and talk to housekeeping and call me back. ||I never got a call so I follows up. Different person. Same conversation. This second person didn’t see the note in the system but said they would call them to find out what was going on and call me back. Never got a call. ||I called them again the next day. The line was disconnected or something. Got a generic automated telecom message. ||So now I just emailed them. Turns out emailing folks does work but the response I got was some akin to “we called and told you the shirt wasn’t found in laundry. We’ll keep looking” no one ever called me and why would a missing shirt be in laundry instead of lost and found? ||At this point I stopped caring about the shirt and was irritated about the lack of honesty on display here. Multiple emails since with no response. I asked that the manager call me and no response. ||So here’s my takeaway. It wasn’t an easy recommendation before the missing shirt issues and it’s not a negative experience for me because of the...

Our stay at HH was shortly after their reopening following closures due to COVID. It is possible to find ways to balance a premium experience with the safety of staff and guests during a time where COVID is asking a lot of businesses - Heritage House fell short.

We did experience booking issues (their website allowed us to book a room that was unavailable), that in all fairness, the staff did accommodate us for. However, since it was a problem that essentially was not the customer's fault, moving our rooms seemed like the obvious thing to do; not really what I'd consider as above and beyond.

For a resort that claims to be a four star luxury resort, our stay left a LOT to be desired. Again, we are acutely aware of the fact that the many COVID pivots have pushed businesses to the brink of their bandwidth and agility. However, as a self-proclaimed luxury establishment charging $400-500/night per room... your customers deserve to have expectations and you don't get mulligans.

The Good: The Views and location!

The Disappointing: When I checked in I was notified that the WiFi would be out during our entire stay, "Sorry, construction."

I was also notified that the "cliffside staircase" that their website advertises takes you down to the beach was overgrown with poison oak. "Sorry, it's not ours to manage" - then don't advertise it.

The first thing we saw when we walked into the room was a bare mattress with stained mattress cover. No bedding or bed sheets whatsoever. The floors were stained, and there was dust on the surfaces. The room definitely looked like it'd been sitting for a couple of months.

Walking into the bathroom I noticed a ripped paper cup jammed between the wall and the sliding bathroom door. Not sure why it was there I pulled it out and the door slid closed on its own... so it was jammed in to hold the door open.

The bathroom also had no bath or hand towels. My first thought was to ask my wife if we missed something and we were supposed to have supplied our own bedding and towels due to COVID. When we walked into the room our girls were staying in we found bedding and towels.

We had to make multiple calls to request bedding because the first time we only received sheets and towels, but no comforter or bed skirt. Even after multiple calls we were left with no bed skirt and were given the inner part of the comforter, but not the outer cover. I was too upset to make a third call.

In the end, it felt like we paid the full premium price for an experience that had...

No WiFi (Not COVID related) No Beach Access (Not COVID related) No Bedding + stained mattress cover (Not COVID related) No Towels (Not COVID related) A bathroom door that required utensils to be jammed inside (Not COVID related) A room that could have been dusted and cleaned (Not COVID related) No Complimentary in-room coffee services No Restaurant No Gym No Spa No Dog Package (Not COVID related)

If you're looking for a premium location and experience, I'd look elsewhere. Should the pricing be pro-rated for all of the things absent from the experience... YES.

I did share all of the above information via the survey email I received following my stay. Since then I've received no follow ups or communication...