Mendocino Hotel and Garden Suites — Hotel in Fort Bragg

We stayed at the hotel for one night on 06/25, hoping to have a relaxing time in the area for our honeymoon. On the day we checked in, we left our bags and went out to the store down the street, once we come back to two random scummy-looking men rummaging through our bags in our room with the door closed. They said that the front desk booked them into this room and gave them the keys, which they did in fact have, and that they thought how weird it was that there were bags there, also commenting on certain items (my husband’s camera) that were inside the bags. Once they left to figure out the room situation, I discovered that my small jewelry bag (which was still tucked inside my travel bag, in a zipped-up pocket, and contained a very sentimentally valuable necklace and a few other things) was missing. There was a small chance that I might’ve left it at home on accident, so I did not call the cops to come to the scene without being 100% sure, but I did call to report the possible incident. Once I got back home a couple of days later, the bag was indeed gone and without doubt stolen that night. The police report has been filed. What wasn’t great about the situation is that the woman at the front desk was very dismissive when I came down to talk to her about it after discovering that my jewelry was missing, and how she was trying to blame shift, saying that I shouldn’t have brought anything valuable with me. Excuse me? I was under the impression that this was a reputable and safe hotel, and not a dumper motel in the ghetto to which I obviously would not have brought anything of any value. Also, how does someone give access and physical metal keys to our room to random people, when we were one of the only people who even stayed at the hotel that night (I have not seen anyone else besides the two men in the hotel the whole time)? How do you not pay attention or remember that you booked that specific room a couple of hours ago for the only people that checked in, when it’s literally your only job? How many keys does each room even have and how do you not notice that some of them were already given out? This whole thing does not seem accidental. To say that I am beyond frustrated and mad is an understatement.

UPDATE: Upon receiving a police report, it stated that upon investigation, the hotel completely denied any of this happening - they denied the double booking as well as me notifying the front desk that my jewelry got stolen. And conveniently they did not have any surveillance cameras either. This place is an absolute shameless scam, and from what it looks like, they had a part in the theft. It’s ridiculous. Avoid it like the plague, or record anything sketchy on your phone so that you have some...

Photos and website online are deceiving: especially if you are staying in a Victorian full bed. It does not have its own bathroom (although the website states it does!), but does have a sink in the room. You have to share bathrooms with others. When we asked for water, they asked "do you have something to put it in?" Luckily we did. Then when we got to the room, we figured out that the bathroom we were supposed to share didn't come with basic amenities (shampoo, body wash, soap etc.) We had to go ask for it from the front desk. The lady provided us with mismatched items (clearly they don't have one brand they use). Our room was an interior room and the window we had only looked onto another guest bedroom. There wasn't any ventilation eventhough we tried using the ancient ground air system. We had to ask for a fan from front desk. The very creeky full bed took up most of the space in the room and we had to carefully move around without stubbing toes or hitting hips and elbows! Oh and another thing: there is no TV. So we wat hed netflix on our phones. Mendocino is a sleepy town with not much to do especially once the sun sets.

Unlike the website, the restaurant and bar is closed. The hotel only provided coffee and tea in the morning. There were two leaks from the ceiling that the staff had put buckets in order catch the water spills.

The hotel is located Oceanfront and is centrally located in town. However, only certain rooms will get that oceanview. There is a common balcony on the 2nd floor.

The only reason we reserved this hotel was because this was the only place with a vacancy. Now, I know why!

It's sad because the hotel has a lot of potential! Here is where I would focus on improving: -Upgrade rooms (especially new carpets and bedding but still keeping its Victorian charm). -Upgrade main floor lobby, and open bar and restaurant. -Correct information and description of guest room categories + room and hotel amenities on website. -Train staff to welcome guests and go through amenities and prepare guests ahead of finding things out on their own. Provide basic items like soap and shampoo at check in.

This was supposed to be a getaway but felt like more work to get atleast...

Wow- what can I say. False advertising and then downhill after that.|Arrived on the Friday and looked great from outside. Very old and tired building that is in desperate need of updating. Disappointed to find that the restaurant was closed and the bar during our stay. I then found out from reviews that it had been closed for over 2 years. Should not be allowed to still advertise this. Had we have know, we would have booked elsewhere.||No coffee or tea in room. Can only get it in reception between 6am to 10am, and even then, it was empty most times and we had to wait whilst the receptionist was busy until they had time to refill it. Not costly to have a little machine and pods in room as I like a coffee in afternoon or evening.||The room had double doors going out to a balcony. There was 2 chairs and coffee table outside our door, and the next room, plus a swing seat in between. I woke up the first morning and opened curtain to see what the weather was doing ( just after 6 am) and was alarmed to see a strange man sitting in our chair on his laptop with his phone. I quickly shut the curtains. I found this very off putting. ||Next door had a dog that was barking and at one stage they had 6-8 people in their room, and took our chairs so I couldn’t enjoy my coffee on the balcony as planned. They put their wet towels over our chairs. On the Sunday morning I actually managed to sit there. The lady came out and tutted as I was in the chair and went back in. It should be gated to make people stick to their area, yet get past in an emergency.||I ended up complaining to booking.com. Sunday night about 1am to 2.30 was a horrendous amount of noise like furniture being moved from either upstairs or Nextdoor. I couldn’t work out exactly which room or I would have called management to sort it. That was the final straw.||I went to reception Monday morning saying we were checking out early. He said he had my complaint emailed to him, and seemed not surprised I was going earlier. I would get a partial refund once manager was on duty. I left.||There is one decent cafe in mendocino but queues from 6.30 am. We never got in there and had to drive to fort...