Southall Farm & Inn — Hotel in Franklin

I think the important part to look at when going through these reviews is that most people are talking about their dining experience or their spa experience - they are NOT talking about spending several thousand dollars on their STAY at South Hall. I will happily say and recommend dining at the restaurant on property or visiting the spa - BUT DO NOT BOOK A STAY AT THIS HOTEL. If you want a luxury 5 star experience this place is ran like a motel 6. The manager Dustin and the customer service representative Lydia - are the cruelest, rude, most disrespectful people I have ever met. How they have their jobs still is beyond me. I have never stayed at a "Luxury Hotel" and received such TERRIBLE service non the less ive never had a manager talk back and raise his voice at me. It was horrifying and absolutely disgusting. I booked Hillside Cottage with the intention to stay here the entire weekend of my wedding. I got married at a home in Leipers about 5 minutes down the road, so it was going to be an ideal location. When I booked the stay at South Hall back in OCTOBER 2024 I went ahead and sent an email to reservations and told them 1. This was my wedding weekend 2. I want to get ready with my bridesmaids in the cottage and then I sent a list of names of individuals that would need to be able to get into the property that day. Lydia was the customer service representative who was more than willing to accommodate at first and said this would be ok. See screenshots for proof of this. The issues started when I requested to get a tour of the grounds, I was considering adding brunch for my bridesmaids and also wanted to be sure I the cottage could accommodate my needs for getting ready the morning of my wedding. She was rude then and I should have just cancelled, saying they don’t do property tours. Someone saw our email exchange and ended up reaching out to my apologizing for her emails and then happy to have me out. I went through the tour, the gentlemen taking us understood very well the intentions were to have me, my 6 bridesmaids and my 2-hair stylist and makeup artist get ready in the cabin the morning of the wedding. He even went to so far to show me another option for a room we could get ready in but once we saw the cabin we knew there was plenty of space and no need to move rooms or make changes. All was well…. UNTIL THE MORNING OF MY WEDDING WHERE SOUTH HALL WAS REFUSING TO LET MY BRIDESMAIDS, MY MAKE UP ARTIST AND MY 2 HAIR STYLIST INTO THE GROUNDS. They suddenly said they had a policy of 3 PEOPLE MAX to the 1,650 square foot cottage. On the morning of my wedding, I spent over an hour sitting at the front desk, bawling crying in front of the entire hotel, trying to clear up the confusion. Enter the manager Dustin, who didn’t even bother to apologize for the confusion, who didn’t even bother to acknowledge it was the morning of my wedding, he showed zero empathy and was just purely annoyed I was there. It wasn’t until I requested them to cancel and refund my entire stay and I would be HAPPY to leave because I literally had to walk down the aisle in the next 4 hours. He then came back and said "we can make a 1x exception" Dustin was NOT apologetic. Was not kind. Never once during the remainder of my stay did, he ever come back & apologize. Its like this place didn’t care AT ALL they ruined the morning of my WEDDING. I will never recommend this place to any of my friends or family that come into town. I hope whoever reads this truly understands this place lacks empathy or caring for their guests that are paying thousands of dollars per night to stay. I’ve been told the difference between a 4-star hotel and a 5-star hotel is purely customer service – this place will never be considered 5 stars until they get new management. I am appalled and frankly disgusted by how I was treated. I wish I had cancelled my entire stay and just got ready at the house I was getting married in. All I wanted was ONE day. DO better South Hall. Try caring about the people that are choosing you to celebrate the big moments...

My husband and I came to Southall for our second babymoon. We chose the location based on having a spa and some activities that were pregnancy friendly.

Before our trip, the concierge helped us schedule a wonderful stay with prenatal spa activities (facial, mani and pedi) for myself and more active activities (mountain biking) for my husband as well as activities we could enjoy together. We were very excited for our trip!

When we arrived, we were very happy with how beautiful the grounds were. We were greeted promptly and had a great welcome by the front desk staff as well as a quick tour of the resort by Madilyn. We arrived just before our Welcome to the Farm Tour which was led by Jill and was fantastic! The welcome and start to our stay could not have been better and we were looking forward to the rest of our trip.

Then comes the second day. My spa appointments were supposed to begin at 10am. At 8:45am I received a phone call that unfortunately the nail technician had called in. I asked if there was anyway to move my facial up earlier in the day, and was placed on hold while they checked. When they came back on the phone, I was told that the esthetician had also called in. I was bummed, but was able to reschedule the nail appointments for the next day (and my husband was able to move his mountain biking to the next day as well), and the spa told me that they were going to see if an esthetician could come in Sunday for services. I asked to be made aware if this was the case. They also offered 20% off of my services for the inconvenience. We pivoted our plans well and enjoyed our morning in downtown Franklin.

Around 3pm that same day, I checked back in with the spa about the esthetician and was made aware that I could receive a facial the next day at 3:45pm in the afternoon. I was disappointed that they did not call me with this news and I had to check back in with them myself. That time did not work for our schedule, so I just kept my nail appointment. Then around 5pm that same day, I received another phone call from the spa saying that the nail tech called in again and they couldn't do my services for Sunday. At this point I was frustrated and annoyed. I went to talk to them about options (in person) and was told I could do a prenatal massage in the afternoon which I did not want to do since the description made it seem a lot like a belly rub (others might like this, but not for me), and we had very purposely planned this trip to have some time together before baby #2 arrived. They did offer me a free day pass to the spa, and I asked for my husband to get one as well which they obliged. However, the next day I was so annoyed and angry at the whole situation that I decided to avoid the spa all together and spend time elsewhere. Also, the day pass included access to the sauna, steam room and heated mineral pool which I wouldn't be able to spend much time in being pregnant.

Our overall stay was incredibly soured by the spa fiasco. Part of the reason we chose this resort was because of the spa, and that was taken completely off the table. They kept offering to reschedule, and I had to tell them a few times that we are not local, this cannot be rescheduled further. It also made the trip the opposite of relaxing having to move around activities on the spot and also just being cancelled on repeatedly. If I could do it all over again, I would spend much less money somewhere else and I am sure I would have enjoyed my stay more. But, hindsight is 20/20.

I do want to mention what went well- the food at the restaurant was very delicious. We went a total of 5 times for different meals, and only had mediocre service once (couldn't get our waters refilled). The rest of the times were great! Valet and housekeeping did a great job. Also, everyone is always asking how your stay is going. I mentioned it was going very bad due to the spa on our way out to dinner Saturday night, and when we got back, we had a box in our room with a couple of small gifts and a handwritten note apologizing, which...

The facilities and cabins at the Southall Inn & Farm are beautiful and five star. Unfortunately, the service is two star at best. And that is being generous. We experienced a litany of issues during our stay. The majority of the time the staff seemed as if we were an inconvenience and were interrupting their day if we approached them. We had to call three times and request the snacks in the room to be replenished as well as the room to be cleaned. Their first attempt, after the second call, resulted in a bag of Southwest Airlines pretzels arriving in the room. After the third call, we got about a 1/2 done job so we left it alone assuming it was just the best they were capable of. One evening, we called the front desk to get a ride back from Franklin which is a concierge service, and were told that they were dropping off another guest for dinner and we would need to walk to their restaurant to meet the driver. The spa is not complimentary, which is fine, but the steam room in the men’s spa was broken which is one of the two options to use in the spa. I also had to go to three showers to find any soap or body wash. The spa staff adamantly informed us under no circumstances could we order food to the outdoor mineral spa/pool area or any area of the spa. My wife's experience in the spa was far more concerning. Another guest was in the locker room concurrently and had forgotten which locker she had. Once the attendant finally arrived, she opened three locked and occupied lockers prior to finding the correct one for the other guest. Unfortunately, the attendant left the first three lockers unlocked and with the doors standing open. My wife and the other guest at least closed the doors to these lockers to hopefully protect those guests belongings. My wife has already written a review detailing some, but far from all of our other issues. I was hesitant to add one until we received a call from the property regarding her review. They acknowledged their struggles with the restaurant service and immediately asked about the spa locker incident she had encountered and also written about. Beyond that the gentleman on the phone only seemed to partially listen to us and did not ask deeper questions. It felt as if he was more concerned about their potential liability vs our experience. He also glanced over the fact that we said we had a long list of examples we could cite. He proactively asked about the airport shuttle issue as if on a mission to catch someone, not to resolve our concern. He actually defended their position and was somewhat argumentative when we informed him that what their staff had told us directly contradicted what he was saying. At no point during the call was there any attempt at service recovery or even a sincere, I hope you will consider visiting again, or an offer of consideration of any sort.

The only bright spot was the valet services and the staff who service the fireplace in the cabin. They were excellent, personable and seemed to want to offer a five star service. We spoke with a number of the other guests during our stay and they all had similar or even worse experiences. It is unfortunate as the property itself is beautiful and in a great location.

I have updated this review as my wife's review has disappeared. I am also not surprised that there has been no response from the property however you can see their canned, copy and paste responses to...