Jenner Inn — Hotel in Guerneville

My husband and I booked the Rosebud Studio for a 1 night stay in late August to celebrate my birthday. The cottage is located down the street from the registration building and the only parking is located directly on the busy highway next to a guard rail and fence. Not very safe. The Jenner Inn does not have any TV or WIFI which I was not aware of at the time I booked the reservations. We were told that it was stated on the website. I checked the website and it was not mentioned on the main page but I later found it under Accommodations. They said they have WIFI in the main parlor however when we connected we were not able to access the internet, make a cell phone call or send a text message. Had we known ahead of time we would have downloaded a movie on our iPad or brought a book. I guess I'll take responsibility for that since I didn't look at the website more thoroughly. We arrived at our cottage which smelled very musty. I immediately opened the sliding glass door and windows only to find that one of the window latches was broken. The pictures of the room on the website showed charming little rosebud wall paper on the walls.There wasn't any wall paper as the picture showed. Not that the wall paper was a deal clincher or anything but the Inn should put current pictures of the rooms on the website since traveler are booking rooms based on what they see on the website. In the room we noticed that there wasn't anyplace to hang your clothes, no radio, clock, alarm clock, books, magazines (other than local entertainment/dining interests), microwave or refrigerator. There was no kleenex, napkins, pens, pencils or notepads. They provided a teapot however there were no teabags. There provided wine glasses but no wine opener to open the bottle. The bedspread had visible stains and a musty odor. The wooden headboard was damaged and there was a considerable amount of dust under the bed. Not that I was looking for it but I had dropped something from the nightstand which rolled under the bed which is how I discovered it. The throw rug on the floor had dirt and dust swept under it. There was dirt on the floor, a dead spider in a web behind the night stand, a live roly poly bug on the bed and live bugs and dirt in the bathroom. We found a filthy plastic Re-Nu eye glass cleaner bottle under the dresser as well. On to the bathroom....the internal shower curtain is not waterproof. It also was not positioned at the correct height so when I stepped out of the shower the entire bathroom floor was flooded with water and we had a limited amount of towels to clean up the mess. My husband tried adjusting the curtain rod before taking his shower and it completely fell down. It took him 10 minutes to put it back up. The toilet paper was at the end of the roll with no additional toilet paper in the bathroom. We had to drive back to the main reception area to get additional toilet paper. The waste paper basket could use a good coat of paint or be replaced. A bit picky you think? Seriously, how much would it cost to replace a waste basket? I may sound a bit harsh leaving only 1 star but when I book an accommodation somewhere with a $250.00 price tag I expect the room to be CLEAN and in working order. When you are sleeping in a room that is shared by different people on a daily/nightly basis with unknown hygiene habits, the room should be CLEAN! The only positive things I have to say were that the surroundings were very quiet and the view was beautiful. I actually discovered that we really didn't need to spend the extra money on a room with a view as we can see the magical coastline all day for miles. To wrap things up, I will be filing a payment dispute with our Credit Card company. I feel that the Jenner Inn did not represent the room accurately on the website and we should not have to pay for staying in a dirty room. Next year I will do a better job at researching accommodations for my...

We live in Florida and came to California to visit our daughter and her husband. We decided to visit Sonoma and some wineries as my son in law works there. We chose Jenner by the Sea to spend the night as we were advised that the Mill Cottage could accommodate all of us. I asked Rhonda at Jenner if the cottage was okay for two senior citizens, one 71 and one 80 years old, and she said yes. The website made Jenner by the Sea look charming. We now refer to it as the "Bates Motel". This is the worst place we have ever stayed. We stayed at the Mill Cottage at Jenner by the Sea on December 27, 2015 for 1 night and paid $358 for 4 people to stay at the cottage.

We got our keys and were told to go to the last house on the road. We went down a dark road and could see no house. There were no lights anywhere. My daughter and her husband climbed a long flight of stairs to a dark house and were unsure if it was our house or a private residence. Luckily, we had a small flashlight and we finally found a door that the key would fit and entered.

The house was ice cold (50 degrees) and we later discovered that most heaters in the house did not work. One heater even bore a permanent sign saying that it did not work.

My husband and I had to carry our luggage up 44 stairs into the house. He is 80 years old and only has sight in one eye so it was treacherous for him. We had no cell phone coverage and were exhausted after a long drive from Santa Cruz so finding other accommodations was not an option.

When we spoke to Jessie, the front desk person, about our concerns she said she had relayed our complaints to the current owner, Richard Murphy, and that he would contact us regarding a refund. We have not had a response.

These are the problems that we experience at the cottage:

There were no outdoor or indoor lights when we arrived. There was no sign or number identifying the house. No heat was on when we arrived. Most of the space heaters in the house were broken. The entire house was filthy and run down. There were only 2 bath towels in the house for 4 people. We found dirty towels in the dresser drawer in the downstairs bedroom. The hot tub and water were dirty and there were no lights from the house to the hot tub. We went to turn on a bedside lamp and found there was no bulb. There is a twig in the refrigerator holding up the upper shelf. The mirror in the living above the fireplace had slid down showing the wood behind it. The fireplace mantel had a 2 inch burn hole in the center. The first floor door does not close property and cold wind came through the doors into the bedroom. The only clock radio in the house did not work. The shade in the downstairs bathroom only covered 3/4 of the window so when you are sitting on the toilet the whole world gets to watch. My daughter awoke the next morning to find a mouse in the upstairs bedroom chewing on an old candy bar wrapper and mouse droppings in the room. There is no one is available after 8:00 pm and before 9:00 am so if there is any emergency, you are on your own.

After this bad experience, we will not be returning to this area. I find it amazing that the Chamber of Commerce would allow the Jenner by the Sea to remain...

My husband and I stayed here for 4 nights, and we stayed in the Wild Rose Cottage. Overall, I would classify the experience as adequate but won't be coming back. You're charged in full upon check in, and I have a feeling it's because many people experience similar issues that we did and try to stay elsewhere. However, I tried to give a fair representation of our experience below:

The views & proximity to wildlife are phenomenal, and the outdoor decks that come with many of the rooms are an excellent feature. Beyond the nature, though, there aren't a lot of selling points to the Inn because there were quite a few operational errors that really affected our ability to enjoy our stay.

The mishaps we experienced would have been tolerated had our expectations been set accordingly, but with the prices you pay you really expect a flawless experience and that's not what we got. We had 3 major issues:

(1) No bedding except for sheets on our first night, and we had to go to the front desk 3 times the next day to finally get a blanket & comforter;

(2) Our room wasn't appropriately serviced 2 out of 3 days (the only reason we noticed they had been there is that the trash can was emptied, but the empty Kleenex wasn't refilled, the bed wasn't made, etc). We stayed from Wednesday to Sunday, and Saturday was the only day our room was properly serviced. It looked great on Saturday, but we didn't really get to enjoy it because we left very early Sunday morning.

(3) Discrepancy between expectation & reality. We expected top-notch accommodations because of the price, but the room was 3 stars. It was cold and damp, off of Highway 1 down a few stairs and underneath a garage. There was overall a lack of attention to detail -- no hooks to hang damp bathroom towels on, shower sprayed all over the floor because the curtain wasn't adequate, thin curtains and no blinds on the windows, rusted out patio furniture, etc. It was nice to have a private cottage but there are so many small things that could be tweaked to better the experience.

Had we gone into it expecting a 3 star accommodation then I wouldn't have felt the need to lay out our concerns, but that just wasn't the case given the website pictures and prices. The breakfast is enough to hold you over but not impressive, and I don't think it's clear enough on the website that the "Inn" is a series of cottages, some which have multiple units and some which do not. The cottages are lined up down Highway 1, and span probably the length of 1.5 city blocks. I don't think this is an issue in and of itself unless you're staying with a group and are expecting to be close. Since cell service isn't really available it can be difficult to coordinate with groups staying in other rooms.

I think there's a lot of potential for the Inn to be 4.5-5 stars if the operational issues can be addressed, and I hope that they are because the location itself is...