Montage Healdsburg — Hotel in Healdsburg

This place is on another level. We drove up from Pacifica Friday afternoon February 5th. I think they had just reopened a day or two prior after the stay at home order was lifted the week before, yet it felt like they never missed a beat.

We rolled up and they immediately unloaded the car into a golf cart and drove us back to our room. "Room" doesn't really do it justice though. We were in a "Vineyard Suite," number 331, which is maybe a 3 minute walk from the main compound. All of the suites will have only one or two other rooms sharing a wall with them, so everything is extremely private. Right now due to covid capacity restrictions you likely won't have anyone next to you. The appointments inside the room are top notch, very tastefully done modern decor. Wood furnishings, hardwood floors, large walk-in shower, a pocket door to the toilet, and the centerpiece of most rooms - the Arcadia Custom glass wall system across the entire back wall of the house, and just beyond, the tiled balcony with gas fire pit activated with only a turn of the timer switch.

We quickly changed clothes and headed to dinner at the resort restaurant, Hazel Hill. We started with beef tartare, knew we were getting the petrale sole for an entree, but weren't sure what to get for a mid course (we eat light and share everything). We asked our server and he explained the French onion soup was the thing to get. Everything was phenomenal, especially the soup. We had two excellent bottles of wine and for the first time I can remember we were complimented on our "mask etiquette" by the sommelier, who was also gracious enough to have the decanter with the rest of the second bottle waiting for us back in our room, as we explained we wanted to have a dessert wine. Of course they have Royal Tokaji. The fromage plate was stellar as well.

The next day once we made it out of the room, we did a short 2 mile hike right out the room over to Healdsburg Open Space Preserve, where you'll get a little bit of exercise and some really nice views. We also went for a dip in the pool, which is Olympic length and heated to something like 85 degrees. For lunch that day we had their hamburger and fries. Again, just absolutely delicious.

The entire project has taken about 15 years to come to fruition from what I was told. I believe it, as it looks as though everything was meticulously planned and no expense has been spared. Just to give you an idea, you can see in some of the photos the concrete pilons and steel construction for the foundation of all of the houses. If you were to walk around the back of the main compound to the parking lot (not that you would ever need to), you'd find covered parking with solar arrays as the roof. If you're interested in taking a bicycle into town, they have really nice, new electric bikes available as well as high end Scott road bikes too.

I hardly ever write reviews, much less of this length. This place...

3.5 stars. A Disappointing Stay at Montage

Our first visit to Montage this past weekend, a highly anticipated experience at a 5-star resort, unfortunately left us feeling neglected and undervalued, a significant disappointment. The service was consistently inconsistent throughout our stay.

A Serious Service Lapse and Negligence:

The most concerning incident involved a major lapse in staff operations. We ordered a zero-proof strawberry daiquiri for our 3 year old daughter while at the poolside, explicitly reconfirming "zero proof" with our waiter, who acknowledged our request. After our daughter had taken several sips, we tasted the drink ourselves and immediately realized it contained alcohol. We alerted the waiter, who confirmed with the bartender there was alcohol and it was a mistake. A new, non-alcoholic drink was prepared, and while they apologized, it's unfathomable how such an error could occur at a resort of this caliber.

The resort managers apologized and graciously offered to comp our dinner, which was a kind gesture. However, what truly left a sour taste was the complete lack of follow-up regarding our daughter's well-being. No one inquired if she was okay, not at the time of the incident, not the following day, and not even at checkout.

Back to the beginning. Our experience began with a rushed check-in. We observed other guests receiving welcome drinks, yet we were never offered one, despite seeing the same front desk associate pouring drinks for other parties. When our room was ready, we received a text notification and returned to a crowded lobby with a long check-in queue. We were simply handed our keys and directed outside without further instruction. There was no one to greet us, nor a clear line for a driver to our room, leading to many people cutting in front of us, making us feel like we didn't get acknowledged because we didn’t "fit the profile." Furthermore, our luggage wasn't ready; one item had been left in the valet car and needed to be brought to our room separately. While our driver to the room was helpful and offered to get us the welcome drink we never received, he mistakenly brought two red wines instead of the one white and one red that we requested.

This pattern of lacking and inconsistent service continued throughout the resort. At the poolside, it took over 20 minutes for a staff member to attend to us, even though the pool area was relatively empty. They have a shuttle service to town and when I texted them to pick us up at a specific location, they went to a different location. We noticed that many of the staff appeared quite young and lacked customer service. You could tell some genuinely enjoyed their work, while others seemed to be there simply for a job.

Given these numerous issues, we do not plan to return. We simply expect a much higher standard from a...

We visited with a group of five. 3 in a Harvest home and two more each in individual units. The house was well appointed with tremendous views. Before we arrived, we called asked to move our dinner reservation back 30 minutes. The person said that the best they could do was two hours later. Upon check in we asked again, for a reservation 30 minutes after our scheduled dinner that said no problem. Dinner was fine but there were very few people there so we were confused as to why the person said that we couldn’t change our reservation to 30 minutes later. This becomes the theme of our stay. ||We arranged for transportation for our dinners to Single Thread and Cyrus and I received an email confirmation of the trips. But when I called the front desk, they said there was no record of any of our prearranged transportation. ||Since we were in a house and the rest of our family were in single units, we could not drive to pick them up because the road is closed to cars. They had to call a golf cart to take them to the main building and we needed to pick them up at the main building. After a while, this became very inconvenient considering could take as long as 30 minutes to get picked up. Sometimes they wouldn’t show up at all and they needed to call a second time to get picked up. ||My daughter ordered room service one day, she realized that she forgot to order her drink. So she called room service and said please let me know if the drink can be delivered with her meal and please let her know. She never received a call back but received the drink in a separate delivery charging an extra delivery fee. ||I had an Amazon delivery that arrived one day at 11:00 am. I tried all day to get the package. Amazon said it was put in a delivery hold, one employee said that they didn’t know that the delivery hold existed. Two days later (long after we left) the hotel contacted me and said that they had my package. ||My daughter summed things up about our experiences at the hotel in a sentence. She said, “the management is so unprofessional that is seemed like the hotel is being run by a bunch of entitled kids that decided to not go to college. ||The grounds of the hotel are gorgeous and the facilities are top notch, unfortunately they don’t have top notch management...