The Jennings Hotel — Hotel in Joseph

Pretentiously minimalist. I'm a fan of boutique hotels and love that people are rebuilding gems in our rural Western towns. I have been waiting for an excuse to go to the Jennings, just living on the other side of the Wallowas. But rebuilding/restoring is a far stretch for the Jennings Hotel.

We stayed in room #11, and it felt like a bunker. There is plenty of room for more than a sofa on the main floor. How about a coffee table, maybe a desk? At the exorbitant price, you get a hard sofa where you can stare at a plywood wall. If you stare out the window instead, you see parked cars through a broken, taped window.

The stairs to the loft were ridiculous. A ladder would have been safer, and there was plenty of room to create comfortable transport to what was a comfy bed. When you lay in bed, the street lights shined in with no way to shade. Thankfully there were earplugs because I could literally hear people snoring and getting it on upstairs and next door. Maybe that is why they don't allow children under 12.

I was so looking forward to the communal, clothing-optional sauna, but it wasn't clean, and providing robes should be a given.

The only good thing about this example of neo-colonialism in "The County" was the tub in room #11. Given the state of the sauna, I can't imagine the expensive rooms that have to share a bathroom.

The last disappointment was how unaccommodating this accommodation was. I requested an hour extra check out and was willing to pay an extra $50. My request was not accepted because it was their busy time. Interesting, since #11 wasn't booked...

My husband (still getting used to typing that word!) and I stayed here for a few nights for our mini honeymoon and it was perfect! We stayed in a room with a private bathroom (5 1/2) and it was perfectly intimate without being too small. We loved the community kitchen and the balcony. We didn't use the kitchen too much, but whenever we walked by, it was always clean and well taken care of. The sauna was my absolute favorite experience though! I very much appreciated the directions on how to properly use a sauna and the native cultural importance it holds. We can't wait to be back! The only thing we were pretty bummed about was not having access to The Jennings Hotel shop. We weren't sure what was going on as there were no business hours posted, but we really liked what we saw in the window! Side note: If visiting Joseph for the first time, know that it is very much a "tourist" thriving downtown and not many businesses are open from Monday - Wednesday in out-of-season time. We still had a wonderful time with all the charming local shops and the lake not being...

No AC, shared bathroom and terrible instructions on how to connect to the WiFi (took us half a day to figure it out or get a response from the owner). The internet is very slow when it works but mostly it just drops all the time and there is no way to contact the management other than email. This is more of a hostel than a hotel and should be advertised as such. I feel like the advertising is disingenuous and that we have been duped. My wife and I are very disappointed and are contemplating just going out to find a proper hotel. At this price point, you can definitely do much better than this with a private bath and AC. This may be the first time that the quality of the hotel has ruined my vacation. No amount of charm makes up for the uncomfortable heat in the room and the fact that your chances of sharing a bathroom with dirty people is very likely (the shower leaked all Over the floor and there is no bath matt). The only positive thing here is location and unfortunately that is not enough for more...