Amish Country Motel — Hotel in Leacock Township

NOT WORTH THE MONEY

There were many things wrong, in room 147:

1. An infestation of tiny flying ants in the bathroom. I killed about a dozen each day.

2. The phone didn't work. No dial tone. We complained when we checked in, but it still wasn't fixed 4 days later.

3. The refrigerator/freezer didn't keep my ice cream frozen. It turned into soup.

4. Bathroom door was hard to close. Had to really force it.

5. The A/C unit had too much of a "swing", meaning the room went from too hot to too cold. I woke up at night alternating between sweating and shivering.

6. You only get one assigned parking space per room, and there are only 2 free parking spaces in the whole place. We had 2 cars, so this was problem.

7. Hot water reduces as the morning passes. By 8 AM on a Friday it was barely warm. Had I attempted to shower any later, it might well have been cold. And I bet it will go cold quicker on Sunday morning, when presumably they have more guests.

8. No microwave oven or coffee maker.

9. TV lacked any guide I could find, so I had to spend a lot of time figuring out what channels had good programs.

Now, if this was a budget motel, I'd be more willing to accept all this, but we were paying around $100 a night. For that price I expect better. I complained at check-out and asked if they could at least make it right by giving us a discount on the room. They refused (they gave us a 20% discount ticket to the buffet at the Bird-In-Hand Family Inn, but they give those away for free and we already had breakfast and were ready to leave, making that quite worthless).

There were a few things they did right:

A) Room was clean. I left a $5 tip for the maid.

B) You get access to the indoor pools and other recreational activities at the Bird-In-Hand Family Inn, 1 mile West on the road. (You don't get their free breakfast buffet, though, only a 20% discount ticket, if you ask). The Amish Country Motel only has an outdoor pool, making it useful only in hot weather.

C) You get a free bus tour. Ours went to an Amish quilt shop, a small petting farm, and a gift shop (run by the Amish but selling non-Amish gifts). Food was for sale at 2 of the 3 stops (pretzels, ice cream, shakes, root beer). The back of the bus was either hot or noisy, depending on if the A/C was on back there. Beware the smell of manure at some of the stops. The driver talked about the Amish/Mennonites as she drove (she was formerly one herself). A sign on the bus says "Tour guide/bus driver is only paid by your gratuities".

D) Mini hair dryer...

I grew up in southeastern Pa and now live in Ma. About 16 years ago, I bought my then 5 year old grandson down to take him on the Strasburg Railroad, as I remembered going there as a kid, and he was into trains. Well, my grandson was a little escape artist who was very proficient at getting out of even locked doors. I called the hotel in advance and told them about this issue and asked if it would be possible to have a lock placed high up on the door so he couldn't reach it even standing up on a chair. They told me they would, and much to my delight, when we arrived at our room, across from the pool, there was a latch like lock up high on the door as promised. Now try to imagine a chain hotel doing this for you. That was a long time ago and the place may be run down for all I know, but if they maintained that level of service, I would certainly...

In the course of attending performances at The Bird in Hand Stage (temporarily at the Historic Revere Tavern) over the years, we talked to a number of people of strongly recommended this motel, along with the Traveler's Rest Motel (same folks). We finally decided to reserve a room here and were not disappointed. The desk person, Laura, was great and our modest room was really outstanding. It was just plain nice. The room was squeaky clean, including the bathroom. The HVAC worked perfectly and was quiet. In season, there is a nice pool and out back there is a very nice deck with beautiful views of the Amish farmlands. We would definitely stay here again and would recommend it to our...