Blantyre — Hotel in Lenox

My wife and I stayed at Blantyre over the weekend and while it was OK overall, there are aspects of the stay that negatively impacted our experience. We have stayed at a number of Relais and Chateaux properties over the years and I would rank Blantyre at the bottom of the list. We arrived a little earlier (around 2:30PM) hoping to be allowed into our room before the 4PM check in. We were first told the room will be ready in about 15 min, as the manager went to check on it. 30 min later we were told they were putting finishing touches on the room and it will be ready in 20 min. 45 min later, exactly at 4PM, we were told the room was finally ready. I can't blame the hotel for not letting us in earlier than the check in time, but I do blame them for a story that changed 3 times over 1.5 hours.

Our room was at the carriage house, which is about a 5 min walk from the main building. The room itself was OK, good size and well-cleaned. While the bed was comfortable, the furnishings were very so so, especially considering the almost $900 per night price tag. The TV is also very small. It was an OK room, but for $900 per night, you tend to expect something special - it was not - a regular hotel room pretty much. The AC in the room is a mini-split unit, which worked fine, but the remote was pretty confusing and somehow was set to move the vent setting around at night, which made earie screeching noises, making it sound like someone kept opening our door at night. Kept waking us up until we figured out how to stop it.

The hotel has one extremely slow Tesla charger (charges at under 20 miles per hour), so if there is more than one Tesla on-site, there is an issue as it takes a full day to charge your car and if you are not the first one there, you are out of luck. I was able to charge the day we arrived and that was it as the charger was always occupied.

Since my car was charging on day 1, I asked whether the hotel can pick us up from the carriage house to bring to the restaurant in the main building for dinner, so my wife would not have to walk uphill in high heels and was told it was no problem. I called 30 min in advance to make this request and was told the car would be waiting for us at the requested time. However, no car ever showed up and after waiting for 10 min, we ended up having to walk. No one bothered to call to tell us it was not coming - it simply did not show up. When we came to the main building and I asked what happened, I was told that the Manager took the car to go deal with an unhappy customer and no car was available to pick us up. God forbid the manager walked and left the car to help the guests. They also did not feel that it was appropriate to call and let us know. Just left us there. Great service! They did apologize and brought a bottle of champagne to our room, but the experience was already ruined.

The restaurant at Blantyre is currently closed for breakfast, so your only option is in-room breakfast and you have a choice of free continental breakfast or eggs for $30 per person. The free breakfast was very disappointing, as all we got was plastic containers with pastries and one plastic container for two with a few cold cuts and cheeses. We paid the $30 per person the next day and got some decent eggs, actually delivered on real dishes.

We were asked what time to clean our room and do the nightly turn down service. That all worked as it was supposed to on day 1. However, one day 2, we came back from dinner to find that no turndown service was performed. The maids showed up at 8:45PM looking to do that, after we were already back in our room (and were supposed to be there before 8PM). So again, service at Blantyre is clearly not a priority. It seems to operate at the convenience of their staff rather than guests.

Finally, we got massages at the spa. It was good, but overpriced at almost $600 for two people.

All in, not a horrible stay, but nothing special, especially considering the price paid ($2,700 for 2 nights with 1 dinner, 1 breakfast and...

I was happy to find availability at Blantyre as I wanted to escape the hurricane heading to the New England coast and though it was hugely expensive I decided to book a suite as that was all that was left in the hotel if one had dogs. Sometimes in life you have to do things that are extravagant as that’s what’s called for in an emergency! ||All of my telephone communications with the hotel staff were wonderful: courteous, friendly, professional and concerned. I couldn’t have been more impressed. ||My check in was handled smoothly and with great concern and attention. The room appeared to be lovely and very comfortable.||The dinner I had at Café Boulud was simply extraordinary as the chef is amazing. The salad was divine with lovely flavors and tastes and fresh, crisp lettuces. The risotto of shrimp and delicate cheeses was the most delicious thing I’ve had in years. Each bite was an extraordinary culinary event. I was very impressed.||The trouble began before dinner as I attempted to take a bath. I’ve found that many hotels today do not check the bath tubs as most guests prefer to shower. This tub had a hose which was broken and sprayed water all over the tub and floor. The only way to fill the tub was to place the shower head in the tub and hold it while the tub filled through the faucet. As I attempted to clean up the water on the floor I noticed there were only two bath towels in the room: not nearly enough for the puddles created by the broken hose.||The temperature of the hot water was scalding and this was not good as the faucets are reversed and the cold water is where the hot should be. I burned my foot when stepping into the large tub thinking the water was cool.|| I reported this to the manager at dinner who asked if it was all right to enter the room while the dogs were there. I stated my dogs were overly friendly and I would appreciate having the hose repaired. He assured me that it would be.||When I returned to the room the tub had not been repaired nor had the towel supply been replenished though housekeeping had been there.||I was very tired and looking forward to a good nights sleep however once I curled up in bed I smelled a chemical smell like a pesticide and though it was very faint it was enough to keep me from falling into a deep sleep.I have no idea why this smell was present in a bed. ||The next morning I wanted to have some coffee delivered as I don’t like the strong Nespresso pods in the rooms but I attempted to call the main house several times and no one answered. This concerned me as what it communicated was that if a guest has a problem or an emergency there is no one in the office available to help.||When I drove up to the hotel and entered there was someone in an alcove office there. I said I had attempted to reach someone four times over the course of 15 minutes and no one had answered. He replied that he hadn’t heard the phone ring. No apology.||As this was the first time anything had gone on that was not great I was surprised.I think some attention should be given to the night staff. I also think that in a hotel of this quality room service should be available earlier than 8 am. It is not acceptable that the phones are not answered at all times.||I would also suggest changing the snacks in the rooms from sugary sweet ones to more organic nuts without sugar and organic pretzels and remove the soft drinks like Coke and sweetened soda water. Have more bottles of water as well as a kettle to make tea.(there are tea bags but no way to boil water. Using the coffee maker is a failure as the water is coffee colored from previous use.)||Was my visit worth the price of my room? I’m not sure as of yet but think a great hotel has staff available 24/7 as well as fully functioning baths with plenty of towels and beds that are not smelling of chemicals.||On the other hand, the food is...

For reference, we only ate in the restaurant. We did not stay here.

Overall: A mediocre experience, hindered by anemic service, and overpriced, generic food.

We had a reservation, but upon arrival it took several minutes to even figure out where to go as there were no signs and no serving staff. After someone finally decided to assist us we were weirdly handed off one direction then told to go back and sit in the main area and then brought back again. It was very awkward.

Upon sitting, we were asked if we wanted water and if we were ready to order drinks. At this point we had not even actually sat nor had we received a wine list. No one gave us the specials, though I did hear them at a table later. No one gave us any proper greeting or information about the place. It was extremely peculiar. If I had to make a guess, the hostess for the hotel was serving us in a bit of a confused manner.

We were sat in a side room, the conservatory perhaps. Upon sitting, while the chairs looked comfortable and quaintly "old posh", I also noted that they were severely stained and the stuffing was coming out. We sat next to a window, which should have been nice but instead it was quite dirty.

The menu was not particularly big (which isn't necessary) but also not particularly imaginative. We did both think it was a real shame they didn't try for afternoon tea instead of generic lunch options.

Finally the meal - after a few awkward rounds with our server we ordered our meals. At this point it had been ~15+ minutes since we ordered drinks and hadn't received them. They ended up arriving about 2-3 minutes into our appetizer (the shrimp - 5 slightly over cooked shrimp with an anemic sauce and an avocado).

Our entrees were crab cakes & the ravioli. My husbands ravioli was undercooked and slightly tough. My crab cakes were fine but generic.

The bread was actually quite delicious though served as an after thought by what was now a cycle of confused servers. We encountered 5 people all who kept repeating the same questions to us "would you like dessert?" No? Again?

After this experience, we asked for our bill and one of the 5 confused people said to us, "oh we never mix business and pleasure at the Blantyre." This was literally our first experience of personality here. Honestly we were delighted. But... then we had to go pay for what was ultimately a $150 dollar lunch for 1 appetizer, 2 small entrees and a $30 glass of nameless champagne (didn't notice the fine print on my glass of champagne that the price was per ounce vs glass).

We thought to walk around the grounds but were so un-enamoured with our experience that we actually felt rather bad for the hordes of clearly confused older people there. They weren't getting their value worth.

It was honestly a relief to get back to our B&B (Federal House Inn) where the host had fresh cookies made to order, incredible wine socials and the best 4 course breakfast I've...