Mendota Lake House B&B — Hotel in Madison

I really hate being like everyone else, but in this case, I feel compelled to do like everyone else and write a rave review of this place.

If you want to stay in a building that looks new and completely picture-perfect, this ain't it. But if you're good with staying in a charming 100 year old building that's faithfully served and will continue to do so for the next 100 years, you'll love it here. This isn't your typical sterile hotel experience. Think of it more like your uncle having a spare room at his big, old house, where he'd love for you to stay for the summer. It's super clean, it's cozy, and it's got an incredible view of Lake Mendota. (See the attached view of the lake and our Subaru posse!)

The check-in process was smooth. The policies were explained well, and since it's a small place, we had no trouble finding our room. My husband loved the whirlpool tub built into our private bathroom. The WiFi worked well. I also appreciated how the sheets had some color to them, rather than the boring white you always see at hotels. And we got our own piece of balcony, too. Our room didn't have a view of the lake (we had to go to the first floor for that), but it did look out over the lovely front yard garden.

The breakfast scones are amazing. And you've gotta try Bob's homemade (inn-made?) granola with the organic milk that's provided. Also on offer are fruit and bagels. We didn't ask, but we assume the jelly was homemade, too. Around 8, little egg quiches were served. Before I knew it, I was stuffed and not hungry until after noon. Sadly, I'm going to have fasting labs taken for my next visit, so I won't be able to experience the breakfast again. I've asked my husband to save me a scone!

The owners are both charming! They try to stay out of the way, but they also offered their phone numbers in case we needed anything and were happy to talk when we ran into them at breakfast. You can tell they love each other and love what they do.

Everyone always says, "we'll be back." But in our case, we won't have to wait long. We've booked another...

I wish I could give half stars, because I'd give it a 3.5. We booked the Oscar Wilde room and it was quite large and lovely. The bathroom was great- it has a beautiful bathtub and shower with a rain shower head. We did not try out the tub, so I cannot comment on that. The views were amazing and the sun shines beautifully in the room. However, you can tell that the owners are still working on updating it. Some rooms were in various stages of being painted and some molding in the bathroom wasn't complete. The location is great- very close to downtown. Perhaps a 15 minute walk to the capital. There is free parking in the back of the house too, which is nice. The breakfast needs a lot of work. In their website, they do say that their breakfast is not traditional for a bed and breakfast. Even with saying that, they should recognize that their food choices weren't that great. We stayed two nights, and had the same breakfast both mornings. If you are going to provide blueberry scones and mini quiches (which were nice), you have to do something different the following day. They knew we'd be there two days in a row, I'd think they'd put in a little more effort. It isn't hard to pick up two types of scones, or make a different breakfast pastry. I was really disappointed to see the exact same breakfast. The other options were fruit, yogurt, cereal and oatmeal- standard continental items. Again, I think they could have put in a little more effort. As an avid stayer of B&Bs, I really enjoy the board games provided by the home owners. Here, they had 1,000 piece puzzles, which is ambitious for most B&B stayers and they didn't have a lot of 2 people games. We did enjoy the ones they had, but a bigger selection would have been nice. Overall, it's a lovely home and the owners were pleasant and the home was secure. It's a good B&B but not...

My husband and I booked a room here hoping for a nice weekend away. Unfortunately this B&B was a poor experience. We booked a room with a whirlpool, paying more than one of the other rooms we were looking at for that amenity. Upon arrival we were given a key and shown our room. The room itself was large but the paint in the bathroom was chipped and cracked rather badly over large portions of the wall and ceiling. The reason I gave it two stars is for the location. We walked to the Capitol square and enjoyed dinner. Luckily, we came back before it got late because the key to the house didn't work so we had to wait for someone to let us in. We were given another key. Upon trying to use the whirlpool, the stopper wouldn't work in the tub which was very disappointing because that was the main reason we'd picked the room. Giving up on that we went to bed, only to be woken early by what my husband described as "tambourines and cowbells" when the heater came on. (I've lived in houses with radiator heating before and never had a problem with noise.) Then giving up on sleeping in, I tried to shower, only for the water to drain slowly so that I was standing in a few inches by the end of my shower. We were greeted on our way out by the lady who checked us in. She asked us if we slept well and we informed her of our poor experience. Her response was to say "I'm sorry, I'll let the owners know." I would think that as the owner, you might want to contact people who said that they were disappointed and see what you could do to fix it, but we haven't heard anything from them. A really disappointing B&B and poor...