Ventura Grand Inn — Hotel in Mammoth Lakes

Where to begin? The Real life FAWLTY TOWERS The owner is a perfect storm of bitterness and corruption. The property listing was CLEARLY listed 'Pay at Property upon arrival' Which is why I chose the property in the first place, yet 4 days prior to arrival they ran my card and took the full amount of the first night out. When I called to inquire as to why the woman owner became irate insisting that it was common practice and that it happens all the time. This should have been my first warning. Upon arrival the owner greeted me with seething contempt saying quote "Oh, You the one who call to complain about money. You have enough to come here for vacation you lucky. You should not complain." insinuating that anyone who visits Mammoth is somehow privileged. We were given Key cards for the room, none of which worked. I immediately returned to the office and was told, again in a condescending manner that I was doing it wrong. She came to the room and tried the keys herself which, of course, did not work. She then tried to blame the situation on the 'battery' that was in the door handle. She was able to climb in the window and open the door. She then said she would have it fixed within the hour when her handyman came back and to just keep the cards insisting they would work later. When we returned 90 minutes later and tried the key cards not only did they still not work but the office was closed, locked and dark and the woman owner was no where to be found. I tried knocking on the door several times and finally she came out of the back room.....YELLING at me that she was off duty and that I would have to return in the morning I told her that the cards still didn't work and that we had no way of getting into our rooms. She became completely belligerent at this point and people were exiting their rooms to see what she was yelling about. I repeatedly asked her to calm down which just seemed to make her even more angry. I asked her to simply refund our money and open the room to let us get our belongings and she stated that she could not open the room and for us to return in the morning. I informed her this was not an option and that if she could not open the room I would be forced to call the authorites. She then said that if I did she would tell them I damaged the room. We were only able to enter the room once after she opened it for us and then only to leave our bags. I again asked her to simply refund us the money but she would not. The handyman finally arrived and was not able to fix the elcectronic lock so we were forced to use the deadbolt during the night. At 7am the next morning the phone rang and the owner yelled at us again that she wanted us to vacate the premise. I informed her that we had paid until 11am that day and that we would be out by that time. She continued to call back until I had to unplug the room landline. She then came to the door and continued to knock at which time I informed her that if she kept harassing us I would call the police. She continued to verbally assault us through the front door. Since we could not go back to sleep we decided to simply pack up and leave as soon as possible to extract ourselves from this very toxic person and situation. and by 8am we opened the door to leave and there she was waiting for us and proceeded to continue ridiculing us and actually used racial slurs to degrade us. This coming from an person of Indian decent seemed particularly odd and surreal. We did our best not to engage with her but when she started to berate my children I told her to back off. I have heard stories of people encountering a Fawlty Towers hotel stay but I never thought I would experience it myself. AVOID THIS HOTEL AND...

Where to begin? The owner is a perfect storm of bitterness and corruption.||||The property listing was CLEARLY listed 'Pay at Property upon arrival' ||Which is why I chose the property in the first place, yet 4 days prior to arrival they ran my card and took the full amount of the first night out. When I called to inquire as to why the woman owner became irate insisting that it was common practice and that it happens all the time. ||This should have been my first warning.||Upon arrival the owner greeted me with seething contempt saying quote "Oh, You the one who call to complain about money. You have enough to come here for vacation you lucky. You should not complain." insinuating that anyone who visits Mammoth is somehow privileged. ||We were given Key cards for the room, none of which worked. I immediately returned to the office and was told, again in a condescending manner that I was doing it wrong. She came to the room and tried the keys herself which, of course, did not work. She then tried to blame the situation on the 'battery' that was in the door handle. She was able to climb in the window and open the door. She then said she would have it fixed within the hour when her handyman came back and to just keep the cards insisting they would work later. When we returned 90 minutes later and tried the key cards not only did they still not work but the office was closed, locked and dark and the woman owner was no where to be found. I tried knocking on the door several times and finally she came out of the back room.....YELLING at me that she was off duty and that I would have to return in the morning I told her that the cards still didn't work and that we had no way of getting into our rooms. She became completely belligerent at this point and people were exiting their rooms to see what she was yelling about. I repeatedly asked her to calm down which just seemed to make her even more angry. I asked her to simply refund our money and open the room to let us get our belongings and she stated that she could not open the room and for us to return in the morning. I informed her this was not an option and that if she could not open the room I would be forced to call the authorites. She then said that if I did she would tell them I damaged the room. We were only able to enter the room once after she opened it for us and then only to leave our bags. ||I again asked her to simply refund us the ||The handyman finally arrived and was not able to fix the elcectronic lock so we were forced to use the deadbolt during the night. At 7am the next morning the phone rang and the owner||yelled at us again that she wanted us to vacate the premise. I informed her that we had paid until 11am that day and that we would be out by that time. She continued to call back until ||I had to unplug the room landline. She then came to the door and continued to knock at which time I informed her that if she kept harassing us I would call the police.||She continued to verbally assault us through the front door. Since we could not go back to sleep we decided to simply pack up and leave as soon as possible to extract ourselves ||from this very toxic person and situation. and by 8am we opened the door to leave and there she was waiting for us and proceeded to continue ridiculing us and actually used racial slurs ||to degrade us. This coming from an person of Indian decent seemed particularly odd and surreal. ||We did our best not to engage with her but when she started to berate my children I told her to back off.||I have heard stories of people encountering a Fawlty Towers hotel stay but I never thought I would experience it myself. ||AVOID THIS HOTEL AND...

There is a reason---in fact many reasons---why The Ventura Grand Inn is #28 out of 29 'hotels' in Mammoth Lakes! They had to 'try' quite hard to 'achieve' such a notorious 'status' of second WORST 'hotel' in Mammoth Lakes! But hey, don't just take my word for it. Look at literally the dozens of other scathing reviews written by: Bill S, Stephen B, Fredie V, Kristina S, C.O. and many more, who I completely concur with...||Even calling this place a hotel would be like comparing a 'meal' at McDonalds to a meal at Spago in Beverly Hills, prepared by Wolfgang Puck himself!||A 'hotel' that is second to LAST place should have been THE red flag that got me to read the reviews more closely. But, it was a late night decision made after a long day of driving and I was tired. Oh well, we all make mistakes...||We pulled up around back and walked down the stained, torn and very tired hallway, wreaking of a myriad of foul odors, towards the lobby. As I pushed the broken sliding door open, almost cutting my hand on the rusty edge, we entered the "reception" area, and ohhh were we received!||We arrived at 1:30pm and asked if we could check in (90 minutes early) and that's where the wrath of this toxic woman was unleashed on us!||A torrent of condescension, scorn, disdain, contempt, and outright aggression unlike anything I have EVER experienced rained down on us like a monsoon...||I mentioned that we saw there was availability late the night before and thought we would check if we could get into our room just a bit early. She started demanding proof and telling us that we were "liars". As my wife and I looked at each other in disbelief as to how we were being 'received' and spoke to each other without speaking, it was quite clear that we had made an epic bad decision to book a room here! She continued to unleash on us and told us to come back at 3pm, the official check-in time.||We walked back to our car, sat down and with a heavy sigh of frustration considered our options, which, considering it was the week of July 4th seemed to be few.||So, we left and came back at 3pm.||We reentered the lobby and found her sitting behind the desk.||I said we'd like to check in and she matter of factly told us that she cancelled our reservation because she "didn't like our attitude"!||To that I said, you asked us to leave when we arrived at 1:30, told us to come back at 3pm and intentionally wasted our time! Moreover, she told Booking.com that we were a "no show"!||They say that truth is stranger than fiction...||Folks, no amount of detail can ever illustrate the other-worldly absolutely horribly disgusting attitude this person in the (in)hospitality industry showed us.||My hope is that by sharing the exceptionally unfortunate experience we were subjected to, this evil woman and the Ventura (not so) Grand Inn can finally achieve the status it deserves of #29 out of 29 (WORST) 'hotels' in...