Rancho Caymus Inn — Hotel in Napa Valley AVA

We stayed here for our anniversary trip, and were pretty happy. But it wasn't quite up to my expectations. We've been to a number of hotels in the Napa / Sonoma area, but this hotel seemed a step below compared to others in the same price range ||Pros||- Centrally located and convenient for wine tasting and dining out, especially to the Rutherford, Oak Knoll, Yountville, and Saint Helena areas|- Beautiful courtyard with a pool and hot tub, beautiful interior and exterior. Spacious rooms|- Complimentary bottle of sparkling wine for our anniversary|- Included made-to-order breakfast is simple but good. You choose a drink (coffee, juice, I forget the 3rd option) and 3 food items from the menu (sliced fruit, berries, yogurt + granola, pastries, English muffin, sausage or bacon, scrambled eggs, hard boiled eggs, potatoes). This was the perfect amount for us. Any added items and espressos, lattes, etc. come at an extra charge|- The property doesn't face a busy street, so it's pretty quiet, except - see below ||Cons||- Our room faced the back of Beaulieu Vineyard. I was awakened one morning to a ton of glass bottles being dumped (recycling collection?)|- Loud AC, but that's pretty hard to avoid|- The coffee maker in our room was a Keurig. Most hotels in this class have Nespresso machines|- The staff didn't mention that they weren't holding the afternoon wine tastings during our stay until I asked. I understand it's "based on availability", but they should have communicated this prior to our arrival - let alone prior to my inquiry - so we could plan accordingly |- No complimentary snacks. Again, I shouldn't take it for granted, but most hotels in this class offer some complimentary snacks (cheese / charcuterie, cookies, or at least some packaged snacks)|- They provide filtered water in a carafe in your room. I do like this option over bottled water, but it was a bit of a pain to ask for refills every time we ran out. It would be nice to have a self-serve water dispenser somewhere on the property||Overall, we were happy with our stay and would recommend this property. I'm just not sure if we'd return for a...

I'm confounded by all the 5 star reviews! The reviews are the reason I picked this place and it really disappointed.

This place isn't bad, it's just FINE. Which I'd be absolutely ok with, if our total for 2 nights including fees wasn't around $1500. WHAT? At that price point I expect it to be fantastic. We just stayed at the Ventana in Big Sur FOR LESS, and that place is an incredible resort.

Rancho Caymus has no view, is situated near a busy road, so you can hear all the cars go by. It's also right near a volunteer fire station, so you hear random loud alarms going off and there were bugs in the hot tub. Oh and we could hear people going up and down the stairs and slamming doors and we were sleeping with a sound machine. We also rarely saw anyone at the front desk, so the service was very whatever.

All of this is totally forgivable if you're paying $350 a night. Absolutely unforgivable at this price point.

One pro: breakfast was free and pretty solid.

Won't stay again, won't recommend.

EDIT TO ADD RESPONSE TO OWNER:

EDIT TO ADD RESPONSE TO MANAGER:

I understand that the fire department needs to respond, of course. It's not their fault, it's YOURS for not accurately notifying guests BEFORE THEY BOOK that you are SO CLOSE to the fire station and that will be an issue. I AM confounded by the level of service you provided (little to none) and calling your place a 'boutique' hotel is not really an accurate description. Most boutique hotels are much nicer and not 3 stars. I would maybe call it 'independently owned'.

When you charge resort prices, people expect resort service. At minimum, they expect not to be placed directly over the lobby and to be able to get a full night's sleep.

Had you offered any discount to us when I expressed my concern about our stay at checkout, maybe I wouldn't have needed to post a review. Also the passive aggressive response didn't help.

I doubt you would be bothered if I shared my review across all 3 services if it...

The hotel was cute. But when we checked in, the front desk staff informed us [after checking in and receiving our keys and about to leave the lobby, which was really confusing?!] that Expedia had "cancelled our 2 night reservation" and they could only accomodate us one night due to being overbooked. We called Expedia, who said they had done no such thing. Back and forth we went between Expedia and the hotel, with neither wanting to take responsibility. I understand that there's not a ton the hotel could do at that point, but given that we had our reservation for months and months ahead, it felt unfair that they couldn't pull any strings, nor was any compensation or offer to book a different hotel offered. All that said, finding a different hotel wasn't the end of the world if you're an easygoing traveler, but you do lose that time when you have to check out at 11 a.m. and can't get in your next hotel until 4 p.m. No pool time for us, as hoped. And I promise you that the hotel was not only calling our room, but also knocking on the door at 11:05 am (we were out by 11:10 am; I just needed an extra few minutes due to the unexpected room change) to get us to leave. It left us with a really bad taste in our mouths. I would not stay there again, or...