Hydrangea House Inn — Hotel in Newport

I would give this a 2.5 really…my husband and I have stayed at numerous bed and breakfasts and aside from location the 3 things we look for are privacy, in-room jacuzzi and a great breakfast. I called before booking to review the room options and went with the Oak Suite as per the guidance of whomever answered the phone. I booked and did say we’re coming to celebrate our birthdays. We checked in and there were no pleasantries exchanged (where are you from, what’s your name, celebrating anything, nada) which struck me as particularly odd since b&bs are more intimate experiences than a hotel. To my surprise, the oak suite is right off the lobby! We were taken aback a little bit and wondered where our private entrance was. I had to ask what the door was in the room to discover that was the private entrance…which was not working. She called maintenance for this since I did say that was a reason for booking this suite (a few hours later he did come and fix it). I had to ask where the pillows were for the bed which were stored in the closet for some reason…sadly they were very flat. I’d recommend beginning your own pillow. Next, my fave reason to book in a b&b— the in room jacuzzi! We started filling it up and about halfway through the water went cool. My husband got frustrated and decided to use the steam shower…cool water again. Eventually would get warm but took about 10 full minutes of running it. Steam did work so he enjoyed that. I tried to phone the front desk 3 times and each time went to a voicemail box. I went down to tell Kim about the water and the phones not working. She said maintenance would check that out too. About an hour later I needed to start getting ready for dinner so tried the shower again and it was hot. The next morning tried a jacuzzi again and again halfway through and the water was cool. So frustrating. No one checked in to see if the water was better or if there was anything to make us more comfortable. I wouldn’t leave a negative review without talking to staff first and in this case after a few complaints you’d think they’d offer something for our troubles. Nothing. Breakfast— it was fine. We’re used to more customization when it comes to b&b breakfast (here are the options choose what you like) but this was 3 items on the plate and didn’t actually tell us what was on the plate (maybe a corn frittata, French toast and 2 slices of bacon). I don’t eat French toast and not a fan of corn in my eggs. No one asked how breakfast was or if we’d like more of anything. We’re also used to seeing in the common area complimentary beverages and snacks to take whenever, none here. It was such a bummer bc we were so excited! Great location but there are so many options in Newport to stay and the main reasons for booking were not to our satisfaction....

My wife and I loved our recent stay at the Hydrangea House! Normally I stay in name-brand hotel's for work travel and my wife and I usually stay in AirBnb's, so I was a little hesitant to stay here but the reviews and pictures were great. I read some of the 1 star reviews and I understand some of what they were complaining about, but honestly if you came to Newport to watch tv then you need to go somewhere else and if the HVAC unit isn't working great in your room, then you must not be used to staying in hotels as they are never great.

Keep in mind that most of this info is based on a specific room on the first floor

I'll start with the "needs improvement" -The rooms are a little dated compared to a new Hilton/Marriott property. The hotel itself is in a historic home, so it is not going to be built like a brand new building and some of the fixes may be very challenging and expensive to make. -20 minutes with a magic eraser on the walls would really help to improve the look of the room -The outlet plugs seemed a little loose

Reasons to stay here -I never sleep well in hotels and my wife and I slept great here! The bed seemed a little old, but honestly it must have been the most high end you can buy because it slept GREAT! -The room was on the first floor, but in the back of the hotel and we didn't hear any road traffic or passersby -You still get a daily turndown service (unlike most hotel chains now) and they leave cookies, bottled water, and Pellegrino. -The breakfast was delicious! I refuse to eat the "cooked" breakfasts at hotel chains, but this was awesome - pancakes/french toast, sausage/bacon, omelette/poached/souffle eggs and excellent coffee -The service was top notch. I don't know the last time you stayed in a chain hotel, but most of the employees there could care less whether you had good stay. The service at Hydrangea House was PHENOMENAL (especially Mike and the lady that was hosting breakfast). We truly felt like they cared about the quality of our stay. -The location was excellent and a 10 minute walk everywhere. I know some of the reviews complained about the price, but I thought it was very well priced for the location in town. -Cleanliness - I believe you pay for cleanliness, as a lot of hotels have the same accommodations, but the nicer ones are usually cleaner. I think some people may mistake old for dirty. I never saw anything that made me think that this hotel was dirty. If you want to see some bad hotels, look at my other reviews.

Overall, this stay has had a significant impact on the way my wife and I will travel. I will start looking for BnB's instead of chain hotels and AirBnb's when we're on vacation! Do yourself a favor and stay at the Hydrangea House on your next...

My wife and I took a rare weekend getaway. Newport was beautiful and I do highly recommend the mansion tours. As far as the Inn itself, the number of times we had to ask that something be made right, was disappointing. The parking lot was difficult to find and extremely tight. We were led up three flights of stairs to our room. No assistance with our bags was available. In the room we found an open half eaten plate of cookies from the previous guests. My wife went all the way back down to the desk and returned with a fresh wrapped plate of cookies and the desk keepers apologies. While she was gone I put on the TV which was in a an oddly located built in cabinet so it couldn't be seen from the bed. No worries about the TVs location though as it didn't work anyway. We decided not to hike the stairs again. We would ask that the TV be repaired in the morning. We started to fill the hot tub instead. As the water filled we noticed a film of dirt and several hairs floating on top of the water so we went to sleep after a careful inspection of the sheets as our faith in the cleanliness of the room was now lost. In the morning while we reported the inoperative TV and the filthy tub we also wanted to pay but they were unable to run our credit card. We contacted our bank to be sure it wasn't a problem on our end and were assured by our bank it was not. Finally the desk attendant had to leave the Inn with our card to go run it elsewhere. These things were corrected for the second night and the breakfast was quite good but as the saying goes you only get one chance to make a...