Susanna's Guest House — Hotel in Ohio Township

I don't often write reviews, but when I do, you know something spectacular has occurred... So when an individual, a proprietor, goes above, beyond and out of their way, as did Mr. & Mrs. David Vornholt during our visit, I have to take a moment and recognize and give praise where praise is due.

On 8/22/15 we had the fortunate opportunity to stay an evening in Susanna's Guest House, and what and wonderful experience it was. Starting with my very first contact with the proprietor David a couple weeks before our stay, until the afternoon we pulled out of New Richmond, Ohio, everything was absolutely delightful.

I was in New Richmond attending an old friend's wedding. Having never heard of, or been to New Richmond before, and taking my cues from the wedding invitation, I weighed my options between staying in a big chain hotel, or a quaint B&B. I waivered at first, but after my first email communication with David, I knew Susanna's Guest House was the place for me. David's knowledge of the house's history and his charismatic passion for all things New Richmond is simply infectious. From the first email to the moment he met us in the front yard of Susanna's Guest House, with our two dogs in tow, and provided us a warming and inviting welcome. He invited us into his beautiful, historic home and provided us with a brief history of several of the different rooms. We were so captivated we continued to ask more and more questions, as every piece of the home and David's knowledge of the history of the area is simply fascinating. After the brief tour David showed us to our room – the Thomas and Susanna Ashburn Suite - which couldn't have been more perfect. The entire afternoon we were continually torn between spending time in the antiquity-decorated room, spending time on the wonderfully maintained grounds, or going out and exploring the little quaint river town village of New Richmond. Needless to say, we did a little of everything.

As the early evening wedding approached, after spending the afternoon exploring New Richmond, we returned to our room where David had an iron & ironing board waiting, which I had requested earlier when we arrived. The room was grand and spacious and we had no problems getting ready and arriving at the wedding just a few blocks down the road, along the Ohio River. After the ceremony and reception, it was again a pleasant and convenient walk back to the Guest House, where the comfortable bed whisked us right to sleep after our long and exciting day & evening in New Richmond.

The next morning David had an impressive breakfast prepared in the Vornholt house, where we dined with other house guests, and continued to be captivated by David's narration of more of the house's fascinating history. After breakfast (and a brief nap), David helped us put the house's canoe into the river, which can be slightly challenging due to the rocky, declining path down to the river, but David knew what he was doing, and in no time flat, we found ourselves effortlessly paddling along the Ohio River!

After a great time on the river, we realized we would eventually have to leave this 1920's utopia and return to the real world for our 9-to-5's the next morning; so we returned to our room, packed up, and started loading our belongings into the car. I sent David a text message thanking him for everything and letting him know we were getting on the road. He and his wife came out and gave us a friendly goodbye, and we were off, with many great memories of New Richmond and fond memories of Susanna's Guest House. Without a doubt 5-Stars, 100%. The quality of the people, the history of the house, and the quaint-ness of the town is unparalleled. Very much looking forward to another visit to New Richmond and Susanna's Guest House. Highly...

Susanna's Guest House||Bed & breakfast||PLACE DETAILS||||Penny Akers|||| 2 hours ago||I recently stayed at Susanna's Guest House Bed and Breakfast. I wouldn't call it a bed and breakfast. More like a run down boarding house except they do cook you breakfast. The location was chosen by someone else with good intentions. I would like to get my money back, but from the reviews it doesn't sound possible. The room was barely tolerable. Everything very old and rickety. Most of the house smells musty. The room was neat not clean under furniture, bed, etc. Black mold on the wall behind the toilet. When the lights are turned out there is light flooding in from every direction. So much that I thought there was a transom above the door only to find the next morning it was just that the door was so uneven it let in a lot of light. The decor was very old style maybe trying to make it look like the era the house was built, but nothing polished or clean looking. Stains on the ceiling, hole in the corner of the wall/floor large enough for a rodent to crawl in with a big blob of sealer covering only part of it leaving a golf-ball size hole. Curtains covering the view of the river that you couldn't open because a table and chairs were up against the window. The curtains only go up to within about 10 inches of the top of the window and light floods in there also at night. A window air conditioner right by my side of the bed in a window patched up with a sign and tape. A couple of nice touches I should mention, they had clean towels available and an assortment of bottled water, soft drinks and even a large bottle of Perrier that were provided free of charge. We heard laughing and cussing in either the hallway or the front porch late at night. I thought it was other guests, but found out in the morning a permanent renter's family member just yell's down the stairs right outside our room when looking for someone. His friend stops by, walks in the door and starts yelling up the stairs calling his name.||||Breakfast was next door in the owners house which was also musty smelling and the room where we ate was crowded with banquet tables. Breakfast was the one saving grace. The cook had a very nice table set with linens and china and she did a wonderful job serving a nice breakfast and kept the area clean considering what she had to work with. From the table there was a view of the Ohio River - out a dirty window and weathered window sill. A pile of junk lumber and orange cones between the window and the view of the river. ||||It you want the total experience of staying in a 175 year old house that still feels and operates like it would have 175 years ago, this is the place to be! I have learned not to ever trust the pictures from an ad without extensive research. This was my first Bed and Breakfast. I've never stayed in one before because I thought they were too perfect to be comfortable in. The exact opposite here.||||Not only do I find it hard to believe that ANY of the good reviews are true, but the pictures in the ad do not represent what this place looks like. Sounds like the owner is a very charismatic guy that wins over the guests so that they don't feel comfortable leaving an accurate review. I didn't meet him!||...

We desired to stay in an old B and B Close to the Ohio River. We thought this would be a great place after looking through the website. We were surprised and somewhat scared at what we experienced.||||We arrived after dark and the owner met us at the front door. When walking in we heard a large dog barking coming from one of the downstairs rooms. Upon questioning the owner said that he was allowing people to rent the rooms and stay there. We were puzzled by that but went along with it initially as he took us upstairs to our room. The room was not super clean and there were many things that we "needed to do" or things wouldn't operate correctly. For Instance: don't run the sink too long in the bathroom or water will come up through the floor. When entering the bathroom he went to turn the lights on and they didn't work. He said he would fix it in the morning and handed us a flashlight. He said that a guy rents out the room we were staying in but he's away on a job and he should have told him the lights were burned out. My wife's eyes began to itch and she asked him if there were cats in the building and there were. The person renting the room right across the hall had cats. She is highly allergic. We wanted to be cordial so we continued the tour. ||||After a long day of travel, we were ready to go get something to eat and come back and go to bed. The owner asked us to sit down and gave us a 30-minute history lesson on the house without a single breath where we might be able to interject how hungry/tired we were. We eventually told him we were going to eat and then return. Upon our arrival back to the house after eating, we noticed someone on the porch turning over every pot seemingly looking for a key. They eventually found the key and went right onto the house. It was at that point that we decided this was not the place for us. ||||We found the owner and told him everything we had experienced and that we didn't feel safe. He didn't even seem phased by it. Didn't apologize. Didn't try to make it right. Since we prepaid we asked for our money back and still have not received a refund. ||||DO NOT STAY HERE FOR ANY MOUNT OF MONEY! PEOPLE ARE ALLOWED TO WALK IN AND OUT OF THIS HOME AS IF THEY OWN IT. IT IS NOT A BED AND BREAKFAST IT'S A...