Victorian House Bed & Breakfast — Hotel in Saint Augustine

Really wanted to give them 4 or 5 stars because our stay here started out great. But overall, after considering everything, the best I can do is 3 stars. First, the positives... Stayed in the Marcie which is one of their nicer rooms. It did not disappoint. Very nice room, cozy layout, comfortable king size bed, large whirlpool corner tub, and everything was very clean. It was great. Also, the owners were very nice and welcoming and check-in was a breeze. They offered complimentary drinks, wine, snacks, cookies, etc. in the main house too.

Now the negatives... After going out for the evening, we returned to the room and noticed it felt kinda cold/damp/humid. No problem. The AC/heater unit has a "dry" mode and it warmed the room and dried it out pretty quickly. Decided to use the whirlpool tub. Worked great! But because it's right in the room (about 3-4 feet from the bed) and there are no ventilation fans, the room got very humid again. So we kicked on "dry" mode again. Then we noticed the carpet in the opposit corner of the room (near the mini-fridge) felt kinda damp. Maybe the fridge was leaking (it sits right on the floor, not on a table), so I don't know. Also in that corner was a big dehumidifier unit. Not something you typically see in a hotel room or a BnB unless there is a known issue. Curious? Anyway, kicked it on full blast, also turned on the ceiling fan, room dried out pretty quick. All was well. Went to bed. Morale of the story... the room really doesn't have proper ventilation so be prepared to use the AC/heater unit, the dehumidifier, and the ceiling fan in tandem to eventually get the room comfortable. Kinda a pain. Could lead to mold issues down the road too, so I hope the owners are on top of that.

Moving on. Breakfast the next morning was horrible. And I was really looking forward to a nice breakfast. Maybe some eggs, bacon, sausage, toast, etc. You know, your typical breakfast. Nope! Wasn't given any options other than coffee/tea or OJ. The breakfast we were given was called stuffed french toast (I think). It was bad... really bad. It was just a really hard piece of square dinner bread (kinda like an individual loaf or something) with some chocolate (I think) goo on the bottom. Honestly, I don't know what it was. It was horrible. It was impossible to cut into pieces, you had to spend about 5 minutes sawing through each bite, and it was tasteless. We were also given 2 small sausage links. They were good. And some fruit that was ok. But the main course was very disappointing. I didn't see one guest that finished it. And none of us really said anything. I think we were just being nice and didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings. Now I kinda wish I woulda spoke up tho. I'm guessing they serve different meal options on different days, I hope they do anyway, and maybe the breakfast is really good on other days, I don't know, but avoid the stuffed brick bread!

Came back to the room, disappointed and hungry, started washing up and packing. Then we noticed the water coming out of the bathroom sink was yellow all of a sudden. Yes... yellow! Gross! Same thing in the toilet. All the water was yellow. Mentioned it to the owner as we checked out and he said maybe the city was messing with the water. I don't know but yellow water in unacceptable. As we left we noticed maintenance people working on the house, messing with the garden hoses. Don't know what was going on but they were the BnB's handymen/maintenance people, not city workers or anything.

So overall, mixed feelings. Great room but poor ventilation. Nice owners but atrocious breakfast. And started out with good clean water but ended up with yellow, urine colored water. And this place wasn't cheap. We paid over $200 for the one night. Granted, it was one of the nicer deluxe rooms.

Think we'll pick a different place next time we visit St. Augustine tho. Hope this review...

We had previously stayed at the Casa de Solana and enjoyed our experience very much. When we discovered it was full for our anniversary dates this year, we booked a room at their sister inn across the street, the Victorian House. It's somewhat less expensive than the Casa de Solana, so we didn't expect quite the same level of excellence. Overall it was a positive experience. The inn itself is charming, clean and the staff was friendly, but we were left disappointed in a couple of areas accounting for our 3 out of 5 rating. The breakfasts were heavy on sugar, including our second morning's offering of some kind of French toast concoction that we couldn't eat at all. That, and the fact that the coffee was always weak and never especially hot made the breakfast aspect of our stay mediocre at best. December can be quite cold in St. Augustine, and we found out too late on our second night that the climate control remote control in our room, containing a baffling number of buttons for myriad mysterious functions, did not have any labeled or obvious key for "heat". Although we kept raising the temperature display on the remote into the upper 70s, the heat never came on and we spent a very chilly night bundled up in bed. At no point when we were first shown the room upon check-in was the operation of the climate control system explained, no were there any basic instructions in the room on how to use it. If one was not already familiar with this particular unit, you were simply out of luck. We were given an emergency after hours number to call, but we weren't about to call at 1am. Again, we enjoyed our stay overall, but we will probably opt for another inn for our next St. Augustine...

We stayed at the Victorian House Bed & Breakfast for Valentine’s Day and unfortunately, it wasn’t the best experience. We booked Room 09 (Patricia), and while it had a few nice features like a Jacuzzi tub and a porch to sit on, there were quite a few things that really missed the mark.

First off, the bedframe was insanely squeaky—just rolling over or moving even a little made so much noise—and the mattress was super uncomfortable. The porch was a great idea, but it was covered in pollen and clearly hadn’t been wiped down, so we didn’t really get to enjoy it. The room itself could definitely use some updating—there were patches of drywall mud where nail holes were filled but never painted over, which just looked sloppy. The TV was outdated and didn’t allow us to log into any apps or streaming services.

Parking is free, but it’s offsite and a bit of a walk, so you’ll want to drop off your bags first before parking.

One thing that really disappointed us was the lack of any Valentine’s Day touch. We’ve stayed at other B&Bs on Valentine’s Day and they usually do something simple but thoughtful—like a small flower or chocolate-covered strawberries at breakfast. It’s a small gesture, but it goes a long way, especially when the stay is booked specifically for a romantic holiday. Unfortunately, there was nothing at all, which felt like a big missed opportunity for a place that markets itself as a romantic getaway.

The total cost was over $350 for one night, which would’ve been fine if the stay had lived up to that price—but sadly, it didn’t. Overall, it wasn’t the worst stay, but definitely not somewhere...