Olympic Railway Inn — Hotel in Sequim

EDIT: Let it be know, we have never been offered a refund, nor have we had anyone try to reach us to offer one. We were told the exact opposite, multiple times.

Pros: Each unit was unique, clean, and wonderfully decorated. Location was excellent for exploring all Sequim has to offer. Tastefully landscaped in a quiet and safe area.

That’s it.

Cons: Far overpriced for amenities offered. Units do NOT have queen sized beds as advertised. We stayed in one that specifically advertised a queen (my partner is over 6’) and we confirmed with measurements, that the bed was in fact a full. (Photos taken) As advertised, no microwave available anywhere on site, so you can only eat out. No management onsite for urgent issue, or assistance. Customer service rep on number provided extremely unhelpful (more on that later). On going construction on site that is not listed anywhere as a disclosure on the website. The unit directly to ours had contractors there early, with power tools running immediately next to the bedroom window. Website listed as THE HOTELS WEBSITE (mind you, NOT the one listed as first search on google, this is the website listed as The Olympic Railway Inn Website) IS NOT in fact, the correct website. It leads you to a sub-site of booking dot com. Which leads me to my next con… PRICES LISTED ON WEBSITE ARE NOT ACCURATE!! When booking through the previously mentioned website, the included fees are not mentioned ANYWHERE. I can back this up with screenshots. You are even provided a recipe for the cost of the room ONLY. Your card is charged several hours later with the ADDITIONAL AND UNLISTED FEES which are as follows: a $40 cleaning fee, $10 service charge, and pet fees of $25 per pet, per NIGHT. Plus 10.4% tax (obviously). -Pike Hospitality group manages this inn. They request that you book directly through their site, but unfortunately you cannot FIND their site with the information provided PRIOR to booking. You are only told they manage the hotel, AFTER you confirm your booking. Pike Hospitality Group: I spoke with a rep from their company, and was treated with disdain, and a complete lack of customer service. While attempting to ask questions, I was repeatedly cut off mid sentence, and the representative repeatedly raised his voice at me in order to cut me off and speak over me. Refund and cancellation policy extreme and punitive, even when wanting to cancel the reservation within LESS THAN 8 HOURS of booking it.

As mentioned in the pros/cons list above, my partner and I booked a nights stay, two days out from the planned trip. We confirmed the reservation at roughly midnight that night, received a receipt and confirmation for the room price (roughly $140) and went to bed.

I woke the next morning to a second charge on my card for an amount that brought the total for the room alone (not including pet fees) to over $200.

This was well out of the budgeted money we had, so I attempted to reach the customer service number provided in the confirmation email.

I explained the circumstances, and that we had just booked less than 8 hours ago, but because of the undisclosed fees, we really needed a refund so we could find more affordable accommodations elsewhere.

The gentleman i spoke to became very agitated and hostile at my request for a refund, and began repeating the cancellation policy back to me multiple times. I explained I understood, but due to the nature of the situation, could an exception be made.

The rep began lecturing me on proper bookings through know websites, reading fine print, etc. I attempted multiple times to explain I travel for work and knew all these things, and that I checked for fine print, but NONE was listed anywhere. I offered screenshots for proof (as I had many) and he cut me off and refused to accept them.

The rep was unable to provide me with the name of the “manager” he offered repeatedly to speak to (I did NOT ask him to do this) and in the end refused the refund. Instead offered to wave 1 of the 2 pet fees for me, then charged my card...

Before I give my bias opinion given my our experience with it, I will objectively state that the inside of the Casino Royale train had great detail in its design inside. The Casino board games were very fun and my children enjoyed the fact we were inside a train.

Driving into the inn, the environment at first seems like a trailer park and was a bit off putting. But after unpacking and taking in the scenery, it grew on us and the little pond and greenery around was pretty and calming.

Everything was fine, and we actually had visitors who were excited about the place and we had plan to come back as a bigger group but unfortunately it seemed like all the other cabooses were out of service or being built out still and they noticed ticks on the floor which was a bit off putting to them.

When it was time to lay down we noticed what seemed like pubic hair on the sheets, we removed them and there was the same hairs on the actual mattress. We assumed it was a romantic getaway style place but we didn't expect the beds to be so covered.

We took various picture and sent it to the number we were given to contact. To which they suggested new blankets and we replied politely that we had decided to stay elsewhere given the uncomfortable feeling of ticks and public hair on the mattress. Never sounded upset and never asked for anything in my texts, but was received with a message stating the hair was our fault for having guests over and then told that we also decided to go on the roof of the train and we weren't allowed to do that and we would not be getting a refund. Which we found to be disturbing because we don't know what going on the roof had to do with the problem we found inside or how having family friends over meant public hair all the way down to the mattress 😅😅 but lastly, we never asked for a refund or money, seemed like they were more worried about making a quick dollar than they were making sure we enjoyed our stayed and continued to come back.

Overall, this place seems more like a loveshack in a trailer park ran by bad people who are more concerned about money than they are about doing what's right. Before renting here I definitely suggest looking around on air bnb or different rentals since there's so many great locations and themed places that seemed to be more established and well taken care of! We were lucky enough to find a big beautiful home with lots of amenities for roughly the same...

• Rating impacted by COVID-19 restrictions *

This is a truly contactless stay *

This is not a five star hotel, but if you're looking for a bed and breakfast you're probably more interested in character anyway, and this place has plenty to offer! The train cars/cabooses are authentic, and while they have been fitted out as private rooms it was done with the intention of preserving the feel of the rail car. The room is compact but nicely equipped, and the cars are arranged in a semi-circle around a lovely pond and weeping willow. There is a picnic table in the grassy area behind the caboose that is probably quite nice in good weather if you want to bring food back from town. I think the nicest surprise was the themed DVD collection in the room - we stayed in the Orient Express, and found two documentary style DVDs about the Orient Express rail line and two versions of "Murder on the Orient Express": both the classic and the modern remake. The only things that I found inconvenient were the lack of a shower (no room for one around that beautiful tub) and a lack of tables or other surfaces to place things on. Now to the COVID-related notes... We booked the room in March looking forward to the full experience, but our stay was canceled due to COVID. Since they are accepting guests again we decided to take our stay now. The first thing I noticed when we walked into the room was the smell - like a good antique store or a library it smelled a little "old" - but it aired out quickly when we opened a window. I think it was probably mostly from lack of use in recent months. The highly rated dining car breakfast was not available to us - a huge disappointment - but the breakfast they provided was still very good. It included breakfast sandwiches and an amazing fresh baked coffee cake, with chocolate dipped orange wedges. They called us when our caboose was ready and the key was made available without requiring us to go into the office, and our breakfast was delivered to our door promptly when promised with hot food piping hot and separated from the cold juice and candies. It's a little weird not to have seen or spoken to anyone during our stay, but they have it down to a science and I can't imagine a better place to stay if you want to maintain a level...