Kenwood Inn & Spa — Hotel in St. Helena

The Kenwood Inn and Spa is an absolutely beautiful hotel and the grounds are immaculately kept. My husband and I had our wedding at the Kenwood Inn three years ago and the property has since been sold and is under new management. The new management has done a lot of renovations and in some ways I think the renovations are good, but they also took away a lot of the warmth of the place. There is minimal staffing now and the rooms are “cold”. The warm Italian pictures, warm wood furniture and area rugs are gone. The furniture is nice and everything is very clean… and paintings have been replaced with a flat screen TV, but the warm pictures are gone and there is no area rug just a cold polished concrete floor. There are gas fireplaces and overall unit for temperature control but the rooms are loud and cold without an area rug. We could easily even hear people walking back-and-forth in the ceiling above us even through earplugs at night (the people above were not being particularly loud it’s just there is no insulation with no area rugs). The overhead wooden light fixture was missing it’s shades so that we were looking at bare but not decorative bulbs. While the shower was nice, the cabinet under the sink was missing drawer pulls and the ones that were there were loose. There wasn’t really anywhere to put your toiletries because the side shelves were falling apart. It is Fall and where the Kenwood Inn used to have pumpkins, warm welcoming signs and wooden entrance tables with fresh flowers, now the only decorations you see in pictures taken are pictures that were taken prior to this management. There are there wooden stands or welcoming signs with flowers (just a single leaf in a vase). There were no pumpkins or garland anywhere. While the employees we met were polite, guests do not get that bed and breakfast feel that made the Kenwood Inn so fantastic before. And while the breakfast buffet was good, it was not at the level that it used to be. They used to offer you cappuccino or a latte with fresh made coffee and would take a custom order of eggs or sausage for your breakfast along with a buffet of food you could pick from. Now there was no one greeting you and the single hostess cleaning off tables would not even make eye contact. There were no greeting of “good morning” or “can I get you anything?”. While the hotel is still very nice, the rooms are outrageously expensive (our simple room with only shower and no bath -keep in mind this is a spa) was $500/night. To splurge for that level of hotel, our expectations are higher. We were very disappointed and will likely not go back until they’ve had a few years and see what direction they take...

We just stayed here 2 nights to celebrate my father's birthday in wine country. This is a return trip for us, we stayed here a year ago at the same time for 3 nights. We loved our stay last year so much we had to come back and do it again this year. Unfortunately I'm so sad to report that things have changed for the worse. Breakfast last year was phenomenal every day, there was a chef preparing several hot food options (ie. lemon blueberry pancakes, omelette with veggies and side salad with truffle oil dressing) as well as cold choices like fresh berry compote on greek yogurt, house baked granola, the food was fantastic! We couldn't believe how special this hotel was. This year it was such a huge let down, we were all so disappointed by the food on this trip. We asked the woman at the front desk about it, she said they were making some changes, unfortunately it seems the changes are for the worse and most likely to save the hotel money. This is not a bargain price hotel, the rooms are fairly expensive, it was totally worth it when the food was top notch but now I'd say it is not worth the price. The breakfast now is more like a regular "continental breakfast" you'd get at any small hotel/motel.. it's such a shame. We've been looking forward to coming back here all year and are so sad they have changed for the worse this much in just a year. I have recommended the hotel to a lot of people based on my past stay a year ago and now I regret that I talked it up so much now that the quality is not up to par. The property is pretty and the rooms are a pretty good size and decorated nicely, but it is pretty far out and not close to any good restaurants. I wouldn't mind at all if the quality was still the same, but now it's not worth the hassle of the extra driving on winding roads at night to get to good restaurants from here.||The fresh baked cookies used to be bakery quality and they had a different variety each day (chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, white chocolate chip). Now they seem like Pillsbury cookie dough baked in the front office, it's a sugar cookie and chocolate chip that are greasy and some undercooked, some overcooked, just low quality and nothing to look forward to.||Our whole group agreed the quality has declined a lot and the current state is a disappointment. There are plenty of other places to stay that are more convenient to wineries and restaurants in Sonoma or Napa. The gourmet breakfast had really set it apart in my opinion, without that extra amenity, it's lost it's...

Very bad stay ,not worth your money!! Things to be improved in a place for around 700$/night: 1)Make sure to hire a good front desk clerk (when we called ,a lady told us there was no need for reservation for the spa ,we could just drop in once arrived at the hotel!big mistake and we spent 30mins on our way there trying to sort things out!Way to start the weekend ! 2)Make sure to not crank the AC on top of having Marmorino walls (type of Venetian plaster ) in the bedroom .It makes you feel you are in North Pole in your bedroom! 3)Make sure to put some sort of plants in front of windows if you are gonna give your guest the last bedroom with no natural light whatsoever.Otherwise it makes you feel you are in a dungeon.(see pics) 4)Make sure the service is top notch .Sebastian was good .The assistant manager did not step in into making up for the massages mess. 5)You want to look like somewhere in Provence …sure thing !Make sure you look into details .The curtains on that part of the building looks wrinkly and dirty !(See pics)-Lounge chair broken -Dirty dishes staying a b long on a table after everybody left -Wrong attitude from management - 6)Presentation of breakfast can we elevated a bit better .The eggs were a bit stale .A dish is better at a common diner ! 7)Spa issues : -Don’t ask for how much gratuity you want to leave before the massage has started (It’s the last section you have to fill out on the form prior to the massage).Massage is a very special service .Gratuity should be decided once the massage is over with. -We were ready for our simultaneous massages with my husband and had to look for the masseuses that were chatting in another room to get started. -Monica and Leslie were our masseuses .Monica (young) decided it was best to go with my handsome husband and that I should go with the more experienced masseuse (28 years of experience ) Leslie.Such a FAUX PAS!Overall they did a good job except that it makes common sense that My husband should have gone with Leslie (the more experienced masseuse and therefore she would have put more pressure )And I should have gone with the young Monica avoiding misjudgment and awkward situation! -It’d be best not to have the gardener and his noisy machine going around at the time of the massage .

I don’t recommend Kenwood in and Spa as it’s more in the apparences then...