The Inn at Europa Village — Hotel in Temecula

tldr; Don't assume anything here and double check what you are getting if you book here

Oh, where to start? I really wish I had done a little more research before booking here. My wife and I came here looking for a beautiful escape, but that was not what we received.

It started with the check-in process, you check in near the onsite restaurant. While I admit we got there slightly before the check-in time of 4pm, we were told we would be called when our room is ready. Come 415 no one had called us and other people where there getting checked in. During the process of finally checking the receptionist(?) starting talking to other staff for several minutes before finishing the process.

After checking-in you drive through the gravel parking lot, across another street and up a steep driveway to a picturesque villa (we will come back to this later). From the parking lot, you have an amazing view of the wine country and into the valley. There is a beautiful courtyard and a bellhop offered to help us with our minimal luggage. So far so good!

Until we get into our room...The room is roughly the size of a shoebox taken up almost exclusively by the bed with a poop ton of extra pillows on it. There was a closet with 5 hangers in it. There was no dresser, the night stands were occupied by the "mini bar" or junk you could buy one side the phone on the other. There was a very small table with a Keurig on it taking up the only other flat surface in the room. In short there was no where to actually put our stuff. In addition to the this, the jetted bath looked like it had been there since the 80s and unless you were over 6 feet tall it would be a challenge to get in and out of. In addition, most of the light fixtures in the room had some form of flickering bulb so thankfully neither of us is epileptic. That is okay, we have stayed in some small B&Bs in our day and can make due living out of our suitcases for a couple days. At least the room was relatively clean aside from the cracking bathtub.

That was until we looked outside. Our "vineyard" view was essentially a view of a privacy wall made of hedges with a side walk that the staff was constantly walking back and forth across. Unlike the pictures shown of the inn, this patio was a joke. Instead of a luxurious patio, it was a little triangle with the chairs and table shoved into the corner. Unfortunately they were supposedly all booked up and we could not switch our rooms, even though we saw a room that was unused during our stay...

It is fine we will make the most of it. The common areas of the inn are nice a well apportioned and we were glad to be able to check them out, since no one told us about them when we checked-in!!! The whole place looked like a villa or B&B that was converted into whatever it is now. The dining room had a long table, there was a kitchen that was being used to store linens, there was a refrigerator for water bottles. We were never really sure it the fridge was accessible to guests or not since there was no fridge in the room. Most of the rooms connected to this main living area, except for our room and one other room. This is when it dawned on us, we were literally sleeping in the servants quarters of the estate!

I will say the outside was gorgeous and had beautiful views, comfortable furniture and a gas firepit. There was a deck beyond a bunch of caution tape and orange cones with a hot tub in it. I assume that at some point in the past this area was guest accessible. They also had some hammock stands (without hammocks) blocking this area off.

I get the impression at some point this place was a full on bed and breakfast. If it was breakfast might have been something to write home about. The included breakfast is a $20 voucher for food in the restaurant. Even if salt was not the predominate flavor of the restaurant, and even if $20 cover a meal and a coffee there it would not be worth it. That drive to get to the inn is the same one you have to take to get...

Ok. I am here to review The Inn at Europa.

Let me begin by saying that I gave the Inn at Europa 3 stars for very specific reasons that bothered me. My reasons may not bother you.

First let me say that the Inn is beautiful and I am not disputing that. We love visiting various Wine Country areas and Temecula is one of our favorites and also one of the closest to us, so we visit the area often.

We dont mind paying a higher price for an Inn if it comes with very comfortable amenities, a great location and we get what we expected or more.

We decided on our last trip to Temecula to visit the Inn and surrounding 'village' in order to see if it was something we wanted to book for my birthday in August.

The Inn's website boasted the Libido Room with its 'own patio and fountain.' The picture on the website showed a very private room with opened French doors opening onto a quiet and secluded patio and overlooking trees.

Although that IS true, what isnt mentioned is that the patio and fountain is ALSO right next door to the public lobby and parking lot! NOT private! And for $240 a night I would expect a little more privacy than that.

Also, the website talks about a wine club, tasting room and shops nearby on the premises. I thought this might be fun bcus you could shop, eat and drink and then just walk right back to your room. Well, the Inn is up on a hill, far away from the wine tasting area and shops, and the only way to get there is to cross the street and walk or drive up a very steep narrow road.

If you have the money to spend $350 a night or more on the view rooms with private patios then this Inn could be for you. But in my opinion that is what you would have to spend to have any privacy.

Still, the Inn was beautiful and luxuriously decorated in dark European finishings and no matter where you are, it's always a beautiful day in Temecula...

Lovely place. Chef Dean really put all his efforts into making our stay enjoyable. He does everything he can to be accommodating. He greeted us cordially and explained everything we needed to know. His breakfasts were very interesting and gourmet in every way with a beautiful presentation. He is polite and considerate and gave us restaurant recommendations that were excellent. Our room was nice, small, clean but nothing over the top. No TV but we had internet. Our patio was small with a marginal view. The cord on the hair dryer was about a foot long and unusable because of that. I noticed it was advertized that there was a sangria happy hour but we never saw that. We were told we could use the refrigerator in the common area for whatever we wanted. We left an almost full bottle of wine there and it was gone the next day. I told Chef Dean as well as the woman who helped him prepare food, and instead showing concern, they said this has never happened before and it just couldn't have happened and they never saw the wine in the refrigerator. Did they thinkI made that up? I was floored. Later that night he offered us a free bottle wine which we declined then brought out tastings of his homemade lemoncello, which was delicious. That was very nice. It wasn't his fault the wine was taken, and he eventually tried to make it up to us, but his first response was unsupportive and a faux pas. I noticed a review said there was not a spa but actually there is. In addition, there is a lovely patio with a gas lighted fireplace, comfortable furniture, and spectacular views of vineyards, surrounding hills and beautiful sunsets. I would say that Chef Dean did everythiing he could to make our stay pleasant. I actually don't know how he does it all. He's kind of a one man show,...