Colonial Houses, an official Colonial Williamsburg Hotel — Hotel in Williamsburg

Our stay was painfully disappointing. Although the location of the historic house was tops (5 stars) and the exterior appearance of the building was charming (4 stars), the interior was in appallingly bad condition.||Like others have already said in their own reviews, we (I and an adult child) had been giddy with excitement at the thought of staying directly in the heart of Colonial Williamsburg in one of the historic houses. Our excitement evaporated once we actually set foot inside the place.||The first thing that greeted us was the unexpected and jarring sight of an LG portable A/C unit in the downstairs living area. (There was another portable unit upstairs as well.) It hadn't occurred to us that the house might not have up-to-date climate controls. After all, the description of the historic lodging on the Colonial Williamsburg website says, "Settle into a cozy canopy bed and warm up next to a crackling fire in homes meticulously reproduced to be true to the time period of Colonial America. In the heart of the Historic Area, our Colonial Homes will transport you to this historic era, while offering all the expected amenities of the modern age." Portable A/C units hooked up to partially opened windows don't meet my definition of expected amenities of the modern age.||Additionally, the units weren't even installed all that well. Messy tape had been applied to seal the seams between the window sash and the A/C window insert. Cold air was pouring in through the window. ||There was also a security concern. The windows on the lower floor were at ground level, and it would have been absolutely nothing at all for someone on the outside to knock in the insert and then open the window to gain access to the interior. During our stay, I hoped that we would not have any unwelcomed visitors. I consoled myself with the thought that the odds were in our favor that no terrible safety incident would occur. (It didn't, thank goodness.)||Upstairs, the bathroom was a veritable fright. On the ceiling directly over the tub/shower, the paint was both peeling and mildewed. Big, black, unhealthy splotches were plainly visible.||At the edge of the shower tile where it meets the wall, the paint there was also in miserable shape. In fact, just about everywhere the paint was in some stage of disrepair and decay.||Then there was the thoroughly rusted heating strip at the base of the wall in the bathroom, the stained carpets both upstairs and down, and the grungy daybed pillows that needed a good steam cleaning. Those were so dingy, I washed my hands after handling them. ||Given the expense of booking these accommodations, I felt that we had been taken for suckers. Perhaps that is exactly what we were, but it was an expensive mistake that we will not repeat in the future. We will not be coming back to the...

I stayed at the Brick House Tavern last night. I never review anything and always enjoy where I stay when I travel, but this did not live up to my expectations for various reasons. The location and exterior of the Brick House Tavern was excellent, although it’s nothing you can’t drive to and see for free any day. The room had modern non-colonial things like an outlet, but it was on the floor and I had to bend down to plug in and in the middle of the night I noticed my charger fell out and my phone stopped charging. If it’s a modern thing like outlets etc I think it should be placed in better spots and be of better quality. The bathroom sink collected water when I used it and did not drain well. There’s colonial theming, which I love, and then there’s a feeling of outdated which I do not. The bathrooms could work better, and were just outdated-not “fun colonial” because they did not have these bathrooms in colonial times anyway. If you want a nice enough bathroom to get ready for the day, I don’t think the colonial houses are for you. Just drive over and look at them from the outside, you’ll enjoy it the same! Another aspect that was a disappointment for me was that on their website, they describe the Brick House Tavern as having a “cozy Great Room in the cellar” with a fire going, games to be played, “savoring a cup of American Heritage Hot Chocolate!” Check their website-it says this. The reality for when I was there was a cold empty basement, nobody in it (I went down more than once to check), no hot chocolate anywhere, and I did not see games, and certainly no fire going. It was just an old empty basement, not a place I saw any guests spend their time (photo included in review). That was a surprise from how they described it on the website, and I was looking forward to those things. The last bummer was I planned to enjoy their indoor swimming pool today since it’s chilly out (pools are included in your resort fee), and was told-again to my surprise-it’s closed for weeks. I did not see this mentioned on the website anywhere. This was my first time staying here and I am a huge fan of colonial history. It was a test for me to see if I would stay longer on property in the future. I wish my experience was better. I feel bad even writing this review, but I think people should know about my experience. Other than my stay in a colonial home, Colonial Williamsburg in general is beautiful and I...

The colonial houses seem to be a fantastic, boutique, incredibly convenient accommodation for a family and I wish that had been true as we spent a small fortune for the one weekend we could vacation this year. We had so many issues in our 2 day 3 night stay, with very poor customer service, that I can't recommend it despite the beautiful home and great location. At the price point, it should be magical, and could have been with better customer service. Our colonial home wasn't ready for an hour after check in time, with no eta which messed up our first afternoon. We thought we could go to the pool to pass the time, but the adult only pool had nice shade and the family friendly pool had absolutely none, the water was warm and the kids started to sunburn. So we left the pool and the house still wasn't ready, at 5 pm they offered us a room to change in, but then said the house was finally cleaned. Our second day, the door lock was broken when we came back for nap time and that was a 90+ minute ordeal. And the portable a/c upstairs kept detaching itself from the vent, pouring hot air into the bedroom making it very uncomfortable upstairs. The three bedrooms all have padlocks that lock automatically if pulled shut, so you can imagine how un-fun that is with small kids and making sure you had one of the two metal keys handy to unlock the rooms all the time. The fantastic dining room downstairs not described in the listing is a bonus but we weren't counting on the open, steep, narrow stairs heading down from the main level as they're not child safe. If your guests are teens or adults with a lot of flexibility it might still be a great experience, but the tiny adjustment made to the bill for all the problems was so small as to leave us feeling utterly ripped off and angry. They even charged a $25 per day resort fee when our reservation confirmation clearly states $20. It has definitely soured our opinion of what had been one of our favorite destinations. It should have been a memorable and ultra convenient stay for the exorbitant cost, we would have had a happier trip staying at the Hampton Inn down the road that was great...