The Shire Woodstock — Hotel in Woodstock

I’ve never stayed at The Shire Woodstock, but they have made it clear they feel entitled to my money.

Here are the facts: -I booked a room for 11/6 -I called to cancel the room at 6:06pm on 11/3. -The reason I cancelled my trip was because my daughter was in the hospital. -I was told that I would still be charged for my stay because I cancelled within the 72 hour policy. -I was calling at the 68th hour. -I asked for an extent of goodwill, which was denied and lead me to ask to speak to the manager. -It took several phone calls to speak to Shire employees, Patricia and Kaelee to finally get a response from the manager Barbara Shehan on 11/5 at 9:04am. -I have been explained by The Shire staff the 72 hour policy countless times. -I am under the impression that The Charlestowne Hotel group approaches their clientele with a “policy is a policy” attitude with little room for flexibility. -In my original message to Barbara Shehan I explained my inability to call 4 hours sooner on 11/3 was because my day was spent speaking to doctors, addressing more important matters related to my daughter’s emergency. -I also included the fact that if we weren’t faced with this emergency, we wouldn’t need to cancel our trip. -Rather than any form of empathy or even a shred of humanity, I received a response once again repeating the 72 hour policy. -I’ve submitted an inquiry to Charlestowne Hotels and have not received a response. -No one offered to reschedule my stay or accommodate me in another way. -Barbara ultimately offered to refund our room if the room was rebooked 11/6. -I accepted this offer. -A friend called at 6:33pm on 11/6 to book a room for that night and was told the hotel was booked for the rest of the weekend. -This meaning, rooms were not available via phone reservation at 6:33pm on 11/6. -Throughout the day Saturday, I checked online to see if booking was possible on the Shire website and through booking sources on google. -No rooms were available to book online with Check-in date of 11/6. -I waited for good news from Barbara and then followed up on 11/8 after no response about the booked rooms over the weekend. -I was told that The Shire still had two unbooked rooms on Saturday. -I sent screenshots, including the attempt at online booking and the phone call that was made on 11/6 to request a room, supporting the fact that a room at The Shire was unavailable to the public with a check-in date of 11/6. -Barbara responded with a number of excuses which contradicted the truth and told me that she had the evidence to support her side through her private booking records if I chose to dispute through my credit card company. -This matter remains unresolved.

My opinion: -My intention behind this now is with hope to prevent anyone in the general public from being treated this way or need to feel this way again by the staff at the Shire including Kaelee, Barbara Shehan, or any other property “proudly managed by Charlestowne Hotels”. -They will take your money and they will act entitled to it. -The way this hotel treats its clientele is short-sighted and they do not consider the benefits of a dignified or personable exchange. -They entirely lack a customer focus -They are cold and lack empathy, qualities that are not ideal in any form of reasonable management or the hospitality industry -If they are struggling and feel the need to keep my money, it is because they address their clientele as I’ve just outlined above. -My husband and I have needed to cancel reservations elsewhere in the past, for hotels, tee times, restaurants, etc. for much more trivial reasons and have never witnessed such an unaccommodating transaction from a company in the service industry. -I share this openly with hope to prevent other families who are looking for a nice getaway from experiencing any unexpected anguish...

Could not have been more disappointed by our room especially for the outrageous price of $640 usd we were charged.

Staff seemed untrained and unaware of what was going on. We began check in and immediately I could smell a very strong and fragrant candle burning in the lobby. All I could think was what odor are they trying to cover up? There was an underlying odor of damp mustiness when I went to the bathroom near lobby area which was like something from 40 years ago but not in a good way.

Our room late by 40 minutes. We brought our bags upstairs, opened the door and our room was also heavily fragranced, so much so that I had to open a window to air it out. The rooms were poorly decorated, the furniture was nothing more than cheap, bargain basement furniture (chipped and worn) that was trying desperately to look quaint and charming (it failed). My daughter had a shower and the fan has a Smokey burnt smell when she turned it on, the shower had very poor water pressure, it was also very slow to drain so she was standing in her shower water (which is disgusting). There was pink mold in the shower, the grout on the floor was black from grime (it was not purposely dark grout - it was dirty). Cords were hanging down from the tv. We had at least 3 flies buzzing around our heads. This stay was the equivalent to a $50 a night run down road side motel. I would love a manager to offer me compensation because this should not have been a penny more than $200 and that is pushing but it is fall in Vermont so there is that. Absolutely NOTHING about this room was worth $640 usd ($870 cad). I suspect the room I got had not been upgraded by the renovations but I certainly got charged upgraded prices. I will not ever recommend The Shire. I will be staying at The Woodstock Inn next...

DO NOT BOOK WITH THIS PLACE! The town of Woodstock is really great so I’m giving the location 5 stars, and I thought my room was alright. It had a nice view and was the perfect amount of space for my sister and I and my son (8 month old). Aside from that everything else was AWFUL. There was construction going on that we weren’t made aware of before booking which was extremely loud right above my room (where they knew my baby was going to be in) so his naps ran short. There was water dripping right above our room leaving black ice, I asked if salt could get put down so no one slipped, they put it down, then 4 hours later a worker is vacuuming it up and banging against our door as he’s doing it so I had to go ask for it to be re salted because there was still a heavy drip coming down above our door. Someone walked into my dads room and then apologized and walked back out while him and my cousin were sleeping. When we spoke to the manager she said she tried to knock after and apologize (lie) and then said she’d been meaning to text him and figure out what they can do to resolve the issue. Which never happened. She said it was her and the owner who walked in by accident but when we asked to speak with the owner he all of a sudden wasn’t there anymore and even the next day when we went to check out he wasn’t there to speak to. We were told we’d get a free night because of the accident and we were never refunded for the night. Not surprised since they’d already lied multiple times to us. DO NOT GO HERE, so unprofessional, no room service offered, and no one seems to be really running the place I spoke to 3 different people while trying to speak to whoever is in charge. Terrible stay. I don’t recommend this...