Bann at Oak Knoll Napa Hotel — Hotel in Yountville

Don’t get me wrong, the Bann is a beautiful place with amazing ambiance and character. The food is superb, with fresh fruit platters and homemade pastries. The views are exceptional BUT, given the extremely high price point we felt very disappointed by the end of our stay. The accommodation felt a little unsafe. We’re a mother/daughter who stayed for 3 nights. Two of those we were the only guests (from what we could tell). Although the location was stunning, we felt very vulnerable being the only people there and after checking with staff before they left at 5pm, they stated that the gates are left open at night, so anyone can have access to the property. Our room door was tricky to lock and still wiggled back and forth when pressing down the handle. (There was no indication staff stayed on site at night, but we may be wrong.) The room creaked constantly in the evening, almost sounded like animals on the roof which was a little disconcerting. We had a dirty towel in the room upon arrival. I also had a chipped plate and some sort of hair on the table cloth during breakfast. There were no complimentary snacks (some were available to buy) and no fridges in the room to store food. There was a communal fridge outside but we would have preferred one in the room. The view was lovely but we felt it was spoiled by the car park being directly in front. It was great to have a pool on property but definitely would have preferred/used it more if it was heated. Lighting in the room was lacking and seemed dark at times. Within the bathroom, the bath tap was free standing but very wobbly and there were also large gaps between the light fixtures and the tiles, where you could see through to the electrics. They did have shampoo and body wash but no conditioner available. (We also stayed in 4 other budget hotels on our trip and all had shampoo, conditioner and body wash.) We loved the size of the room but felt that it was lacking seating for the space. It had a desk which seemed useless for the area and could have benefitted from some chairs or beanbags. The worst part of our stay was during our first full day. We woke up, had been served the wonderful breakfast and seen hot air balloons early in the morning. We had a booking at a vineyard and as we left our room to go, one of the staff asked if we were returning today. We said absolutely, we’d booked another two nights! He then told us that the water was being turned off for the next two hours. We hadn’t received any prior warning of this but felt okay as we were planning on being out for the next 1.5hrs. Upon our return, 3hrs later, the water was still not working. This meant there was no running water and no working toilets! This continued for roughly 6hrs in total. Nothing was said to us throughout the entire process and we kept having to ask for updates. It meant we couldn’t use the pool/hot tub as weren’t able to shower after. We still had no access to toilets during that time too. We were given a bottle of champagne as an apology but felt this was poor considering the price we paid and the lack of basic facilities available! Normally we wouldn’t go into this much detail however having anticipated a luxury experience from reading previous reviews we were bitterly disappointed and felt we needed to express these problems in order for some of these areas to be addressed. We booked the Bann as the pinnacle of our trip but felt the level of luxury did not meet our expectations...

We stayed there for a weekend for our anniversary. The place is beautiful, in the middle of the vineyards and there are not a lot of rooms so it was very quiet. Our room was big, beautiful, the bathtub was spacious, it was very pleasant. The breakfast was really good as well, you have choice between several dishes that are homemade with fresh products.

We paid $1555 for 2 nights, which is not cheap, and it’s a price we were ready to pay for such a nice occasion, in a place that called itself luxury. I just have a couple of things that I noticed and that are, according to me, not “luxury”:

The Twinings tea bags for breakfast, it’s not really good tea, it feels cheap and I would have liked to have a selection of high end tea. There was one good tea that was coming from Asia but it would be better to have a consistent choice with just good tea. The jam in the small plastic container, this is the same jam you can find in motel breakfast or brunch place. It would have been nice to have homemade jam or jam from a fruits producer. When we arrived at the pool, there were no clean towels, the dirty towels were still in the basket and someone changed them 2 hours after we arrived. According to me, this is something that should be done before the opening of the pool. Same for the cleaning: there were spider webs on the wooden structure where there is the couch to relax. We stayed at the pool from 10am to 4pm, we just wanted to relax. We would have appreciated if someone would have come to us to ask if we were fine and if we wanted something to drink, like a juice. I don’t think it will cost a lot to the hotel to offer that and it’s something that elevate the experience and is more “luxury” service as we were expected from this place.

Sorry for the long review! In the end we were satisfied and enjoyed the experience and maybe I’m too picky but when you pay this price and when the place claim to be luxury then everything has...

I wanted to provide the most honest review of Bann. This is a beautiful cozy spot that charges ridiculously high prices for very basic service. I stay in 5 star accommodations across US and when going abroad. The price I pay per night is on par with Bann's prices. At $1200+ per night, I really expected incredible, luxury service, in addition to the accommodations, but it was all pretty average. ||When we arrived, we were not greeted at all, not even a hello or welcome. Instead a woman holding a clip board asked us to fill in our breakfast selection for the next day. She showed us to our room which had double beds, even though we booked a single king room. She said well it's a bigger room so it's better -- ok. Then she said she was leaving, never offered our afternoon tea service. When I asked for it, she responded, you want afternoon tea? The afternoon tea service is just fine, nothing incredible and definitely not Napa quality items - ritz crackers with cheese slices. ||Pool was not heated, which others have mentioned. They have an open snack area with chips and cup noodles. Breakfast was very nice and the server was very kind. We met the Chef, which was a special opportunity to have. ||The room needed attention. There was lime/ soap scum on the gold hardware in both bath and shower. Light sconces in the bathroom were loose and moving. While these are small details, the cost really does set expectations of no flaws in the room. ||While all the IG stories and these 5 star reviews pulled me in, in the end, when paying that much, guests should be able to expect incredible service. This is Four Seasons level prices per night. Bann holds itself out to provide “luxury resort style bed and breakfast.” What you get in reality is a bed and breakfast cozy feel without any extra or luxury touches. I very much want to be able to fully endorse an establishment founded by an Asian woman, but I simply do not think Bann is worth the...