The Graylyn Estate — Restaurant in Winston-Salem

I won a stay at the Graylyn Estate as part of a contest and was so excited to bring my mom here for a weekend getaway. As soon as you enter the premises of the 55-acre estate, you are transported to another place. The grand building (Manor House) sits on this lush green property and it is like something out of a magazine. It is reminiscent of Downtown-Abbey and other European estates and it was so enchanting. It was truly a getaway from the hustle and bustle of the city and I understand why it was created to act as a place for solitude and tranquility for the Gray family.

We pulled up to the Manor house to check in and I learned later that you can also check in at the Mews if you are staying there. I was not familiar with the layout and where we were staying so I took a shot at the main house and that is where started. The check-in was the only thing that was a bit off during our stay. We arrived on a Friday evening at 8pm and there was no one at the main window yet I could see someone in the back on their phone texting. We were finally greeted and I was expecting a more formal and hospital welcome from such a fine establishment. I gave the on-duty manager my name and she questioned my reservation and make me pull up my winning certificate. I had a hotel reservation already and I thought it was a bit tacky and not handled professionally at all. As a winner, I wanted to be excited and greeted with some time of hospitality and it was just the opposite. My only comment would be to take some more hospitality training because your first impression is a lasting one and you want the forefront of your check-in team to be polished and on-point.

We received our keys and the polite bellman escorted us to the Mews in the Graylyn van. The Mews is the area that used to be the stables so it is an open courtyard made of cobblestones and beautiful towers that look like something out of the French or Dutch countryside. The Mews has its own little gift shop as well and I later learned that we could have also checked in there. There is also a dining room that serves continental breakfast in the Mews and a gift shop with all kinds of Wake Forest University memorabilia. Our room was private and had comfortable beds, a large TV and modern bathroom. The only thing I noticed though is that the shower head is not made for anyone over 6ft tall. It is a bit low. The bath products from Lather are heavenly and I love the lemongrass soap.

I enjoyed reading about the history of the Graylyn Estate and how Mrs. Gray loved her butterscotch cookies and ice cream. For this very reason, you can go get an ice cream cone any time that the Mews shop or Manor House is open. The cookies and lemonade are served in the afternoon from 3-5 and this was a sweet touch. Breakfast is included in your room rate and is served in either the Mews Dining room or in the Manor House. We walked to the Manor house and the breakfast spread was unbelievable. It is set up in various rooms and each day we sat in different rooms because of wedding parties and other events. There was an omelette station, fresh waffles, pancakes, Hickory bacon (you have to get this) and fruit and jogurt. The staff did a fantastic job and refilled coffee and water. It was like a brunch spread every morning and the pancakes were some of the best I have ever had. We also swam in the pool and seemed to be shared by a local swim club as well. There was a wedding on the Saturday and I can see this being a perfect venue for weddings and meetings. Grayln is also right next to the Reynolda House and we had fantastic visit during the Ansel Adams exhibit. Allen at the Manor House on Saturday morning was also a wealth of knowledge and he provided us with maps and an overview that we did not receive at check-in the night prior. This is a gorgeous property and I highly recommend staying here to relax and soak in the beauty of this...

There is a saying that if you sleep for free you get what you deserve. But what does one deserve at $1800per night? Taking great liberties, the Graylyn describes itself as “enchanting” and a “masterpiece”. It is not! It is just old and smells like a musty basement no matter where you go.

Led astray by what can only be false reviews, we booked and discovered that it is nothing more than an over glorified motel at best serving as a backdrop for wedding photos.

After a very long day of travel and events, we arrived at the hotel for dinner. Greeted by the male at the door I inquired about dinner and he kept trying to convince me that the restaurant in the basement would be preferable and repeatedly described it as “more casual” not sure what gave them the impression our palates could only manage bar food (although I have an idea). Trying to keep an open mind, and we examined the basement restaurant which smelled like a bar in LES NYC before it was gentrified. At this point in the evening, we had only checked in and dropped off our luggage hours ago and had finally returned after several hours; however prior to leaving we requested that the pull out sofa be prepared. While waiting on dinner I inquired if that had been done and was told “housekeeping is gone, but I don’t have a note that it wasn’t” I am here to tell you that in fact it was not. Arriving to our room, bedding had just been dumped on sofa.

There is absolutely nothing luxurious about this place and it is evident no one is trained in hospitality. Do not expect any luxuries! It is self service operation - do your own research, make your own reservations and apparently clean your own room. There isn’t daily housekeeping, or quality bedding, linen or amenities. There isn’t a concierge or anyone willing to help you for that matter.

The next morning, we left early the and arrived around 2pm. Guess what? No housekeeping. No beds made, breakfast still in the room. No, you don’t have to request housekeeping, it is apparently just foreign concept to everyone here that it is a service to be provided.

Speaking of rooms, the room was average at best and severely in need of maintenance. The bathroom upstairs reminded me of a cheap airport bathroom with the sink on the outside. Not a single counter is made of stone. It is poorly constructed and maintained with cracks everywhere, peeling wall paper, old worn mattresses and cheap bedding and linens.

I expressed my frustration and they responded by exhibiting a complete lack of care and comprehension by offering hot chocolate and cookies for our son to “ease” the moment. There isn’t a manager or anyone that guides this epic disaster of a hotel so you’re on your own. If I tell you the fuss they made about this hot chocolate, you would think it would be delicious, right? For him, we accepted and requested it later when we returned. However, some hot chocolate was certainly not going to make up for our experience so far. The way they made a fuss over this hot chocolate, I for sure thought it was going to be authentic similar to French hot chocolate. It arrived and was made packs of nestle mix in hot water and not a drop milk. The presentation was basic as well no toppings of whipped cream or marshmallows. Just in line with the rest of this place….lackluster, basic and bargain brand. They offered us complimentary beverages. I don’t want beverages! I want what I paid for! The state of the room and level of service would be fine for a hotel charging a couple hundred per night but this is an absolute ripoff and scam. There is zero justification to charge such an exorbitant rate when you don’t provide services to justify them!

Without hesitation or pause, I do NOT...

As a wedding venue, I don’t recommend this venue at ALL. They have an extremely shady bait and switch approach to selling their venue. During the tour we were shown the White Garden for our ceremony, the Dining Wing for our dinner and the Atlantis Room for our reception.

We signed the contract in Oct 20 for our wedding in Oct 21. I told them I wanted a year to plan. We understood that with the unpredictability of Covid, our guest count might change a little, but at this point vaccine rollout plans were being made so we weren't too worried about anything beyond a guest cap and masks.

In Oct they said that an event coordinator for the venue would be reaching out to introduce herself shortly. This hadn't happened by Dec, so I reached out and received a greeting. She said since our wedding was so far out she was in "no hurry to nail down details" and told us we could start planning "in the spring." I went ahead and asked about using lights in the Atlantis Room. She said yes.

Mid-March we got updated Covid guidelines for the venue saying no dancing, no more than 25 people, seated dinners, and this applies to weddings through Dec 21. They said they would be reaching out to couples in the coming weeks. We decided we didn't want to have a wedding like this. I noticed then that the contract didn’t include dancing and our reception was listed as the Dining Wing, not the Atlantis Room, despite having been told that's what we would have BEFORE we signed, and the acknowledging of our intent to use it in December AFTER.

We had to be the ones to reach out again and ask about these guidelines in mid-April where they said our contract would work "as written", they would split our guests up to opposite sides of the building to get around their own capacity cap. This was an even worse option for us so we asked if we could schedule a call to discuss maybe some other options and received a date and time a week out. 15 minutes before our call, she asks to reschedule but the soonest she could reschedule to would be a week later. We felt brushed off, so we just emailed back that we would like to cancel the wedding.

A week later, someone emails us and says we are within 180 days from our wedding at the date of our cancellation request that according to our contract we owe 50% of the listed contract estimate. We asked why since nothing has been planned outside the date, and we were TOLD we couldn’t begin planning until the spring despite us having previously asked (In Dec). After a week of no reply we sent a second email stating that we understand the deposit is gone, but we're unsure why we are expected to pay 50% of the contract when nothing else has been done on their part, and we only ended up within 180 days because we had been told to wait to begin planning.

After another week, we finally get a reply telling us we have three options: Keep the date (4 months to plan now), Reschedule for a year out(not an option for us), or pay to cancel.

I feel they intentionally delayed the planning of our wedding because they sold us verbally on all the beautiful details that we didn't notice never made it into the contract. They delayed our planning as long as they could so that when we DID find out THEIR plans for our wedding we owed them money legally despite NO planning having been done AT ALL outside of holding the date. I cannot recommend people avoid this venue enough and I will absolutely be steering every engaged person I know of AWAY from this...