Inspired by a Tablet Plus promotion to Carneros Inn (a welcome bottle of bubbly), I decided to book a night there last weekend. The property is beautiful, the spa services were great, and breakfast at their Hilltop restaurant was a highlight. However, the service left me very frustrated and spoiled what should have been a relaxing weekend in wine country. If I had a personal manager to deal with the details, then I would go back in a heartbeat. But having to look out for details left me very annoyed.
We started with confusion over what rates tablet made available and eventually I forwarded back to the hotel the confirmation email from Tablet. While working on this, despite parking where indicated outside reception, someone came in to demand my car keys in order to move my car... unfortunately not many people seem to drive manual in the US and I could hear as such from inside reception (it's tucked very far back in the property on a hill).
Given the check-in confusion, I pointed out that I would go to the spa first for our appointments and go to my room after the services, but the front desk insisted that I return the checkin package then as someone _must_ escort me to the room (why? they provided a map to the room, so is this just so someone can point out where the coffee maker is located? in the room it felt like someone was just expecting a tip for unnecessarily bringing me there). I sent my SO to the spa while I rushed to the room and back for no particular reason.
The room itself looked nice, but had annoyances. The bath/shower hot water is definitely not hot. We were unable to get it to a comfortable temperature. As a nice touch, the outdoors patio has a radiant heater pointed downward. Unfortunately, for my cottage, the heater was placed over a break in the patio and pointed at a pit instead of a location where the outdoor chairs could be arranged.
In the morning, we ate breakfast from 9:40 - 10:30 am at hilltop. This was a beautiful location, but after packing up and going to check out the breakfast charges had not posted. Now (four days later) I have still yet to receive a final folio despite being told to expect one that afternoon.
As mentioned above: it was all quite beautiful, but at the charged rates I would expect everything to run much smoother.