Troopers

What made you think you could into your new room within an hour or two (before 1pm?)?

AndyKehn

Here right now and I was allowed 1 pm check out. Just hanging by the pool until my "work" day is over. Food is still included for lunch on check out day. I was sandwiched between 2 buy out (1 wedding and 1 corporate retreat) so no upgrade. Food is not as good as Miraval Austin. The ground is beautiful although its been very foggy this past couple days and dining at Sur House without the view was underwhelming. Service is very slow at the Sur House: your dining experience could easily be 2 hours with just some appetizers (I love the octopus), 1 main course (lamb is great), and desert. Overall I would not pay 2k+ a night for this property. An amazing value however if you redeem cat 7 certs here. Miraval is better than Ventana in my opinion.

mpeterson78

Is there any way to get down to the Smokehouse for a lunch other than self-driving? Seems like a bit far/steep for a walk. Any kind of shuttle to go down there?

skj

The front desk staff said we should have the new room by 1pm when we checked out of the first room. They claimed they were strictly enforcing the 11am checkout for all guests departing that day and said they would make sure housekeeping prioritized making our new room ready.

Cmag211

We were told the exact same thing when we checked out and the first person we talked to said “we’ll try for noon”. What’s irritating is I believe they said they’d notify us when our room was ready just to appease us. They never did even though (I think) our room actually was ready by about 12:15 according to our digital room key. We texted around 2 to check the status and they replied “We’ll let you know.” They never ended up texting us or giving us physical keys for that second night, we ultimately just let ourselves into our new room.

I agree that this property could have a better way of handling multiple reservations back to back. I don’t expect to not have to move (although it’d be nice), but I was disappointed at how the move was handled.

Cmag211

You could walk, ask for a golf cart ride down, or I suppose you could take one of the Volvos down the hill.

coleslaw

I also found the Miraval Berkshires good to be better than Ventana, mainly because they seemed to have more variety and a much better lunch setup.

I did find that service at Sur House was very, very slow depending on your server. Some
were good. One in particular was pretty bad. To the point that on my 3rd night I (discreetly) asked to be moved to a different section. Funnily enough the booze would always appear very quickly after ordering.

AndyKehn

One thing Ventana is better than Miraval is the ability to order pretty much everything for room service. Also the fireplace is great. I must have gone through 10 bundles during my stay. Sad that Pfeiffer Beach is closed at the moment and the smokehouse only opens from wed-sun (my stay was Sun-Wed ironically)

exmike

We were also there sun-tues, Fog kinda put a damper on eating at big sur house, but we made a point of hitting up the smokehouse when we arrived sunday. The brisket is very good!

myperks

did you hit up smokehouse for lunch before checking in or for dinner?

exmike

we checked in first (at noon) and our room was ready. Dropped off our stuff an went to smokehouse with our friends who's room was not ready.

myperks

so for your friend’s room that was not ready, did the smokehouse know they were awaiting room and meal included without room number?

exmike

They will assign you a room number, but they already know you will be staying there based upon last name. I was worried about this too, but it wasnt an issue for me or my friend. I would check in first though

myperks

thanks for the confirmation and the process.

UAflyer93

Currently staying at the hotel. I can confirm that most dining venues at the hotel have a printed list of all guests staying at the hotel. Our room was not ready upon arrival but we were able to order at the poolside bar.