A Stay at the Grove Park Inn – Asheville NC
Originally posted at TripAdvisor.
Let me begin by saying I wanted to like this hotel. If the names Stickley and Roycroft and the term “Arts & Crafts movement” mean something to you as it does to me, then you really have no choice but to stay and appreciate the artistry of the wood and stonework the hotel is famous for. But if you are looking for a relaxing stay where you are pampered by staff, or want a base from which to explore the area, forget it. There are other hotels in the area that can accommodate you better.
Asheville is one of our favorite cities and since we are Arts & Crafts aficionados, we had visited the hotel several times but had no reason to stay there. A medical conference being held there last weekend changed that, so we stayed. Our problems started immediately upon arrival. Because the conference started before checkout we arrived before our room was ready and had to park.
Why does parking have to be gated and controlled if everything in the complex is owned by the hotel? It’s not like people would park at the hotel for free and go elsewhere, and the gates were new since our last visit there in the Spring. Our room wasn’t ready until the afternoon so we had to leave the facility for a trip downtown. To leave the gated parking you have to present your room key, but since our room wasn’t ready we didn’t have a key. We were told to press the button for assistance at the gate, but several attempts to do so went unanswered. We ended up paying the $10 to leave.
Which brings up another point. $15 for parking? We’ve stayed in hotels in downtown areas of Dublin, New York City, and Chicago and parking was included with the room. Why the additional charge? Valet is $22 + tip for those who like paying a stranger to drive their cars and I can understand that. But $15 for general overnight parking struck me as cheap and didn’t match my expectation for this hotel.
Nowadays WiFi is almost as important as a private bath while traveling, and at least it’s free here unlike other high-end hotels. But to access it you have to login with your last name and room number. Since we didn’t have these at the time we arrived we couldn’t use them, so I had to use my smartphone to create a hotspot so that I could use my laptop.
These are minor issues but they do suggest a broader problem I have with the hotel: The Grove Park Inn having the same policies applied to it by the OMNI chain that it applies to its other properties right down to the branding “OMNI Grove Park.” It seems to me that it is a corporate directive to play down the Grove Park Inn name in favor of the OMNI brand, making it impossible to find a coffee mug the Wife wanted with the name “Grove Park Inn” on it instead of OMNI Hotels & Resorts.
If the brand OMNI Hotels & Resorts means something to you then perhaps that’s a good thing, but for those of us who appreciate the hotel for what it has been and where it is, then who owns it today is meaningless. The hotel has changed hands numerous times through its history and will know doubt do so again. In fact it has had 3 owners in just the past 3 years and the only constant has been the Grove Park Inn name.
This thoughtless and heavy-handed approach to the hotel by its corporate owners betrays an ignorance and lack of appreciation for this hotel. To its owners its just another property, not a 100 year old historical icon in Asheville. I don’t see how they will be able to succeed at keeping the hotel profitable over the long term without appreciating the hotel’s distinct and unique character and charm and maintaining those into the future.
We stayed in one of the old parts of the hotel and the room was small but acceptable. If you want a palatial suite either pay for one of the newer rooms or don’t stay in a hotel designed when people didn’t require rooms as big as their bedroom suites in their mcmansions. The woods in the room were amazing, and the unassuming Roycroft desk was a marvel of craftsmanship. Although the floor carpet was worn, the bed was comfortable and we had no trouble with the room.
A lot of the directions and advice we received (e.g. leaving the parking area, logging into Wifi) was wrong. They were also overwhelmed the first night of our stay and attitudes struck me as patronizing or snotty. Later in the weekend we had better interactions as the crowd thinned but it was still hit or miss.
An example of this was entering the new Edison restaurant Friday night and seating ourselves at one of the many open tables after standing around for several minutes trying to catch the eye of a waiter or hostess. Although there were numerous empty tables and had been ignored for several minutes, a hostess approached us and said the table was reserved and told us to sit at the bar, which we did. We were then ignored there too. I guess we weren’t young enough to grab the attention of the staff unless we were breaking the rules. We finally got the attention of a bartender and the Wife asked if he could recommend a dry house red wine. He passed her the menu, said “See page 3” and disappeared. We took it all in stride of course but it was amazing to be treated so poorly at the price we paid to stay.
One final recommendation. Because the hotel is at the edge of the city, if you are staying there intending to spend a lot of time downtown there are much better options closer to the heart of the city.
Like I said, I wanted to like this hotel more than I actually did, and I do hope it improves. But Life is short and there are plenty of other options in the area.
Lee:
Whew! Thanks so much! Seriously. My husband and I are planning a short trip to the area and considered the Grove Park Inn. I love the Arts and Crafts stuff… But I think we’ll pass on this place.
6 November 2014, 6:55 pmThe Razor » Blog Archive » Evidently Marijuana is Legal in NC Because These Reviewers Are High:
[...] Its staff was courteous, helpful and friendly – and rates 5 stars on its own. Unlike the Megacorp Grove Park Inn parking is included in the hotel price, and if “weird Asheville” or the downtown [...]
10 February 2015, 5:57 pm