Dilapidated 4 room house attached to a convenience store. Don't let the "partial pictures" deceive you. Considering there are no bad parts of Ferndale, and no fear of a robbery, this is a shabby, creepy, dump.
I've been to Ferndale on two other occasions and my usual place, The Shaw House, was unavailable, so I looked around for another place in downtown Ferndale. Ferndale is an historic Victorian town and well worth the visit.
I booked the Francis Creek Inn on short notice and I thought the price was inexpensive at $110. I had to pre-pay for the room, which I did in advance.
I got to town at dusk and I had no idea what I was getting in to. The structure was dark, vacant, and looked uninhabited. I could not find the office and walked past the "For Sale" sign posted on the side of the adjoining convenience store and went inside the store.
Not aware that you go to the convenience store to check in, I went to the cashier/front desk in the store and confirmed that I was, in fact, in the correct place, and that's where you check in for the Francis Creek Inn.
I looked around and I was completely uncomfortable and I asked the kid at the desk if it was too late to cancel. He mumbled that I probably could, but there would be a $25 charge. I asked for the key to my room so I can check it out and decide, and he handed me the key for Room 4 on the second floor.
My GF and I went up to the room to check it out and the room was very cold, like 50F, do you remember the scene in The Exorcist where the priest first walks into the bedroom to meet Linda Blair? that cold...
With some effort, I got the heater working as my GF and I discussed our options. Outside of the place being as cold as a tomb, the interior was run down with the exception of new carpet (which the air permeated). As the room eventually warmed up to about 60F, my GF and I agreed as creepy as the place is (we were the only guests in the place), our actual stay was only for about 12 hours and we should just "suck it up" and stay. As we started to unpack, we saw a couple of police cars pull up and park on the street, good sign right, safe place, always a cop around, etc.? It get's better...
I go back downstairs to the front desk/cigarette counter to tell the attendant I decided to stay, when two police officers come into the store. I'm thinking the police come in routinely for a bear claw and cup of coffee, but the cops were actually there for me!!!!
The worker mumbled an apology and explained that he didn't hear back from me and thought I left without returning the key. He, in turn, called the owner, who immediately called the cops!!!!!! I was completely shocked... Not knowing how to react, I humbly apologized to the police officers who responded and explained to them that there was a misunderstanding and they left.
After the cops left, I reminded the worker that I had already PRE-PAID for the room. He mumbled another apology and he told me that weird things had happened in the past in Room 4 and so he panicked and called the owner who called 911.
Bottom line, you get what you pay for, if you are cheap and only want to spend $100 for a room, this is what you get, the Bates Motel a' la Ferndale. The good news is, the heat stayed on, and we weren't murdered in the middle of the night. Bad news is we slept with one eye open.
Stay, run, drive away from the Francis Creek Inn. If there was a way to give this place a negative 5,000,000 stars I would. read more