The location of this inn is very convenient to the 'downtown' area of Blowing Rock - an easy stroll to most of the restaurants, bars and shops. And from my very brief time at the Inn, it appeared to be clean and well-maintained.
However, my complaint is the same one that, sadly, drove me to abandon my reservation and move elsewhere: the lack of wi-fi internet.
Ultimately, this is a complain about misrepresentation by the hotel.
Despite the hotel's description of itself, wi-fi is *not* available in all rooms. As I had some small amount of business emails to review in the evenings, a lack of internet service simply was not an option. And honestly, it's not a large hotel. The wi-fi signal must peter-out at any distance more than 30 feet from the router.
I attempted to connect to the network on three different devices; none of them were able to even see the hotel's wi-fi signal, much less log in. Cel reception is unfortunately next to impossible to receive in the mountains, so wi-fi is the only option.
After a bit of experimentation, I found that if I walked 50 or so feet out into the parking lot, it was possible to attain a wi-fi signal. But even that proved inadequate, unfortunately. I ran several speed-tests and was never able to achieve a download rate of more than .20 megs. Yes, that is *point* *two*; two-tenths of one-meg.
Which is about the same speed as a dial-up modem in 1993.
To the hotel's credit, the very friendly and kind desk manager offered to allow me to hang out with him in the motel office during desk-hours (e.g., prior to 9PM), which is where the wi-fi signal apparently was strong enough to be usable.
Unfortunately, that didn't work in relation to the timeframes of some business emails that required attention, so we checked out and went to the nearby Holiday Inn Express.
And while we were credited for one of the two nights we booked, I remain unhappy.
The hotel is misrepresenting one of it's basic services. And we spent less than ten minutes total in the hotel room before vacating.
While I sympathize with the problems inherent in losing a room-booking at the last minute, I feel the responsibility ultimately resides with the hotel, and their description of their facilities.
If a hotel wants to use a $10 wi-fi router to deliver internet speeds that would have been considered archaic 20 years ago...honestly, that's fine.
Just make a note of it when you describe your inn, so customers can make an informed decision.
And if a guest correctly notes that your hotel description is in fact in error, and immediately departs as a result, the courteous thing to do would be to refund not half the total, but the full amount.
Doing less than that comes off as a bit petty. read more
