The Hotel Vendome really should be a grand old dame of Prescott. Sadly, it has been allowed to deteriorate to the point the some of it is rotting. Service, such as it is, is in about the same state. This place could be a star in Prescott, but it will take a lot of money to fix it. There is an intriguing legend that room immediately to the left of the stairs is haunted.
The place was built in 1917. It shows. The roof over the second story porch on the front has lost a huge percentage of its shingles. This has allowed water to enter the roof and the eaves, which have holes in them from the water damage.
The second floor porch ceiling shows many boards that have bowed so badly that the ends have popped loose from the ceiling joists. As noted above there are holes evident from rot in the eaves.
The paint on the facia board trim has mostly pealed away leaving them gray and bare. The owners have not done even basic maintenance on the outside for years.
The front desk closes at 5:00 PM. I arrived shortly before, and the staff had already gone. They sent a long email with the four digit code to the front door, my room number, and a note that the room would be unlocked and they key left inside. The front door code is on the back of the key. The owner told me that they only leave rented rooms open with the key.
No one who is concerned about personal security should consider this place.
The rooms are about the size that you would expect. There is a closet but no dresser (no space for one). Folding clothes have to be left in the closet in your luggage.
The furniture is low end yard sale cheap. On one side of the bed, there was a painted desk/dresser with two small drawers, and an ancient, painted kitchen chair that threatened to come apart. Paint was chipped on both. On the other side of the bed there was an old, battered occasional table.
These were obviously to be thought of as antiques rather than junk that they were.
There was a contemporary headboard, but this also came from some second hand store. The rest of the bed was not there. The mattress was set on a stand alone platform bed.
My stay was in mid-April with temperatures ranging from 50 degrees at night to the mid-80's during the day. When I arrived, the room was an oven. A sign said that the A/C had been turned off for the season.
I threw open both the room window and the bathroom window and turned on the fan. What a surprise, the window sills showed significant dry rot. There were very old, wood-framed window screens. In the bathroom, the screen had pulled loose from the frame.
The hotel had been heated for years by radiators. There are rust marks on the carpet where it sat in my room and a hole in the floor where the pipe for water had come up. There is now a wall mounted, electric space heater, which was necessary at night during my stay.
The bathroom appeared to have been last updated in the 1960's from the way it had been finished. The vanity area was covered with 4-inch square blue tiles that were popular then.
There was a claw foot tub, which was tricky for entry and exit. There were dual shower curtains on each side of the tub. These left a gap at both the front and back of the tub allowing water from the shower to splash out on the walls and floor.
The wall at the front of the tub and undergone at least one very shoddy repair of water damage. Paint was pealing off on the part of the wall a couple of inches from the unpainted repair. It left me wondering was lurking behind the wall repair.
Housekeeping, well.... There was hair on the bathroom vanity from a previous guest as well as smudges on the mirror.
Lobby furniture was again worn yard sale stuff. There were two fake leather wing chairs. Both seat cushions had tears from wear. A fabric winged settee sat across from them. The seat cushions had been crushed from years of use.
Oh, and the old radiators you ask. A couple are used as table bases on the front porch. Sort of a college apartment approach to decoration. Most of the rest sat in front of the house next to the Vendome. There are 30 rooms at the place.
When I checked out, the owner asked me about my stay. What I have written here is what I told him, politely. His response was that they were trying to develop a plan to renovate the place. I wonder how long that has been going on. The place is at the point where it will be a full gut job to bring it back to what it could and should be. He did comp one night of my stay.
Why did I pick this hotel and stay there? Years ago, my wife and I had stayed there and had great experiences. This time I picked it for the very good location and memories of that experience. To get the best rate, I had prepaid.
This could be the gem of downtown. It deserves to be. In the meantime, I would suggest one of the two brand name properties both, just off Sheldon Street. Both are modern and not historically romantic, and both are expensive. read more