If you are thinking about the Lambuth Inn, stop. Read this first.
My husband and I are in our 60s. We travel all the time with our two small dogs. We walked up to the front desk with a dog in each of our arms. The staff looked right at them. They even joked that the dogs looked too heavy for me to carry. They handed us our keys. Not one word about a pet rule. Not one.
We put the dogs in the bathroom, like we do at every hotel, and went to dinner.
When we came back, our key was dead. The Lambuth Inn had locked us out of a room we had already paid for. Our dogs were trapped inside. Our medicine, our clothes, and our bags were inside. We had to go downstairs and ask for permission to get to our own things.
That is when it got ugly. The staff did not apologize. They did not explain. They accused us of "sneaking" the dogs in. We had walked past them holding those dogs in plain sight. When we said so, they changed the story. Now it was "the person who checked you in did not know the rules." So they made the mistake, and then they blamed us for it, and then they punished us for it.
Then they threw us out. At 9 o'clock at night. In the mountains of rural North Carolina. No refund. No offer to help. Not even a phone number for another hotel. Two people in their 60s and two little dogs, sent out into the dark with nowhere to sleep. We drove three hours back to Atlanta that night because we had no other choice.
Think about that. They took our money. They locked us away from our belongings and our pets. They called us liars. Then they put us out in the dark and kept the cash. This is not a hotel policy problem. This is how they chose to treat two paying guests who did nothing wrong.
And what were we paying for? A 100-year-old building that feels every bit of 100. Tired rooms, worn-out furniture, and a price tag that belongs at a much nicer place. The lake view is the only thing this inn has going for it, and a view is not worth being treated like a criminal.
Please, do not give these people your money. Waynesville has much better choices that actually welcome dogs. The Waynesville Inn and Golf Club takes pets. So do the Grandview Lodge, the Yellow House on Plott Creek Road, and the Econo Lodge on Phillips Road. Any one of them will treat you like a guest instead of a problem.
One star only because zero is not an option. Stay anywhere else. read more