This is a good idea but just not quite ready for Primetime. Now called "Scotia Lodge", this is probably a 100 year-old hotel that once served the lumber barons that frequented this old lumber mill town. It's not cheap. A room will set you back at least a couple of hundred for 1night. So we decided to make a weekend trip down from northern Humboldt County to check out the highly-touted renovation efforts.
At check-in, we were shown to a nice room with 14-foot ceilings with an art-deco feel to it.
It was quite cold in the room, so we closed the ancient, single pane window and put the little baseboard heater on, and decided to find the bar. Oops, the bar is under construction. "Maybe next month", we were told. There was, however, still alcohol available upstairs at a little cubby hole adjacent to a cavernous empty ballroom with a few chairs and tables scattered about. Zero ambience. The martinis, with tip, came to around $15 each, similar in price to the Hotel Del Coronado in San Diego. They were served in a stemless, plastic glass. You can order a sandwich or other light fare from the same cubbyhole. We returned to our room, which was still freezing, with only a trace amount of heat coming from the single baseboard heater. The TV was wall-mounted with only about 25% of the screen, at best, visible from the bed. So, we slept in our clothes to keep warm, ok ?? The next morning, we awakened to find hordes of ants trailing in, en masse, all over the floor, in our toiletries, all in our belongings. In the morning, at check out, an apology was offered, but no recompensation. No worries. Now let me say, Scotia is a very small hamlet. There is a lumber mill, the hotel, a store, and a few houses for the mill workers. Scotia is adjacent to the town of Rio Dell, a tiny depressing hamlet given over apparently to the cannabis industry as deduced from the offerings in the hardware store. Rio Dell also has a bar, a liquor store, a hamburger stand, an ancient Rexall drug store and 2 dispensaries. That is it, folks. So there is not much at all for visitors to do there. Maybe that's the way they like it. The hotel is trying to raise money via crowd-funding to build a pool. Good luck with that. We were also charged a $25 "amenity fee". Folks, for the money, there are zero amenities.
So they are trying to do the "boutique hotel" thing, in the middle of nowhere, without the money to do it properly. The ancient single-pane windows and high ceilings just don't make it when it's 40 outside. Umm, pest control ?? Good hotels don't have pests in the rooms...ever. Maybe in 5 or 10 years, Scotia Lodge might be worth $250 worth of hard-earned money. That time has not come. read more