Nemacolin

I spend my working life in fine dining… I’m with Jeff Ruby’s, so I don’t hand out praise for bartenders lightly. I know the difference between someone who’s pleasant and someone who’s genuinely good at this. Taylor at Fawn & Fable is the second kind. She was running the service bar for room service drinks the whole time, a setup that buries a bartender in tickets and pulls their attention away from the guests in front of them. It’s one of the hardest positions to look good in. Taylor never let it show. She was fast, she was composed, and she still made me feel like the only person at the bar. That combination — carrying an overloaded station and making the guest feel seen anyway — is rare, and it’s exactly what you can’t train into someone. They either have it or they don’t. Nemacolin has a real one in Taylor. I hope leadership sees what I saw.

We spent the Fourth of July weekend here and to be honest, I didn’t feel it was worth it. While the service was outstanding, the Nemacolin price point is now akin to that of an overwater bungalow at the Four Seasons Bora Bora. For that price, you must deliver a flawless experience at a most desirable location and Nemacolin missed the mark. Despite being a summer holiday weekend, much of the grounds were empty of guests. I am unsure how Nemacolin can sustain its current business model. Perhaps your leadership team would consider opening back up to the public or at minimum, offering day passes. I do want to give praise to the following employees who were outstanding: -Tommy and Nate (our butlers at Falling Rock) -Katie (Falling Rock pool) -Joey (wildlife excursions tour guide)

I rarely write a review for hotels but felt compelled to warn others about the Washington Townhomes. The photos on the website show a newly renovated and clean room. We were shocked to check in to a dirty, dusty unit filled with dead bugs and spiderwebs, ripped curtains, stained wallpaper and stained furniture. Furthermore, the website room description states the primary bedroom is a queen size bed when in fact it is a full. The property itself is gorgeous with a lot of amenities. However, the upcharges are nearly double what you would expect for a resort. For example, 1 game of bowling for 4 people was $100. Perhaps if we had stayed in one of the other hotels we would have had a positive experience. However, the condition of our townhome would have been embarrassing for a Hampton Inn let alone a five star resort. This is the first time I’ve ever stayed at a hotel and felt like I have been scammed.

It’s a beautiful location in the mountains and clearly very well taken care of. It’s eccentric and somewhat kitschy, but it was an interesting experience. We stayed at the Chateau for 3 nights. Pros: - Clearly a lot of time, thought and cost has gone into its design and finishings. While the exteriors might be controversial, the interiors of the hotels are very nice. - The staff are all very kind and welcoming - The food at Gusto in particular is terrific and had a lot of vegetarian options - Great stuff for kids to do: mini golf, hardy girl’s gym, carousel - The pools were outstanding — a highlight. Comfortable, lots of chairs, attentive staff, good drinks - The mountain scenery is breathtaking - The shuttles are readily available to take you wherever you want to go; we rarely had to wait for more than 2 mins for one Cons: - The property is organized in a strange way. A lot of the amenities are in the front of the hotel so you have to walk through where the cars / shuttles come and go to get to the pool, fire pits, gardens, etc. Where these amenities would logically go at any other hotel is a large, seemingly unused, airstrip. - As kind and attentive all of the staff was, a lot of them seemed new and didn’t really know what was going on. When we asked questions there was a 50/50 chance someone would say “Sorry I’m new here, let me check.” - Whoever is running the “experiences” / “activities” is doing a very poor job of communicating what you can do, when you can do it, and how much it costs. And when you ask a staff member it’s a time-consuming, clunky experience to get any info — they all mostly don’t know and had to look up everything. - They had a very weird policy where only 1 parent can accompany a child to an activity; the second parent has the pay full price to watch? We honestly don’t really know if this is true or not because although we were told this by the concierge, the staff generally across the board seemed quite uninformed. We skipped on an activity because of this policy. - All the common spaces felt pretty empty. If you’re looking for a place with some hustle and bustle, this wasn’t it (at least not in June). - The lions, tigers, bears and wolves they have on property live in such tiny habitats, it’s so sad to see. I’m not even sure why they have them there; it doesn’t add anything to the experience. Overall had a very nice family vacation here. We’re not in a rush to return, but left with good memories.

I got a $200 gift certificate from my co-workers as a retirement gift. They got me this because they know that I love to golf. When I looked at the rates and found out that I had to stay for a minimum of two nights, I realized that I couldn't afford it even with the gift certificate. I thought I would be able to use the money at the pro shop for merchandise or possibly towards a lunch on the property. I didn't even make it past the front entrance. When I showed them the gift certificate, they told me that I couldn't enter the grounds and that I would only be able to go to the outlet store. I went to the outlet store and got crap that I don't want or need just to use the money. It is a shame that people from work got me a gift that I can't even use. The rich snobs can have their stupid resort. I could win the lottery, become a millionaire and I still wouldn't go.