The Omni Homestead Resort

We stayed here July 3rd through 6th for a family holiday weekend and spent over $7,000 across the room, dining, and activities. I expected a luxury stay. What we got was a broken HVAC system, a serious privacy violation, a stolen toy, and a billing department that couldn't get its own math right. The AC never worked. In either room. We opened the door to our suite and hit a wall of heat. 80 degrees, AC completely dead. Several technicians came up, worked on it, and eventually admitted they couldn't fix it. Management moved us to a second suite. We'd been out swimming all day and were wiped out, but we repacked everything and hauled it to the new room anyway. The second suite was no better. Only one of the climate zones actually worked. Four more techs came up. Same result, they couldn't fix it. I want to be clear that the HVAC guys were great. Polite, genuinely trying, and they clearly did everything they could with equipment that was beyond saving. But after all the back-and-forth with the front desk, the resort's big "luxury" fix was to hand us three tower fans. We slept two nights of a $7,000 vacation in a hot room with fans blasting just to make it bearable. I also had to ask three separate times for a cot so my wife could at least sleep in the one part of the suite that had working air conditioning. Three requests, for a cot, in a premium suite. Stolen toy and someone walking in on my daughter My daughter's Jellycat doll was taken off the luggage racks. Their staging area is wide open, so anyone can walk up and lift something without being noticed. The HVAC techs even helped us look for it. It never turned up, and she still cries for it every night. Worse than that: a staff member walked straight into our suite without knocking hard enough or waiting for an answer. My daughter was undressed at the time. Walking into a guest room without a clear response is a real security and privacy failure, and it's not something I can shrug off. Basic service was a struggle too. I asked for four pool towels more than once. Every time, housekeeping showed up with two, and I had to call again and wait. Dining: good people, no backup Our waitress at Jefferson's was clearly a pro. She was also completely on her own, running herself ragged doing everything including clearing our own table between courses. Great employee, no support around her. That was the pattern everywhere. The billing was a mess Because of the AC, management comped our first night, which was the right call, and promised another $1,000 credit for the trouble. At checkout that credit had been entered wrong, so instead of coming off my bill it cancelled itself out and left me showing a balance I didn't owe. They eventually forced it to correct, but I walked away with two separate invoices showing two different totals. When a resort at this price needs the guest to catch its billing errors, it makes me wonder what else is slipping through. Credit where it's due The 4th of July itself was excellent. The fireworks were great, and the holiday cookout was genuinely good. At $1,000 for 10 people it felt like fair value, which is more than I can say for the room. Here's the thing that ties this whole stay together: the individual people were good. The HVAC techs, the waitress, the housekeeping staff who did show up. The problem is there seem to be too many people here who don't know the business. Good employees with no training, no support, and no communication between them, all working for a place that couldn't deliver on the basics we paid a premium for. A good fireworks show doesn't fix a broken stay. After a parade of technicians in and out of our room, a privacy violation, a stolen toy, and two nights sweating in front of tower fans, the hotel's offer to make it right was 300 loyalty points. Three hundred points on a $7,000 stay in a room that didn't work isn't compensation. It's an insult. Pros: The 4th of July cookout, the fireworks, the hardworking HVAC techs, and our veteran waitress at Jefferson's. Cons: Broken AC units, insecure luggage staging resulting in stolen items, zero communication between staff, privacy violations, and a broken billing department.

We have been to the Homestead 5 times in the past 7 years. The last couple of visits were disappointing: closed restaurants, cancelled activities, water park out of order, minimal staffing. This visit, however, showcased The Homestead in its glory. Everything was executed perfectly. Our family of 9 occupied 3 adjacent rooms over the July 4 holiday weekend, all of which were nicely remodeled and comfortable. From check-in to check-out, everything was flawless. The place was packed with happy families. The water park is the Homestead’s crown jewel, and our grandchildren spent 3 joyous days there. The food and beverage offerings at the water park are reasonably priced and delicious. The water park staff were all pleasant and efficient, even though the place was a madhouse of activity. The restaurant situation was excellent. We had dinner at Woody’s and Jefferson’s; excellent food and excellent service. We attended the July 4 barbecue on the lawn, which was TONS of fun, followed by the traditional “Big Band” concert and the AMAZING fireworks display. I forgot to mention 2 other activities: •the ladies in our group loved the spa •our grandkids had a great time riding the horses at the stable. One more thing: don’t miss the breakfast buffet; it is awesome! By check-out time, we were all exhausted (in a good way)! We all had a wonderful time! The Homestead showed us a great time! We will be back FOR SURE!!

Great facility. The staff were very friendly and helpful. Fantastic spa and off site activities. The food was excellent

Celebrating America's 250 in the oldest resort in America. A beautiful hotel fill with charm and history. An amazing staff of people, very friendly and passionate about the homestead. Lots of great activities to do for any family family. Traveling with 3 kids, first time they dropped the iPads and enjoyed the pools, the lawn, hiking and crazy enough started playing chess at the many tables. An amazing family vacation.

Do not be fooled by the Omni Homestead's glossy marketing. This place charged us nearly $1,500 a night (after the fees and taxes they pile on top of the $1,200 room rate) and delivered an experience I'd be embarrassed to charge $150 for. The lowlight: a heat wave hit, and our room's air conditioning couldn't get below 76 degrees for TWO NIGHTS. Then the unit started leaking water all over the floor. When I reported it, do you know what the front desk offered? Four drink vouchers. Drink vouchers. For a broken AC. In a heat wave. At a "luxury" resort. After pushing, they waived the $49/night resort fee — a whopping $150 on a multi-thousand-dollar stay. Their "fix" on the final night got the room cooler, but the unit was STILL leaking, and their solution was (seriously) to put a towel on the floor. A towel. The towel was sopping wet by the next morning. Imagine the mold issues that could result. Oh, but don't worry: At checkout they tossed another $200 at us like that settles it. It doesn't come close. Then there's the food. For the prices this resort charges, you'd expect world-class dining. What you get instead borders on inedible. Woody's was incredibly disappointing — a total letdown from start to finish. The Audubon Dining Room, supposedly a signature experience, was somehow just as bad. Meal after meal, we paid eye-watering prices for food we could barely bring ourselves to eat. The ONE exception was Jefferson's Restaurant, the only place on the entire property that delivered anything resembling a fine dining experience. One decent restaurant does not redeem a resort where everything else coming out of a kitchen was borderline inedible at luxury prices. We stayed during the week leading up to the 4th of July — one of the busiest stretches of the year, entirely predictable, marked on every calendar in America — and the resort was completely unprepared. THIS IS ONE OF THE MOST HISTORIC RESORTS IN AMERICA, UTTERLY UNREADY FOR FOURTH OF JULY CROWDS. Understaffed, overwhelmed, and disorganized at every turn. If you can't handle a holiday week you've had 365 days to plan for, while charging peak holiday prices for the privilege, what exactly are guests paying for? Speaking of paying: The Homestead nickels-and-dimes you for every single activity on property, on top of a resort fee that apparently covers nothing. And then they can't even bill you correctly. We were OVERCHARGED for several activities during our stay. So not only is everything absurdly expensive, you have to audit your own bill line by line to catch the errors, because apparently nobody at this resort will do it for you. Check your folio carefully if you make the mistake of staying here. And the rest of the property matches. The Homestead is proudly celebrating its 260th anniversary this year, and trust me, guests will feel every single one of those 260 years. The entire resort is falling apart: most of the worn, tired, run-down buildings have clearly seen minimal meaningful investment in years, wearing two and a half centuries in the least charming way possible. The service matches the decor: indifferent, slow, and completely unbothered that guests are paying top-tier prices for bottom-tier care. This wasn't a vacation. It was a financial assault carried out by a resort coasting on a reputation it stopped earning decades ago. Save your money — literally thousands of dollars of it — and go anywhere else.