Chateau Elan Winery & Resort

An experience so bad it's disorienting and feels disrespectful. Employees could not answer simple questions or provide any reasonable solutions to experiences we already paid for. Booking any experience was too difficult and receiving those experience while there was next-to impossible. Just don't go.

If there is any review I could ever write to tell you DO NOT stay here. Just come to the restaurants and spa. The hotel was dirty. Dated. The elevator broke down with us in it. And the hotel did minimal accommodations to make up for it. I repeat do not stay here.

Chateau Elan was the venue for the recent Hyundai Material Handling, 25th Silver Anniversary Celebration and Dealer Meeting. It's an extraordinary property, complimented by a world class staff, manicured grounds and pristine facilities. Located on 3,500 acres of rolling hills just one hour from Atlanta. I look forward to future visits and highly recommend to others.

I enjoyed my most recent stay at Chateau Elan. Holly Logue was phenomenal as she consistently contacted me prior to my stay. The room was decorated with floating balloons, a ballon centerpiece on the bed, and a congratulations banner. I’m glad that I chose to celebrate my doctoral commencement at this establishment as she superseded my expectations and was a phenomenal person to work with! Whatever Chateau Elan did not have, she allowed me to ship it to her to decorate the room. Holly is THE BEST!

My wife and I expected to enjoy this facility very much. Regrettably, it didn't work out that way. On the bright side, the property is beautiful and, generally, well-maintained. The food varied from very good to excellent. The spa was very enjoyable and staffed by friendly, helpful employees. The problems we encountered concerned administration, communication, and guest services. On the whole, it became clear that the issues we encountered were not simply one-offs. Rather, there is a systemic problem with how this facility is managed. Here are the details: It was extremely difficult to communicate with the hotel prior to our arrival. Most often, we were placed on hold for long periods and never really were able to speak to an appropriate representative. Upon check-in, we noticed a label across the top of the credit card reader stating that a 3% fee would be charged for the use of a credit card. Wow. How many guests pay in cash? Even the front-desk agent was rather sheepish about that little surprise. No one took the time to orient us to the property, its layout, and all of the amenities available. We had arranged for a medically necessary package delivery prior to our arrival. In fact, we called a day or two prior to its arrival to arrange for this and even called again within five or so minutes of its arrival on the day of delivery. When we checked in, we were told that our package was somewhere else and mixed in with all of their deliveries. They promised to find it and deliver it. After hours, nothing arrived. Only after two phone calls to the front desk and an in-person plea did someone finally decide that it was time to actually ask someone to search for the package. It wasn't until the evening that we received it. When we arrived at our room, we were met with hair on the toilet and an eyelash extension on the floor by the bed. Not a good start! The next day, housekeeping came by to make the bed. That's about all that was done. The dirty bathroom washcloths were piled on the sink counter. There was no replacement of coffee supplies, washcloths, moisturizer, drinking glasses, etc. It took housekeeping two more separate trips to get everything in order. The next day, similar mistakes were made and we had to call again to have everything completed. My wife and I had spa appointments at 10 and 11 AM, respectively. The evening prior, we called and left a message indicating clearly that we wished to swap appointments and wanted to do them the courtesy of being informed of that, in the event that they wished to change therapist assignments. We asked for a call back to confirm. That call never came. We showed up at the spa a bit before 10 AM only to find that, instead of swapping the appointments, they moved both of us to 11 AM. So much for the plans we each had for the morning. We attended a business reception at the winery. In the middle of it, I asked for a vodka-based drink and was told that they were out of vodka. They promised more was on the way. It took quite a while, much to the dismay of anyone who wanted vodka. Later, I asked for a bottle of water and-- you guessed it-- they ran out of water. Eventually, a new supply of water was delivered. This is supposed to be a facility that is expert at hosting events! We planned to have lunch one afternoon at Fleur-de-Lis. We arrived at about 1:20 PM, only to find that the restaurant had been closed over an hour early because they were short-staffed. One weekday morning we went for breakfast at Versailles. We were informed that a buffet had been substituted for their regular menu. That's not what we wanted, but it was okay. We visited again on another weekday morning and asked if we could order off the regular menu. We were told we could because the buffet was only served on weekends. Wait... what? When we mentioned that we had the buffet on a weekday, the hostess replied, "Yes." Go figure. At the business meeting we attended, the projectors failed, pretty much ruining the talk given by one of the presenters. Later, the microphones failed. In that same room, the air-conditioning unexpectedly switched to heat! So, everyone in attendance roasted for an extended period until someone at the hotel figured out what went wrong. One afternoon, while we were in our room, the fire alarm went off accompanied by automated announcements to leave. We prepared to leave and then the fire alarm stopped. What to do? The problem was that there was no "all clear" announcement. After a full 15 minutes or so, there was a barely intelligible message over the system by one of the staff announcing that it was a false alarm. That's just not proper protocol for handling a fire alarm. We were granted a late checkout of 12 PM rather than 11 AM. Despite the "Do Not Disturb" sign being on the door, the housekeeping staff banged on the door at about 11:20 AM. When we opened it, they insisted that we were late and had to leave the room immediately. When we explained that we had a late checkout, they initially ignored us and kept insisting that we leave. Finally, they seemed to get the idea and left while being obviously annoyed. Curiously, after we left and after we returned home, we were met with an added charge for food from the mini-bar! Coincidence? I don't think so. Fortunately, the charge was reversed after we disputed it. Make what you will of all this, but we don't plan to return. Chateau Elan really needs to get its act together in terms of communication, coordination, housekeeping, and general management. The problems are systemic.