Tara C.
My husband booked the Ebenezer B&B for my birthday - and he was excited to have found it. A reasonably priced, 4.8 star reviewed B&B near all the great things (wineries, Charlottesville, etc.) and was dog friendly!!!… well, it was definitely reasonably priced, central and our dog was made MOST welcome... but I honestly do not understand all the 5 star reviews... ||||Driving up, it looked as the pictures show, cute, older, house surrounded by a yard... a bit unkept, but all is generally well. Then, we walked in the house, and were hit in the face by the smell of old, deeply stale cigarette smoke. It was strong and it was everywhere - which was super surprising since the website mentioned it was a "smoke free" hotel. We don't smoke. But, ok, we'll push through (nothing can be done now). Met Alan, a very nice man (and I now believe he is the reason for the 5-star reviews, he is so nice and inviting that you don't want to hurt his feelings). He took us up to our room and showed us our bathroom, up the stairs in the older portion of the house (warning, its unattached from the bedroom). All seemed ok. Then we started settling in and started to notice how old the place and all the things are.... the mattress was saggy and old... the quilt/comforter ragged and thin... carpet was threadbare... the towels in the bathroom musty, shaggy and old... there are odd old toiletries hanging out all around the bathroom... I am 100% a supporter of antiques and holding on to things until they are unusable, but for the items people see, not the items people need to use - towels should be new-ish and bleachable, if you're going to offer shampoo, it should fresh, people should feel comfortable walking barefoot in the bedroom.... Note, the tub was wonderful, deep, water was hot - my absolute favorite part of our stay! ||||Our nights sleeps were fine, its a quite area, no road noise. We did hear creatures in the walls, probably mice running through the walls/attic (which didn't bug me, I grew up in the country, but my husband was horrified). We also had a couple bug incidents in the room, a wasp like creature few out of the closet area and we found a few stink bugs. The stale cigarette smoke smell ever present, even in the room. And at one point, new cigarette smoke wafting up the stairs.||||The first night there was no wine/local beer/snacks hour as advertised (we arrived around 4pm, according to the website we were there prior to its setup)... and the second night there was only port available (which was very tasty). Alan did surprise us with a delicious cordial one evening, which was absolutely lovely. We enjoyed the game room/lounge one evening with some TV and board games. ||||Alan, is a good cook, our breakfasts were lovely. Warning, he comes out with his bird Sweety at breakfast - it was unexpected and both days we were there Sweety flew off Alan's shoulder and flew over the breakfast table. We luckily like animals, but I can see this as something some need to be warned of. Alan sat with the guests at breakfast and we all chatted. He made our dog feel so welcome with treats and unlimited affection/pets He is a really good guy. This house is so full of his own history, his family's history. You can see the pride. Which might explain many of the problems we had, him not wanting to let go of the memories and replace with more customer friendly, new/clean items.||||I am writing this review now, because, I ran into a friend who had stayed in the same hotel and we sat swapping stories for quite some time about everything mentioned above! They experienced all the same things (even stayed in the same room!!) and they had also chose this B&B based of the high star rating. We all agreed we probably wouldn't have (or would've had more realistic expectations) if there were more fair, honest reviews about the actual place instead of its wonderful host.
