Travel 5 years ago Is Post Ranch Inn Worth It?
To be honest? It’s complicated.
We have been looking forward to staying at Post Ranch Inn for 8 years now, ever since we considered it for our honeymoon trip. Finally, we planned a trip for our anniversary last week and I was SO SO EXCITED to finally visit the property. Needless to say, we’ve had it up on our hotel pedestal for a long time and had very high hopes. With that said, there are a lot of hotels that we’ve stayed at over the past several year’s that we had very high hopes for that exceeded our expectations, sadly I am very sorry to say that this was not one of them.
I really hate writing this.
So many of you have messaged me, excited for our trip to Big Sur, asking if the Post Ranch Inn was everything we dreamed of and more. I am going to try my best to answer you as honestly and openly as I can, even at the risk of sounding bad.
We get invited to stay at hotels for trade or a discounted rate, but sometimes Grant and I will pay out of pocket to stay in a hotel that is on our bucket list. For example: In the past year we’ve done the Amangiri and Il San Pietro. A common misconception about Grant and I is that we get everything for free and that we won’t say anything bad about a place because it’s all done for trade.
Firstly, if you haven’t been to Big Sur it is absolutely captivating. I think that if it is your first time in the area and you are checking into the Post Ranch Inn, that you might be so overwhelmed by your surroundings to even notice the things about the hotel that I’m about to mention. Also, a LOT of our close friends stayed at the resort many many years ago and said that it was divine. However, after sharing my recent experience with people, I keep hearing the same exact feedback on repeat: The hotel is dated.
If you have already booked your trip: You WILL have an amazing time. There was an incredible hiking trail on property and the area is truly out of this world. I would strongly suggest a Treehouse Room or any other room than an Ocean Room.
The Rooms
Upon check in, we were all geared up and psyched to check out two different room types. The Treehouse {$1,600/night} was really fun and cozy. I loved how you felt tucked away in the woods and the room felt up to date. We really loved this room and even though it didn’t have a view of the ocean, it felt very serene. Also, the Post Ranch Inn has two pools with incredible views of the ocean, so even if you aren’t staying in an Ocean room, you will still have plenty of places to take it all in. I would consider staying in a Treehouse room again {if they improved the food situation at the hotel, but more on that later}.
It wasn’t until the next morning that I was woken at 6am by the skylight shining sun directly into my face. Now, this might not be an issue for early risers eager to hit the trails. But it was a very big issue for a new mom of an 8 month old who is looking to catch up on some much needed rest. I called the front desk and they were slightly apologetic.
We transferred into our next room, the Ocean Room {$2,350/night}. Immediately upon walking in I turned to Grant…
Really? This is $2,300 a night?!
A wave of deflation came across me. Honestly? The room was just really outdated. There were spider webs all across the light fixtures. There were stains on the carpet. The shower was a shower/tub combo which doesn’t scream 5 star. I also take a bath in EVERY hotel room I can and this bathtub was not really a tub… it was more like a trough.
The view was great, but that’s all it was – a good view. I called the front desk and asked if we could move back to the Treehouse room. Then, the incredibly nice manager came to our door, knocked, said he saw my posts on social media and wanted to show us another room to move to. We proceeded to get a really nice tour of the hotel and we decided to stay put in our Ocean Room because I didn’t want to bother with moving all of our stuff and have it be an inconvenience. Thank God we were able to get that tour, because we learned a lot about the upcoming renovations (more on that later).
The manager was incredibly nice. I just don’t think his team informed him of all of the issues we were having throughout our stay.
Closer to dinner time, at 5pm, we called reception for turndown and requested our car. I asked for a drape or tarp to be placed over the skylight window and kindly explained I needed to catch up on sleep. At 8pm we returned to our room that had not been touched since we left.
We called again and they rushed over, 5 people, with a black tarp for our skylight, however they left one exposed that we didn’t know about so it was kind of a lost cause by the time the sun came up the next morning.
We checked out the next morning and received no apologies, no explanation, no “drink on the house.” After we had called reception twice and met the manager and expressed a bit of disappointment I was extremely surprised with the hotel’s lack of customer service. Being nice is one thing, being accommodating and in tune with your guests needs is quite another and Post Ranch Inn is clueless when it comes to this.
The Food
All I heard about before our stay at Post Ranch Inn was how great the food is. I don’t get it. I just don’t understand. Our food was delivered in wooden crates often times missing silverware, salt/pepper and the food was either burnt or ice cold. The menu doesn’t have very much to offer. There were three options for breakfast and a very small handful for lunch and dinner.
Also, Grant can’t have dairy which left him with hardly anything to choose from on the menu. So if you have any dietary restrictions, don’t expect any exceptions or additional offerings.
The biggest disappointment was dinner on our first night in the restaurant, because we felt pressured to order the pre-fix 3 course dinner. We didn’t know it was a pre-fix situation. No one told us that they had another a la carte menu that we could’ve ordered from. It cost us $500 and honestly the food was sub-par.
I understand that Big Sur is in the middle of nowhere and it’s probably difficult to develop a strong menu. I would suggest leaning into the simplicity of room service, versus trying to make it feel luxurious. Lean into a picnic basket or a “grill your own” dinner on the fireplaces in each room.
The Tips
Never. Have I ever. Had a hotel pressure me so much to leave a tip. Outside of normal tipping of bellman, housekeepers or room service etc… From the moment we checked into the hotel we were told about their tipping program. While it’s very nice to have the option to add tips to your bill {especially when you don’t have cash}, it wasn’t nice to feel an awkward pressure about tipping each day. There was even a card leaflet in the room about it (see below). I’m sorry – but if I am paying $2,500+ for a room, please do not leave a tip card in the room. It isn’t tasteful.
Do you hate me?
I’m just being honest. I’m sorry.
So why write anything at all if I didn’t love our experience? I would really hate if any of you who are reading this spent your hard earned money (better yet, spent your honeymoon trip!) on a place that left you feeling deflated.
When I got home, people kept asking me “How was it? I’ve always wanted to stay at Post Ranch Inn!?” When I shared my mixed and heartbroken feelings, every single person has replied that they have heard the same thing about the property – that it’s in need of some TLC.
Perhaps the Post Ranch Inn had it’s hay day when it first opened in 1992. I remember it was all the rage, with celebrities and socialites rotating in and out. It has received a few renovations and recently had a re-opening in 2017. While some of the rooms {some of the suites and houses} are exceptionally nice and up-to-date, there are still many rooms and things about the hotel that need to be addressed. We were told that the Ocean rooms {the one we stayed in} are getting renovated this December {2019} so I am truly hoping that it will breathe new life back into what was once known as one of the greatest hotels on the California coast.
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