Stayed here with my daughter and husband for my birthday weekend trip to MassMOCA. Yes, the location is spectacular as is the drive to get there from Boston. But what made it really worth it versus other inns in the area was the inventiveness of the architecture and styling of the buildings. We expected an Inn vibe, and it did not disappoint. It was just so much fun to be in the rooms and walk around the houses that had been converted into to one larger, porched building.
We had a king suite, with a large comfy main bed and sofa bed. There was a desk set in the front angled window area. The furnishings were antiques and eclectic, often arts and crafts style and leather. It was like a really nice get away cabin design. If you are in North Adams for art appreciation, staying here is part of the package.
Pluses
-Bath salts for the whirlpool tub
- Room service breakfast - instead of having to come to the community dining room
in wall safe- behind a paint by the numbers classical painting
- Gluten free and non-dairy options at breakfast
-Family room with games
- Local art on the walls
- Chairs on the porches - a perfect place for morning tea.
- Real keys.
- Turndown service included setting up the pullout bed
Minuses
- A bit nickel and dimey My daughter came to stay from college for one of our three nights. I informed the desk of this when we made the reservation so that we could have linens for the pullout bed and extra towels (which were there when we checked in). The room says it sleeps 4, but we were charged extra for my daughter to cover breakfast for the one day. Also, we need to keep some medication cold so we requested a fridge for our room. It was there when we arrived, which was great. But they charged extra a day for that as well.
-Difficulty getting Tea/coffee service. This is one area where usually inns excel where they fell short - Tea and cookies in the lobby. They did have a hot beverage set up in the reception area in the afternoons but not much variety. One day it was hot cider, another it was coffee. To get tea or cocoa, they had to get you the water. They were very nice about it, but these days, its rare to not have a coffee service in the room. They had a very nice set up for breakfast- it seems to me they could just leave that available all day and evening.
-No slippers. With hard wood floors and wonderful robes go slippers. There were none. A nitpick but noticeable.
-Old house stuff - you could hear people in the room above walking around. Our floor was not level, by any means. The room tended to run hot. I expect this from an older inn and was to be expected. But I can see that some people might find it less than pleasing.
-Only big thing - the room smelled musty everytime we came back and the heat had run. We ended up running the air conditioning or opening a window for a while to freshen it up. My husband has a severe mold allergy so this was a bit of a concern. However, he was fine and there was no visible mold.
