Reviews of The Inn At Corolla Light
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Stay Anywhere Else!!! - 11/14/2009 17:44:42
Concerned from VA
Earlier in the summer, we had booked accommodations at another facility in Corolla. Our son became ill, so we had to cancel those plans and, after he got out of the hospital, make some last-minute alternate plans, because our original accommodations were no longer available. Pretty much everything in the area was booked up - so I asked the lady at the hotel we were going to stay at if there was any place we could try. She said "Well, there is an Inn....." which is where our misadventure began.
The Inn suggested was "The Inn at Corolla Light" which has a really nice web site at http://www.corolla-inn.com/. Just like everything else about our experience at the Inn, the web page looks nice and charming - at first glance. The picture presented is of a rustic Inn on the bay, with plenty of character and charm. The rates (for rooms available at the time) were in the mid 200's to 299/night - not too high A: at the last minute and B: in what is supposed to be one of the premier areas in one of the premier vacation spots in the outer banks.
The amenities listed were plenty - access via an armband to the beach resort down the road, shuttle service to the beach and a local gym, and as for the on-site amenities:
"The Inn has a beautifully landscaped pool and hot tub area overlooking the Sound, along with a 400-ft sailing pier with gazebo. In Summer, guests rent wave runners, kayaks, paddle boats, pontoon boats and other sailing equipment and watercraft from our pier for the ultimate in Outer Banks water sports adventures. For more relaxing endeavors, enjoy crabbing or lounging in the breezy gazebo at sunset." Also listed were "Corolla Light oceanfront amenities (seasonally permitting), movies, local activities, bicycles and other complimentary items." Bicycles are listed as included...free to guests to use.
Available for us to choose was one of the "courtyard and pool view" rooms, number 47. Judging by the room pictures it would provide a nice, cozy place for a vacation on short notice - just what we were looking for. So I booked the room. The web interface for booking the room was a bit clunky - i.e. it didn't have a tab for American Express - so I called the inn. They said they accept American Express and that I should just select Visa and fill in the other number - they'd look for it and fix it on their end when it showed up. So a few minutes later I got a confirmation email and the charge for the room (in full) on my card.
A short note: The Inn's cancellation policy. From their web site, the cancellation policy states "What's is your policy on refunds for cancellations and hurricanes?
"No Worry" Hurricane Policy: Changes or cancellations made prior to seven (7) days of arrival are subject to a $45.00 accounting fee. Changes, cancellations, no-shows and/or early departures within seven (7) days of arrival are non-refundable." Notice the second part - Changes cancellation, no-shows and/or early departures within (7) days of arrival are non-refundable. That, aside from being deceptively written is impossible unless one has booked a stay LONGER than 7 days i.e. if I find my accommodations unacceptable after arrival how can I possibly depart early with only a 4 day trip without being nailed with the entire amount of the stay? As written, the situation is impossible, but something you are not expecting at an establishment that could deliver as billed on their website and with their reviews.
So off we went - timing our arrival at the posted check-in time of 4:00pm. We drove up the very scenic, winding and exciting road through Duck, past shops, inns, parasailing, bicyclers, restaurants, and were getting more excited about our stay (despite the iffy weather). We wen past all of the more crowded areas toward Corolla (which is what we wanted, Quiet) and eventually arrived at our upper 200's accommodations, announced by a street level marker on the left. I parked our car in the parking lot and got out, and looked at the Inn. I had to actually look around and make sure I was in the right place - the decking and railing looked to be about 15-20 years old, and didn't appear to have had any maintenance done for a long time. But I gave the benefit of the doubt - hey it is an Inn on the ocean going for a rustic look, right? Another feature one is presented with at the Inn when getting out of the car is an immediate stench of rotting vegetation, but again, we're at the inlet side of a beach location, so that was forgivable too, right?
Walking toward the ramp and stairs leading to the office, there was a nice (from a distance) marquee and the staff had nicely put out a inkjet-printed page on the marquee welcoming us for our (oh did I mention it?) 15th anniversary stay. At that point I noticed the marquee was (at one time) covered with intact cedar shingles that had long-since gone to rot (see pictures) - a view that wen way beyond "rustic" in my opinion. Now to be fair, most of the gray painted cedar shakes on the exterior walls at least appeared relatively new, but the decking was just simply neglected. But we are going for that rustic Inn look, right?
I went in the office up stairs to check in - there was a nice "A Five Star Inn" sign done in starfish above the main check-in office window. We were given a room key and told where the keys were available for the bicycle checkout. And then immediately admonished that nobody under 18 could use any of the Inns bicycles, because "You should see what kids do to bicycles." Of course my 13 year-old son was standing right there when she impugned his character, but I digress. We were informed that we could drive or walk our son a couple of miles down the road and rent bicycles at a place that would allow kids to ride. We were also shown the "continental breakfast" room and the computer, and told about the available wireless internet. We were told not to use the room towels, that towels were provided at the beach and gym, and we were also offered towels there in the office at $30.00/apiece. We were also told about the shuttle - it runs till 7, they said.
So off me and my son go to the room, that number 47. Keep in mind that we have already been charged the entire amount for our stay, and that per their policy any cancellations or early departures result in us paying anyway, and we had nowhere else to go. But once again I digress. We enter the room and the amenities were pretty much as depicted on the website for room 47. Of course the pictures on the website aren't exactly high resolution, so what you see isn't exactly what you get, but again I digress. It was what we expected because there were pictures, right? Two immediately obvious things were the moldy smell and the high humidity in the room. We stayed briefly to drop off a couple of things, and then went back to get my wife, who was gathering stuff from our car to bring up to the room. She said "Is this the same place from the website?" I answered in the affirmative.
With arriving at 4pm we wanted to get to the beach a: before the approaching storm and b: with enough light left to have some fun at the beach. So we donned our armbands for resort access and went down to the parking lot about 5pm. No shuttle bus in sight. We waited for sure - but no shuttle came by. The map showed the resort to be right around the corner, so rather than burn more daylight, we decided to walk. There were nice sidewalks, after all, and it was only about .5 miles. So we get to the resort just about the time the pool is closed because there was lightening approaching. We decided to walk down to the beach anyway before the lightening and rain started hitting, and had a nice time. We returned up to the pool deck about the time it started raining. There was an on-site restaurant/bar, so we decided to go up, have a bite to eat, and wait out the looming storm. So we sat at a table and waited. And waited. The staff completely ignored us. So we inquired at the bar as to whether a waitress could visit our table (by this point it is raining really hard, and most of the people at the outdoor dining area had fled) but we were told we had to have reservations. No exceptions. Of course they could have SAID that, but once again I digress. So out of the restaurant into the rain we went - to make our way to the shuttle stop to return to the Inn. No such luck - the sign on the shuttle stop says the bus stops running at 5pm - two hours sooner than what we were told at the Inn. Which left us to walk back to the Inn in pouring rain (it rained 2 inches in just over an hour) in calf deep water and lightening crashing all around. We arrived back at the Inn drenched. That was when we found out just how humid the air in the room really was. Oh we noticed the humidity in the room was elevated when we arrived, but chalked it up to it being humid and rainy outside.
We wrang out our clothes and set them in the foyer area to dry. They didn't. This was Wednesday afternoon, and they were still just as wet on Friday as they were when we arrived. The bed clothes were damp, the carpet was damp, the tile floor was damp. The little sign saying "enjoy your stay" was wrinkled it was so damp. But it was raining cats and dogs, right? Damp is expected at the beach.
So we got up the next day (Thursday) and it went about our business. We went to the gym - oh they had towels, but they were $5.00, even if you had the arm band. Kids under 16 weren't allowed in the gym of course, nor were children under 14 allowed in the unused spa. So we spent the day in souvenir shops, touring, the beach, kayaking, etc., and had a relatively good day despite the spotty weather. We returned late in the evening (after 10 to our room, where we found that the humidity level within completely precluded anything within drying out. Even with the bathroom vent fan running, the air conditioner (while cooling adequately) seemed to be bent on infusing the room with moisture. But we toughed out another night, being so late and all. The day before, we had booked jet skis and a horse tour at the hotel, (jet skis at 10, horse tour at 1:15) so I went to the office to see if I could get them to take a look at the air conditioner while we were out. The office staff said to come back around noon and that he would just "upgrade" our room to a better unit. That seemed somewhat amenable. So we went jet skiing (rented below the Inn in the same complex) and had a good time. We finished up and decided to go to the Inn's pool and hot tub before dining and going on the horse tour.
That was when I really started opening my eyes to what was around. The hot tub was really a luke-warm tub. The air-vent knobs around the hot tub were mostly broken. There was debris in the corners. The pool mechanical equipment shed door was rusted/rotted out at the bottom and unlocked. The pool chlorine shack was unlocked - there wasn't even a lock hanging from the hasp. There was one pool lounge chair that looked to be about 5 years old - dry rotted and falling apart where it sat. The pool amenities consisted primarily of 10 or more year-old RadioShack speakers - from which no music came and no source for music was evident. The pool "bar" hadn't been used in years, was dirty, rotting, and filled with beer cans, dirt, old wood, and what appeared to be a 10+ year-old first aid kit left to weather. The non-existent table umbrellas couldn't have been supported by the rusted and corroded poles left to weather for years. The electrical conduit leading to fixtures around the deck was broken and/or missing covers, allowing the wiring within to be exposed. The decking and parts of the patio (and the inside of the busted bar) were covered with plant debris and beer cans.
So then we started taking a closer look at the rest of the Inn. There was a luggage cart on the deck near the office ramp, alluding to the concept that this had once been a respectable establishment; but on closer inspection the tires to the cart had dry-rotted where it sat (for years, one would suspect) and was actually growing mushrooms out of the rotted plywood platform on which it was built. Most of the air-conditioner grills were busted, falling off, or had damaged condensate drains. The gutters were clogged with debris, the decorative planters around the facility were filled with either sticks (suggesting that there had once been an attempt to decorate) or half-dead plants. The ceiling fans on the main porch were rusted and in apparent disrepair.
Then, (with time on my hands prior to getting my "room upgrade") I turned my eye toward our actual room itself. The knob on the door was loose. There was a radio - "vintage" look, and with one turn of the volume knob one was presented (at no matter what setting) with full volume bursts of static. The humidity in the room was so high, that the hinges and hooks on the doors (especially in the bathroom) were rusted and in the case of brass fixtures covered with corrosion and verdigris. The bathroom light (aside from missing a bulb) showed what appeared to be a combination of corrosion on the chrome and possibly some mold. The hinges (especially the right hinge) on the toilet seat was completely corroded to the point that it had snapped at some point in the distant past. The dried roses looked to be about 10 years old and were simply disgusting. The refrigerator looked like something from a college frat house. The television in the $200+ accommodation was a 1997 19" model. (Well, okay, that was depicted in the picture of the room provided on the website). The view (limited pool and/or courtyard, remember) was actually of the parking lot of the jeep tour place next door and of the Inn's highly rusted propane tank.
And the creme-de-la-creme, as discovered by my son (hidden behind a well-placed plant in the corner near the door) was an approximate 12x10 piece of drywall that had been cut out from the wall opposite the tub (evidently to access the plumbing for the tub). Clearly one could see the black mold growing within.
I had plenty of time to document all of this with pictures (and a fun video of the crackly radio) prior to my after 12pm appointment for a "room upgrade." I arrived at about about 12:10pm and the rather friendly gentleman at the desk was most accommodating. He apologized for the state of the room, and provided me with a key to an alternate unit. The unit happened to be the one next door, numbered 41. We entered 41 and sure enough!! It wasn't an overly humid sauna. The appointments were about the same, but no humidity!!! But nothing could disguise the other smell - reminiscent of used baby diapers with an undertone of mold.
At that point we made the family decision that we were DONE with the Inn at Corolla light. I returned to the office to inform the nice gentleman of our decision. The inn's manager had evidently returned, so he turned me over to her for resolution. I explained the problems with the original room and with the "upgrade" and told her our decision was that we could no longer stay at the Inn. Things rapidly degenerated from there. She started by telling me that we should have come to her sooner about the room (remember we arrived back on that second night after 10) and that there was really nothing she could do - we'd have to eat the $1200+ bucks for our accommodations.)
To wrap up, (after police intervention) I received a refund for the last two days of our abbreviated stay, which was all I wanted in the first place. I have never ever stayed anyplace with a more rude and unprofessional staff (with the exception of the friendly and accommodating man who at least made a valid effort to help us despite his manager's insufferable attitude).
I documented the information I put forth in this review with pictures. Just go to "tumblr.com" and search for "Vacation to Hell" for pictures and descriptions of what happened to us during and AFTER our stay.
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