Our anniversary at the Inn at Langley--not a great experience

Okay, I waited two weeks to write this to let myself cool off but now the time has come for me to hit the web with my review of our 10th anniversary weekend at the Inn at Langley in Langley, Washington.

First let me say that we had read many great reviews of this lodge. We have driven by it many times over the years but always thought it was out of our price range. But for our 10th anniversary we decided to do it. The cost of a regular room is around $300 a night.

Second let me say that we have stayed in some incredible hotels in our 10 years together. We stayed in the Stephanie Inn in Cannon Beach, OR well known as one of the top inns in the USA. We spent the night in the Balmoral in Edinburgh, known as Scotland's greatest hotel. We have stayed at the Four Seasons in both Seattle and Vancouver, both 5 star hotels. We have spent nights at the Salish Lodge also known as one of Washington's best hotels. The Inn at Langley is supposed to be in the ballpark. Not a chance. Not even in the same city, let alone the same ballpark.

First, we checked in and were given the key and headed to the room. The folks in the office were very nice but the place has the feel of a motel, not a world class hotel. All rooms are accessible from the outside and the steps and walkways to the rooms are dark and dirty. The door to the room had a definite Motel 6 feel. The lock was cheap and the door felt flimsy. Nothing you can put your finger on, we just knew we were not in a five star inn.

Upon entering the room we saw a queen size bed (for $300 a night don't you think they could swing a king?), two straight back chairs, some shelves and couple of fixed seats near the window. The window opened on to a gorgeous view of Puget Sound and Camano Island. That's what you are paying for at the Inn at Langley--the view. It's a nice view but certainly not worth the money. We could have done a four day cruise with a verandah for the same price and had all meals and a better view but that's still not my point.

The room is good size but the carpet looked dirty as were the windows. And speaking of the windows. They did look out on a beautiful view but if you wanted to leave them open to hear the sounds of the water, forget it--no screens--just bugs. A supposed five star inn without screens on the windows? In fact, only one of the windows, the sliding door opened. A huge room with an entire wall of windows and only one of them opened.

The bath had a big tub. Big enough for two. But it just looked dated and dirty. Brown in color with peeling varnish on the windows around it. (See the picture.) The shower was huge but it was cold with so-so pressure and it had a shower head that was broken. If I had not been there, Kathleen would not have been able to reach the shower head. It was built to be on a sliding pole so that short and tall people can reach it but that was broken so, as I said, if I hadn't of been there she would not have been able to adjust the head.

The bedding needed refreshing. A little hard and the linens weren't the best. Far from it. To say that we were underwhelmed by the room is a huge understatement. My bride did like the toiletries but speaking of the toilet...single-ply Costco toilet paper? Just doesn't add up. And the towels and robes were pretty darn cheap as well. I have better towels in my personal bathroom at home.

But we did have reservations for what we had been told was an amazing dinner at their restaurant. We were really looking forward to it. The meal is five courses and is served in their demonstration kitchen dining room. The chef (who is also the general manager of the hotel) is fantastic. Dinner was great. I mean really good. But we had one small quibble. Even though we knew dinner was $85 each we were under the impression (from both the website and the hotel's guest book we found in the room) that the wine pairing with each course was $60 each. When we arrived at dinner the price had been jumped in the few minutes since we left the room to $85. Interesting.

That was really more than we wanted to spend considering the cost of the room and dinner so we decided to order from their impressive wine list. We ordered a bottle of nice cabernet that was part of the wine tasting. It was $120.

If they are going to change the price on the wine tasting, they need to change it on their website and in their in-room literature. If you are going to do dinner there be aware that there is no wine by the glass unless you do the tasting but also be aware that they do continue to fill glasses until you say stop. If we had known that, we might have done the tasting even at the higher price. Also be very aware that the cost does not include almost $75 for service. That's more than 20% of our tab.

I do need to say something good about the place. Breakfast was included and it was fantastic. Superb. Two of the best breakfasts we have ever had. But I am sorry, that just does not make it worth the price they are charging for the rooms. In fact, based on hotels we have stayed in that were the equivalent in cleanliness and amenities the room was worth about $150 a night. Which means we were eating $125 breakfasts. They were good but not that good.

All of that said, I cannot seriously recommend the Inn at Langley at their current pricing structure. They really need a update. A massive update. The rest of the Inn at Langley needs to be updated to the level of the food service. We were very disappointed.