I made a reservation at Aurora Inn over a month before our scheduled trip. We reserved 3 nights: Wed, Aug 10 - Sat, Aug 13. I specifically requested a lakeside view and agreed to stay in the nearby "French House" (also owned & operated by Aurora Inn) because the inn itself had no lake-view rooms available. One week before our trip, I called the inn and confirmed our reservation and the lake-view room.

When we arrived, we were told that our reservation was for a village-view room. I insisted on having a lake-view room and repeated the story of making the reservation and confirming it. The innkeeper informed me that they had changed computer systems twice since the time of my original reservation. She assured me that even though she had to manually re-enter all of the reservation info at least two times, she was sure her data entry matched the original records completely.

I asked when a lake-view room would become available and was told that 2 rooms were vacant at the moment, but we could not have either of them because they were reserved by other couples! I asked her to verify whether those reservations were made before ours, and she refused to look up that information. She would not allow us to have one of the rooms because she would not be able to justify it to those other couples or have a paper trail for the change -- as if she WAS able to jusify it to us or show us a paper trail!

We suspect that our reservation was conveniently changed by the inn, perhaps because the other visitors would stay for more nights (i.e., more money). The innkeeper was uncooperative, unable to give us any documentation of the original reservation, and seemed to be convinced that her establishment was so fabulous that they could pull a bait & switch. She did offer a 10% discount on the village-view room ($180 instead of $200; lake-view was $250). But I informed her that we would have booked elsewhere had they not guarenteed & confirmed the lake-view. We left thoroughly unsatisfied.

Fortunately, we were able to find a room for those 3 nights at the Glass Magnolia Inn in Interlaken, NY. It may not have been quite as elegant or snooty as Aurora Inn, but it was much more convenient to the wine trails, and it was less than half the price!

If you must stay at the Aurora Inn, insist on getting your reservation confirmed IN WRITING. Even then, it might be smart to have a back-up!