We stayed three nights (paid $250/night plus additional $12 resort fee and taxes). We stayed in a King Cottage, so we had to walk a short distance outside over the lovely bridge to the lobby/spa/etc.
FYI IMO: Skaneateles, NY - "town center" itself consists of three blocks of boutiques, restaurants and utility stores (realty offices, pharmacies, etc). Very nice lake and gazebo. Stores and cafes seems to open around 10am and close around 5-6pm. Only the restaurants seem to stay open later. Not much to do otherwise. There are area wineries, but if that's not your thing...
HOTEL:
I overheard the hotel was fully booked, but the grounds were fairly quiet, as were the rooms (no noise from adjoining cottages). It snowed on and off the days we were there, which made it very lovely. Although we did see workers salting and shoveling the walkways, it was not done consistently, so there were always some icy patches on the walkways and some small piles of snow and icy spots in the parking lot.
The lobby has a large sitting area and fireplace. When we were disappointed that there was no hot chocolate or apple cider and cookies (it had been set up only for the town's Dickens Christmas event), the manager offered to have the bartender/kitchen make us some. We declined, but I thought it was very nice of her to offer. FYI, there is a large hot tub at the spa, but the hotel has no pool. Kudos to Sheri at the spa and Renzo at the restaurant for their cheerful attitudes.
ROOM:
There are fireplaces in every room, most spa treatment rooms and at the outdoor hot tub, ALL gas (no wood). The room fireplaces have timers. The room is fairly spacious, with a small writing desk and a small seating area. There is a flatscreen TV but no HDTV signal, so the picture is stretched and the logos/channel markers are OLD (channel listings for channels that don't even exist anymore or have changed their name). Room has a hairdryer, a digital safe roomy enough for a laptop and more, plenty of pillows, blackout curtains, coffee maker, minibar, radio, and plenty of towels.
The bathroom is very large with dual sinks, a claw foot tub and a large triangular walk in shower with rain shower head. There is good water pressure. I liked the hotel branded toiletries by Gilchrist and Soames ("Wake Up Rosemary"). Two robes were in the room - one size fits most. Men need a larger robe, so it would have been nice if there had been another size available. The room needs more lighting - when the curtains are closed or it is nighttime, you cannot read in the room. The batteries in the remote control to the DVD player were dead and the replacement batteries I requested from housekeeping did not work either.
The $12 resort fee (which I believe is not optional) includes turndown service, wifi (no password needed), bottled water, newspapers, unlimited fitness classes, use of the gym (equipment is NOT "state of the art" as advertised, they are older machines, but the gym does have TVs, water, headphones and towels), in room DVD player and unlimited DVD borrowing from their library. I would suggest that they roll the $12 fee into the nightly room rate and advertise all of the amenities as free of charge - it would make the customer feel less nickeled and dimed and that they are getting more luxuries for free.
SPA:
The spa treatments we tried were very good and the therapists were friendly, professional and thorough. The treatment rooms are nice, in room showers where applicable, gas fireplaces, clean, and had a relaxing ambiance. There was NO hard sell on products after a treatment, which was nice. The relaxation lounge has water and tea, plenty of lounge chairs and a heated foot pool (the water was warm, not hot, when I tried it).
The vestibule from the spa to the outdoor hot tub needs better ventilation, as there is a gas smell build up from the wall mounted gas fireplace. Parts of the outdoor hot tub area were covered in snow and the wet bar was never open when we were there. The hot tub could easily fit 25 people, but the sign posted says a maximum of 15 people. There are bathing suit spinners in both locker rooms, which were very convenient. There is a very nice eucalyptus steam room and dry sauna in both locker rooms. Lots of locals use the spa.
Having used the ladies locker room at the spa every day that I was there, I observed that the attendants collected used towels and restocked the amenities very sporadically. I did see them working, but there were times that I saw the plastic bags for wet clothing were out, the make up remover was out, the lavender scented towels were there once and the mouthwash was never refilled the entire time I was there. The large ottomans in the locker room are very stained and need cleaning badly. The lockers are very shallow - barely 12 inches deep. Gilchrist and Soames Wake Up Citrus, Rosemary and Lavender are available for use in the locker rooms.
RESTAURANT:
Guests are welcome to walk around in spa robes during breakfast and lunch.
The Continental Breakfast consists of three cheeses, fruit, pastries and small mini bagels, yogurt, granola, ham/proscuitto, coffee and tea. As it was explained to us every time - each hotel guest is given a $10 credit to use towards either the continental breakfast above OR towards the other entree selections on the menu (which are mostly $10 or above). If you order the lemon ricotta pancakes ($10, they were nice) and a glass of OJ, you'll be paying for the OJ. Taxes and tips are NOT included in the $10 credit. The french toast was actually a pumpkin bread pudding. I did ask our server the time so we could finish breakfast before our spa appointments and she later reminded us of the current time to keep us on track, which was thoughtful.
The restaurant was fully booked on Christmas Eve, so we ate from the wine bar menu in the bar area. It took 20 minutes to be served our caesar salads. They mistakenly gave one of our main courses to another table, where it sat for 15 minutes before they realized their mistake. We had to wait for them to make a fresh order, so I was finished with my meal before he even got his entree. They WERE very apologetic and comped his main course and a dessert for us (they offered to comp our whole meal, but we declined).
We ate at the hotel's $44 Christmas Day brunch buffet, as everything else was completely closed on Christmas Day. We opted to eat at one of their three seatings. Lots of choices of appetizers and desserts, main course choices a little lacking -- as advertised:
"eggs made to order" - it should have been listed as an omelette station (they were not set up for scrambled, hard boiled, eggs over easy, poached) and my omelette was a bit greasy and runny
"pasta station" - only ONE pasta (pappardelle) and ONE sauce (alfredo) available (we asked our server if we could get marinara sauce and were told it would take at least an hour), and since it was cooked to order, it took MORE than 15 minutes to get the fresh pasta cooked from the single portable butane burner, which I ended up foregoing for the ready made penne with cheese at the kids' station
But it was all you could eat, steamship of beef, glazed ham, chicken fingers, mushroom and spinach risotto and roasted veggies.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC.
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