The 52 Stafford is an historic hotel built in the late 1890s. It has a minimal Irish theme with some Irish decor in the lobby. There are 19 rooms each with a private bath that are adequately furnished.

The lobby, bar, front desk area and dining area are essentially one large open space on the first floor. Because smoking is allowed in the bar...and the bar is open to the rest of the space, all the public areas are very smokey. If you don't like smoke or are allergic...you'd have a major problem here.

The odd thing about this property is that they "close" on Sunday...but they do take reservations for that night and allow guests to stay. The lights are turned off in the public spaces, there is no one at the desk, and no one answers the phone.

We weren't told of this policy when we booked our Saturday and Sunday night stay during President's weekend. After an afternoon of sightseeing we arrived back at the hotel to find it locked and dark with a Closed sign on the front door. Fortunately we knew our key opened the front door...so we let ourselves in and went up to our rooms. We discovered that the maid had cleaned the room...but didn't leave any towels. Calls to the front desk went unanswered, so we wandered around looking for someone. No luck. We left again for dinner and returned to find it really dark now... and still no one to help with towels. We were simply out of luck.

Monday morning the place was open and staffed again. When we complained about being in a closed hotel with no services, we were told that the reason we didn't know the hotel would be closed was because we booked online. Guests who call for reservations are given this rather important piece of information.

We were able to get a partial refund...but still find it odd that a hotel is "closed" with guests in it. I certainly would not book a stay here on a Sunday night. Otherwise it's a decent hotel at a fair price.