My husband and I, along with our two young children (3YO and 8months), stayed at Stone Manor for 2 nights during my sister-in-law’s wedding on-site. We were in the wedding (I was the matron of honor, my son was the ring bearer) so my sister-in-law suggested we stay on site so it would be easier to have a babysitter on site and go back and forth to the room if needed. I should mention that all of the occupied rooms during our stay were occupied by other family/close friends of the wedding party, except one, so we were also excited that we'd be staying in the same place as the bride and groom and our closest friends.
First, the positives of Stone Manor. The grounds are gorgeous -- beautiful rolling country side hills about 20 mins outside of downtown Frederick. It was a beautiful site for the wedding. The inn is charming. It's a bit old in some places, but it fits the setting. The breakfast was delicious. The morning I attended breakfast, we were served a yogurt parfait and french toast with a cream cheese and fruit filling, along with coffee and juice.
It would have been a positive and enjoyable experience except for the service we received from the Director, Brian. Unfortunately, the innkeepers were out of town during our stay so we have no way of knowing if our experience would have been different with them.
When we arrived with our kids, my husband went to check in and Lori expressed surprise when she saw the kids and asked if my husband had “checked with Brian” about having the kids stay here. My husband expressed equal surprise since we were not aware that we needed to check with them in advance about our children. We’d looked extensively at the website to decide which room to request and there was nothing on the website mentioning that children weren’t allowed/encouraged, nor was anything asked/mentioned when I called to book and pay for the reservations by phone. We were given disapproving looks by Lori and Brian, but there was not much we could do about it at this point, so we got over it. Regardless, we made sure to keep our kids quiet during our stay, kept them mostly in our room when we were at Stone Manor, and made sure to keep any fragile items in the room out of their reach.
Fast forward to the end of the wedding event when the guests were leaving the Stone Manor grounds to go to the after-party at another larger hotel in Frederick. I went up to the room to check in with the babysitter (who, by the way, was a 30YO elementary school teacher in Montgomery County that was highly recommended by one of my friends who lives in the area). The kids were both asleep and I let her know we’d be back in about an hour and a half. During the time I was in the room, my husband was waiting in the lobby with a few other guests and Brian approached my husband and asked who was watching our kids. My husband said we’d arranged for someone and that she was up in our room with the kids sleeping. He gave my husband a hard time and started talking about liability of Stone Manor and asking if the person was a licensed care giver, etc. Even though my husband was polite and tried to brush it off, Brian was pushy and condescending during the conversation. Several other guests of the wedding that heard the conversation were appalled that Brian would have the gall to ask a guest about how we were taking care of our children. None of us has ever had a hotel/B&B staff member so rudely intrude into our personal life, particularly while we were staying politely and quietly at their facility.
The following morning when we were checking out, I mentioned to Brian that I wanted to give him some feedback on our experience. I was simply hoping to help another guest avoid the bad experience as we had, and maybe even get an apology (I was not asking for money back or anything else). He asked me to sit down in the office upstairs while we talked, which I did. I started by saying that we looked at the website and even personally called to make reservations and had never been told that children were not allowed. He responded that they would make it clear since it’s a liability issue for the B&B and they can’t have children staying without a licensed caregiver and they would make a policy against bringing children. I suggested that if they decide not to allow children, it should be clearly stated on the website and when people call to make reservations. I said that my opinion is that since nothing had been communicated to us, once we showed up at the hotel to stay the night with our kids, they should have just smiled and not mentioned it. I also said that, unfortunately, the way we were treated made the whole experience a negative one for us and we planned to write a review online about it. Truthfully, if he had handled our interaction well at that point and just apologized sincerely, I probably would have been satisfied and never written a review (this is my first travel review ever). But, I think I hit a sore spot when I mentioned the reviews and he said, “If you write a negative review about us, we’ll come after you with both barrels!” I couldn’t believe he just said that, and so I stood up and said I had given my feedback and had nothing else to say. He told me to “sit back down. I listened to you and you can listen to me.” I said, “I’m not going to sit back down after you have just threatened me. I’ve told you about my poor experience and I have nothing else to say so I’m going to leave now.” We traded a few more back and forth’s, but I saw no point in continuing this outrageous conversation so I started to walk out of the room and down the stairs to the lobby. I couldn’t get out of there fast enough and my husband and I spent the rest of the ride to the airport fuming about what a complete jerk he was. We certainly will never stay there again and, based on our experience, will not be recommending it to anyone.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC.
