Reneged on Reservation!
As a former businessman, it is rare for me to make negative comments about another business. But my experience with the Youngberg Hill B&B was so outrageous I felt compelled to warn others who may be considering a stay with this establishment. We (2 couples) decided to visit Oregon’s Willamette Valley Wine Country for 10 days in July, 2011. Being the anal planners that we are, we called the Youngberg Hill B&B about a year in advance of our trip and spoke directly with one of the owners, Nicolette Bailey, to make our room reservations. Nicolette seemed pleasant to speak with, and was very helpful in sorting out which rooms would best fill our needs & desires. Afterward, we made full payment for both rooms to lock in our reservations. Since we all reside in another state, we then proceeded to schedule our vacation time, make our airline reservations, rental car reservations, schedule activities, etc… Everything we had planned for a wonderful, Wine Country Vacation was pre-paid and ready to go. …or so we thought! About 4 months later, I received a call from Nicolette’s husband, Wayne Bailey. Wayne called to apologize and inform us that the rooms we had reserved (4 months prior), and fully paid for, had been double-booked. In discussing our options, Wayne informed us that no other rooms were available because another family had booked the entire resort. Though he denied it, we got the distinct impression that we had been “Bumped” for this larger group. Wayne did offer us alternate dates which wouldn’t fit our vacation schedule, so he was “willing” to waive the cancellation fees and refund our full payments on the rooms. But he also made it very clear that he could not be responsible for the change fees or any other costs associated with “Their Mistake”. Wayne did offer to give us the names of some other B&B’s in the area, but at this point we really didn’t care to engage further with the Bailey’s of Youngberg Hill B&B. It took about a month, and a couple of more phone calls, but we did eventually get full refunds on the rooms. We hope that by relating our experience with the Youngberg Hill B&B, others can make a more informed decision on whether to book a room here or not. If you are local to the area and can be flexible with changing your travel dates on a whim, then this might be a great place to stay. But if you are traveling from out of state, and are counting on the integrity of your hotel proprietor to honor your reservations, then we suggest you look elsewhere.