Belhurst Castle, Geneva

I have stayed in several rooms at this hotel as well as its annex, White Spring Manor. The suite in the "Castle" was filthy and out dated. The sitting room looked like someone's basement from the sixites. White Springs was also unkempt inside as well as the exterior. It needed painting and the landscaping was neglected. The management told me that they were renovating, but that was several years ago and it is still in disrepair. It is not an inexpensive stay and I will not be returning.

My husband and I booked the tower suite in the castle. No one told us there was no elevator when we booked the room. We had to carry our suitcases up three flights of stairs. They didn't have anyone to help with the luggage. The suite was large but lacked amenitites. The next day we had to call to have the room cleaned at 4PM. Service was at a bare minimum. I don't think they had enough staff on board. We had dinner and breakfast at Edgar's restaurant. The food was terrible. We ate all our other meals at other local restaurants. The view was nice over the lake but not worth the price of the tower room, which was worth much less than we paid. We will not go back.

My husband proposed to me 5 years ago at Belhurst Castle. On that trip we stayed in the Bronze room. We returned to celebrate the five year anniversary of our engagement which is also our wedding anniversary (we married a year later). This time, we booked the tower room. As expected the craftsmanship and detail of the wood finish was beautiful in this room. The tower room suite contains a bedchamber room that you enter from the hallway, off to the left is a sitting room with small fridge, TV, stereo, sofa and chair that leads into the turret. Winding stairs lead up to a second floor in the turret. Although a beautiful room, the view of the lake from this area is pretty well blocked by the trees on the castle grounds. Off the main bedchambers is a porch. I believe the description of the room calls this a widow walk. Two chairs and a small table filled the area but it had a great view and was very relaxing to wind down with a glass of bubbly. Unfortunately the wall is solid, so sitting in normal height chairs makes it difficult to take in the view, but belly up to the railing and the scenery is beautiful. The bathroom was recently remodeled with a beautiful walk in shower, lighting with dimmers and an almost full wall mirror. Although the bathroom has a jetted single person soaking tub, we were looking forward to the Jacuzzi that had been in the room up until a few weeks ago. Its unfortunate that the management hasn’t change the description of the room and did not think to let us know they had removed the two person Jacuzzi. I must say this was a disappointment. I’m not sure if it would have deterred us from booking the room, however it was one aspect that made us feel the high price of the room would be worth the amenities. The soaking tub is high sided and a bit hard to get in and out of if you have any type of mobility issue. We ate dinner both nights at the castle. One night in Stone cutters and one night in Edgars. The food at Stonecutters was good and the atmosphere was casual. On our evening at Edgars, although originally booked to sit on the porch, the restaurant manager switched our seating to the solarium where we had eaten a fantastic dinner four years earlier. Our two steak entrées at Edgars made a great meal as expected. Our waitress Sandy was very friendly and helpful and made our dinner experience an evening to remember. Although the grounds were thronged by what appear to be high school students at a prom, they departed after a few minutes and our after dinner walk was peaceful and relaxing. The serenity at Belhurst Castle makes one feel like they are in a remote location rather than the outskirts of a bustling college town.

Great location, decent rooms, unprofessional staff. The staff seemed bothered to be there. As we sat in Stonecutters, eating our mediocre meal, they rolled silverware and refilled cleaning supplies right in front of us at the bar. An employee engaged in some sort of "tasting" (buying or selling wine) loudly discussed "business" at the end of the bar. The bartender was minimally attentive and mildly abrasive. When arriving in the room we were greeted by a swarm of gnats. They did immediately move us to a suite for one night, cleared the gnats and returned us to the original room the next morning. The breakfast buffet at Edgars had food that was either completely overcooked or totally undercooked and it was all cold, just like the staff. As we checked out no one asked how our stay was, invited us back, or thanked us for staying - my guess is that they either don't care or that they stopped asking because they don't want to hear the negatives. This hotel has the potential to be great, but because of the poor customer service, negative attitudes, total disinterest and coldness of the staff, what starts out looking like a luxury hotel turns out feeling like a budget motel. A total disappointment.

We can't wait to come back!!!! Everyone was so nice. The room was so beautiful, the fireplace, the woodwork, WONDERFUL!!!

To far! No heat! Said they have "been having problems"! It was 10 degress outside! It was so cold in our room! Called front desk, no one there! Had to call sister property 2 miles away and no one could help us! They didn't know what to do or who to call!? Cold air coming through windows! Customer service, Kathy and Matt front desk unfriendly! No housekeeping on Sundays! Don't ask for towels, Kathy will be upset if she needs to get up from behind the desk. Service awful! Beds uncomfortable! From the 1960s. Kitchenettes? Toaster broke, micro broke, oven broke, no cups, silverware, or paper goods! No internet connection No cell phone service The fireplace was nice!

We booked the Carriage House at the Belhurst Castle six months in advance to attend a wedding Friday and another on Sunday. At that time they told me to check out the pictures of rooms on their web site, very deceptive. I chose the Ice House but was told the Carriage House was nicer. The wedding reception was there and we wanted to stay at the hotel. It was Memorial Day weekend and I knew that the area was going to be booked. The night before we spent a very pleasant stay at the Hampton Inn in Geneva. They were full for the weekend so it was not an option to return. I called to see if we could get an early check in and was told that we could check in at 2pm. When I went to the desk at one thirty I was welcomed to the Belhurst, complete the paper work and told that they would call us when the room was ready. We went to the wine store looked around and then back to the lobby to wait. At five minutes after two I went to the desk and asked about the room. She said she would call house keeping and see if it was ready. Then she spoke to man who said he was going out to see if the room was ready. Five minutes later (2:10pm) we were told that the room was ready and we could go in. The Carriage House is down the road across from one of the ballrooms and up a little path. When I started up the path to the CH I notice the parking area and grounds we un-kept, there was broken glass. The "patio" was crumbling and the iron table and chairs were filthy.. I felt kind of creep-ed out about this "Carriage House." When we opened the door to the Carriage House the thick smell of mildew and mold made us take a step back. The door jam had bird pooh on it and the threshold was broken and crumbled. .We are paying over two hundred dollars a night. When I called the front desk about the room I was told they could switch rooms for one night and that the hotel was full. We were in a rush, I turned the window air conditioner on full, we dressed and hurried to be on time for the wedding which was wonderful. Since the reception was just a hundred feet from the room we stopped at Wegman's and bought a large Lysol and a heavy duty room deoderizer. We sprayed the room and hoped it would get better. We turned on floor fan in the large bathroom to circulate the stale damp air. There is no armoire to hang your clothes just a shelf and some hangers. The small TV sits on a worn small dresser. I made a few trips back to the room to spray it and check on it's progress. It was getting better until I lopened the sink cabinet and found some disturbing material. I took a picture of it and went to the front desk and showed it to the her. She said "ehw what is it" I said, " I don't know, I did not want to touch it." She did offer to switch our room again for one night and she called a guy who was on stand by to come and check it out. Aound 10pm I check the room again there was a maintenance man with gloves on working on the material. I asked him what was it and he told me that it was some kind of spray insulation but when he first saw it he thought I better put these gloves on, I did not want to touch it. He was a very pleasant man, he told me he was sorry for the problem that he would report it to housekeeping and when I returned to the cabinet was clean. We have stayed in "historic rooms" before but this one was the worst. Historic should be clean dry and the furniture should be reprodution of the period not odd old furniture. The lines and thin towels should be replace and the room should be gutted and redecorated to fit a Carriage house. This Hotel is a bit confused. It seems to want a high end identity and price without the investment. White robes and slipper just do not make a hotel four star. The Carriage House is barley a one star room for a four star price. We would never go back to this hotel. Beware.

Our stay at the White Springs Manor (WSM) as wedding guests at Belhurst Castle in Geneva, NY in August 2008 was a disaster. The front desk staff was rude and defensive from the moment of check-in. The old, crumbling, unattended "manor" building was dated, dirty, dusty, spattered, and smelly. The housekeeping staff seemed oblivious to the piles of dirty linen,, plastic trash bags, Pringle cans and McDonald's bags lining the foyer, stairway, and hallway as we arrived after check-in time. The lock on our door had been compromised, giving us security concerns. In our second floor, victorian style "romantic" room, housekeeping had failed to clean the volume of bodily fluids from the carpeting and upholstered chairs. After we requested a room change and awaited for housekeeping to clean a first floor room, we couldn't help but notice a strong, sickening odor. Clearly, the housekeeping staff was aware of the problem because they handed us a bottle of Fabrize with instructions to spray the room again, as needed. The first night, while breathing through the sheets in our attempt to mask the strong odor, we heard loud scurrying noises. An animal(s) had entered the building and ran along the air conditioning ductwork below the floor throughout the night. In the morning, we noticed grass and other nesting materials in the floor vent beside the bed. A walk around the outside of the building led us to find several baited rat traps. When we confronted the front desk about these issues, the response was to ask, "What do you expect, you're out in the middle of nowhere?" When we announced that we intended to cancel our third night's stay and leave a day early, the accommodations supervisor reminded us that Belhurst has a 7-day cancellation policy. Only after considerable discussion, did he offer to deduct the third $200+/night charge. A very pleasant workman was sent out to WSM with a long-handled net to "eliminate the problem." He had seen some feathers in the fireplace hearth and suspected we had a bird nesting in the chimney, but we told him that the sounds we heard were not flapping sounds; they were scurrying sounds below the floor. No other hotel rooms were available in Geneva so we were stuck wasting our vacation time dealing with hopeless room issues. We couldn't sleep, and we couldn't wait to get out of there. Our 1,500 mile round trip drive to atttend a wedding and spend a getaway weekend in beautiful NY State wine country was a nightmare. We have to wonder what the health department in Geneva, NY is doing?

Food was way overpriced! Lobsters came out raw, even after being sent back. Should have spent half of what I did at any number of other resturants, in order to get a satisfying meal. Won't return...

I attended a friend's wedding at Belhurst and stayed in the "Vinifera Inn" section of the property. With the exception of two nice waitresses, the entire experience was really awful. Upon arrival during a big snow storm (we were just glad we made it safely - no lights on Rte. 14!), no one was (and no signs were) there to direct us where to park, where to take our bags, etc. so we were left to wade through 2 ft. of snow. When we got to the front desk, we asked if there was someone available to help us with our bags, and we were looked at like we had three heads. We had a decent dinner in Stonecutter's lounge and went to sleep in scratchy sheets without working bedside lights. The morning of the wedding we woke up to a phone call from management asking us - in extremely hostile and rude tone and wording - not to smoke in our room. (We weren't, and it's a good thing we contested this, otherwise they would have charged us.) Then, twenty minutes before the wedding, the power went out (ice on the lines, etc.) and didn't come back on the rest of the time we were there. There wasn't even a backup generator to power emergency lights for hallways/stairwells. It could have been a major physical risk. The wedding was still fun, though the food was very sparse and there was no backup plan for music, HEAT, lights, etc. After the party, we tried to speak to the manager to see what sort of compensation we could get in terms of price for something obviously less than a full-service hotel. She was entirely unprofessional - snippy and sarcastic - and sent us up with a flashlight. (We were lucky - they didn't have enough for everyone.) When we got to our room we tried our gas fireplace and the entire room filled with a gas smell. When we complained to the front desk again we were asked to leave the hotel because we insisted that they sign something written stating that the room had filled with gas - for liability purposes in case something happened while we were in there (they refused). They at least got us a reservation at the Hampton Inn, and on the drive there we noticed that EVERYWHERE but Belhurst had power. Literally. The Hampton Inn was nice, with modern amenities, soft sheets, and working bedside lights. Imagine that.