Holbrooke Hotel, Grass Valley

My wife and had planned a 4-day mini vacation over the Thanksgiving Day holiday. We checked in on Thanksgiving Day, once in our room we discovered a few problems: Overhead switched lights were burnt out, cold water at the sink (near bed) leaked and had to be shut off at the wall, hot water in claw foot tub poured from faucet. Tried to call desk 5 times in the first hour no response went downstairs and looked for desk clerk to no avail. As we had dinner reservation we left the hotel, with the hope of dealing with it when we returned. Talked to the desk clerk and was assured all issues would be dealt with in the morning, by daytime staff. I asked if we could move rooms and was told the day manager would be advised of our wishes. Talked with the daytime manager in person and his first statement “Oh you are in room 10, yea we had problems with the water leaks, didn’t know about the lights.” He said he would go up and fix the issues when we left for the day. We advised him we would not be back for a few hours and he said he would deal with it 9:00AM. We returned at about 4:00 PM and found the room had not been made up, nor had any of the issues been fixed. Talked with the day manager again and he stated I tried to fix all the problems but could not. Saturday morning had continental breakfast for the second day, cottage cheese was spoiled, and fruit was left over in the same bowl from the morning before, waffle batter was so thick it would not come off the ladle. Again talked with the day manager about the issues in our room, this time I was told he would advise the owner of the issues but could not bring a plumber in on Saturday. We were never offered any remedies for the problems we experienced nor asked if we would like to change rooms. We paid $550.00 for what should have been an outstanding boutique hotel experience what we got was a run down seedy hotel with uncaring lip service staff. One bright spot was the toilet it was cool looking and was the only thing that used water that worked.

I stayed here a long time ago and it had really nice old furniture, but all that seems to be gone now. It does have the charm of the gold country, but needs some updating.

We stumbled on this place after having stayed in a run-of-the-mill chain motel. We loved it! It's charming, well-appointed, comfortable, and ideally located in the middle of town. The service was helpful and courteous. We would definitely return and recommend it to anyone travelling to GV.

Great location central to shopping nightlife and gold country exploring. Wonderful food some very interesting and unique California wine. The Saloon is livley with nightly entertainment.