Hotels Near Western North Carolina Nature Center in Asheville

My review is based on feeling misled. On their website the only photos of guest rooms are these newly gray carpet rooms. It turns out they only have 40 of those and those are “premium new tower” rooms. The standard regular rooms are VERY old. Brown carpet, brown wallpaper, old school bathtub shower. Also on the page they say they have a comp shuttle downtown. They informed me they no longer have that. A positive: The location is pretty great and my husband loves the chocolate chip walnut cookies and beds are comfy. Just a heads up: Hotel only offers breakfast for around $19 pp. No in room dining and no full service restaurant. TGI Fridays is attached which is convenient.

This hotel has a good, central location. But it is very loud. First, there is construction noise. That will be temporary but it is disruptive -- and it starts VERY early in the morning. It is sufficiently disruptive that the hotel should have closed during the construction. I know they want to maximize their revenues, but it should not be at the expense of the guest experience. Even worse, though, is the ridiculous amount of dog barking. The hotel sounds like a kennel. This is a hotel that clearly prioritizes dogs over humans. It is lovely than they allow dogs, but they really need to do two things: First, they NEED to have at least one dog-free floor and offer rooms on that floor to those guests without dogs who want it. Second, they NEED to tell guests that bring dogs that the guests are responsible to ensure that their dogs are not barking at night (10 pm to 8 am, or whatever). If someone has a dog that barks all night -- and the owner is not willing to use a muzzle -- then they should not stay at a hotel that accommodates human guests. It is not reasonable for the hotel to put me in a room next to a ”guest” that loudly barks -- incessantly -- all night. This really NEEDS to be addressed IMMEDIATELY. It is a huge problem for your human guests, I do not think it is sufficient to say ”we will take your comments into consideration” - as the hotel has said to many prior guests who made the same comments. This completely destroys the experience for human guests. The hotel should have a sense of urgency to address this problem.

I've been a Marriott guy for decades, and have stayed at many of their various branded properties. As is typical for a Marriott property, the service at the AC was very good. I was underwhelmed with the size, layout and appointments of the room and bathroom. It more closely resembled a Fairfield or an Aloft, except the shower wasn't as nice as those. (At a higher nightly rate.) As has become a standard Marriott practice at their mainstream properties (below a JW type category) most of the properties have gone away from individual toiletries and have plastered three plastic pump bottles in each shower...shampoo, conditioner and body wash, often with some minty scent...wonder who got a big raise for those cost savings at the expense of customer satisfaction? BTW, the Fairfield that we stayed in Gastonia actually had both the pumpers and at least bar soap...at 1/3rd the cost of the AC. The rooftop bar was a nice area with great views of the city. Drink prices were very premium priced, and the pours were very meager. Bartender attitudes were very underwhelming. (e.g. asked for a side of ice water with my dram of Scotch and was told there was a ”water service at the end of the bar”...it was a glass container with a tap. No ice, and a stack of small plastic cups. That's the ”service” you get for a $16 small dram? Not impressed.

A great and affordable option for downtown Asheville. It is next to the highway, but our room faced the city center and was very quiet. Within walking distance of all of downtown’s main sights. Highly recommended!

The room is quite clean, you can see the mountains and forests in the distance from the window, the forest coverage in North Carolina is very high, the air is fresh, the hotel is located next to the high-speed, although it is very close to the city center, but it is still necessary to drive, walking is not convenient, there are too many roads around, service attitude is good, a little bit snub.

Over the phone, I booked a “Big Dance Weekend Package” that was to include 2 nights, tickets to all the dance events, 2 breakfasts and parking. After booking the package, the agent insisted that I needed to purchase 2 dance tickets for an extra $278 total. Even though I pointed out that the website stated that the tickets were included, she was insistent. Not wanting to miss out initially, I made the purchase. A few days later, I called back to again question the need for the tickets and a different agent confirmed that the 2 tickets were not needed and she submitted a credit card refund. After a week, no refund. I called back again and went through the same conversation. They confirmed that the refund had not been issued and they offered no explanation but did apologize. They again promised a refund but it took another week for the refund to actually show up. If I had not bothered to call them -twice- I would have been overcharged and they would have done nothing. Upon checkin, we got our 2 electronic keys and neither worked. Fortunately, a hotel employee happened to be in the hallway and he let us in. I walked back down, explained the issue and the attendant re-programmed the same keys. Result: no joy. I called down and they sent someone up with 2 brand new keys that finally worked. Why they didn’t just give me 2 brand new keys the first time is a mystery. At the breakfast buffet, in the waiting area to be seated, both tanks of coffee had run out. Instead of bringing 2 new tanks and replacing the empty ones, the staff chose to take the 2 empty tanks away, presumably to fill up, and left nothing for the guests. It took 20 minutes for the replacement tanks to arrive. How hard is it to replenish coffee in a customer-friendly way? These types of missteps are common at common hotels. GPI is not a common hotel. They should not be commanding premium prices for everyday performance. The hotel does offer a unique charm, atmosphere and experience that can be found in very few places. But the expectations they are setting are not always met.

When you walk in, the hotel lobby is attractive and inviting. But that is where it stops. I was originally scheduled to be there for two nights, but decided to check out a day early after my shower handle was broken. The front desk was kind enough to waive the fees. The redeeming qualities of this place are the customer service from the front desk and the nice note left by the maintenance man once my shower was fixed which I found when I returned to my room at 9:30pm. For the price point, I would have expected a better quality hotel. I was originally paying $385 for my Friday night too. Luckily, I checked out Friday morning without a penalty. I was extremely disappointed by this facility which is called a ”resort”. Yes the bed is nice, the towels are fluffy and there are plenty of pillows. But it does not make up for the dark and dank hallways that smell musty. I could barely get my door open because it was stuck due to the humidity. My room's mini fridge was loud and cycled on and off all night. The room's a/c unit was equally noisy. Also, the hotel needs to update its outlets to accommodate all the smart devices people have. The bedside lamp has a plug, but it is only usable if the light is on. There are two additional plugs located at the desk in the room. Otherwise, there are no additional plugs to accommodate you if you have a smart phone, lap top or anything else than needs to be charged. After checking in at 4:00, I was dismayed to find my shower handle was broken when I tried to take a shower at 5:00. I called guest services and after no one came at 5:50, I called again, and was told there were 3 more calls ahead of me. I ended up taking a shower in a friend's room so we could go out to dinner. The shower handle was eventually fixed and the maintenance man left me a very kind note letting me know it was repaired. However, IF my room had been cleaned, why had this broken handle not been identified? It makes me wonder IF my tub had been even cleaned. Several people I was with had problems with their rooms too. One person said their room was so damp and musty, they had to be moved. They described their carpet as being wet. Another person had a broken fridge which was replaced. Another person said their shower handle kept slipping from hot to cold. The other reviews which described the place as having dark and musty hallways is accurate. It is a shame this place is not as nice as the lobby. It's in a pretty location (watch the exit since it comes up fast off the expressway) and has alot of outside activities to offer but it is dated and needs to be modernized. Thank goodness it has excellent staff members working there.