We stayed at Los Gatos B&B for three nights while visiting the Finger Lakes. There are some…read moregenuinely nice things about the property. The grounds are very well maintained, the view from the deck is lovely, and the individual cabins have a certain rustic charm. Charlie was also very friendly and welcoming when we arrived.
Unfortunately, the stay itself had a number of problems. The biggest was the bed. The mattress in our cabin seemed extremely old -- it was lumpy, sagged badly, and we could feel the springs. The cabin walls are also quite thin, and the road noise in the morning was loud enough to wake us.
Our check-in took about an hour. Charlie was very friendly throughout, but the process involved an extraordinarily detailed explanation of virtually every aspect of the property and our stay. Even something as basic as finding extra toilet paper required a phone call because it was hidden away; we were told this was because guests had stolen toilet paper during the pandemic.
Breakfast was another disappointment. It is served only at 9:00 a.m., which is quite late if you're trying to get an early start sightseeing in the Finger Lakes. Charlie told us that they could make something gluten-free, but the way it was presented gave us the impression that doing so would be a bit of an inconvenience. We felt uncomfortable asking them to go to the trouble, so we never did.
Availability was a recurring problem throughout our stay. We texted one evening to say we wouldn't be able to make breakfast the next morning but received no response. When we stopped in around 8:15 the next morning to make sure they knew, Rebecca was surprisingly rude to us. The interaction was unpleasant enough that we decided to skip breakfast for the rest of our stay. Coffee was supposed to be available beginning at 8:00 a.m., but on at least one morning the building was still locked at 8:30.
There were some other oddities. The room was reasonably clean but had a slight musty smell. We were also told that we needed to stay in an alternate cabin because the air conditioning was broken in the cabin we'd reserved. Later, however, we saw another couple staying in that original cabin, which left us confused about what had happened.
The lack of availability became particularly frustrating when we checked out. We needed to leave early, but once again the main building was locked and no one was available to check us out or accept our payment. A few hours later, Charlie called and told us he would be adding an extra 4% to our bill because, with us no longer physically present, it would be considered a "card not present" transaction.
We found this particularly unreasonable. We were perfectly willing to pay in person, but no one was available to take our payment. Charlie never mentioned during our approximately one-hour check-in that we needed to pay at a particular time to avoid an additional 4% charge. Had he done so, we simply would have paid then. He told us afterward that there was a sign near the coffee maker explaining the charge, but we never saw it.
Charging a guest an additional 4% because the owners weren't available to accept payment in person strikes us as unconscionable. Guests should not be financially penalized because no one from the B&B is available to check them out. At an absolute minimum, a charge like this should be clearly disclosed directly to guests in advance and they should be given a reasonable opportunity to pay without incurring it.
Overall, Los Gatos has attractive grounds, nice views, and cute cabins, and Charlie was friendly to us at check-in. But between the extremely uncomfortable mattress, morning road noise, rigid breakfast schedule, the recurring difficulty finding anyone available, our unpleasant interaction with Rebecca, and finally being charged extra because no one was available to accept our payment, the negatives substantially outweighed the positives.
All in all, this was simply a bad experience for us, and we would not stay here again.
