Canyon County Inn - It's no bed and breakfast
Written: Nov 07 '07
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Cheap, good location
Cons: tiny, uncomfortable, weak breakfast, thin walls . . .
The Bottom Line: I'm guessing there are other places as cheap that have a room big enough for the bed
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| puckmugger's Full Review: Grand Canyon Country Inn |
Why we picked it
The reasons for choosing the Canyon Country Inn are important because they were ultimately the reasons that I was most disappointed in the stay there. My wife and I have pretty much given up on the inexpensive motel chains. Once in a while you get a nice room in a newer facility. More often than not, you just end up in a dump that serves stale doughnuts as their continental breakfast.
We’ve generally looked for an affordable Bed and Breakfast instead. The service at most B & B’s we’ve stayed at has been so far superior to that of any motel. My wife likes the typically quaint Victorian décor and I’m fond of the hearty gourmet breakfasts and homemade cookies that they typically serve.
Canyon Country was advertised in various places as both an Inn and a Bed and Breakfast. Unfortunately I didn’t find the places mentioning that it wasn’t a B & B until I had booked our room. The pictures on their website were par for a B & B and I booked it through an online bed and breakfast website where they advertised. Perhaps I’m not entirely to blame since they advertise there.
Location
The Inn is located toward the west end of old town Williams, Arizona. Williams is an interesting little town which has earned the fitting moniker of “Gateway to the Grand Canyon.” The Inn is directly south of the train depot for the Grand Canyon Railroad. We parked our car in the inn’s lot and were able to walk everywhere of interest in Williams.
The Room
When we walked into room 8 my wife commented that the room was cute. I’d say if it were any cuter, the fire marshal would have required a sign that read, “Maximum Occupancy – 0.” Essentially there was the bed, a luggage stand which was pretty much blocking the door to the cramped bathroom. The sink and an overly large table took up more than half of the free space in the room. This might have been excusable since a table is a decent thing to have in a room. However, a microwave took up 80% of the table space.
Essentially there were about 10 inches on one side of the bed where the wall unit air conditioner didn’t intrude into 4 inches of that scant space. The other side of the bed had three feet, but this was shared by the sink and table. At the foot of the bed, there was nothing more than the width of the door, a standard 30 inches. The entry door and bathroom door rendered much of this space unusable.
The room might have been acceptable for one person for a short stay. Two people with luggage found it hard to figure out where to put anything. Had we known this would be a problem, I might have rented the adjourning room that connected with a door to use as a closet. Sadly, there was someone staying in that room and having a lot of fun at times when we were attempting to sleep. The walls were as thin as the room was tiny.
The Bed
The linens and sheets appear nice enough on the bed. A real quilt will make most of the women folk happy. However, the sheets were the equivalent of 100 grit sand paper. I’d argue that 100-grit makes your skin smooth and shiny, but others might just find it uncomfortable. The bed itself was—matching the dimensions of the room—tiny. While the bed was lumpy, it wasn’t all bad. The pillows however were of a consistency that Fred Flintsone would have found a little hard.
Again for two people, this bed was simply too small. This might have been easier to figure out if the Inn were to describe their beds a little more accurately. Rather than putting the conventional, King, Queen, Full, and Twin descriptions, they called every bed in their rooms a full sized bed. Perhaps this wouldn’t have been so confusing had the pictures not obviously shown different sizes of beds including the description, “the full sized bed comfortably sleeps two.” Maybe it’s my mistake again, but I’ve never been comfortable sharing anything smaller than a queen. My wife was lucky to wake up without black eyes from my flailing elbows in the midst of the night.
The Bathroom
Now I don’t think I can blame the lack of water pressure entirely on the Inn. The town of Williams is in the high Arizona desert and water is scarce. Nonetheless, I should mention that if the pressure was much lower the stream probably would have simply trickled down the fixture to the wall. It was hard getting wet in the shower, let alone rinsing off.
Further diminishing this experience was the shower curtain that was nearly torn completely off its rings. The fiberglass shower enclosure showed signs of a few stickers that had been removed but not very well. It wasn’t filthy, but it sure wasn’t clean. A sign in the room indicated that hot water could be a problem reading, “Please be respectful and keep your shower short so other guest have hot water.” However, I had plenty of hot water.
The toilet appeared to be brand new. Despite flushing with about 4 ounces of water, there were no issues necessitating a second attempt.
The fit and finish of the bathroom bespoke of craftsmen that didn’t care about such things as building codes, rulers and squares. The shower was trimmed in 1x 6’s rather than actual molding. One might have thought there was a run on quarter round that week. However, the lumber had been carefully chosen in an attempt to hide the fact that the walls were completely out of square and plumb. I’ve seen kid’s build forts with more skill than was demonstrated there. The floor was also uneven in a rather non-quaint way.
Breakfast
I hoped that maybe the breakfast would redeem the lousy rest of the stay. Breakfast was served from 7 a.m.until 9 a.m. We had tickets for the train to the Grand Canyon which departed at 10:30 a.m. so I headed across the parking lot to the lobby for my morning meal at 7:30 a.m.
As it turned out, the breakfast was on par with the rest of the lousy experience. The entire remaining selection was one orange, some burnt coffee and a cup of yogurt. People outside were eating bagels and muffins which would have been an improvement although still a huge disappointment.
Where was my home cooked meal with gourmet coffee, fresh juice, hot potatoes? We ended up paying for a halfway decent breakfast buffet at Max and Thelma’s in the train depot. The second morning (which I had unfortunately paid for, I got in at 7 a.m. sharp and took as many muffins as I could for the road).
Staff
If there was one bright spot of the visit, it had to be the front desk lady. I suspect she was the owner. She was very pleasant, cheerful and helpful. She made train reservations for us, and gave us some ideas of things we shouldn’t miss. She was efficient and competent as well.
Final thoughts
The location of the Canyon Country Inn is excellent. Tiny people who don’t eat breakfast, like really hard beds and don’t carry much luggage might not find the place as annoying as I did. The rates were very competitive as well. I suspect other places had bigger rooms and beds, but probably didn’t have smaller rates.
However, to call this a bed and breakfast is the wildest stretch of the imagination. It’s a motel.
© 2007 Scott Noble – All rights reserved. Unauthorized use prohibited.
Recommended:
No
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puckmugger
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