Dana Place Inn, Jackson, NH

[JBHeadParrot]

I booked the Dana Place Inn, in Jackson NH for a middle weekend in March... I'm going w/ my wife and yellow lab, has anyone every stayed there before?

It was a great deal, 2 nights, w/ 2 breakfasts, & 2 dinners for $379. The kicker to this weekend was that they allow dogs and they have 300 acres of property!

 

[riverc0il]

i have heard nothing but good things about this place other than their price. i am sure you get what you pay for though, sounds like their midweek rates are fairly reasonable (does it include tickets?). where are you planning on skiing? with two nights, you could easily split the time between black mountain and wildcat.

 

[JBHeadParrot]

I'm hoping to get a half day at wildcat. The misses doesn't ski. Its more of a getaway together, than a getaway for me...

 

[billski]

Skeletons in the closet

Whenever I hear the name "Dana Place Inn", I can't help but recall the murders there in 1985 of Page Jenning's wealthy parents. Sorry! :-?

 

[DCGULL01]

Dana Place Inn

Hi, I was just at the Dana Place Inn last night. I too, booked a special weekend package for @ the same price which included breakfast's & dinner in the attached restaurant. The room was in the 'New" part of the building, and we had planned for a nice get-away without children for a while! We have stayed in a variety of places in North Conway, Jackson, etc..and really have had excellent experiences, as we love old restored properties!

That was NOT our experience with the Dana Place Inn, however. The inn was dirty, not kept up, the low ceilings were peeling (lead piant?), the floors were dirty and sandy-everywhere, not just in the entrances and the doors to the rooms were alternastely, gray or yellowing, peeling in a variety of colors and had mailbox #'s screwed or nailed to them.

Room #11, is in the 'new' section of the house, in the back, has a slider and a view of the restuarant lower level. However, the old blue wallpaper is peeling and no attempt has been made to fix it. The maroon carpet was genuinely dirty, not just surface dirty, and needs a good steam cleaning to restore an even color and remove the ground in dirty. The bed, although made, was clearly in poor repair, as there were springs pushing up through and creating unusual lumps in a variety of places. The coverlet was dusty and a quick slap raised a tremedous amount of dust (plumes- just one slap!).

The bathroom, which apparently had just been retiled last summer was a mess. There was a yellow 'scudge' ring (between 5 & 6 inches)around the base of the old, miniature toilet, as if many drunken guys had used the toilet standing up, and nobody has cleaned since they left. The oitlet itself, was nothing except old: hard stained with brown & black hard water, with no effort to scrub it off or our local New England solution of multiple applications of CLR-which works with time & effort. Someone decided to save the toilet, except-there was no good reason to save it? Not ornate, not period specific- just a cheap, small toilet with hard staining and no other redeeming features?

So, we, who love to stay in old country inns, for the 1st time ever in our lives-walked out. This was to be a long awaited for reconnection getaway, lots of time alone, in our room, occasionally wandering out to snack, get a tandem massage, maybe X-country ski, tube, but, nothing extraordinary, mostly alone in our room. My partner, who is good for an adventure always- she is the one who said- "nope, no way, I can't stay here. The room is too dirty and vacuuming will not be enough to get it clean." We've stayed in a variety of old homes, B & B's, country inn's, etc and actually prefer the intimacy created by these old environments. However, this olny felt dark, dingy, dirty and actually foreboding?

That's our experience in a nutshell. Too close, my partner called the number that we made reservations on to cancel our reservations-as nothing was up to snuff. The person argued with her, was insulting and devalued her input which was direct and sincere. We're not sure if our money will be refunded, but, I'm writing this from my home in Stratham and right now I should be on a table in Jackson, receiving a tandem massage.

Yup, it was that bad. However, I hope that your expperience is completely different than ours.

'Noobie to this forum'

DCGULL01

 

[snoseek]

Whenever I hear the name "Dana Place Inn", I can't help but recall the murders there in 1985 of Page Jenning's wealthy parents. Sorry! :-?

I remember reading about that when I was a kid, wow.


379 seems pretty expensive to me but I am sort of cheap

 

[deadheadskier]

Friend of mine stayed there a couple of years ago. His experience was similar to DCGULL01. Said the rooms were dated and not very clean.

 

[jaja111]

Hi, I was just at the Dana Place Inn last night. I too, booked a special weekend package for @ the same price which included breakfast's & dinner in the attached restaurant. The room was in the 'New" part of the building, and we had planned for a nice get-away without children for a while! We have stayed in a variety of places in North Conway, Jackson, etc..and really have had excellent experiences, as we love old restored properties!

That was NOT our experience with the Dana Place Inn, however. The inn was dirty, not kept up, the low ceilings were peeling (lead piant?), the floors were dirty and sandy-everywhere, not just in the entrances and the doors to the rooms were alternastely, gray or yellowing, peeling in a variety of colors and had mailbox #'s screwed or nailed to them.

Room #11, is in the 'new' section of the house, in the back, has a slider and a view of the restuarant lower level. However, the old blue wallpaper is peeling and no attempt has been made to fix it. The maroon carpet was genuinely dirty, not just surface dirty, and needs a good steam cleaning to restore an even color and remove the ground in dirty. The bed, although made, was clearly in poor repair, as there were springs pushing up through and creating unusual lumps in a variety of places. The coverlet was dusty and a quick slap raised a tremedous amount of dust (plumes- just one slap!).

The bathroom, which apparently had just been retiled last summer was a mess. There was a yellow 'scudge' ring (between 5 & 6 inches)around the base of the old, miniature toilet, as if many drunken guys had used the toilet standing up, and nobody has cleaned since they left. The oitlet itself, was nothing except old: hard stained with brown & black hard water, with no effort to scrub it off or our local New England solution of multiple applications of CLR-which works with time & effort. Someone decided to save the toilet, except-there was no good reason to save it? Not ornate, not period specific- just a cheap, small toilet with hard staining and no other redeeming features?

So, we, who love to stay in old country inns, for the 1st time ever in our lives-walked out. This was to be a long awaited for reconnection getaway, lots of time alone, in our room, occasionally wandering out to snack, get a tandem massage, maybe X-country ski, tube, but, nothing extraordinary, mostly alone in our room. My partner, who is good for an adventure always- she is the one who said- "nope, no way, I can't stay here. The room is too dirty and vacuuming will not be enough to get it clean." We've stayed in a variety of old homes, B & B's, country inn's, etc and actually prefer the intimacy created by these old environments. However, this olny felt dark, dingy, dirty and actually foreboding?

That's our experience in a nutshell. Too close, my partner called the number that we made reservations on to cancel our reservations-as nothing was up to snuff. The person argued with her, was insulting and devalued her input which was direct and sincere. We're not sure if our money will be refunded, but, I'm writing this from my home in Stratham and right now I should be on a table in Jackson, receiving a tandem massage.

Yup, it was that bad. However, I hope that your expperience is completely different than ours.

'Noobie to this forum'

DCGULL01

Slam! A true atomic bomb of reviews. I hope this was also posted on tripadvisor.com too. Horrifying to hear that the OP has already booked the room. Get out now!

 

[Steve]

I've stayed in some really great B&Bs and some real dumps and in any general area, they are the same price or similar no matter if they're great or if they suck.

Thanks for the call out on this one.

 

[severine]

If you're looking for dog-friendly in that area, we've stayed here:
http://www.villagehouse.com/index.htm

We stayed in the Plymouth Room and it was really nice. We had planned on camping that weekend with our dog but it rained a lot, so we bagged the campsite and stayed at the Village House instead. No complaints. It was run differently then: pretty much self-service to save money. You'd show up, you could check out the rooms yourself, then go back to the "lobby" and sign out the room you wanted and leave your payment info in a mailbox for the owners. It saved us a lot of money. I don't think they do it that way anymore, given the pricing info on the website--I think they're new owners. We stayed there back in 2003, IIRC...

 

[riski]

Great place if you want to bring your dog is the Bartlett Inn in Bartlett, www.bartlettinn.com. Great folks, comfortable old inn beautifully renovated. If you have a dog, you stay in one of the motel-type cottages adjacent to the inn. These are not as fancy, but very nice. I agree with others: RUN AWAY from Dana.