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Oakhurst Inn, a Luxury, Boutique Inn in Charlottesville - Directly Overlooking the Southern End of the University of Virginia Campus


LauraB

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Location and Rates for Tonight - Website

We spent this past weekend at the Oakhurst Inn in Charlottesville, VA.  This wasn't our first choice, but since this was a last-minute trip and most rooms in C'ville were already booked, we took it.  Let me start with the positive: the staff are very friendly and helpful. Service-wise, you couldn't ask for a better experience. The location is great, very central, depending on your needs. It's literally across the street from the southern border of UVA, and not too far from the action on W. Main and the Mall. While not walking distance, the staff is more than happy to call you an Uber or a Yellow Cab. The Valet parking, which is required, is seamless and at no additional charge. If you need your car, it's there in 5 minutes. The Cafe associated with the hotel is very nice -- I just wish they opened earlier than 8:00 am. 

Now for the disappointing: I can't speak for all of the rooms, but the room we stayed in was ridiculously expensive, given the room itself. The room was well more than $400 per night and had a QUEEN bed. It was also lacking most of the amenities one expects at that price. I can tell you from experience that a $400+/night hotel room in DC would be way more luxurious and have a King bed. When we first entered the room, MrB's reaction was, "You've got to be kidding me." Definitely the most spartan room we've ever stayed in at this price point.

So, while there are many things to like about the Oakhurst Inn, we consider it a poor value and wouldn't choose to stay there again.


 

 

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On 4/20/2016 at 7:43 PM, LauraB said:

Our room bore no resemblance to that!  It was more like a glorified dorm room.  Obviously, the Inn has surge pricing, just like Uber. 

I would consider writing them and asking if they can do something about it. I suspect there was an event at UVa, but still, that seems like a *lot* of money under any circumstances. The problem is, this is a boutique hotel, right next to the campus, and if the town is full from a school event, you're going to be paying rack rate unless you've made arrangements in advance. Sometimes you see crazily expensive prices written on your door, and this is exactly why they're written on there - so they can charge them, should the opportunity ever arise. What they're charging for this evening (the screenshot I posted) seems perfectly reasonable, so I suspect the entire town was booked last weekend, save for a few, very, very expensive rooms left as expensive scraps for last-minute travelers.

As I'm sure you already know, often, bad experiences can be cleared up with a well-written letter that happens onto a thoughtful recipient, and I'm hoping that will be the case here - make sure to ask that your note gets delivered to the Hotel Manager. I've spent a fair amount of time researching Oakhurst Inn, and suspect that good things will happen if you write a polite note explaining what happened, and why you're so disappointed. Let us know?

I'm sorry. :(

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1 hour ago, tentimesodds said:

Luke Bryan played John Paul Jones Arena that Saturday night. I am not surprised that all the hotels within walking distance of the Corner were sold out/exorbitantly priced. 

There you go!  Like I said upthread, surge pricing.  The traffic in C'ville that weekend was the craziest I've ever seen there.  Also, the photos that you posted above, Don, I suspect most of those are not of the rooms themselves, they are the 'lounges' that are open to any guest -- note that you don't see a bed in any of those photos.  

As I also said upthread, the hotel capacity in C'ville does not meet the popularity of the town.  I was happy to read recently that there are something like 6 new hotels being constructed in town.  They're greatly needed.

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Unless you're somewhere at the ends of the city limits going towards Boars Head Inn, the University of Virginia does NOT HAVE A CAMPUS.  The original University has the Grounds, the Grounds are where the heart of the University lies and the rest of those buildings are for people who call the Grounds of UVa a campus.  Heathens!

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4 hours ago, tentimesodds said:

Luke Bryan played John Paul Jones Arena that Saturday night. I am not surprised that all the hotels within walking distance of the Corner were sold out/exorbitantly priced. 

I don't know who this person is, but he has 6.8 million Twitter followers. :blink:

2 hours ago, LauraB said:

Also, the photos that you posted above, Don, I suspect most of those are not of the rooms themselves, they are the 'lounges' that are open to any guest -- note that you don't see a bed in any of those photos.  

Laura, the photos were incidental; I was merely posting the prices for that night. 

Also, here's a cautionary tale (not specific to The Oakhurst Inn, but about booking hotels in general):

Screenshot 2016-05-13 at 20.18.28.png

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On 5/13/2016 at 7:04 PM, Escoffier said:

Unless you're somewhere at the ends of the city limits going towards Boars Head Inn, the University of Virginia does NOT HAVE A CAMPUS.  The original University has the Grounds, the Grounds are where the heart of the University lies and the rest of those buildings are for people who call the Grounds of UVa a campus.  Heathens!

This is exactly why we decided not to move there. The town has been overtaken by UVA.

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5 hours ago, LauraB said:

This is exactly why we decided not to move there. The town has been overtaken by UVA.

Nah, it's always been that way.  I was born there and UVa (the correct way to specify the U (the other way :D)) has always been a very large factor in the city.  You're missing out on a very dynamic (I was going to say town but it's really not a town any more) city. 

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