-
April 2024 by Rose S.
It's a nice experience. Great location with beautiful architecture and interior design. However, for the prices you pay to stay at the resort, you'd expect a more mature atmosphere and peer group. I stayed at the Greenbrier for Spring Break was a honestly astounded by the amount of younger families with toddlers and children under the age of ten staying at the resort. I understand that The Greenbrier is a family friendly establishment trying to appeal to everyone, but when you pay $157 for one small steak split between two people, you do not want to hear and see children running and screaming in the restaurant. On the last night of my stay I tried to have dinner in the Main Dining Room. We were seated next to two younger families with children all under the age of 10. The entire meal the two families let their children scream and run rampant in the dining hall, without a single regard for the other tables trying to dine. Their children would approach the other tables and start screaming and throwing themselves on the floor. We couldn't even hear the live music playing over their tantrums. The Main Dining Room is a restaurant you go to experience the atmosphere of fine dining, and it was rather disappointing the lack of effort the resort made to try and maintain the atmosphere. The servers and resort members merely let them run around, ruining the meals of all the other guests. NO attempt was made to salvage the evening. The two tables with children got so bad that the other guests trying to dine had to be the ones to address them, ultimately resorting in the couple leaving only after being embarrassed. The table next to us, a family with older and much more mature children, were the ones to address the couple. At the time, the mother was chasing her toddler through the dining hall, while screaming to keep a conversation going with the other table. In general, our entire meal was ruined, and we spent over $150 dollars just to feel like we were eating in a Chuck E. Cheese on prison portions. It only got worse when we were trying to settle in for the night, and could hear children out in the hallways screaming and running up and down the halls. As I have stated before, I understand the Greenbriers need to appeal to younger audiences with target markets changing, but there has to be some discipline and attempt to preserve the reputation that the Greenbrier is so well known for.
-
March 2024 by Matt A.
Do not come here. Came here for a family event. Called ahead to request a crib, well in advance, but no crib when I arrive. Breakfast was $22 for a plain waffle with some berries dumped over it. Our dinner at Prime 44 was the worst experience I have ever had. The food quality was severely lacking. Soup was unpleasant in flavor and mouthfeel. Salad too gross to try. My medium rare NY strip steak came internally raw. After a very difficult choice I politely asked them to cook a bit more as they saw itvwas raw, it came back still blue. It was not a flavorful cut nor was it of quality to eat rare or raw. ALL IN ALL, THIS PLACE IS A RIPOFF. Room amenities are non-existant. Mattresses uncomfortable. Food poor at best. Do not bother coming here,to stay or dine. It is trying to exude class, but there is nothing here that is unique, just extremely overpriced. There is no accountability or managers on duty when issues arrive. How much would you pay to go to bed on an empty stomach on a lumpy bed? Oh and i nearly forgot the indoor pool uses a rickety crate instead of proper steps to enter/exit. Not safe.
-
February 2024 by Allison S.
Overpriced for average food and lousy hospitality. We booked the Greenbrier for our mini wedding getaway. We arrived at 4pm ( their check-in time) and we were told it would be at least an hour wait. When they informed us of this it was more "matter of fact" with no apology or warmth. We ate at a few restaurants and found the food to be okay, nothing blew our minds. Cool decor, bunker tour was cool. We valeted our car during our stay due to very little parking. Preparing to check-out (2 hours before their check-out time) we called down 5-10 minutes before heading downstairs (like they recommended we do) and we were then informed it would be a 45 minute wait (which is exactly how long we waited). My husband offered to go get his own car and they told him he could not. Upon checkout, the person who gave my husband his receipt (two papers stapled together) stapled them as if they were not even paying attention, not together whatsoever. Just a total lack of effort and lousy hospitality, which is super disappointing at a place like this. Especially where they add a 22% service fee to every single thing you do.
-
February 2024 by Alecto A.
I'm a huge history fan - the good, the bad, the ugly - and will travel far and wide to see historical places. On a whim, we decided to take a medium south bound drive to White Sulphur Springs for the history and nature. One of the places we visited was The Greenbrier Resort and, um, I'm still not sure how I feel. The grounds are spacious and well-manicured. The hotel itself is rather grand and beautiful from the outside. The inside was another story - overstimulation of the senses and the wallet because why is a bunker tour $95 x 2 people ($105 after tip). If the tour guide doesn't get half of that + the entire tip then I'm honestly not sure why folks are paying that much. I understand many rooms are now occupied for data storage but that should definitely reduce the price, not cost close to $100 for two people given we don't get to see the entire place. That being said, it had several exhibits with nifty antique items from the time it was built and the guide was amazing. Wish he were my neighbor. We also went bowling - $63 for 2 games + shoe rental x 2 people. I mean, I don't shy from expensive things but there needs to be a very obvious ROI and the price tag for only 2 games is... a lot. The gentleman behind the counter was super friendly, though. I also have to add - for a place boasting $4000 rooms the food was rather lackluster. And by food I mean the subpar $6 cup of coffee & the $8 smoothie that was supposedly made from crushed fruit but not one piece of fruit went into that drink lol it was juice, ice, powder. C'mon now. I understand the preservation of history and hate the millennial gray/beige bs that has taken over hotels but my brain hurt. I sat in a reception room pre-bunker tour and had to close my eyes. Very pretty room behind the 4 different patterns of rugs, chairs, tapestry, and curtains. Combined with historical architecture + gold accents above the fireplace, the very modern seafoam green paint on the walls, and heavy, dark brown doors. Not trying to do a disservice to the late Dorothy Draper (or floral patterns in general) but oof. Also checked out the grounds a bit - very pretty. The art collective was also really neat - think I found a present for a very good friend of mine. Can also see how it would be a great ski resort and/or a fun mid-week lounge around the pool but the other reviews say reservations are an issue so now back to square one, not sure how to feel.
-
December 2023 by Aleksandra A.
Incredibly pricy. incredible. So I thought the activities were going to be making up for the cost. Well even if you're willing to pay the exorbitant prices - they are sold out, or pretty disappointing. Nighttime activities include casino or bar, neither of which interest me. Dinner for 5 costs ~$250 without any alcohol and that's with 3 kids meals and no dessert - and in the less desired restaurant. Overhyped tea at 4 pm with a few okish small desserts and tea - but you wait in line for 15 min to get a cup. So yeah - don't recommend.
-
December 2023 by Douglas C.
Terrible food and terrible service. Not to mention they charge like they're 5 star restaurants. Mandatory 20% gratuities on everything everywhere so no one feels like they have to do anything. The food is vile and the staff is grossly undertrained and no one cares including management. First and LAST time!!!
-
December 2023 by Brandy P.
The absolute worst experience of my life! Please do NOT stay here. I'm a 38 year old ICU nurse visiting with my husband whom is a busy physician. He is the hardest working man I know and I was so excited to plan this little get away so he could have a bit of fun at blackjack and have a wonderful dinner. After all, I don't know a soul more deserving then him. We went to the Casino and that was fairly fun, until it wasn't. I had a bit too much wine, which according to my husband the waitress was glad to refill for me the second I finished one. I mean why not? If you're loaded you'll waste your money right? 4 glasses=288 dollars. We had dinner at 44 West, and the bill totaled over 500$. The steak was a poor cut and extremely overcooked. And do NOT be tempted by their allure to eat the "lobster" mashed potatoes. I'm fairly certain they're instant. Also the bathroom by 44 west had a leaking toilet sure to cause a fall, which I reported. I agree the decor is a bit drab and the building is definitely in disrepair. But here comes the worst part, after a dispute/argument with my husband, I admittedly broke a wine glass in our room. This caused the hotel staff to force me into a separate room in the hotel even though I wanted to leave. Upon trying to return to my husband to get my phone and money so I could scoot out of here, they had me arrested! In total I spent over 2k for one night and had to spend the night in jail. Never in my life have I ever been in any sort of jail, or any manor of trouble. I was treated like a murderer, for breaking a wine glass. Then a week later I was contacted and informed after this whole tragedy that I owed them 2,800 for damages. Remember I threw a wine glass, not a bomb. I will write this and remember it as the worst experience in my life. Not only would I not return here, I will never visit WV again, which I used to frequent at air BNBs and so on. Please go somewhere else. Check the reviews over the last year. It's over priced and honestly quite a scary experience.
-
December 2023 by Wayne F.
Once great, now run down and way overpriced. Justice family upgraded the Greenbrier in their first year or maybe two. Since then it's declined to the point that only the golf courses are worth visiting. The food is only good but you pay Michelin star prices. Visit Lewisburg restaurants for better dining. The tea service and history may make it worthwhile for first or even second time visitors but if you've been there many times it loses it's luster and becomes an overpriced and less enjoyable experience.
-
November 2023 by Scott M.
This review may be coming a little late, but I wanted to see if The Greenbrier was going to reach out. My wife and I went to The Greenbriar in the past for Thanksgiving, her birthday and New Years Eve. The first two trips went well. They seemed to under promise and over deliver. However, our trip there last year for New Years did not go great. I reached out to them twice about this and Roger in Guest Relations did not respond the first time and the second time all I was told was that he would relay this information to their leadership team. Did not hear from anyone. Here are some of the issues we experienced during our stay: Ordering room service was a pain. My wife tried several times the night before calling but no one would answer. So, we woke up early to place an order then after a while, they called back to tell us that the room service would be delayed over an hour. From the time we called until we ate breakfast was several hours. Good thing we didn't have anything planned that day. It seemed like it was impossible to eat anywhere that weekend if you did not have reservations. This may be a mistake on our end, however, there should always be someplace to eat. If you are thinking "maybe they should have called room service" we did, and they stopped taking orders at certain times. How does room service stop taking orders at a resort like this? Another issue was the shuttle to Sam Sneed's was supposed to show every 5 minutes. We waited over 20 minutes and decided to leave because no shuttle showed up. I am a big bourbon and scotch guy, and all the bars were out of what I asked for. All the menus had Bookers on them, however the only bar to have this was Café Carleton (bourbon bar by the casino). And on New Years Eve I was told that they were to open at 8:00 pm and waited till 8:30 while my wife was up at dinner. It really seemed like the resort was understaffed and things did not run as smoothly as they did on our first two visits. I may be a little picky but when you go to a place like this that was voted among the best resorts in the United States, you want to be treated like it's a high-class resort. Upon our first two visits, my wife and I really thought that this was going to be our place. We would visit a few times a year and go on holidays. We would have scheduled a trip for this New Years if last year went like our first two trips did. When you spend 3k to 5k for a weekend, you expect more especially for a holiday weekend. However, with our last visit, I refuse to go back. Greenbriar, all you had to do was follow up and you did not. I hope anyone reading this will think twice if you are planning a trip there. Yes, if things go as they should, it's a nice place. However, if they do not go smoothly, this resort could really care less.
-
October 2023 by Alice G.
This was a work trip for me, came for a conference. Likely the last time I will be here, unless I have another conference here that I must attend. The grounds are absolutely gorgeous, and the fall colors were perfect. The building is beautiful, but the decor is too much. Dorothy Draper was famous and relevant in the 1940 - 1950s, but her decor currently looks busy and includes too many patterns and textures. The hotel staff was great, very kind and polite. There are several very nice stores in the hotel. I was put in one of the villas, and it was clean, the bathroom was large and clean. The water in the shower had very low pressure, though. What bothered me the most was the cost for what I got. Everything had multiple fees, including a historical fee, so I feel like the guests are being penalized with a fee, that is not being used to update the resort. Additionally, it is so hard to get to this property, that I just maybe recommend it.
-
October 2023 by Kathleen S.
I would give this place no stars but that cant happen. People save your money. This place is an absolute joke. We booked a 3 night stay with the rooms costing us Wed,$519, Thur,$719, and Friday $869. Add $39 daily resort fee, plus 6%W Va. tax 3% occupancy tax, plus 9.75% historic preservation fund almost 19% charges which brings our friday stay to around $1082. Add on lunch which would cost around $50, supper at least $175(cost at Forum previous night) golf friday at Meadows $245, all told friday would have cost us $1,552. We didn't stay friday. Medical emergency. Room was horrible. Bathroom was smaller than our powder room back home. Had to put waterpik, shaver deodorant and anything else you might need in a bath on the window shelf. And this room was costing us $1082 on friday.OMG Rug a mess, they wanted to have someone come up and shampoo it. JOKE Ordered 2 voka tonics while playing blackjack in the casino. Next day I find the charge for this was $ 88.77. Waitres gave me 2 Titos which were $32 each. Add on taxes and charges and it came to $88.77. WTF The amount of walking is another issue I wont get into. All in all stay away from this joke of a resort.
-
September 2023 by Katie F.
One of my favorite places has fallen into disrepair. Sad is an understatement. I've been coming to the Greenbrier since I was a little girl. I have always viewed this resort as magical, historic, and wonderful quality. However, since the pandemic, the hotel has fallen into disrepair, the service is average at best (primarily because they are inundated with too many guests), the quality of the food is below average and everything is just expensive as ever. I understand that much of this is due to the new world we live in where it is hard to find people who want to work, but the guests should not suffer and still pay top dollar for what I would now consider a 2 star hotel. The bad review is primarily directed at Food & Beverage and Housekeeping. Again, the staff is lovely, but they can't keep up since they don't have enough people working. A few issues we experienced: 1. They lost my in-laws luggage upon check-in. 2. The ice cream served at Drapers was spoiled and they finally shut down the machine when my mother-in-law mentioned it tasted off. 3. There were no pillows in our room upon arrival. 4. There was no toilet paper in my in-laws room. 5. They apparently no longer provide cribs, and gave us a tiny pack and play for our daughter to sleep in. 6. The carpets and furniture throughout the hotel are downright filthy and beat up. 7. We waited over an hour to receive our appetizers at 44 West. We had our two well behaved little girls with us who were starving. Total bill spent was over $700 and the meat was over cooked. I hate to give this hotel a bad review, but management needs to know that they have failed at maintaining this once beautiful and iconic resort. Your staff cannot keep up since you keep booking the hotel to capacity. It's time to restore this place to its former glory, give it some TLC, and either find more people or limit the number of guests so you can provide the best service. On a side note, the folks in the Spa and Outdoor Activities are amazing. Big shout out to Garret who took us on a wonderful carriage ride and to Aaron who gave the best hot stone massage!
-
August 2023 by Carolyn H.
We went to the greenbrier for my birthday weekend with friends who have been visiting since the 1960s. It was sad to see how the hotel has not been maintained and seems to lack the staff to do so. 1. The public hallways and seating areas have carpets that could use cleaning . Napkins, Kleenex, empty glasses are left on tables, carpets etc. 2. Restaurant staff and housekeeping seem to lack training. Nobody knows what to do and may even have a language comprehension problem. This translates into bad service at the meals. 3. Front desk clerks all seem to be newbies ans there is no manager. 4. The suite we had had was in sad shape. Air conditioning and mini fridge needed updating (refrigerator was falling apart inside. ). Air condition was still the individual units and noisy. Furniture was chipped. The bathroom was small (especially for a large suite) and the toilet , bathtub and fixtures were outdated. The faucet was missing it's hot cold button. 5. In the public area , one of the main powder rooms had a bottle of dial soap and rough paper towels. All to say, quite disappointing. In a nutshell, there needs to be a renovation of the rooms, bathrooms furnishings . A good management training program in place and more personnel needed. Last but not least, the bunker tour was boring. In order to build out the casino there was nothing left to see. The guide missed the most interesting aspect such as the auditorium where the Congress would sit each chair had a voting button. (He totally left that out). Totally forgot important historical facts out . He called his boss a "glory hound" because of the celebrity's that came to tour and she would guide them. (Said it a few times. ) he has nothing if interest to add to the tour except a lot of platitudes. I do hope that these is a plan in the not too far future to institute some plans to install good management and to renovate the hotel. I do hope
-
August 2023 by Teena S.
The overall 3.5 star rating for this hotel is incredibly generous. A more realistic rating is a 2 star. First, good luck with finding the hotel on Google maps -- not the hotels fault, but we drove around for 15-20 minutes trying to locate the hotel given the Google maps issues (would be nice if hotel provided a heads up that this is an issue). Second, the hotel weekend rate is $548/night + 15.5% of additional taxes and fees + $30 resort fee (which we are happy to pay for a good quality hotel), but -- given the age, low quality and how run down the hotel is -- $200-250/night would be more appropriate. Third, upon our arrival, the door man, Mike, was incredible apathetic, dismissive and unwelcoming. He is clearly a "last resort" hire as he had an "it's not my job" attitude -- we felt he was truly inconvenienced when we showed up at the hotel. I've never been able to understand why people like him take jobs that are required to interact with the public when they are so disinterested or incapable of interacting positively with the public. Fourth, upon entering the hotel, the first thing we immediately noticed was the age and low quality of the carpets, wall paper, and many other aspects that make it immediately clear that this hotel's best days are far behind it. The hotel may be historic, but it is just tired and old (and we've seen a lot of historic hotels that are incredible well-kept and modernized). Fifth, as we walked up to the room, there was a big pile of trash sitting outside of our room (see picture). This appeared to be food-related trash left out from the residents next door which is understandable, but -- based on the look and smell, our guess was that this trash had been sitting out for quite awhile. Sixth, once we entered the room, we quickly took note of the air conditioning in room is a "room unit" AC device (versus central air) that is very old and very, very loud (see picture). Add that to the abnormally loud noises throughout the night created by doors slamming and toilets flushing in other rooms, and it is next to impossible to get a good night of sleep at this hotel. Seventh, the furniture is old and aging and -- as a result -- is in disrepair (see picture). We tried to keep a sense of humor by questioning if the chair in the picture was a relic from the days when the hotel first opened. :) Eighth, we thought Arlene (front desk manager) was very pleasant and understanding when sharing the issues about Mike (front door manager) and some issues we dealt with regarding the delivery of our bags (i.e., our bags were never delivered to our room but -- instead -- were parked in a storage room where my husband had to go downstairs to retrieve after realizing they were not going to be delivered to our room) and the parking of our car (the valet "lost our keys" and couldn't find them after an extensive search but -- fortunately -- he later realized that our car had never been parked in the first place so it was still outside the hotel front door unlocked with the keys inside), but Stephanie (another front desk manager) was unresponsive (we are still awaiting a call back from her). I normally post positive ratings and shy away from posting negative ratings, but this hotel is -- in a word -- AWFUL especially when you consider the extraordinary "gap" between the incredibly high price and the incredibly low quality and age of the hotel. We were really hoping for and expecting a far better experience (this was our first time visiting West Virginia). We were scheduled to stay for 3 nights and 4 days, but -- given the number and variety of issues that we experience shortly after arriving, we checked out and wound up staying at a better hotel in Beckley (are you ready for this? We wound up staying at a Courtyard by Marriott which was -- shockingly -- much better from a quality and price ratio perspective and amazing service). I'm giving the hotel a 2 star (and I consider that a very generous rating). Net, don't stay here -- it's too
-
August 2023 by Dona B.
Was excited to go to greenbrier to do the underground bunker tour - but definitely would not do again. It was severely overpriced for what you were able to view. Having a tour that last 90 mins which could have been done in 20 mins doesn't justify the price. Maybe it should have stayed a secret.
