Carol C.
Yelp
Stayed here for 4 nights with my husband based solely on all the 5-star reviews. The hotel is okay, and there seems to be very few other hotels in McMinnville, which is where we wanted to stay to do some wine tasting in the Willamette Valley.
As another reviewer who stayed in late May, 2023 noted, the 3 stars rating is on the generous side.
The 'pluses' of the Atticus are definitely the location, which can not be beat, for being walk-able to several restaurants, small shops and the Farmers Market on Thursdays. The king bed in our 'suite' was also very comfortable, and I am admittedly very picky about beds!
The 'minuses' to the Atticus unfortunately are several.
The suite we rented was advertised as having a "fireplace". It was our anniversary, so instead of a standard room, we went with the more expensive suite because the "fireplace" sounded romantic. Imagine our surprise when we opened the door to the room and saw an electric facade of a fireplace. It should be listed as a 'faux fireplace' , so people will not be mislead in to thinking it is a wood burning or even gas fireplace.
The other disappointments included one small TV (maybe 32") in the living room part of the 2-room suite, no TV in the bedroom. The TV was so small it was hard to see or hear from bed so if you plan on watching TV while you doze off to sleep you might want a different room!
The shower had very poor water pressure, and was not adjustable at all. You could not adjust the spray, and it was not a hand held shower head. It was placed very high up on the wall of the shower, so it was hard to rinse off, took forever to rinse your hair if you have long hair, and just seemed strange not to be able to adjust even the spray.
We had housekeeping service our room only one day out of 4, and it appears they only replaced the towels and made the bed. The rooms were not vacuumed, dusted, sheets were not changed, nor anything else that we noted.
Although you are charged a nightly fee for valet service (there is no option to self-park your car), the valet was NEVER at the valet stand, morning, noon or night, whenever we wanted to take our car in or out. We were left standing outside the hotel EVERY SINGLE TIME we wanted to go out or came back to the hotel and ended up having to go back inside and wait in line at the front desk to ask where the valet was. It was inconvenient and annoying. And despite tipping the valet anyway every single time we took our car in or out, he never once offered to take a suitcase out of the trunk, open the door for myself or my husband, or lift a suitcase in to the trunk of the car when we checked out.
There is only one elevator in the hotel (we were on the 3rd floor) so if it happens to be a busy week, you will potentially have a long-ish wait for the elevator. We took the stairs several times but I have a long standing knee problem and it was not ideal.
And lastly, although the Atticus prides itself on offering hand made espressos, available 24/7, and the friendliness of its staff, I found some definite room for improvement in that area also. Several of the staff members, one older, heavy set, dark haired woman in particular, was downright rude and condescending when I asked for lattes in the morning. One day I asked for some sugar packets to go with the lattes, and she actually said to me (in a nasty tone of voice) "Are you out of sugar in your room??" Huh??? !!! (There is a French Press coffee machine in the room, along with a couple packets of sugar that was not replenished by housekeeping. I had neither the time nor the patience to figure out how to use a French Press, and like cream in my coffee so it would be useless anyway. Obviously, if there was a stash of sugar in my room, I would not be asking for it, but regardless, you would think with the 'above and beyond' customer service they claim to have, the woman would have just said 'absolutely' and handed me a couple sugars instead of giving me the third degree!) Another morning, same woman, I asked for 2 lattes, and she doubled the cups for some reason. The small shot of espresso (and in my case, mixed with half and half) is just not that hot, and in no way required a sleeve or double cup. She then loose-laid lids on top since the lid would not fit correctly on a doubled up cup, so that when I picked up the 2 coffees, one of them spilled all over me since I was not aware the lids were not on the cups securely.
All in all, the Atticus is just an okay hotel. I personally do not think it is worth the $500+ a night, the service and ambiance is not up to par with other hotels in that price range, and no matter how hard the owners like to think their employees and their level of service are extraordinary, the reality is that they fall short on many levels.