Randy G.
Yelp
The beautiful grounds, views both in the front and in the back of the bay and bridge, and the spacious rooms, is what sold me on stonecliff. All of these where spectacular when we arrived, they met all my high expectations, it was just the staff that made it lose two stars.
Stonecliff is not near the main drag. It's not walkable for most people from the dock. You'll want to taxi or bike it. It's about two miles from the dock. On the way there, you'll pass through the woods that are beautiful and pass several hiking trails that I recommend trying out. It's a beautiful ride to the hotel too. Arriving, the grounds in the front are beautiful. It has a large lawn with these enormous trees creating a high canopy so it feels really open, but still shaded on parts and still some sunlight in others. The look of the place is also beautiful. It has this older stone look giving it some nice character. The room was extremely spacious, bigger than I anticipated with a small suite-like area to sit down on instead of just one room like most places. The view in the back is open to view the bay and a great shot of the bridge. The view will not disappoint you.
If I had to stop the review now, it would have received five stars. They lose two because of the people. It's a shame that it was the customer service that did it. Upon arriving, we walked up to the porter to have him deliver our bags to the hotel. Everything seemed okay and it wasn't until we arrived at the hotel that we learned the porter should have given us a ticket for our baggage. They didn't know who was on the porter shift and couldn't radio to him to make sure our bags where in the right place. We didn't know if we gave it to the right person. The luggage did arrive without complication, just some worrying which could have been abated.
The larger reason for losing two stars is attributed to their dining room manager. We went to their restaurant for dinner and after asking us if we had a reservation, which we did not, the desk staff told us that we could sit outside at the bar and eat with a limited menu or find the dining room manager to ask her if we can be squeezed in. At this time, the dining room with a full menu has only 25% of tables full. The desk staff told us to find her in the bar, we walked over, asked for her, no one could find her, we walk back to the desk where we were two minutes earlier and they looked at us as though they never seen us and told us the same story on where to find her. Finally they found her in the back. She told us the same thing that they are full and the bar is the only option with the limited menu. Reluctantly we chose that option and although the food was good, it took over 10 minutes for the appetizer, then 20 min for the sandwich and salad. Throughout dinner, I watched the dining room and even though they didn't have any open reservations available, the place never filled up.
I confronted the manager inquired about it never filling up, but not allowing us to have a full menu. Her response was that the kitchen is small and they would be overwhelmed if they sat too many people in the dinning room. What I didn't understand is that the bar food is coming from the same kitchen. I think she should have offered the full menu, but warned us that it may take longer for our food due to the kitchen size conditions and no reservations.
If they get an improvement in customer service, I would be willing to pay what we did, but if they don't, it's not worth the price.