Hotel Bothwell Sedalia Central District, an Ascend Collection Hotel

Average Visit This was my first visit to Hotel Bothwell in Sedalia, MO. My husband & I stayed for 1 night (a Saturday) in a 1 queen bed room. We paid $247.41. CHECK-IN: Prior to check-in, I emailed to confirm our reservation & arrival time. The Assistant General Manager Michela "Mikie" Peterson Hotel Bothwell offered a 3:00 PM check-in time. IMPORTANT NOTE: Your email confirmation may say 3:00 like mine, but the hotel has changed check-in to 4:00. We arrived at approximately 3:15; check-in took 5-10 minutes. At first, the gentleman we spoke with said we could not check in until 4:00. I showed him the email from the AGM & overheard him speaking with the housecleaners. All rooms were done being cleaned, so suddenly there was a room available. We were assigned #317. • Amenities: Coffee maker, hair dryer, ironing board, luggage rack, mini fridge & robes. I'd highly recommend defrosting & cleaning the freezer portion of the fridge in #317. • Bath: Because of our short visit, we did not use the shower (showered before arrival & after we got home), so I can not speak to pressure or water temp. • Bed: Medium-firm, sheets are scratchy & noisy if you move around a lot. We would have chosen a King bed room had one been available. • Cleanliness: The room itself was pretty clean, but when I crawled into bed, there was quite a bit of dirt/debris(?) on the fitted sheet. After wiping some off, I decided to take a photo. I showed the front desk, & they changed the bedding. • Cooling: The A/C puts out a good amount of cold air, but it's quite loud. Not to mention, the unit is situated less than 1 foot from the bed, so my husband got cold & could not hear the television. • Decor: A bit tatty around the edges, but appropriate styling for the historic hotel. • Sound: No noise from other guests, but we heard several cars revving their engines until well after midnight. • TV: Streaming capabilities using your own accounts • View: S Ohio Ave • WiFi: Didn't use • Other: Room is much smaller than advertised (see photo for comparison). It felt more akin to a double bed sized room, not queen. CUSTOMER SERVICE: Polite & professional both in-person & via email FOOD: • Standard free hotel breakfast fare LOCATION/PARKING: • Location: Fairly convenient, safe • Parking: Limited, but free parking around the area Would I recommend/stay again? It was fine for one night, but I wouldn't stay again for the price we paid ($247.41). However, I believe the price is high due to the Missouri State Fair being in town. Another Saturday later this August, same room type, runs <$155 incl taxes & fees.

Beautiful property but weak breakfast. This is a well maintained property that was updated from it original 1927 opening. The staff was very friendly at check-in and check-out. The room decor is plush and well appointed. There is very limited parking spaces for the guests. The breakfast was ok but I had higher expectations. No omelet station or bacon or sausage. Had waffle iron and oatmeal for warm food. The dining area was immaculate and well stocked with cold cereal.

Great People! The people were all amazing, as was the service, services, restaurant and cleanliness. was there 2 days, interacted with about a dozen employees to different degrees, all were pleasant and helpful, DeNae was the FAVORITE! Restaurant and complimentary breakfast were both excellent.

Could be much better, and GM berates customers for negative feedback! On balance, our stay was disappointing. Adding to this was the fact that one of this hotel’s many general managers contacted me after our stay to berate me for the negative feedback left on the hotel’s customer survey. 1. Arrived mid afternoon with reservations for two rooms (double beds and single bed rooms). Front desk person was young, very friendly, but couldn’t find one of our reservations until he spent some time poking around on the computer. No big deal, but worth mentioning because apparently reservations aren’t grouped by name…and you may experience the same issue when you check in. 2. FYI – their “full service” bar and grill isn’t open on Sundays or Mondays. And it’s only open for a grand total of 20 hours/week the other five days. You’ll see these hours if you scroll all the way to the bottom of their website home page, but not before you read about “how wonderful” their restaurant and bar is…may be true, when it’s open. 3. There is only ONE food option in town on Sundays. It’s a bar about a block away. 4. They advertise “secure bike storage” and a “courtesy” of bringing your bike to the lobby each day, when in reality the bike storage IS the lobby. We were also riding the Katy Trail, and when we arrived at around 4pm there were approximately 20 bikes in the lobby. The front door is locked at night, reportedly, but anyone can walk in off the street and ride away with a bike of their choosing, made easier by a staff member who is busy searching for a reservation they cannot find… 5. Double beds room was reportedly very nice, and was appointed with two bathrooms. I stayed in single bed room and it was very small (not a big deal), bed was so soft it was hard to get out of. There’s NO way to turn off room HVAC unit so you’ll have to get used to the noise – and in my case it was right next to the bed so I tried to stack several pillows over the vents. No luck. 6. Room door was difficult to open/close due to ill-fitting door frame. That’s expected of an old building but it’s also easily corrected. That is, if someone wants to. 7. Checking out the next day was straightforward, although front desk person barely said one word to us and while that’s okay it was a stark departure to the sunny disposition we encountered at check-in. 8. Breakfast is available. Nothing special, really. The person working the breakfast area was very nice, friendly. Unfortunately, they ran out of eggs before we arrived. 9. After the stay I received several emails from the hotel, asking me to complete a survey. So, I obliged them, and sent feedback exactly as seen above. Many days later I received TWO emails to my personal email address from Bobbi Luebbert, who identified herself as a general manager with this hotel (turns out they have several GMs, why that’s the case is beyond me). Ms. Luebbert “apologized” on behalf of her team for failing to exceed my expectations, then proceeded into a paragraph-long rant about how my comments weren’t realistic or truthful. She also felt the need to brag about the COMPLIMENTARY (her caps, not mine) breakfast and that the hotel isn’t required to offer this feature but they are proud to be able to do so (remember, they ran out of eggs and I mentioned this in my feedback). She concluded her comments with this bit of advice: “There are several other properties in town that I am sure you would be much happier in.” Clearly this is a “manager” that doesn’t value guest opinions if they don’t align with her own, and further she doesn’t recognize the value of customer feedback. She’s been with the hotel less than one year, and perhaps ownership will recognize the need for change sooner rather than later. My advice: Stay here if you’d like, but please be aware that management does not value your opinions. Look at other less-than-stellar feedback on this hotel and you will see similar comments.

Nice, historic hotel My travel companion and I stayed at Hotel Bothwell a couple of weeks ago while cycling the Katy Trail. It was a nice respite following a windy day of riding. I greatly appreciated being able to take my bike up to my room via elevator, and I used the hotel's floor pump the next morning when my bike tire had a slow leak. We also had dinner in the Ivory Room; the food was good and the wait staff very accommodating.