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Added by Jopie, at 25 September 2010
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6 Reviews
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15 September 2017
Wonderful place to stay! This place is huge and all the comforts of home.
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04 July 2017
Famy was renting one of the rooms and I attended dinner. Beautiful building with amazing architecture. It is needing of small maintenance details but the building is amazing
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07 June 2017
We stayed with our three small children at the Heritage House Suites in Indiana, Pa. To our disappointment, when we had a major problem with the apartment, after one seemingly understanding phone call Paula, the owner, stopped communicating with us and neither answered the phone nor replied to email. The only one we reached was the housekeeper, who said that only Paula could deal with our problem, but that Paula was currently very held up by private issues. We did not follow-up persistently when she did not respond within the first days after we moved out. After a while, when we assumed that the private issues were resolved, we tried more often to reach Paula by phone. Paula never talked to us again except one time when she answered the phone and shouted "Talk to my lawyer!". We received the lawyer's name without further comment when we asked for it by email. To sum it up: Do not stay here if you would like a vacation place where someone assists you in case you have a problem with your accommodation.
If you care to read the long story:
On the second morning of our stay we saw a bat flying inside the apartment (Bell Tower Suites) at about 9 AM. We locked our children in one of the bedrooms and went to look for the bat, but it had disappeared. We examined the one big hole in the wall and the advertised "curved stairwell to nowhere" in the bathroom and assume that the latter has become the bat sanctuary.
Since bats can transmit rabies, which is 100% deadly if you are not immunized before symptoms appear, we immediately contacted Paula and explained that we could not stay there any longer and asked her to have someone try to catch the bat(s) so that they could be examined for rabies. She assured us that she would refund the amount for the remaining stay and inform us about the result of the rabies check if they catch the bat. We packed our bags, moved to a hotel and as advised by Paula returned the key to the housekeeper a few hours later.
This was the last time we had a normal conversation with Paula. We tried to contact her via phone and email but she never answered or returned calls or responded to email. Since one of our children had woken up in the middle of our first night there screaming, and since bat bites often are not visible, the entire family was advised to get rabies shots.
These are a series of shots (very expensive) on 4 different days. We spent two of our vacation days with our children in an emergency room and a clinic, and spent $15,792.99 because Paula refused to look into the bat infestation in the Heritage House Suites.
The end of the story: We then tried via lawyers to receive the compensation, but Paula denies to have ever talked about bats with us and implies that we made up the bat story to have had a reason to move out.
The question remains: why would we get rabies shots for our entire family and lose an entire vacation day hastily moving and looking for a hotel room (ending up further out of town), if we had not seen the bat? And why would we then not tell Paula about it before we move out, especially since we were waiting until she got back to us about the results to get the rabies shots?
Even if we never see a penny from Paula after her ignorant, unprecedented behavior following a terrifying incident for our family at her establishment (not to mention the financial burden and the loss of family vacation days), we hope that this account will help others to re-evaluate whether they are willing to put their health and piece of mind on the line to stay here.
To be thorough, here are pros and cons that are unrelated to lawyer-based communication and bat infestation:
+ the rooms of the Bell Tower Suites are fairly big
+ the A/C works well
+ nice old furniture
- broken antique pieces of furniture with signs that you should not use the furniture - it was only to look at
- the electrical wiring was largely reliant on extension cords
- the steps to the house itself as well as the steps in the stairwell were uneven and crumblingresponse / report this review -
27 September 2016
I was only there for a short time but everything was clean and well organized.
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15 July 2015
We just returned from several days at the Heritage House and would stay there again for future trips. I'm from Indiana, PA and came back to town for my family reunion. Heritage House didn't have vacancy for our whole trip, so we stayed here for four nights and then spent one night at the only suite in town at the Park Inn. This was better. Realistically you are not going to get the Ritz in Indiana, so all things considered, I would choose this above any of the chain hotels in town.
Pros:
- Size: Almost too big! In the Thomas Sutton suite I kept losing my children in the enormity of the suite. For the cost of a standard hotel room, we had two full bedrooms, a dining room, full kitchen, screened porch, entryway, and crazy huge parlor. I couldn't get over it!
- Location: Can walk to nearly everything in Indiana, and we did. Huge plus!
- Friendliness of staff
- Cool historic house with beautiful original details
- Free wifi
- Cheap laundry in the basement with free detergent and dryer sheets
Cons:
- You do not receive housekeeping during your stay.
- You have to wash your own dishes and take out your own trash. There are a lot of signs up that say to take out all of your trash before checking out.
- It's not the cleanest. Lots of dust, some cobwebs, and visible ant traps.
- TV is "limited basic cable" i.e., the 4 main networks and some home shopping channels. Thank heavens for NetFlix.
- Some parts of the house are in disrepair. The doorknob to the basement (where laundry is) was broken, and I got stuck a few times. Thankfully a friendly fellow guest kept tools in his truck and was able to jimmy the door open for me twice.
- It's just an old house. That is partly charming and partly annoying when it means you can't find an outlet to dry your hair or that your shower is subpar.
Overall, the size/full kitchen + downtown location make this worth the dust.response / report this review -
02 October 2010
The rave reviews about the Heritage House are misleading, in my opinion. My husband and I recently stayed in the Butlers Quarters at this establishment and by far, it was one of worst experiences we have had in lodging. Although the room size was more than adequate for a one bedroom suite, it was excessively dusty and dirty. The full size refrigerator was stocked with used food, which we were invited to partake by the manager. The kitchen trash can was filled on our arrival, with previous guest's trash and the bathroom was less than stellar. We checked out early opting not to use the bathroom. There wasn't one room in the Butler's Quarters that wasn't filled with dust and cobwebs, adding to the experience when someone has severe allergies. There was evidence of a previous leak and possible mold, which we did not notice until the next morning. However, ant traps were visible sitting atop food crumbs.
The Heritage House also accommodates long term stays as well, which we experienced at 2:00 AM when the upstairs resident arrived home to continue the after hours party, loud music and all.
We will never book at this establishment again; however, I would be remiss if I did not mention the friendliness of the staff. The staff member who greeted us on our arrival could not have been more pleasant. The only benefit to the entire experience.
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