First off, let me say that this is not a review of a Champaign tour or any of that stuff. This is a review of actually staying overnight (2 nights) at The Mansion on O. A friend of ours was in town and booked a room here. It was a suite so he asked us to stay.
Parking here was an extra $30 per night and parking was behind one of the nearby buildings down an alleyway. Still, the car was fine even if parking was pretty pricey. Check in was pretty easy - entry was through a door at street level so you didn't have to climb the outside steps whilst schlepping your luggage. The husband of the husband/wife team who run the place took care of us and was friendly and helpful. He gave us a mini tour which was great. We were greeted in a room that looks like a library. Our room was on the 3rd. floor (I think) and it was a suite with a bedroom, livingroom, bathroom, kitchenette and an outside deck.
Okay, here's where it gets hairy. The kitchenette was up some stairs and off of the bedroom area. It appeard to have seen better days and I'm not sure the appliances worked but there were no pots/pans. It wasn't any too clean, either so we avoided that area. Off the kitchen was a door to a deck. It looked pretty precarious - wires hanging nearby, etc. I was afraid of stepping out there for fear of falling through - seriously. The bathroom was laid out so that someone could be taking a shower and the sink area was accessable. It was fine but there was carpet throughout the bathroom (here's a ewww factor). The carpet was not real clean as none of the place was very clean - everything was very dusty. Some lint was on the carpet - it was there when we first got there and it was still there when we left - I was careful not to walk barefooted on the floors. We had the sitting room area with a pull out couch. The couch was very comfortable and done up really nicely. The pillows were comfortable and the mattress must have had a topper on it because it was not at all like any pull out couch I've slept on. I'll give them credit here. On the other hand, there was a faux fireplace in the sittingroom area. It was not quite against the wall because the entire wall was hung with art work - all for sale - even behind the fireplace!! There was no place to put your personal items such as a table, etc. because every inch was covered with "stuff". There was a huge walk in closet which stored some of "stuff" but plenty of room to hang cloths. There was a desk and after moving around the things all over the desk we used that to put our personal items on. As others have said, it's a little overdone with the kitch. There was stuff literally everywhere and everything (except the guitars) was for sale. It was like staying at an estate sale or at your eccentric great aunts old house with all kinds of crap laying around - except your aunt may have dusted from time to time. There is no central a/c so window units were around which wasn't a problem but then you got to looking at the windows and all the peeling paint outside. Maintenance is not one of the strong points of this property.
Our room was situated behind a bookcase in the middle of a stairway. The door was a bookcase and the lock was a long spike that you put into the side of the bookcase which went into the wall to keep the door shut. From the inside there was a kind of lock at the top of the door to keep it closed. The spike, when you were gone, was just laid on the shelf behind a magazine or book to conceal it. At first, we put the spike on that shelf - but we were in the room with the inside latch set when some people who were attending a wedding attempted to get into our room. They found the spike, inserted it in the hole and we were locked in!! We had to call the front desk to have them open the room. There was no way to secure the room when you were gone. The sign on the door that said the room was occupied didn't do much good because we had several people tried to get in. When you were out for dinner, you had no choice but to leave the spike on the shelf so anyone could have access to the room. This did not give me a warm fuzzy as I had my laptop and other valuables in the room.
I really wanted to like this place because it's the type of place that would grab one's fancy. The rooms were not cookie-cutter rooms like a regular hotel. They were unique and very interesting. The cabin room with a loft area next to ours was really nice as were many of the other rooms we saw. The kitchen was available on a kind of "help yourself" basis to fix your own breakfast I guess. We didn't go there because we went walking in the morning and found a place nearby for breakfast. I guess I'd have loved it had they weeded out the junk, cleaned it better by removing all or most of the "for sale" stuff from the rooms. Instead, it looks like they're not sure what they want this place to be - an estate sale where you can sleep or a bed and breakfast with interesting art pieces for sale. They need to go one way or another but at present, this isn't working well.
I don't know what my friend paid for this room but from the pricing I saw online it's way over the top for what you get. I've traveled for work and stayed at some beautiful B & B's and top notch hotels that weren't near the published price of this place and were much nicer. Published rates for The Fireplace Suite - if you are not a "member" (whatever that means) is $900 per night - about $700 per night overpriced in my opinion - and I'm being generous here.
I would rate this much higher if I were simply taking a tour rather than staying here because, for a tour the place is really amazing with all the antiques, artwork and collectibles. The diningroom and main floor where events are held was really nice. The intricate corridors and ways to get from place to place, hidden wine cellar and rooms were neat. All that is great - it's the staying and seeing how difficult it was that drove me to the rating I'm giving. Maybe the answer is to run this as a museum and forget about the B&B part?? There seems to be no focus to this place - is it a retreat for musicians? Is it a B&B? Is it an estate sale? I'm not sure but the Mansion on O St. is definitely unique!
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