Paniolo Ranch

Ok, first the good:
Great views, and I mean great. This place is a truly beautiful piece of property, which we were told is 100+ acres. There is a large pond/​small lake in the draw below the compound, and they have a dock and canoes for guest use (I did not use them, so I cannot speak to the quality). If you are looking for an out of the way place, it’s definitely out of the way. The actual wedding was of a very sweet girl and a very good guy, and they were very chill and I had a lot of fun at their wedding in spite of the owner.
Now to the bad:
I wasn’t part of the venue negotiations, so I won’t cover the stories I heard about extra fees, etc, or cost. All I can say is that whatever the bride paid, it was too much. This will all be personal experience.
— When we arrived as part of the wedding party, we were shown to our room. We were sharing the room with some other couples, which was fine and not the owner’s fault. The room was obviously a converted garage/​ballet studio. No one had bothered to carpet the garage or remove the indoor/​outdoor door between the adjoining rooms, giving it a very ‘thrown-​together’ look. The young lady who showed us to our room advised us that we had a fridge. I never found a refrigerator, but there was a wine cooler full of gas station honey buns and some hard boiled eggs which smelled like they had been there for a few days. The wine cooler masquerading as a fridge would chill to 44 degrees, which is not cold enough to abide by USDA guidelines for refrigeration. We were told this was breakfast. Laugh-​out-​loud.
— I searched for ice, but none was available. So I went to the main house and knocked on the door to inquire about some. Judy answered the door and responded to my query with what I am sure was her best «eat shit» look. Her daughter did come to the door after an awkward moment and offer me some ice in a bucket, which was nice.
— The A/​C (a window unit) broke at the beginning of the weekend (Friday afternoon). The maintenance guy said it was a freon leak. No attempt to fix it was made by the time we left (Sunday morning). It was sweltering. I have seen other reviews mention broken A/​C units. They probably break down a lot because they are 25+ year old window units.
— The rehearsal dinner was very obviously a prepackaged, previously frozen meal. Some Costco alfredo with canned peas tossed in to make it look handmade. I make alfredo from scratch, this was not close. The proprietors served us in their pajamas, which rather ruined any elegance they may have been trying for. One of the guests had two young children, who (as children often do) asked for a pizza. Judy advised that they could have a pizza delivered, for $ 50. Judy also informed us that if we wished to use the pool, it was an additional $ 5 a person. There were no signs to this regard; the pool was obviously there as a guest amenity, and this is the first time I have ever heard of a ‘pool charge’ anywhere. I would suggest to anyone staying here to request a written list of what is included in your agreement/​contract. If you don’t see it there, it is likely to be an additional charge on the spot.
— The day of the wedding, the bride informed us she had paid for ‘wedding coordination’. Being a guy, I am not sure what the specifics of that are, but I assume it does not mean ‘spend the days showing the property to prospective couples and do nothing for the wedding’, which is a fairly accurate description of what I saw. The groomsmen, bridesmaids, and groom set-​up the decorations and seemed to be doing all the work. The bridal suite was at 79 degrees during the whole wedding day, and the thermostat is locked. While I’m sure the response will be «but you did not ask for the thermostat to be turned down,» it is the sign of a poor host when the accommodations are locked to a sweltering temperature unless you hunt down the owner for every room you would like to be habitable (while she is off showing the property to other potential customers).
There was more, but to be honest I’d simply advise anyone to steer clear of this business until efforts are made to greatly (and I do mean greatly) improve the customer service and basic amenities (A/​C, ice, a real fridge).
Side note: One picture on here has the caption «Wedding chapel». This is not a chapel. It is a store room and bathrooms designed to resemble a chapel, there is no way to fit people into it.

Very accommodating ! Great views. Nice accommodations. Wonderful food. Am returning again this June!

After reading the reviews here, I was slightly shocked, and in hindsight, I wish I head read the reviews before I booked my most recent trip there this last labor day weekend. Although I was totally displeased with our accommodations, I should have done more research.
Don’t get me wrong. The place was ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL and it was just the «off the beaten path» kind of place that I was looking for. Me and my boyfriend decided to spend our long weekend touring the hill country. We chose this place last minute on a holiday weekend but after seeing the pictures and the fact that they offered massage and they called it a «resort», I was sold. We ended up booking 2 ahead of time, and then the day before our reservation, we had a family emergency and tried to call and cancel. We were told no. Which is alright, we did reserve a room at the very last minute. But it was kind of frustrating. We decided to make it down there anyways after we handled our business at home.
We showed up, and the property really was beautiful. The scenery was incredible! We never met the owner of the property, Judy, I think her name was, but we were escorted to our room, which was really just the old garage that they had converted. The furnishings were nice and the A/​C was ICE cold. But it was still a garage, with ugly, gray/​navy carpet that they use in high schools and office buildings. Basically, we were directed towards the mini fridge and the microwave and told that «our breakfast was in there». For as much as we paid for a 2 night stay, I was definitely disappointed in the «bed and breakfast» aspect of our stay. Inside our fridge, there were 2 breakfast hot pocket-​like rolls, 2 cups of yogurt, a bottle of milk and a bottle of apple juice. Oh and some fruit.
Keep in mind that you are AT LEAST 30 minutes from any sort of town or grocery store, and all that we had in our room was a wine cooler and a microwave. So we couldn’t bring back frozen food, and we couldn’t cook any groceries that we picked up during the day. Now, that is not too terrible, I didn’t pick this place for its choice in food options. They do prove you with dinner, if you want to pay $ 75 a person. Or for room service, a pizza can be delivered to your door for $ 25 a person. This may just be me, but $ 50 for a pizza is a little excessive. When we asked if we could use the grill, we were told that it was the owners private grill. And the one by the pool was broken.
The only time we ever spent on the property besides sleeping is when we decided to unwind in the pool after a long day of sightseeing and traveling. It was around dinner time, and there was a family eating a few feet away from us on the owners back porch. I am assuming it was her family there visiting for the holiday, but it was kind of awkward none the less to be swimming in her pool while they ate an elegant dinner on the patio. But that isn’t too much of a complaint of mine, we were guests at someone else’s home, so we didn’t mind keeping to ourselves and kept out of the way.
My only real complaint is the price. I find it utterly ridiculous that we paid $ 625 for 2 nights in someone’s repurposed garage with window A/​C units. We didn’t even have the option to order a hot breakfast, nor were we given the means or any option to feed ourselves for lunch or dinner. Unless we felt like paying $ 25 (for a pizza) $ 55 (for a pasta meal) $ 75 (for a steak dinner) PER PERSON.
And yes, I realize that we agreed on the price. I was totally ok with paying the rate that we agreed on, but I was somewhat mislead as to what that rate would include. I did really love the property, it was MAGICAL and so relaxing being able to sit outside in the morning and listen to the birds, but I could have had the same experience somewhere else with the same amenities for a third of the price. Ultimately, I did leave there with a bad taste in my mouth. I would love to be able to say that I would want to return in the future, but I feel like I could have received much better service at one of the MANY bed and breakfasts in the hill country. A little bit of customer service goes a long way. If I pay high dollar for place to stay, I at least expect A LITTLE more than what I received. Truly disappointed! I would love to stay there again otherwise!

I had my engagement party at Paniolo ranch January 2014. My wife to be and I met with Judy a few weeks prior to the event, reviewed the contract, went over the the table arrangements and linen colors. The day of the event out party was running a bit late but the staff was VERY accommodating and moved all of our beverages inside as the weather cooled down. The party went off great and everyone enjoyed themselves.

My son and his wife were married at Paniolo Ranch this past weekend. Unfortunately, the site manager made it incredibly stressful for both sets of parents and I feel that there are things which should be made known to others so that this doesn’t happen to them. Be aware that this venue charges an unheard of, undeserved and mandatory (in our case, $ 900) gratuity, which is in the contract but was not discussed. The rehearsal was delayed for quite some time because the Bride’s parents and the coordinator were negotiating previously undisclosed charges that Judy was demanding upon arrival. Our guest count might have gone over 200 by seven people. There was an additional $ 150 fee for this. Extra person in the bridal suite? Fee for that! I reserved two rooms. The air conditioning in my room didn’t work. The thermostat for the unit appeared to be on the wall, but it didn’t help because the actual thermostat was behind a locked door in the room that we could not access and it was set too high. It was miserably uncomfortable in the room on Friday night. So much so that I could not rest in a room I paid $ 500 for! Judy fixed it for Saturday and it was much better. Since the venue was not in use on Friday evening, Judy «permitted» us to get started early on decorating in the reception hall which was generous and would have been very helpful. However, she literally snooped into everything, made comments about how much «stuff» we brought and was rude to the kitchen manager. She demanded a fee for using the water, electricity and air conditioning in the building, which I paid. After this, she turned OFF the air conditioning and locked the door to the thermostat, walked into the kitchen and turned off the lights and shut off the door… with the kitchen manager standing at the sink! The brides room and the grooms quarters are in the same building. The air was insufficient for those rooms throughout the entire weekend, making it uncomfortable for the bride/​groom and wedding party on the wedding day. During the walk through of the venue, we were told, «this is the kitchen with everything you will need.» There was an ice maker in the corner. There was NO mention of any fee to use it. Additionally, bringing ice from offsite is not permitted as an option. So, there was a charge for the ice machine that we obviously had to use. Judy accepted the fee and then turned off the machine so that we would only have the ice that was already in the machine and it would not produce any more for us during the reception. By the time we realize it and turned the machine back on, it was too late for it to cycle through and we had no ice for our guests after 10pm. When we raised the doors to the reception hall because we had so many guests, the air conditioning was turned off which made it so miserable that many of the guests left early. My chief complaint was during the 11 times she approached either myself or the bride’s parents during the weekend, she absolutely refused to accept any responsibility for her failure to disclose these optional services in advance of the rental. Making demands for fee after fee that was never discussed prior to possession is nothing short of blackmail! There were no options at that point, and I am certain this was not accidental, nor was it a «learning experience» as she kept claiming. So much time was wasted listening to her whine about these «misunderstandings» that profited her and cost us. I had to severely limit the examples because Unilocal places a space limit on reviews, which is understandable. I could go on, but I am sure that my bead experience is pretty clear already.

My boyfriend and I stayed at the Paniolo Ranch this past weekend and CANNOT stop talking about it to our friends back in Houston. The views are breathtaking and the accommodations were even better.
I want to start with the ONLY thing we were disappointed with (just to get it out of the way): by the time we arrived, the lake had dried up, which huge was a bummer. BUT, as Judy explained, they were in a 3-​year drought so there was little to be done. So, we just decided to spend most of our time in the pool which faced the rolling hillside anyway and was a nice relief from the August heat.
There were plenty of places to explore. We even found a few spots on the land to look for fossils. Neither of us found any but Judy was nice enough to show us some that she and her family had collected from their adventures out to those areas. They were really incredible!
There was a wedding going on while we were there. While we tried to stay out of the way, the staff never made us feel unwelcome and there were still several places to go on the grounds to enjoy the views or some alone time of our own while they celebrated. We sneaked quick a peek though and everything really looked perfect for the couple’s big day!
Our room was very nice and the bed was more comfortable than our own at home! We loved the entire room even though I hit my shin on one of a bench a few times while wandering in the dark… I should have moved it after the first time instead of the third. Haha!
We definitely want to return to Paniolo Ranch for the simple fact that there is so much to see, so many ways to relax, and the staff is the friendliest we’ve ever experienced at a B&B!

Ok, folks where do I start. We decided to have our wedding at the end of October and picked this location as an ideal location to have our wedding. We met the owner and she gave us the tour and was very nice. We talked to her about what we wanted and gave her our budget which she said was doable. We also hired her as our wedding coordinator which was our first mistake; she did nothing to coordinate the wedding even though we paid for her services. She almost never answered the phone and when she did she said she would call us back almost never did. She kept getting our records confused with someone else. My wife had to handle all the coordinating then at our actual wedding she catches the bouquet! Later her daughter apologized, she may have been drunk. Also, we were told their center piece fountain would be lit up for all to see, only to find on our wedding day it was broken. In the last minute she contacted us telling us the bartender had quit so she used the wedding coordinator she hired to help with our wedding to do and then made us pay for her as a bartender. In the end we had a good wedding but would recommend not using their services as wedding coordinator unless you want to waste your money.