Historic Cary House Hotel - Hotel in Placerville - 300 Main St, USA

This place is fantastic! It was built in 1857 and the decor reflects the time. It has a haunted hotel vibe, but in a good way. It’s a trip back into time. I had the corner room on the top floor, looking onto downtown Placerville. The location can’t be better, right in downtown and you can walk to great shops and restaurants. The bed was comfortable and I slept great, even though the air conditioner was pretty noisy. For me it became white noise and didn’t bother me, but it might for a light sleeper. It did have some modern conveniences, like a refrigerator, TV, and blow dryer. When you stay at a historic hotel you stay for the experience and ambience, and if you are fussy about modern comforts this place is not for you. Personally I love historic hotels and this is one of the best I’ve stayed.

Staying here was awesome. Initially, the location is what led to the booking of this hotel. My family and I were visiting a loved one at a nearby cemetery. However, after staying at The Cary House for a few nights, it clearly became the right choice. The calm, inviting lobby decorated with antiques greets you when you walk in as well as a lone hotel associate for check-in & general questions. Take the stairs or the old elevator to your floor. The choice is yours! The rooms are clean, there's generally a small kitchenette and the cable with flat screen televisions was a nice touch. The balcony on the second floor was wonderful, and a nice escape from the room to people watch. If the door to the balcony is locked, kindly ask the front desk associate to unlock it for you. I would absolutely stay here again.

NOTE: I'm publishing this review here even though I booked the hotel through Expedia, because Expedia doesn't present the option to review the hotel, unless the hotel sends the customer a link. It had a 8.2/10 rating on Expedia, which is why I chose it. Now I understand why. Expedia allows hotels to vet their own ratings! Don't trust Expedia's "customer" ratings!!||This place is disgusting. It is literally the worst hotel I've stayed at anywhere in the world, with the possible exception of student hostels in developing countries 35 years ago (but at 30x the cost of those places). The lobby smells of "history" as one of the other guests commented. The front desk staff is largely unavailable (they are not there in the evenings after 8pm or mornings before 8am), and surly when they are available. We waited on our room being "cleaned" and when we entered, there was an overwhelming smell of bleach. It smelled as though the entire place had been sloshed down with buckets of bleach. Our eyes began watering within a minute of entering. We left as soon as possible, opened all the windows while we were gone, but it was not much better when we returned. ||There was hair in the ("newly cleaned") shower drain, and the water had a suspicious (metallic) smell, so we forwent taking showers. When we threw back the covers on the bed, the we found long human hair (not ours), rumpled sheets, threadbare bedding, and pillows that were probably 30+ years old). All the bedding was synthetic and looking at least that old. Plugs fell out of the outlets. We didn't shower in the morning either, but we couldn't get out of there fast enough. Ridiculous that a hotel that charges $200/night cannot replace its pillows in 30 years and have a room properly cleaned.

This place presents itself as pretty cool, and interesting, which I guess it is, as far as the historical value. However, the king suite I rented for two nights was by far the worst, and most uncomfortable space I have ever had the displeasure of being stuck in for any length of time. The bed must be just as old, if not older than the hotel itself. A king sized bed, just completely worn with 2 sinking grooves where couples must've been sleeping in the same two spots since this "bed" was brought here. And then there was a big hump in the middle, which only made the sides feel like you would sink even deeper. And there was also no laying on the middle hump. It was all just awful and uncomfortable. The room was advertised to "sleep 4" the other place to sleep was in a separate living room. That accommodation was in the form of a pull out love seat. If the bed was bad, the love seat/pull out bed was horrifying. My back and also the back of the person with me were in a lot of pain from the bed, so at some point we decided to try to sit on the loveseat. It was not happening. It looked and felt like someone had pulled this loveseat out of a dumpster decades ago. It had strings hanging off the cushions and the arms were rock hard. The pull out bed was even worse, not only intensely uncomfortable, but if you laid on it, your feet would be above your head because it seemed that this room was on a slope. The chandelier in the room appeared to be leaning as well. I would not recommend my worst enemy to try to rest in this place. I'll certainly never stay here again.

The room was good. Check-in and check-out were easy. But the hotel is impossible to reach once you’ve checked-out. So don’t leave anything in your room and drive down the road. We had to drive two hours back to speak to someone! Once we got back, the staff was helpful.

Came into town for a wedding and cannot say enough about this delightful hotel. First, the after hours check in. I felt terrible that we forgot the instructions when we got in at 3 am but the attendant was so patient and pleasant helping us get in. It's a GORGEOUS historic space. What some reviewers may see as "run down" is in fact the dedicated preservation of a historical space. Every inch of the space lent to the nostalgia of living in a bygone era. It is also the perfect place to stay if you want to experience all of the unique and interesting shops on the street. The ONE thing you might not like is it gets a little loud outside on the weekends with the youngsters partying at the bars. It could be tough on the light sleepers but minimal in comparison to all the other benefits. Love love love this place!!

Much like my beloved ‘Niners in the 2024 Super Bowl, this hotel had a lot of good things going for it, but just fell short of being great. |First, the good stuff: Easy to find, with surprisingly ample and convenient parking considering the old-timey downtown location. Great location for exploring downtown Placerville, and near enough to the highway for exploring the larger vicinity. We were in the “Merlot” room, which faces the street and has a window on the 2nd floor balcony. I imagine that could be pretty noisy during peak season, but it wasn’t bad when we were there. The room was clean and comfortable. The lobby is lovely and inviting, with some very interesting memorabilia/newspaper articles about the history of the hotel. |Now the not so good stuff: The furniture in our room was old. Not antique-old, just old-and-tired-old. Yes, the end table was an antique, but two of its feet were missing, so it sat all wonky and crooked and basically untrustworthy as a table. Both the kitchenette and the bathroom decor were quite dated (late 80’s? Early 90’s?) and for some strange reason there were two mini fridges; one integrated into the kitchenette and the other just hanging out in the room. Weird. The kitchenette was not well stocked, so if we had wanted to use it, we really couldn’t. When we arrived to check in, the gal at the desk sighed a lot and acted like we were really inconveniencing her. I overheard her on the phone with another guest, and they seemed to be really annoying her as well. It’s really too bad that she literally was our first impression of the hotel. |I had heard that the hotel was haunted. I can only say we didn’t notice anything unusual (which also disappointed me, but ghosts don’t always play by the rules, do they?) so I can neither confirm nor deny that claim. |I can’t say we won’t ever stay there again, but I’m certainly not in a hurry to do so. It was fine, but not grand. Good, but not great. Underwhelming to be sure. With a tiny bit of effort, it could be so much more! Just like my ‘Niners! —maybe next year…

Fantastic stay! The Gentleman working at night was amazing going out of his way to help me check in when I missed check in time! There were two Ladies behind the desk at different times in the day and they were both very helpful and took a lot of time to get things done for me! I really appreciate the three staff members that were working during my February 21st until March 7th I believe it was stay… Thanks guys for your patience and help! Truly above and beyond!