Unpleasant experience. We needed a stall shower and direct access from the car, so they booked us into the Trellis section.
The Trellis section is an old motel with tiny rooms that is adjacent to the highway.
I requested a quiet room with a king bed when I made the reservation on the telephone. The room that they gave us was 2 doors from the highway and the noise was unbelievable. When I complained, they substituted another room a little further away, but couldn't provide a king bed, so we had to settle for a queen.
The rooms are tiny. The shower stall is very difficult to get into and there is no room to wash once you get in and the bed creaked every time we moved. Most hotels provide free bottled water, but they have a price on it.
At checkout, they were very resistant to adjusting the rate because of the room downgrade, but finally they reluctantly agreed - although they refused to honor the AAA discount that I had been given on the original reservation.
When the charge appeared on our credit card statement, they had charged us for the bottled water, even though we didn't use any.
We stayed at the Embassy Suites next time for about the same price and had a much better experience. - Suggest others do the same.

Personal business caused us to be on the road during the New Years holidays. A web search, including using TravelAdvisor, helped us to narrow our focus onto The Apple Farm. The Apple Farm web site featured an internet special for seniors that caused me to call their reservations desk. That was the beginning of a wonderful experience!

They locked on our reservation and were prepared for our arrival. As a special rate, we feared being next to the elevator and ice machine. Not So! Our room was large and gorgeous. There was a flower holder with fresh flowers attached to the bathroom mirror, complementory minis of Martinelli's Apple Cider and the bathroom amenities (shampoo/body gel, etc.)better than much more expensive lodging.

The canopy bed, three-way reading lights that were actually three-way(!), room sofa/reading area, ethernet computer hook up, complementory wine from 3:30-5:00, excellent maid service (I requested an additional ice bucket and received it within two minutes), exceptionally friendly desk personnel and evidence of superior facility and grounds maintenance ensured that we will be back.

Restaurant personnel were pleasant and not at all ruffled as we opted to split our entree due to being on a diet. At no extra charge and additional plate was provided and the food was excellent. A quoted $10.00 corkage fee kept us from sharing a bottle of wine sent by our daughter on New Years eve...a bottle shared back at home on New Years Day watching the Rose Bowl.

There are some compromises....the parking lot is TIGHT. The ONLY thing wrong with our room was a floor lamp that had apparently fallen at one time or another and was rather severly bent, but operable. This was a room MORE than tastefully decorated by chair rail, wallpaper, armoires and amenities. There was no microwave or refrigerator, but had there been one it would have, in our opinion, spoiled the decor.

Walking the grounds, we observed an item commented on by others...rooms outside the main inn itself appeared small and not suited for families.

Overall, a solid "well done" and we WILL be back!

My husband and I received a night at the Apple Farm as a wedding gift, and since we had not stayed there before, it was a great way to try out this hotel. We had heard good things about the Apple Farm from our friends, so we had pretty high expectations. Overall, the Inn was very nice. The rooms were large, clean, and nicely decorated (if you have a likeness for the country farmhouse type of decor). The hotel staff was courteous and accommodating, although at times we felt like they were auditioning for a broadway show (i.e. they seemed overly complimentary and eager to please). They upgraded our room without us requesting it, which would have been great had they given us a room with a working fireplace. When we asked to move to a room with a fireplace that worked, it was a much smaller room in a noisy section of the Inn, so we stayed put. The grounds were well kept and decorated for Christmas so the property was very pretty.

Since we had arrived late and were not familiar with the area, we decided to dine at the Apple Farm restaurant for dinner. Unfortunately, this turned out to be a mistake. The service was extremely slow. We decided the best way to pass the time was to drink a nice bottle of wine. We brought a bottle of our favorite wine with us to the restaurant and after being seated at our table for more than 20 minutes, and asking our waiter twice, our wine bottle still had not been opened. When our waiter finally opened the bottle....or I should say tried to open the bottle, he pushed the cork through the bottle and blamed it on the “dry cork” (read=excuse for not knowing how to open a bottle of wine). He then took the bottle to somewhere in the back of the restaurant and then brought us our wine by the glass (with cork pieces floating in the wine). Our waiter did apologize and waived the $10 cork fee. The meal ended up being quite expensive ($50 for 2 people) which was surprising given that the food was quite mediocre and the service was poor. The food can best be compared to a Marie Callendar’s (sans the overpriced fare). We tried the restaurant again for breakfast, but we should have learned our lesson. The service was again horrible (we saw our waitress twice and she disappeared for 30 minutes in between). When we spoke to the manager (because they forgot to bring out half of my husband’s breakfast), she was full of excuses. The manager comped our bill for breakfast which was nice, but I would rather have paid for a nice meal without the drama than a free breakfast.

I HIGHLY suggest skipping the Apple Farm restaurant given the many fine restaurants which we later discovered down the street in Old Town SLO.

I've stayed at the Apple Farm several times over the years. I guess the fact that I keep going back means the place mustn't be too bad. The rooms are beautiful and if you go in December the entire hotel is decorated beautifully for Christmas. The rooms are also very clean. The entire place has a very lovely feel of yesteryear, with it's decor and architecture. The staff is very helpful and try to meet any need that arises. They usually offer guests a discount on breakfast in their restaurant which is nice. The guest reception each evening offers coffee, tea, wine, cookies and cheese puffs. They usually hold it outside. It can be very chilly in the colder months and even with the heat lamps I was freezing. One of my complaints is that the restaurant's dinner menu is very expensive. They are now allowing dinner customers to order from the lunch menu as well. (Although you feel kind of like a loser ordering a sandwich for dinner from the lunch menu because the prices are so high for dinner.) Also everytime I've been there I've had to wait quite a while for a waiter or waitress to take my order and quite awhile to receive my food. So I would say expect slow service. The bakery however is wonderful. You can always find delicious treats reasonably priced. Also I love taking baths and the bathtubs at the Apple Farm are extremely small and uncomfortable. You won't find any large jet tubs in the regular rooms here. They also have bathrobes in the rooms, but the robes are not the soft cotton robes found at most upscale hotels. These are scratchy robes that feel like burlap. If they could improve on these areas I think this would be a 5 star destination. Although I'd have to say overall it's a great place.