Coombs House Inn

We stayed here for our first trip to Apalach’s famous seafood festival. The only reason they did not receive 5 stars was the price. Everything else was great. A nice romantic getaway.

TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE.
I really don’t believe the other reviews that give them high marks are real. There are way too many others with a consistent message of dirty bathrooms, hot rooms, old breakfast to not be true. Pretty sure they populate their own 5 stars.
My experience was horrible even prior to arrival. We booked a room for a wedding and had to cancel unexpectedly. We called 5 DAYS in advance to let them know, not expecting to be told we would be charge FULL PRICE for missing their 7 day cancellation window.
UM, WHAT?
We never received any information from them regarding our stay — not even a confirmation email. And they claimed to have sent us this policy via email Well, they didn’t and claimed to have sent it to a wrong email. But oh well, that’s our problem, right?
As we were on the phone explaining we needed to cancel, THEY CHARGED US! And the receipt came right on through the correct email, so methinks they had the right email and SCREWED UP and never sent us any information.
HORRIBLE UNPROFESSIONAL CROOKS, UNWORTHY OF MY or ANY OTHER BUSINESS.

What a gem of a place! I went down for a photo job and it was booked for me. What a pleasant surprise it turned out to be! Very charming with excellent hospitality. Filled with character in the middle of a cute town and just across the bridge from St George Island. I’ll definitely be staying there again when I come back! Gold stars all around!

The house itself was cute and my family and I enjoyed sitting out on the porches at night. But from the moment we walked in to the moment we left, it wasn’t the most pleasant B&B we’ve ever been to. We were overcharged for our rooms. They didn’t provide an immediate refund either. The staff was mediocre. Two of which agreed to cater a brunch which was an epic fail. One of the «caterers» showed up so drunk she almost hit my 5 year old niece. The police were called and she was arrested. We were bitched at by staff for using the ice for our cocktails on the porch at night. I was on the third floor in a tiny room and the A/​C stopped working. They told me they would have to get somebody to look at it the next day. They were also full and had nowhere else to put me. I’ll be staying somewhere else if I ever visit the area again.

Once we resolved the computer glitch with our reservations thanks to Estrella, our pet friendly suite was perfect! The kitchen was well stocked with cooking utensils and the full sized refrigerator was a plus. The living area was cozy, the bathroom was clean with ample soaps and toiletries with good sized bath towels. The bed was comfortable and the cotton sheets were definitely a higher thread count which we appreciated. The breakfast was a delicious «quiche/​casserole» creation with additional cereals, breads, yogurt, fruit, coffee and tea if desired. We enjoyed our stay and will return as our walk through the quiet neighborhood with our dog felt like our «home away from home».

Stayed at this property last night. We were welcomed at 9pm just after having some fantastic food at Up The Creek (oysters anyone?!). Our room, the king suite, was beautifully decorated in bright beachy colors, not stuffy and old fashioned like some other b&b’s I’ve been to. After taking a bath in the jacuzzi tub, I slept like a baby. The room was air conditioned with two fans so the humid weather didn’t bother me a bit. The breakfast was great, too! Biscuits and gravy. Stay here for a real, Appalachicola experience!

After an awful stay in Panama City, this bed and breakfast is amazing! So beautiful. Staff is very accommodating and the location is perfect. Enjoying some tea and cookies out on the deck now!

Overall a nice stay. Inn is pretty and is surrounded by so much history. Hard not to love it. Prices are a bit high for what is offered in my opinion but I would go back again to visit.
Breakfast in the morning was always tasty. Ranging from French toast and sausage to various quiches and casseroles. Very quiet, you can sit outside or inside. Also baked goods, muffins, cereals… the usual.
The rooms are a bit noisy and our room was too hot at times. There was no thermostat in the room. We travel with fans for white noise so we managed.
We stayed in room 11, the honeymoon suite. Bathroom was spacious but not much room for clothes so don’t bring much. Room 11 is in a separate house from the main Inn which I enjoyed as I’m sure it would have been much noisier in the main inn. I might recommend staying in a room in the 2^nd floor because we often thought our upstairs neighbors were rearranging furniture from all the noise on the hardwood floors.
There is a beautiful cemetery across from the Inn that has tons of history in it. We enjoyed walking through it!

Recently stayed at the Coombs house on a trip to Apalachicola May 2014. The historic building is attractive and nicely restored, but situated right on the main highway leading through the town, making it anything but peaceful as the St Joe Paper trucks come barreling into town. The room we were given was named Heron and along with half the others in the building are right on and facing this highway. The resulting noise did taper down in the evening but starting right up again around 6 am, becoming quite loud and disturbing as I am trying to sleep in on one of my vacation mornings. Naturally this being an older building the doorways and windows are not sealed completely, allowing outside noise to easily seep in. However, the room was quite large, clean and furnished with a four posted bed and antiques.
The hot breakfast that morning consisted of frozen tasting baked biscuits and some Jimmy Dean type prepared sausage gravy, along with the standard cereal, coffee and yogurt. Biscuits and gravy may be considered a hot breakfast to locals but is NOT what one would expect in a nice B&B.
We asked for a different room for the next night considering the LOUD noise from the highway and were told that they did have another queen room but with jacuzzi at $ 30 dollar higher. I said that since we did not sleep very well the night before due to traffic noise and have the inconvenience of having to move to another room, couldn’t we just be given that room for the same price? Nope, we were offered instead a handicapped room in their nearby annex building that was quite literally big enough for one bed, dresser and chair… about ¼th the size of our previous room but in the rear of the building and noticeably quieter. This is extremely poor customer service and hardly a comparable room, almost punishing us for complaining about traffic noise. This room was quiet overnight but had several maintenance issues along with a mattress in truly awful condition, being able to feel the springs bulginging through the material and very uncomfortable to sleep on. One would think a B&B could at least provide comfortable mattresses since a good nights sleep is what we were staying there for.
The hot breakfast the following day was dried out, tasteless reheated eggs, again some cheap Jimmy Dean type sausage and store bought bland cubed fruit. We had to ask for the bagel to be toasted as they have no toaster in the dining room. The breakfasts here were overall pitiful, inadequate and sorrowful.
We did use their bicycles to ride about the wonderful town with many restored homes and gardens but here again, maintenance and attention to detail was sorely lacking. Most bikes were in disrepair, loose handlebars and seats, tires almost flat and wobbly, etc.
Evidently the prior owners that restored and ran this establishment have recently sold this property to a local company with noted miserable results.
The facility itself is nice but with the accompanying inferior customer service, noise and maintenance issues and pathetic breakfast make the Coombs Inn an unacceptable and an entirely unsuitable choice of a B&B to stay while in Apalachicola.
Room Tip: If you want to get a QUIET nights sleep, insist upon a room not facing the busy highway out front!

A charming Bed and Breakfast in Apalachicola. The rooms are well designed and neatly appointed. It was my first «Southern» experience. The whole business was on the market for about a $ 1MM.

While our stay was adequate, I’ve stayed at Gibson House before with zero complaints and have had a number of complaints while staying here. I don’t think I would stay here again and I don’t think I would particularly recommend it either, although perhaps if you were staying just one night (we stayed a week) in a regular room (we were in a suite) it would be better.
I’ll start with the good: Our suite was plenty big with a fair sized kitchen, nicely appointed bedroom, sitting room, bathroom, and a small porch. The wifi is fast and they have complimentary towels, beach umbrellas, and chairs to take with you to the beach. It is right on hwy 98 and only a couple blocks from the main drag making it easy to find. They also told us that if we were heading out early any morning (for, say, charter fishing) they would have a continental breakfast ready for us if we told them ahead of time. As mentioned, we had a kitchen and one day the housekeeping loaded our dishwasher for us, which I thought was above the call of duty! I also liked that they included different bath salts every day when they cleaned the bathroom.
Now the bad: The main reason we spent the extra money on a suite was in order to cook for ourselves. They made this incredibly difficult because the kitchen equipment consisted entirely of the following: one frying pan, one sauce pan, a metal collander, a few measuring spoons, a whisk, a couple dull paring knives, plus a few plates, soup bowls (shallow), glasses, etc. There was an oven, but nothing oven safe to put in it and not a single mixing bowl. I made ceviche and had to make it in the sauce pan because it was the only container big enough! I understand having to bring your own specialty equipment and spices but seriously — would it kill them to have a baking dish or even a tray? Or some cheap mixing bowls? Seriously, with $ 20 and a yard sale I could outfit this kitchen! Plus the trashcan was one of those tiny bathroom ones and could barely fit two soda cans, let alone real trash. As mentioned, there was a dishwasher but no dishwasher soap – only a half full bottle of liquid dawn.
This may give you the impression I’m a little bit of a food snob, and perhaps my lack of excitement over the breakfast will continue that impression, although I don’t think my expectations were overly high. I expected fresh, homemade breakfast and instead the kitchen here is clearly a glorified microwave because I doubt anything served us was made in-​house, was fresh, or made in anyone’s home. The continental breakfast part was fine, what you would expect at even the lamest hotel, but the ‘hot’ portion of the breakfast was basically a stream of reheated crap. Day one was french toast and bacon, both of which reminded me of summer camp, day two was eggs, toast, and bacon with the eggs clearly some kind of scrambled egg mix, day three was breakfast casserole 1, day 4 breakfast casserole 2, and day 5 (named stuffed french toast) was sweet breakfast casserole. I mean, how hard would it be to get a waffle iron and just churn some waffles out? I would’ve been more impressed with even that than a series of lackluster re-​heated casseroles that tasted like cafeteria food. I never saw more than 10 people in the dining room at once and can’t imagine they are routinely ever serving more than 20 people so I really feel like they could do better. I’ve stayed at Hampton Inns with better complimentary breakfasts.
Lastly, I was supremely unimpressed with the staff. I e-​mailed several times ahead of my visit to ask for recommendations about boat rentals, local outfitters, and then to ask about what was in the en-​suite kitchen. To my first two enquiries they simply pointed me to the local tourism website, which clearly I could find on my own and simply was hoping to find out if they had a good relationship with anyone in particular. They never responded to my third, and clearly I would have brought some kitchen supplies with me if they had! Once we arrived I went to talk to the girl at the desk because the housekeeping threw away my shampoo (I admit it was a solid bar and could have been an honest mistake) and I needed more and to let her know we were leaving early the next morning to go scalloping. She didn’t apologize at all for my shampoo and told me not to worry about breakfast – it would definitely be set out when we got thereand we would easily get on the road in time to catch our boat. When we arrived to breakfast the next morning nothing was out and the cook told us that even though she had seen the girl I had talked to already that morning, the girl hadn’t mentioned our needing an early breakfast. She proceeded to tell us the girl was new, and an idiot, which didn’t surprise me but I thought was unprofessional to tell us! She did get stuff out for us quickly but clearly a lack of organization.
tl;dr I wouldn’t stay here again and think there are better places!

Overall a nice B&B and the room was very nice, but the food and service were below other Select Registry B&B’s we’ve stayed in. For example, one of the robes was missing from our room and an old dry cleaning bag was hanging in our closet when we arrived. It was clear that they didn’t really inspect the room before we arrived. For breakfast, it was mostly self-​serve but they did serve you a main dish. The food was good, but don’t expect them to refill your coffee for you.
The B&B is actually multiple buildings so you may not actually stay in the main house. Not much of a problem and it is only one short block from where we stayed to the main house. Just don’t haul you luggage in when you check-​in unless you know that you’ll be in the main house.
Within walking distance from the downtown. The downtown offers some nice shops and good dining.
Given the local options, probably the best or second best place to stay. We’d stay there again, but if you have really high expectations… you will want to lower them just a bit before staying here.

Great little town and comfortable stay…
We enjoyed our stay in this very cozy, older home. The quaint touches added some southern charm. The town of Apalachicola is right out of old time Florida.
We will definitely return!

Had a great stay here. Last minute reservation due to business travel changes. Room was great. Inn Keeper was so sweet. I was a late arrival (almost 9PM). She met me with Brie Cheese and a glass of wine. Room was clean and supplied. I would love to go back and stay a weekend.

We stayed one night before getting into the beachhouse but wow I have never slept on a more comfortable bed. Also, the whole atmosphere and feeling of the place is very cozy.
The breakfast wasn’t particularly amazing but it was just what I wanted at the time.
I’ll look forward to staying here again.

I came down here with some friends and we’ll definitely be going somewhere else next time we’re in town, like the larger, nicer Inn down the street. We’d just missed the owner, she was going out as we were checking in, leaving nobody in the foyer. We poked our heads around the corner and found a sullen looking woman in the dining room. «Can you help us?» my friend asked. The woman sighed heavily and told us she wasn’t really working, just waiting for something in the oven, but sure okay she’d help. She made sure that every step of the way we knew she wasn’t happy to be «helping» us check in.
The rooms were nice but very cold. Our friends had gotten the suite, since they’re a couple and we all figured we’d hang out in there most of the time. It was FREEZING COLD. The thermostat was locked shut and there was a note saying not to change it because it controlled the temperature in the other room. Walking into the room from outside caused your sunglasses to fog over. Seriously.
We opened all the windows and propped open the door and were able to get it to a reasonable temperature. We felt bad about that because it made it really humid and it was wasting a lot of energy but we weren’t about to either sit in that cold room or go pester the sullen lady again.
The first day the person cleaning the room my single friend and I shared (nice room but the window air conditioning unit rattled the painting on the wall so badly that I took the painting off the wall) threw away some partially used toiletries, the bottled water and snacks we’d brought from home and the muffin and fruit we’d wrapped and saved from breakfast. I guess she’d spent all her cleaning energy on our room because nobody ever made it to our friend’s suite that day. On our way out in the afternoon our friend asked a maid she saw in the golf cart if they could have more towels in that suite.
«No.» the maid said, «You’ve had all your towels for today.»
«Oh!» my friend responded, «Could we maybe have the room cleaned then? Maybe have our towels replaced with clean towels?»
The maid insisted that somebody had been there already. My friend insisted that no, nobody had been. We’d been there all morning, we would know. After going back and forth on this several times the maid gasped and said she’d misunderstood which room we were talking about and would get somebody out there. As you can imagine, nobody ever came. We came back from the beach to damp, used towels, an unmade bed and a sandy floor.
The next day we asked at the front desk if we could please have new towels and a broom to sweep out the floor of the suite, since things were getting a little yuck in there. The owner looked a little surprised but said yes. A little while later a new maid hobbled up to our door with an armful of towels. Turns out she’s the usual head maid but she’d broken her toe and had been out day before, leaving some other maids in charge. Both she and we all felt terrible! I went with her back to the main house to get the broom so that she didn’t have to hobble on a broken toe back out to the suite. Still, nobody cleaned the suite that day or the next.
When we went to check out my friend, sitting at the foot of the stairs, saw the lower half of a maid (rest of her hidden by the landing) slowly and carefully climbing down the stairs. Thinking it was the woman who had broken her toe, my friend called out, «How’s your toe, how are you feeling?» The woman yelled at her, «We don’t all look the same you know!» and called her several choice things, disappearing into another room mumbling hateful words. We were all shocked, my friend totally shaken.
So. Nice building, beautiful rooms, cute cats, great area, pretty decent food (Like Sarah said, nothing gourmet, just like what I’ve had for free breakfast in nicer hotels) beautiful grounds but super surly staff. The only nice people we met were the young woman who asked if we’d like breakfast and the poor maid who had broken her toe.

Beautiful home with a beautiful room in a charming little town. The staff was so helpful and attentive. My BF and I arrived fairly late in the evening, hungry and with severe sunburn, and they were very easygoing as they pointed out several close restaurants in our price range with easy to follow directions and kindness.
Breakfast was fantastic; we only stayed one night, but would have loved to enjoy more. Our room was on the first floor, lovely bedding and a great shower. We were a little concerned that being next to the dining room, we would be woken up early by the noise, but we had no problem sleeping at all.
This B/​B is in the AAA book of inns, so you can use a stay here toward your $ 25 off on a fourth stay at any of the inns, so make sure to pick up a copy of the book while you’re there if you don’t already have one.

I have stayed here several times over the last seven years, and must say each time I look forward to it. The best part is no doubt the staff, and the attentiveness to every detail as well as that you are happy, and comfortable there. This is a historic home (Victorian mansion) worth reading about.
It is very romantic, and close to everything. Price compared to other B & B’s I have stayed at all over the east cost is at par. You can get one of their better suites/​rooms for about $ 139. a night, and well worth it. Includes a great breakfast, plus they have wine & cheese later in the day.
It is AAA rated 3-​diamonds, wireless, good parking, and part of the American HIstoric Inn’s book/​network.