The Willow Brooke Bed & Breakfast is located in Granville, Ohio, though it sits nearly exactly between Granville and Alexandria. Willow Brooke is a romantic getaway bed and breakfast which opened in 1988 under the management of Sandra Gilson. There are a total of three rooms available in the main building for visitors to use, as well as a guests cottage that has a little bit more amenities than the rooms. The property has also been known for being a good place for parents and guardians to stay while they are visiting their children that are attending the nearby school of Denison University.
Willow Brooke Bed & Breakfast sits in the middle of cities Alexandria and Granville in central Ohio. The property is about 30 minutes away from the city's capital Columbus. The land comprising Willow Brooke's area spans about 34.6 acres, and the primary home of the property is a fair distance from the main road. Directly surrounding the bed and breakfast is a cluster of woodlands. The main building at Willow Brooke Bed and Breakfast is a three-story English Tudor Manor House, and it is colored brown and tan. There is brick siding on the first floor, and it flows up the chimney. The bed and breakfast offers features and amenities such as air conditioning, WiFi, and DirectTV cable television.
Two suites and one room are available in the main house: The Garden Suite, the Master Suite, and the Yellow Room. The Garden Suite takes up an entire floor of the building, offering visitors a private kitchen, fireplace in the bedroom, king-sized bed, a private patio with woodland views, and a private bathroom with a heart-shaped whirlpool tub. The Master Suite is on the second floor. It has a fireplace, king-sized bed, microwave, small fridge, and jacuzzi tub with a separate shower. The Yellow Room has a private bath and a second room with double vanity mirrors with sizable amounts of lighting.
In addition to the main building, there is a guest cottage on-site with two bedrooms, a fully-stocked kitchen, a fireplace, a separate garage, and a jacuzzi-style tub. Guests are free to explore the extensive acreage that the property sits on, and the rooms are designed for privacy. An outdoor jacuzzi tub is available for all visiting guests. It has a roof so that it can be used in winter months. In nearby Alexandria, there are multiple restaurants in which people can dine. Columbus offers a more extensive range of dining and activity options, just half an hour to the west.
At Willow Brooke Bed and Breakfast, a full breakfast is served, including egg dishes, pastries, juice, fruit, tea, coffee, and main courses. Guests requiring special dietary meals are accommodated at no additional cost to the stay. Willow Brooke is open year-round, though their busiest month is October. The area becomes more colorful in the autumn, and people often visit in October as one last getaway before the school year sets into full motion.
Many of the guests visiting Willow Brooke Bed and Breakfast are seeking a romantic getaway with their significant other. The suites are not "next door to each other," according to Sandra Gilson—the owner of the property. Privacy is one of her most important goals for the property. The high acreage and wooded area of the property allow visitors a good deal of seclusion from the outside world. However, downtown Alexandria is close enough that traveling isn't inconvenient. The bed and breakfast attracts the kind of people that are looking to spend time with each other, and not necessarily those who are looking to be entertained. Birthdays, anniversaries, and wedding proposals are frequent events celebrated at Willow Brooke Bed and Breakfast. Sandra is always willing to help make those events a specialized experience for her guests.
The other major reason why people come to the bed and breakfast is due to the manor's proximity to the Denison University in nearby Granville. Parents often wish to visit their college-attending children, and Willow Brooke is one of the closest lodging options for the trip.
Breakfast is a crucial element to Sandra's success in hosting. She prides herself on having always offered a full breakfast during her years as hostess. She also accommodates special dietary needs and preferences. The ordeal is an "all you can eat" style of breakfast. Sandra says, "I feed them and roll them out the front door."
Sometimes, peacocks and deer can be seen exploring the grounds surrounding the manor. Guests have spoken positively about the property, generally emphasizing the scenery, food, and quality of host and hostess. One guest referred to Sandra in a lighthearted way by saying, "Sandra is the hostess with the 'mostess'. She always takes good care of us. Food is wonderful. Beautiful grounds and atmosphere." Sandra also is known to sell candles at Willow Brooke, which are hand-made out of California.
Sandra and Richard Gilson own Willow Brooke Bed and Breakfast and are the original owners of the property. Decades ago, they found themselves searching for high-quality land and housing that would serve as the new home for themselves, their children, and their horses. After two years of searching, they could only find "good land with a bad house, or a good house with bad land," explains Sandra. Eventually, they bought their own land and built the house from the ground up.
As the years went by, one of their children began attending Denison University in nearby Granville. This caused Sandra to pay attention to the school, and she began to notice a high number of parents dropping into the area in order to visit their children at the same university. Sandra realized that they were traveling a great distance in order to find lodging near the college. Curious, Sandra found some local bed and breakfasts and asked them what requirements were necessary to convert her house into a functioning inn, legally. With a few changes to accommodate guests, the Gilsons opened their home as a bed and breakfast in 1988. For six years, they managed the property part-time, though they quickly gained notoriety by word of mouth. Sandra—who at that time was working full-time elsewhere—realized that she had come to an ultimatum: quit her job, or cut back on BnB service. She decided to dedicate herself entirely to managing the bed and breakfast. The property became operational full-time in February of 1994.
4459 Morse Road
Granville, Ohio 43001
United States
Bed and Breakfast
Sandra & Richard Gilson
