Holiday by Atria

The facility looks very nice. I DID NOT LIKE THAT THE PERSON I TALKED TO TRIED TO PRESSIRE ME INTO MAKING A DECISION. Using the reduced price is a scheme to make people make a snap decision. Not only is it cruel but it is highly unethical. People call you in order to receive help not to be tricked into becoming another sale.

For the most part, Holiday Rock Creek has been a good place for my mom. However, there has been a horrible, foul odor just past the entrance of her hallway. It has been noticeable since she moved in at the end of October. Other residents have mentioned it as well. It is really bad. The meals have also been sub par. When we took the initial tour there was a chef and for the first couple weeks my mom said the meals were good and sufficient portions. Now she says the meals are very poor in quality and serving size. One chicken strip , for example. I know the facility has had trouble keeping house keepers, but [name removed] has cleaned my mom's place several times. [name removed] seems to be available at all times for all things. He has been great! Hailey has also been helpful and seems to want to help and make things better.

The overall director seems nice and genuine. The biggest disappointment honestly has been the food. While yes they offer 3 meals a day, the food choices are few and the food tastes terrible. When at the resident meeting it was asked why there aren't more sugar-free diabetic options was told they don't have budget to offer those options. I would guess there are a lot of residents who are diabetic. Why would you want to feed them non healthy food and kill them sooner? Also, they are understaffed. In all departments. Apartments are supposed to be cleaned either weekly or every other week but often they don't clean for a month or more. If you go in with low expectations then you will be happy, otherwise if you can afford it then maybe this place isn't for you.

I haven't heard much in the way of positive remarks lately. The food is cheap highly processed without much emphasis on nutritional value. Rules are always changing. Staff doesn't last long. They just got a $[removed]a month rise in rent, and there is a $[removed]"anniversary payment" tacked on once per year that no one knows the purpose of. It seems to simply be poorly run. My mother does not like it there.

Pros: apartment space, food decent Improvement: people cliquish, roaches

The upgrade to the building made it feel industrial. I objected to music piped into the halls, as if I was in a department store. No stove in rooms; I would miss that convenience. I visited during the Christmas holidays and regret that few residents were present for me to get a sense of the community. Did not have extensive paths for walkers. I met only the weekend marketing person who was gracious and informative.

Tour guide was knowledgeable, friendly polite facility had odd odor. I guest restroom smelled of urine. Concerned only. I small elevator for resident us.

Facility is open and airy. Kept clean. Some staff are friendly. Other than housekeeping and food service and outside care team, no real staff. Not as many activities as other places. Food quality is usually ok. Not many choices and they have strict meal times where everyone goes to dining room at same time to eat. If you miss those times, you dont eat. Start off price isn't bad but when you start adding extra services, it becomes pretty pricey. Sad to say, if I didn't have outside care service come to check in on my mom daily (and if I didn't go to see her most days) it could be an extended period of time regular staff would notice or check on her.

The men that I worked with were very nice but they were a little bit pushy to be honest. I had four missed calls in one day and I am a teacher and just could not get to my phone. They didn’t allow me a chance to really call them back. I also received several texts and emails within that 24 hour period. Once I responded and said that we chose another facility they tried getting me to come and lowering the rate by $[removed] a month.

Positives: The apartment is quite nice, and the outdoor patio area is great. Mum really likes her cleaner. Staff in general are great, easy to work with and friendly! The common rooms are clean and cheery. It's lovely that residents can have pets. Negatives: The main issue is with the food - the servers are lovely, but the service is very slow due to the fact that the food for each course is not able to be ordered ahead of time by the residents. My mother complains that it takes 1.5 hours for each of the lunch and supper servings. She always makes her own breakfast in her room ... yet she's paying for all three meals, there should be an option for a reduced rate on meals if a resident does not eat breakfast (only about half of them regularly do). The food wasn't great when she first moved in, but I believe it has gotten better with the new chef. Although I still hear a few complaints from mum: the noon service is the bigger meal of the day, they do not serve skim milk, residents have to ask for butter (default is margarine), the premade sandwiches don't have a lot of filling in them, and they serve seafood about once or twice a week and my mother is allergic so she doesn't dare go out during those times (worried about cross contamination). All of these issues could be easily fixed I would think.

There are no staff issues, they work hard. Food has gotten better but still not best for elderly on a salt restricted diet. And still WiFi issues ????? she's not happy about the rent increase of [price removed] a month.

What they could improve on would be to be honest upfront so you know long term you can afford the rent. They are more interested in making money bringing anyone in but not about the senior experience itself.

Overall experience initially was 5 but now that she's been there for [dates removed] I'd drop it to a 3. They tell you to your face all the right answers and not good once you're gone. I like that it's secure and all members are given a life alert pager. Their entire cleaning staff quit upon her move in and they have not kept their schedule to clean her room as promised.

Ownership recently changed, resulting in budget cuts and the exodus of trained kitchen staff. The provided meals are now very poor quality. The housekeeping staff are also poorly trained and some residents are finding items missing from their rooms, including money and medications. Staff overall are kind and helpful, but there is clearly chaos in the background as new management mandates changes that the staff do not agree with.

Staff is very nice but overworked with big turnover. Not enough of a variety of activities, and food is often not what we all expected since we have been here.

Staff is courteous and friendly, but they are very disorganized with billing and very inefficient with communication. Would recommend due to location and amentities.

I like the new management, [name removed] and the new activities person Mercedes. They are communicative which I know is hard with so few staff and so many residents. They still know each of them and seem to be aware of the limitations. The in house PT and speech are nice. The new landscaping is nice. The food selection is the worst. All the residents complain it is salty which is not good for people with hypertension or diabetes. Also the portions are small and options are lacking.

For a start I would not recommend this place to anyone management is disrespectful to residents I know of two times they yelled at them for no reason and another time when residents were playing weekly bingo and one of them was playing ping pong behind them which made them not being able to hear and most of them are hard of hearing anyway most of the time the food is too spicy for most residents and every meal is pasta sides very seldom decent food using language that isn't even English so people don't know what they are getting a lot of times people don't get dessert before they leave tired of waiting and dessert is mostly cookies or dried out cake l could probably say a lot more and another thing when people from the head office comes management makes sure they don't talk to residents.

Changes happen not for the benefit of the residents. We are not sure if we would recommend Holiday Orchid Terrace to other families based on the experience so far

One, there have been many problems involving staff positions not being filled, from the top all the way down to the person who is supposed to do light housekeeping and bed linens (which was not happening). Two, there have been quite a few facility issues including several lately which have caused multiple fire and flood evacuations. Three, my brother is local to the facility and could answer many of these questions better than I can. He has spoken with a vice president of the parent organization over the phone quite a few times.