THE BAD DEAL

Got a few thousand to spare? UrbanDaddy is selling two getaways to Napa Valley’s Meadowood: a weekend trip for $1,725 and a four-night stay for $3,375. Both packages include dinner for two at Meadowood’s three Michelin-starred restaurant (which famously lacks a name). UrbanDaddy’s prices are about what you’d pay retail, and the lodging reservations are tough, so it sounds like a deal, right? Well, not so fast. There are two problems: you give up the right to choose your dinner and UrbanDaddy underestimates the price of the trip by up to $628. Read below for the DirtyDaddy details: 

Problem No. 1: UrbanDaddy Severely Restricts Dinner Choices. If you choose the $1,725 deal, you are “limited” to the four-course menu at the restaurant, says the fine print at the bottom of UrbanDaddy’s website. The $3,375 deal limits guests to the ten-course menu. “No substitutions allowed.”   

Apparently, $1,725 isn’t enough for a longer tasting menu, at least not with UrbanDaddy, which demands $3,375. That’s too bad because if you don’t buy this deal you can just show up at the restaurant and choose between the four course menu at $125; or the ten-courses meal at $225. 

Don’t want the wine pairings? Too bad, you’ve already paid for them. UrbanDaddy, like a frat initiation, doesn’t give you a choice. How immature. This is Michelin-starred dining, where the guests, not third-party deal sites, typically make their own decisions. That’s Dirty, Daddy. 

Problem No. 2: UrbanDaddy Is Understating the Prices by $324-$628. The catch is in the fine print. At the very bottom of the website, there’s a note stating that restaurant gratuity is not included, and that a 14% hotel tax will be collected at the resort.

Websites like Travelocity, Orbitz & Expedia typically estimate the hotel taxes for you. UrbanDaddy doesn’t. So after you add those hotel taxes and restaurant gratuity on the original price of the meal, you’ll really end up paying around $2,049 for the cheaper deal and $4,002 for the four-night stay. That’s not just a few extra pennies on your bill. That’s dinner for two at the French Laundry (before wine). And that’s a BAD DEAL. DirtyDaddy kinda stinks. 

Fact check notes: Two separate reservationists at the hotel, called on two separate days, confirmed that the entire price of the deal ($1,725 or $3,375) would be taxed at a rate of 14% and that gratuity is not included in the meal.