Harborside Hotel, Spa & Marina — Hotel in Bar Harbor

Last week was our 11th time staying at this property. We will not be back. It is still a beautiful property right across from Bar Island. Their customer service is non-existent. Their new wifi system did not cover our room.

I booked an island view. We received a view of the parking lot with trees that blocked our view of the water. In our 10 previous stays we had unobstructed views of the harbor or Bar Island. Biz (manager) explained that we officially had a “partial” island view. She said the the new renovations changed all the room categories and they are not reflected in their reservation system. So I paid for an island view, but received a parking lot view. Biz refused to try and accommodate us. She came off as condescending.

Wifi signal in room 2038 was poor in the bedroom. I called everyday to complain. I was told the system was working great. I could not get anyone to come to our room to test our signal strength. When Biz did come to our room she reset the signal on 2 of our devices. The signal would drop out every 3-5 minutes. She asked me if we had the same problems with our devices at home. Let’s blame the problem on our devices.

They wanted me to spend my vacation time trouble shooting with their provider.

Jake (another manager) told me there was nothing they could do to fix our wifi problem. At least he was honest. Easier to work with than Biz. He offered to move my family from our 1 bedroom suite to a standard room. This was the solution to our problem.

They ended up taking the resort fee off of our bill. Our room was still over $500/night. This is too much to pay for a parking lot view and no wifi in our room.

Overall, you will see a beautiful property with a great location in Bar Harbor. They have a weak wifi system and lack any kind of customer service. Do not trust the room categories you see on their...

ROOM: nice view, we chose harborside because we couldnt understand from the website if those with sea/island view would be facing the parking, which would be a downside. AC system is old and noisy, you even hear vibration/ from neighbour’s airco even if u switch yrs off. Furniture a bit dated. Cleaning and space good. Nice products (shampoo & showergel).

POOL CLUB: hygiene of swimmingpools is bad (plenty of hair, leaves, sand from the beach - not cleaned overnight, accumulates over days). Tends to get crowded in high season. Otherwise very scenic and good clean towels.

SERVICE & CLEANING of common areas: poolside service is slow. First day we were told they don’t have ice tea. Then it appeared. Average waiting time for a drink 20’. One piña colada on a croded day took 40’. Corridors of 3rd floor were not vacuum cleaned for the 4 nights we stayed, with accumulation of dirt.

CHECK IN/OUT: good check in experience, shout out to Taylor who gave us plenty of good hiking tips. Check-out impersonal, and not very professional: they did not ask standard questions (1) how the stay went; (2) to check the invoice before closing the bill (mistakes happen, it’s a basic good practice to show the invoice to customers at check out, in the interest also of the hotel to avoid lenghty back and forths after the stay).

SUSTAINABILITY: little to no attention to environmental sustainability. We had 2 days of awful air quality due to Canada wildfires, but they still lit all the fireplaces, generating an unhealthy persistent smell of burned wood on the whole hotel ground, rendering the harborside pool an undesirable place to stay, unhealthy for kids and the elderly. Also, a mistery to us why you would light a fireplace while the airco is working.

Would we go back? Yes, if prices stay competitive compared to...

No bikes allowed in the rooms. I gave 3 stars because the staff was friendly. I was excited to try this hotel out for 2 nights, just now. We received a very nice welcome from the valet staff and the reception desk woman was very friendly as well. When the valet was unloading our bags he noticed I brought my mountain bike with me. He mentioned that I needed to check with the desk to see if I could carry it to my room...which I have done with 3 hotels we have stayed in for the past week...some of them were 5 star hotels from NY to VT. The front desk personnel said I couldn't take it inside to my room because of a recent renovation. (I get that logic. They don't know how careful I am.) I could either leave it in the vehicle or outside on their bike rack. Neither option was good because I didn't want to take a chance of our vehicle getting broken into. I am paranoid about that because it is a new bike and very costly, and we are in the height of tourist season in Bar Harbor. I was contemplating leaving it in the vehicle because it was Saturday night and the chance of getting another room was very slim. We decided not to leave it in the car, cancelled the reservation and loaded our bags back into the vehicle. We were able to get a refund, but I guess they need to notify guests on their website that they cannot take bikes to the rooms. I do have a bike bag on order now though. :) We ended up down the road at Atlantic Oceanside Hotel and it is a gorgeous suite overlooking the water, for about half the price, with a friendly staff. It worked out in the end, but I do hope that anyone else traveling with bikes that like to take them to their rooms, do not make reservations at the Harborside, Hotel and Marina. Here is the view from our new room at the Atlantic Oceanside Hotel. It...