Holiday Inn Resort Bar Harbor - Acadia Natl Park by IHG — Hotel in Bar Harbor

*This Review gets 2 Stars, only because the view outside on our balcony was stunning, otherwise it would've been a 1 Star review (because 0 isn't an option).|We booked a "1 King Premium Oceanfront View" room two months before our trip to Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park. Based on the photo from their website, we were expecting a room with a large picture window, as well as a French door, to see the gorgeous Oceanview. Upon arrival, we were given keys to a room in the Stone House, which unbeknownst to us did not include an elevator. It was up a set of stairs, above a Dining area which looked like a Wedding Reception area with round tables. |We walked into a dark room, with the only "light" coming from the edges of two Roman Blind shades that were closed and covering two small windows on each side of the French Doors. No other windows. And why weren't the shades open to display the STUNNING view, you ask? Well, we asked the same question. We found out why, when we tried to open the two Roman Blinds. One didn't even HAVE STRINGS to open it, and the other side had BROKEN STRINGS that they had tied up so they wouldn't drag on the floor!!! Really? |So we called down to the front desk to explain the situation and ask for another room, where we could actually SEE the Oceanfront View that we paid over $500/nt to see (this was the Advanced Booking rate, otherwise it would've been $730/nt!). The young lady said they didn't have another Oceanfront Room available, and said that nobody had ever complained of NOT SEEING THE VIEW before us. 🤯 You're kidding, right? THIS is your Customer Service? Nobody that has stayed in that room could possibly miss the fact that the blinds didn't work. She offered a smaller room, without a view, to which we declined. I asked for a discount on the room rate, seeing as it WASN'T an Oceanfront view, to which she said she could give us a free breakfast. I told her we weren't staying there for their breakfast and didn't want free food, only the view that we purchased. Instead she sent Maintenance up to our room to see "if" there was an issue. Chris, the Maintenence employee, was very kind and brought a Clamp to hold one of the Roman Blinds up...no kidding! He then came back with a second Clamp for the other side. Lucky for us, my husband is tall and could reach way up to take them down each night, so that the other three Oceanfront room occupants couldn't look into our room--oh yeah, because the balcony was one long balcony that you sat out on right beside your neighbors. No privacy whatsoever. We felt like we were intruding on the couple sitting out there already, so waited until they went inside before we went outside. (That was on us and our comfort level, but just FYI to future visitors) |Other things about the room to note, it almost felt like they hadn't finished the room remodel and quickly started booking it, as the threshold between the room flooring and the stone flooring in the bathroom wasn't there, and there were picture hooks on the wall above the bed that didn't hold anything. |For a "resort" one expects a few minor details, to which there were none. No extra towels, blankets, or bath robes (we stayed at other hotels that were 1/2 what we paid for at the Holiday Inn Resort Bar Harbor that included 2 robes with the rooms). There was one Club Chair in the room to sit on, but only one, so who wants to sit on the edge of the bed? No one, that's who. We met the couple next door to us in the Bar Lounge and found out they had a small Cafe table with two chairs in their room, which we were missing. Gosh, I would've taken the hard chair as a second seat. And then to complete this "relaxing resort" feeling, we were awakened at 6:30am each morning to the sound of kitchen staff and people talking/laughing loudly downstairs in the (wedding) dining area. Guess they had a Breakfast Event scheduled each morning...sure would've been nice to actually SLEEP IN on our vacation. |Do I recommend staying here? Absolutely NOT! The Customer Service was a joke, you'll be risking actually getting an Oceanview that you can see, and honestly, it didn't feel resort-like at all. There are so many other places to choose in Bar Harbor, that you'll receive better care from. Give them your money, NOT...

So I should start by saying I don't write many bad reviews, so the score I have given this hotel can be put into context! I feel like I have to share our terrible experience if it will help others.||Our family of 4 planned a New England road trip over the summer and chose the holiday Inn as place to stay for the Acadia part booking a 3 night stay. We decided to splurge a bit on this part of the trip and pay extra for a quality room and booked a suite called the Vanderbilt suite which sounded like a luxury option and came advertised with a King bed and sofa bed.||When we arrived in Boston we unfortunately had some issues with delayed bags which meant a delayed drive to the Holiday Inn and we arrived around 10pm - which is when everything started to go wrong.||The hotel was clearly very busy and the staff not able to cope - there were already multiple people complaining at the front desk and hoards of people roaming around. We eventually managed to check in and went up to our room looking forward to just settling in. ||This is when it really started to go wrong. The suite was like something from the 1950's and although it was big, it was just filled with arm chairs and old furniture which did not seem to serve any real purpose. The key thing we noticed was that it was missing the sofa bed. We called down to reception who after a while said they would send up the Manager to show us where the sofa bed was. So the Manager comes up, looks around the room for a while and then confirms the room does not have a sofa bed, sorry about that. Obviously this was a major problem as there was nowhere for the kids to sleep......initially it sounded like it was going down a road of 'there is nothing we can do' but I showed her the e-mails and booking reference confirming the room layout with the sofa bed so she went to try and find a solution.||At this point the jet lagged and tired family are near to combustion. 20 minutes later she comes back and says there are no room options available that can fit all of us - they could offer 2 more basic rooms that were not close to one another, or they could book us into another hotel closer to the town centre called the West Street Hotel. Based on our few hours of experience at the Holiday Inn we jumped at the opportunity to leave and bade farewell to this disastrous experience. It was such a good decision as the West Street hotel was right in the heart of Bar Harbor whereas the Holiday Inn's location meant you would have need to get a shuttle bus and based on our chaotic experience I can only imagine how that would have worked.||Unfortunately the bad customer service did not end there - we were promised by the Manager that if we moved hotel that it would be exactly as if we had stayed at the Holiday Inn in terms of payment cost and IHG rewards. The hotel had taken a hold for the room charge of over $2K when we checked in and between the bank and the hotel it took over a month for this to be released back. I also had to chase numerous times on the IHG points and nights and as of today, over 3 months later this has still not been resolved despite raising a complaint, and messaging the Manager directly many times - with the last time not even receiving any acknowledgement or response back which was the trigger for me to write this review.||So in summary, I think we had a lucky escape in not actually staying at this hotel based on the calamitous customer experience received. Admittedly we did not see the actual resort area, but clearly this is a place where customer service is terrible, the hotel is overrun and for somewhere where you are paying top dollar pricing, it really has to be better. The one positive is that this hotel will go down in our family history as the source of many jokes with a favourite already being 'at least we are not at the...

This is a nice family friendly hotel. My husband and I came here with our small kids for several days. The kids loved the heated pool and hot tub. There’s two restaurants both of them are pretty good but a little on the pricey side. There is a bar outside by the pool where you can order drinks and food. Again all a little pricey, but that is to be expected. The rooms were nice enough and well maintained. The bathrooms were clean but could use a little update. The furniture (chairs) in our room could also use a deep clean, but I’m really picky. The lobby and hallways were all well maintained. I suspect the ac is turned up in the hallways or something because they are a bit warm. The elevator is a bit slow and we had issues with our room keys not working multiple times. Also the ac in one of our two rooms needs to be serviced. The staff comes to service things in a decent time frame from when you call them. Overall it’s a little pricey, but a good stay. The whole family had a nice time. The view is beautiful. There’s a little beach area with rocks (no sand) that the kids enjoyed. we also enjoyed the dock area at the restaurant outside. The pool could use a little refresh, the water looked a tad murky. The hot tub was overflowing a few times with water. The pool and hot tub are a nice size though and really fun. The sheets and bed were comfortable and clean. Towels in the bathroom were all clean, clean toilets and tubs. The little hotel size Bath and body works and dove soaps were nice in the bathrooms. This hotel has no rollaway beds for kids so keep that in mind. The mini fridge in the rooms was nice. There’s some huge spiders on the outside of the glass elevators, maybe a pest control service is needed. I’m being detailed and picky but overall it’s a nice hotel and an ok value. Parking was easy. The location is good and close to town. They have many suggestions at the hotel for things to do. We were able to see 4th of July fireworks right from the hotel which was nice. The front desk staff is a little overworked (long lines, but a holiday weekend so not too abnormal) but they were friendly and wanting to help. Thanks to manager Robert for your help extending our stay. The staff is all friendly. Housekeeping is also nice and helpful bringing extra things needed. I would ultimately recommend this hotel and we will stay here again in the future. If you have kids this is a good choice. It’s safe and there were numerous kids when we stayed here for our kids to play with. It’s easy and fun for them to run around the large property. Although there’s a couple little nit-picky things I would change, the customer service was good and we had fun! Keep in mind I’m very picky (germ-a-phobe) about hotels. I’m not sure why this place doesn’t have better reviews. Lastly I’m not sure what makes this a hotel vs resort. I would just call it a nice hotel. Resort seems like a stretch. This gets a solid 4 out of 5 stars from me which I consider to be...