La Mer Beachfront Resort — Hotel in Cape May

Upon check-in, a very nice and friendly woman at the front desk told us we were in room 313 and handed us a key labeled accordingly. However, all the paperwork she gave us listed room 213. When I pointed out the discrepancy, she brushed it off and said, “Oh, the night guy who does this never messes up—just go ahead to 313.”

We dragged all our heavy bags to room 313, only to be horrified when we opened the door and discovered the room was already occupied—someone’s belongings were everywhere, and we could hear people in the bathroom. Mortified, we immediately shut the door and returned to the front desk. The woman said, “Oops, we gave you the wrong key. You’re actually in 213.” It was our first time visiting Cape May and we were only staying for a night, we chose this hotel for its proximity to downtown—we planned to walk around in the morning and didn’t intend to go to the beach. When asked if we wanted beach tags, my husband declined, and I said yes just in case, although we knew we likely wouldn’t use them since we were only staying 1 night and driving back in the AM for work. The front desk clerk handed us a packet of paperwork and maps—apparently the tags were included, but I never actually saw them.

It’s baffling that she didn’t simply check the system, which would have clearly shown that 313 was already occupied. I travel a lot for work and have never had this type of experience. This was a slightly frustrating start to our stay, but we decided to not make it a big deal.

We brought our things to room 213, unpacked again, and tried to settle in. The next morning, I woke up covered in itchy red bumps on my arms, legs, stomach, and ankles. I immediately showered and scrubbed with soap. Later that day, after returning home and visiting urgent care in the evening, I was told the bites were likely from bedbugs. We are now dealing with the added stress and expense of ensuring they don’t spread it into our home. That same morning of checking out, the hotel contacted us to say we hadn’t returned the two beach tags and charged $250 to my credit card.

When we alerted the office manager, Jessica, to the situation with the wrong room being assigned and the beach tags (we never used the beach tags, never saw them, and were never clearly told we’d be charged if they weren’t returned), she responded, saying the person who checked us in “never makes mistakes,” implying we must be lying. She stated she would watch the videos to see if the beach tags were actually handed to us, and was completely dismissive about our experience checking in to a room that someone was already occupying. I was shocked by how rudely I was treated. I called her the next day after I went to urgent care to let her know about the bedbugs, to ensure no one else is affected. Instead of being curious, or even active listening, in a threatening tone, she questioned why I hadn’t reported the bites the day before as if I was on trial. The answer is simple: I have a full-time job and wasn’t able to go to urgent care until after work—which was the same day we checked out. The phone suspiciously lost connection and she did not call me back. I manage a team and work with Fortune 500 clients and was genuinely stunned by the complete lack of professionalism and courtesy shown by Jessica. Based on my experience, Jessica does not seem equipped for a role that involves managing people or customer service. She was dismissive, unprofessional, and unwilling to take accountability.

Between the disorganized check-in, the bedbug infestation, and the charge for beach tags, I can confidently say I will never stay at this hotel again and we’ll make sure none of my friends or family do either! I don’t often write negative reviews—in fact, this is only the second one I’ve ever written—but I feel a strong responsibility to warn others.

This experience was disappointing, stressful, and completely unacceptable!

UPDATE: dermatologist has confirmed that bumps were from jellyfish stings I received in Cape May not bed bugs…still conflicting from what urgent...

Buyer beware. This is the first time I had so terrible a hotel experience that I felt the need to warn others. My family and I have traveled extensively and are realistic in our hotel expectations; we have no expectations of a Four Seasons experience at a Hampton Inn price.

However, La Mer bills itself as a premium resort (with premium pricing) and our experience could not have been farther from the truth. We did our due diligence by carefully reviewing photos and reading reviews. Never did we even consider that the room photos online would not match the actual rooms. It turns out the hotel is under renovation and the photos online were of the new, renovated rooms. I fully understand the desire to show the best qualities of their product, but what La Mer did was nothing short of a bait and switch.

Upon our arrival, we were given an unrenovated room, which was beyond disappointing, especially given the almost-$700 per night room rate. The room was dreary and worn, with terrible fluorescent lighting, stained carpeting, and an extremely dated and dingy bathroom. In short, it looked dirty; not the kind of dirty that could be remedied by a little more attention from housekeeping; it was the kind of dirty that needed a full overhaul, which was not surprising, as the rest of the hotel was undergoing such a renovation.

What is surprising is how we were treated. We asked to be moved to one of the renovated rooms, but to no avail. As an alternative solution, we requested to have some portion of the room rate reduced to better reflect the condition of the room (after all, we were being charged almost $700 per night). It was made absolutely clear to us by the assistant operations manager that no accommodation in price would be made, as she stated over and over again that there was a line of people who would happily take our room at full price. Instead, she offered us a full refund. A very generous offer considering we had just driven four hours with two other families to stay at this resort. What likelihood do you think we had of finding another hotel that had three rooms available for the same day? Zero. We had no choice but to stay.

One of the main features that drew us to this particular hotel was that it had a pool. Again, the pictures posted online looked great. In reality, the pool was much, much smaller than expected (like the size of a pool someone would have in their own backyard), with an unattractive fence/cage in the shallow area to separate that section from the deeper part of the pool; in fact, the pool was so small that we never once got to use it as it was perpetually overcrowded with guests.

The icing on the cake for this gem of a stay was to find a message scrawled in the elevator stating, “This place has bed bugs,” which led to my panicked wife frantically checking the mattresses in our room and two remaining days of anxiety.

On the day of checkout, we were asked about our stay; I politely detailed the various disappointments of our stay, including the bed bug scare. This would have been the perfect moment for this “premium” hotel to step up and redeem itself. Instead, we received a reiteration that people are happily paying the rate charged for their unrenovated rooms. Oh, and they were sorry about the bed bug scare; they offered nothing more. In essence, we received a "Sorry, not sorry;" a fitting end to this visit.

I am sure that we will eventually laugh about this terrible visit once the sting of the exorbitant price for such a sub-par experience has subsided. In the meantime, I’m sharing this utter joke of a stay with you so you can avoid making the same mistake we made. To La Mer, I say, shame on you. To everyone else, I say, stay away.

UPDATE TO YOUR REPLY: Your response is exactly as expected:...

STAY AWAY FROM THIS HOTEL – They know nothing about customer service. STAY AWAY ! I’ve been going to Cape May for years. My friends go at the same time every year. We signed up for their “Let’s Do It Again” program which gave you access to the better room (aka. Higher floor). There are only 4 floors in the hotel and because it is set back and there are dunes in front of the hotel on the beach side of the street, the 4th floor is best. What good is it to commit to the same week each year if you don't get a better room? It's not like we were getting a discount.

With my long-time loyalty, we asked for the 4th floor & to be next to my friend’s room. Consistently in dealing with this hotel, the front desk people & the managers have been rude, dismissive and NOT customer service centric. It’s like they are missing a sensitivity chip.

This hotel is expensive -about $800-1000/night. The comfort level is average at best. The couch and the chairs in the room are UNCOMFORTABLE – like sitting on cardboard. You have to ask them to clean up the room – that should be automatic. Every day I requested the room be cleaned and half the time, the room was not cleaned & they had an attitude when I called – very inconvenient. The resort Wi-Fi is almost non-existent. There were no USB ports for phones/computers etc.

On my visit last summer, we checked in. The rooms we asked to be together were not. We asked for the 4th floor, and we were not. We called in advance to request it closer to going. We asked to speak to a manager. A manager came out and was not friendly. He said he would try to have put us in rooms on the 3rd floor next to each other but not for that night …. He would “try” for us the next night (either you can or you can't). We had a full day excursion the next day and asked if they would move our belongings the next day from one room to the next since we were not around. He said, “NO. We don’t do that.” We replied, “so we have to be there to move it at the check in/out time?” He said “yes.” I have never gone to a hotel where when they were changing you from one room to another that they didn’t help with those logistics especially if you were out all day. I said I wanted to speak to the Manager of the whole property. He went back several times to talk to "someone" on the phone and left us in the lobby for 10-20 minutes at a time. When he returned after 20 minutes he would say, “here is what I can do” and then proceeded to repeat the last thing he said 20 minutes ago. Nothing changed. He spoke like he was going to do something. He wasted our time.

We asked to speak to the owner of the property, the Manager, who I think was called LUKE, came back WITHOUT A NAME TAG. We asked him why he REMOVED his name tag and asked to speak to the owner of the hotel. He said he was not allowed to give out the name of the owner. I said, “ we can look it up online.” I found the owners name and said I wanted to speak with him. Luke then said, “I am canceling your reservation.” We had traveled 3 hours for plans for 4 nights and instead of showing some humanity – customer service – empathy – trying to do something to make it right – appreciating our repeated business every year and over the years – showing us they appreciated and wanted our business – the La Mer Staff showed us the complete opposite. What if we had been on a plane to get there and they did that? BUT THEY DO NOT CARE.

My friends and I went down the block to a hotel had fabulous view - great food - fabulous customer service - wonderful pool & bar. They could have taught La Mer how to run a hotel & provide customer service.

Find an actual resort who will enrich your experience &...