Chatham Bars Inn — Hotel in Chatham

We were a family of four who hadn't left the country in 2 years. My husband was excited to book the spa, lobster catch, our first formal dinner at the Stars and because of the lack of rooms, booked our 10 days stay with us moving from one family room to the next every 3-4 days. The last being Mooncusser. EVERYTHING was a miss. The first room we had was right by the golf tee- where we didn't mind the early morning golfers but what we did mind was the moldy bathrooms. Later we discovered this was going to be the trend of the other 3 rooms we were moving into. Our first night at the only time we were able to book Stars restaurant, we were seated by the wine fridge where the constant waiters would open and close the fridge and talk to the head sommelier about the wine list. It was 30min later did he realize that we were sitting there waiting for someone to offer us water, the menu or anything else. 45 min later we got up and walked out the door to the patio dinning area where we weren't able to sit down and eat. I asked to speak to the Danny the manager who was very apologetic and had our dinner sent to our room. We appreciated that but the dinner experience was what we wanted. We wanted to celebrate. The best thing that could have been done, was if they knew we were going to be there for 12 days, was to reserve us a dinning experience for one of those nights. Sorry, fully booked was not the best response. The Spa was nice. My derma planning was nice. What wasn't nice was when I booked for a mani&pedi the day of a photoshoot and they only had me done for one. I suggested that next time they send a confirmation email. They said they had but they didn't realize the email address was misspelled. Repetitive food. The July 4th menu by the beach was the same menu the days after. Don't do the beach cabana. The beach smelled, it was dirty, and your snacks - if you don't ask, they won't bring it to you. Also, our kids don't drink soda. An option of apple juice or chocolate milk would have been great; even a refreshing towel service or a fruit platter? You pay for an experience, you should have that experience. The Lobster catch with Captain Paul was great. We learned a lot. It was a bit strange however to go around the coast and get 2 lobsters. It was as if they had been there waiting for us.... Laundry. The price was great however, we ended up with someone's sock (I told the laundry team right away) but my husband's Lululemon pants went missing. By the time we unpacked at our next hotel, we realized they were gone and not in the room we last stayed. We called to see if it was missing or misplaced but nothing. On the last 3 nights we were supposed to stay at Beachcomber. But during the last few hours, they moved us to Mooncusser. I don't know why they did that to us. We had a small balcony that was attached to a larger one where we saw parties of 4-5 people on the large deck and it just made things uncomfortable for us. We felt uncomfortable being on our balcony when they were there because there isn't any privacy. The first group let us watch the seals from their balcony. Room service : One morning I called ahead to ask for room cleaning in half an hour. Within 5 min, I had a lady knock at the door and the housekeeper was there to clean the room. I had to convince her that I asked for cleaning 25 later and my husband was just getting out of the shower. She told me that she was told to do it now. I said at least give him time to put some pants on. This conversation could be heard by our new neighbors across from us. Beds: My husband was complaining about his side of the bed. I helped the house keeping make the bed before the engineer came on the last day and we noticed that the mattress top was twisted around. Positive: We received $300 credit because of the mold, my dresses were sent to me that I had left behind. The gardens were pristine, the young wait staff were exhausted yet smiling...

UPDATE: 2/24/2021, I was contacted by someone from the Chatham Bars Inn who was professional, generous and fair in offering to make up for our poor experience.

This is going to be lengthy. I am pretty disappointed in our stay at the Chatham Bars Inn this past weekend. I sent a private email to the front desk voicing my concerns because as a professional- I know the tarnishing a bad Google review can do to a business. I feel it’s the right thing to do to first give someone the chance to make up for a bad experience, we are all human. The front desk manager responded to me via email after I first got no response and tried emailing again. She asked to schedule a call with me this afternoon at 3 which I said worked for me, and no one ever called me. I emailed earlier as a reminder and got no response. We have wanted to stay here for quite some time but finally this past weekend on a whim I decided to surprise my husband and book a 1 night stay. We REALLY needed the break. I am a healthcare professional and we also have 3 kids, getting away seemed impossible during COVID but we made it happen. Considering COVID- we didn’t expect operations to be the same as they normally are, it would be unreasonable to think otherwise. When we arrived, I had a manicure/pedicure at the spa and it costed $165. The nail technician who gave me my manicure was spunky and fun which I appreciated, but made some comments about “not really caring if customers like her because gratuity is included anyways”. My pedicure was average and I was pleased with it, no issues here. When she did my shellac manicure, my thumb nail got messed up and looked horrible, she pointed it out and said “what do you think I should do?”, I felt pretty guilty asking her to fix it because I had to push out my reservation time twice because we arrived later than expected. She told me I could try and come back the next day and have someone fix it if I wanted to, which I didn’t because we had plans to walk around Chatham and relax. I decided not to say anything but in hindsight she should have just said I’m going to fix this for you. I believe this would have been right thing to do, especially for the cost of the service. I want to be clear that this nail technician was a very nice girl, I do not blame her individually. This is obviously a management issue based on our entire experience. While I was getting my manicure/pedicure my husband sat in the lounge for a drink/appetizer. He was texting me because it took 30 minutes for someone to come over and clear the dirty glasses off the table from the last couple before he sat down. He said multiple staff members walked by and looked at him but didn’t say anything. I do have to say we had dinner at the Sacred Cod and our waitress was EXCELLENT and so was the food. No complaints about dinner. She was honestly the best server I’ve ever had. The steak frites are delicious. The next morning we decided to order room service and I got coffee with cream/sugar. I asked multiple times for both cream and sugar. Breakfast was dropped off without any cream. I didn’t bother calling because it took almost an hour for room service to be delivered (again, understandable with COVID) and we needed to check-out by that time. We were trying to stay an extra night but because of our experience we instead booked a room at the Chatham Inn down the street for our 2nd night in Chatham. It was a wonderful experience. They are comparable in price but went above and beyond making our stay memorable/romantic. They offered complimentary welcome drinks when we arrived, and in general had a warm disposition whereas we felt many we interacted with at Chatham Bars Inn were “cold” besides our waitress at dinner. I never leave reviews but I felt this one was necessary. I’m still grateful we got to go away to beautiful Chatham, but I don’t think I would ever go back to stay at the...

I see a lot of great reviews on here, we did not have a similar experience. We paid for a Spa room at 2k a night, the experience by no means matched the price (we went big, we never get away and decided to do it here).

Here is a list of why the price to experience just did not match:

1. we had requested several special items for our room and paid for them (on top of the existing price), they forgot. This was a surprise from my wife to me and we walk in and nothing. They told us it was due to us checking in early....
2. the SPA pool was disgusting. Full of leaves, tons of algae. We have a pool at home, trust me, we took pictures, it was nasty. Last day, we saw them start to clean it a bit but it needs a full scrub.
3. the jacuzzies were at 93-95 degrees (we checked each day), the pools hardly heated (65-70). When you see people stay in a jacuzzi for 2+ hours without getting out (including kids), that means it is not hot enough. We heard so many people complaining about it and pretty much no one used the pool.
4. the beach was unusable. No one had cleared the green algae, it stunk. We left and went to a different beach all together. Felt terrible for those who rented space on the beach. The workers told us they don't clean the beach for another 2 weeks or so.
5. drinks/food at the pool are 1130-3. The pool closes at 6. So basically make sure you pack a cooler and snacks. Otherwise you have to leave the pool to hunt for food/snacks/drinks
6. again I have videos, our mini fridge in a 2k room was super loud. It was not stocked at all (nothing at all). Spa pool also was very load, they had a broken seal in the ground, I had to place my sandals on it and a rock to stop the noise it was making. Worker said 'it was above her pay grade to deal with it'. When I removed my sandals, people at the spa pool jaws dropped how loud it became. One lady asked me to put her sandals there instead of mine
7. we rented a cabaña at the pool. It was nice. It came w 2 waters and 4 soft drinks. We asked for more water, they said 2 is the limit and we could have tab water in a cup instead. Literally they would not give us another water

Positives: the grounds were beautiful and the views. The rooms were very clean. Service was overall ok (sometimes great, some times non existent) and the food was good overall but good luck if you have allergies/gluten (pretty much they only offer a gluten free toast/bun depending on where you are). We ended up getting a discount on our bill, truth be told, we still overpaid for the experience, I truly think it was worth 25% of what we paid to go. We definitely did appreciate they did anything, most places would have not. Saying that, we also had clear evidence of the challenges mentioned above and again, we still overpaid.

Recommendation: if you stay, get a very standard room and book a daily spa so you can use the spa as you please. The more expensive room price tags just don't make a big difference to your experience so just stay in a normal room. Also I don't overly recommend this if you have kids, the activities are barebones. This is a relaxation trip but bring your own cooler and snacks unless you never eat off hours.

We were asked by the manager why we did not just leave after the first day. We have a family, it took a ton to plan this trip, we could not just leave, it took a few months to plan it. Really a none option for us to...