Shea's Riverside Inn & Motel — Hotel in Essex

My fiancé, my parents, and I stayed at Sheas Riverside motel and inn this past week. We had two king rooms (H1 and H2). The rooms were beautiful and everything about them was perfect. The view was great and it was quite. The only problem was the staff. The mini fridge in my parents room was broken. But by the time we went shopping and got food for the room and realized it wasn’t working, the office was closed. Sheas does not have a number that you can call past office hours in an emergency. The only number is to the office which obviously goes to voicemail. My parents had to go out and buy a mini fridge as a replacement so that all of the food that they just bought didn’t go bad. We told Gayle, the general manger, the next morning. She told us that it would be a few days to replace the fridge. We were not offered any compensation for having to buy a new fridge because theirs was broken. We stayed for 6 nights, they never replaced the fridge during our visit. The second morning a fuse blew, we told the main office and it took hours to get them back on because the women at the front wasn’t sure how fix the problem or didn’t have access to the breakers. Our toilet was plugged in so you can see how this would be more inconvenient that just a light out. Sheas also has a policy that if you keep your “do not disturb sign” on your door for more then 24 hours they will access your room anyways. I have personally never heard of this. I have stayed at many hotels and have never been made to have maid service. I never use maid service and frankly I don’t like strangers in my room with my belongings while I’m out. This being said my do not disturb sign stayed on my door the entire time but they came in everyday and cleaned up. I let it go because if that’s there policy there is nothing I can do about it, until my second to last night there. While the four of us left for the day, in my room I had a paper Shaw’s bag with paper towels and a fly swatter in it. I also had a paper Walmart bag next to it with two drinks, a birthday card, and a confetti popper in it. (It was my dads birthday). When we got back to the room it was apparent that the room was been tidied up a little. I also noticed that the Walmart bag was missing and that the drinks were now on top of my fridge. The confetti popper was moved to the Shaw’s bag and and birthday card was no where to be found. At this point I’m livid. It’s one thing to come in to the room to check that everything is up to regulation but to touch my personal belonging to use the bag as your trash? I don’t understand why that happened at all. We go to the front desk and tell the women how we had just gotten home and things were moved around and now one of my items is missing. She blankly looked at us and tells us that she knows nothing about house keeping, she’ll leave Gayle a note but she won’t be in until tomorrow. We took it upon ourself to look in the dumpster to see if she used the bag as trash and didn’t notice the card inside and threw everything away. That’s exactly what happened. On top of the trash was the Walmart bag and my dad’s birthday card, that he has now seen because he was helping figure out this whole situation. We tell the women in the office that it was in the trash and she looks shocked but has no response. The next day Gayle does not reach out to us about the issue, my dad has to go to the office and address it. She starts to tell us that she was in the room with the housekeeping. “The bag was greasy, it must have been a take out bag” she said. They claimed that because it was a greasy bag sitting on the floor so they had to get rid of it. We never once had take out in the room and it was a WALMART bag with no food in it what so ever. They never once apologized AT THE LEAST for throwing away one of my items. There should have been no time that an employee touched any of my property during her cleaning the room. That is unacceptable!!! I will not return SIMPLY because of...

My wife and I stayed at Shea's Riverside Inn 3 nights by the end of July 2021 as we visited Gloucester. We chose this place after finding the hotels in Gloucester expensive while this place was located right by a scenic river and also only about 15 minutes away from Gloucester. Barry at the front desk was very friendly, caring and professional. He called us before our arrival to remind us how to check in should we have arrived after hours. And on our arrival he gave us all the information about the area.. . Our room was very clean and actually looked like it had been totally renovated lately. There was strong disinfectant odor in our room on our arrival which actually made us feel safer regarding the current Covid-19 situation. Looking right out of our room was the beautiful river. The only downside was the very loud bathroom exhaust fan. Since it was an exhaust fan light and the fan would run when the bathroom light was switched on, it was very loud as we went to the bathroom at night. There were soaps, shampoo and lotion but no cloth hanger or cup provided in the room. Overall, this place still deserves a 5 star rating despite...

For a small motel/motor lodge, this place was great. The Inn is separate and I didn't stay there. My room didn't have a coffeemaker or a dresser of any kind, and the bathroom could use an open shelf or a little table foe your things, but it was super clean with wifi, cable, a nice flat tv, strong AC, good linens and sits feet from the Essex River. Lounge chairs for enjoying sun or sunrise and sunset. Dunkin is across the street, as is Woodsman. Shea's Restaurant is next door, and several other places as well within walking distance. Walk the other way and there are several antiques stores, and the gas station with mini mart. The lady in the office was really nice and helpful. They sell beer and wine to go in the office. Truly the nicest part of my visit to Cape Ann. Probably the only time I didn't feel overcharged for what I was getting at a hotel or motel. This place has a retro feel but is freshly painted and...