Colonial Inn — Hotel in Galloway Township

Apologies, in advance, for this lengthy review, but I wanted to tell the whole story leading up to this review.

When visiting Smithville, NJ my wife and I love staying at the Colonial Inn – its quaint atmosphere and distinctive charm set it far above the usual travel accommodations. And during the Christmas season, the village decorations and nightly Christmas light/sound show on the lake (see attached video) are a real plus! We've visited Smithville occasionally during the past 50 years, ever since we got engaged there in December 1974. It's both a magical and a sentimental place for us.

This past week we visited Smithville and booked a favorite room at the Colonial Inn to celebrate both our 50th engagement anniversary and my 80th birthday.

Our first day went pretty well, but on the second day things ‘went south’: a water-main break in the early morning shut off the area water supply, including to the Colonial Inn. No bathrooms, no coffee or hot chocolate, area restaurants closed due to no water. Bummer!

By noon, when it became apparent that the water main repairs would take an extended time, we were contacted by the Colonial Inn staff, who offered to transfer our accommodations to another of their properties unaffected by the water outage.

And here’s the part where I give a big shout-out to Inn Keeper Tracy Walsh and her team, who were both apologetic and sympathetic in resolving a bad situation that wasn't of their doing. They offered us a choice staying at two of their other (unaffected) properties, one on-site or one off-site, and even offered to credit us for the difference in the room rates (which they did, very generously). We elected an on-site accommodation in The Barn, which unfortunately lacked both the charm and the view of the lake afforded by our room at the Inn. BUT, it had running water and a working bathroom. And we even had a personal visit from one of the Colonial Inn owners, Ed (Mr. Fitz) Fitzgerald, and HE thanked US for relocating! You just don’t get that level of personal attention from one of those large corporations whose names begin with ‘H.’

I just can't say enough about Tracy and her team and their efforts to help us (and the guests in the Inn's other 6 rooms) make the best of a bad situation and salvage our visit.

Tracy and her entire team all get all 5’s (5-Star Reviews for customer focus + High-Fives for a job well...

My girlfriend and I stayed here for a wedding. The room was very nice and the view was great. Our bathtub stopper was nonfunctional. We let the front desk staff know about it and they said they would send someone over to fix it. When we got back to our room that evening, the stopper was still nonfunctional. Again, we told the front and they let us know that it had already been fixed. We ended up having to shove plastic bags around the stopper to get the bath tub to fill up. Housekeeping never came to our room until I mentioned to the front they weren’t showing up. When they sent housekeeping in while we were out for the day to clean up, they only made the bed. We had to ask a separate person for more towels and the trash was never taken out the entire time we were there. The first morning we received breakfast, there was a moldy muffin in the basket. When I went out to exchange it, the front desk staff was accommodating but offered a very insincere apology. Before we ever checked in, we mentioned that if possible we would like a late check out. The person we spoke with on the phone let us know we could check out at 12 PM, an hour later than standard. At 11:45 AM, housekeeping was knocking on our door telling us we were late checking out, even though we had already cleared the late check out with them. The Italian festival was going on as we were leaving, and it’s a shame they do not reserve parking spots for people staying at the inn, as we had to lug our suitcases through a crowded festival all the way to the far side of the parking lot since we were asked to park there as not to interrupt vendors setting up. Upon leaving, my girlfriend mentioned that she was unhappy with the room, mainly because we had paid over $200 a night and the bathtub issue was never addressed. We were offered $50 on our next stay, not that we will ever be back. I realized a few weeks later that I left at least four items in the room. I only cared about two of them, so I emailed the inn to ask if those two things had been found left behind. They of course said no, and there was no mention of the other two items either. Overall, this place charged a lot of money for our stay for a mediocre, if not...

My fiance and I didn't want this opportunity to go by without leaving a review to tell everyone what a WONDERFUL time we had at the Colonial Inn Bed and Breakfast located in the Smithville Village. We stayed in one of the cottages, Room #204, nestled in-between the lovely and quaint shops of the village. It is a private little getaway for my fiance and me when we get tired of the "daily grind" of the City. It is a short drive from Philly and oh soooo worth it! When you enter the cottage, you see a large, beautifully-decorated room of cherry furnishings and a king size, comfortable bed. There is a fireplace that keeps us warm and cozy....especially recently with the single-digit temperatures! The next room features a small, but quite efficient, kitchenette with a large granite counter, a refrigerator with a freezer and a microwave oven! I always bring some "comfort food" for us to heat up in the microwave just in case we don't feel like going out for dinner! But what we look forward to most is in the next room.....the STEAM SHOWER! We never realized just how much it helped us until we used it for the first time! The six shower jets helped relax our muscles and the steam TRULY helped my sinuses and cleared them up immediately! Also, the steam helped our skin to feel nice and soft as well! We had booked two nights....but did not anticipate, on the day we were going to leave, that there was a blizzard that deposited 12-16" of snow! The Management not only offered us to stay the extra night....FOR FREE!.....but also sent a member of the staff to our room with a picnic basket filled with treats and snacks and a large thermas of coffee!!! They shoveled the area in front of the door of our cottage and plowed all of the walkways leading to the parking lots so that, whenever we felt comfortable leaving, that we could walk safely to our car. We could not have asked for more!!!! They did everything that they could to make us comfortable. And, for that, we will NEVER forget their kindness!!!! It is not very often, in our society today, that you find a business that is this considerate and thoughtful! We will be back...