Castle Manor Inn — Hotel in Gloucester

Castle Manor made my dream wedding come alive within a budget that allowed me to have all the extras and then some to surpass any dream I could have imagined. I have a very long review, but it’s worth the read if you’re having a wedding here.

We had our wedding on May 20, 2022 so it was opening weekend and we were SO BLESSED that our guests were the first ones to stay in the renovated wings which was my one original concern booking here but they were so cute, clean, and incredibly affordable for Gloucester. My guests were very, very happy with their rooms.

The rooms in the house are charming, of course, those were not refinished yet but the bridal sweet was adorable. It looked like a fairytale.

My husband is a veteran so we received a military discount. They told us an amount and later lowered the price by $300 without even asking which was incredibly kind.

We had our ceremony and our reception on property with only 40 people so they let us use the fancy reception chairs for the ceremony as well since there were plenty to go around. I had looked into other venues and even rental companies that charge like $5+ per chair for the quality we got. The venue connected me with a local guitarist who came in and he brought a friend who played violin. It was supposed to be $500 for three custom song selections but the pastor was 30 minutes late due to Friday afternoon traffic from Quincy and they played the entire time for no additional cost.

They included tables, table clothes, napkins, and Champaign glasses in the cost as well which saved us a bundle. They let us come in and decorate however we wanted. I included some photo of what I did in case you’re looking to get creative. All the decorations were mine, but they have a stockpile in the basement of items brides have left behind as donation to the property you can use for free.

One bit that was a little sad was They told me since it was opening weekend, the whole restaurant and entry room would be adorned with real flowers that they would order to fit close to my wedding colors. I kind of banked on that for some of my decor but they never ordered the flowers, which was a little disappointing since it would have been a knock out but not enough to be a bad review since technically it wasn’t part of the deal. It was just going to be a nice bonus.

The ceremony went off without a hitch, it was beautiful. For cocktail hour, order more appetizers than they say you need, they went so fast (I ordered 2X the suggested amount of appetizers) so my husband and I didn’t even get to try any of the food since it was so good (according to everybody else 😂) it went in like 30 minutes.

We opted to do a cap bar of $1000 wine and beer only, guests pay cocktails. We only hit $800 including about $200 in Champaign for the Champaign toast we had on the tables. Very reasonable.

The food was SSSSSOOOOOO good. Our Menu was stuffed chicken, chicken piccata, and the vegetarian pasta dish.

I got the stuffed chicken, it was a huge huge huge portion but it was so good I wanted another plate. Some of the best food I have ever had. Their chef is unbelievably good at what he does.

The breadsticks were better than Olive Garden, for real. That is not easy to do!

The reception was so much fun. My dad and brother did miss the cake cutting since my brother was taking his service dog to go to the restroom which was a little sad. I wasn’t paying attention so I wish they did look for my family before starting. My brother was 13 at the time and he has autism so he was very heartbroken to have missed it, but we saved the moment by having a separate, private cake cutting in the transition room where all the cake slices were.

It took me until about 11pm to move my stuff out of the bridal suite which they only charged me for one night which was nice since I was honestly in there for two.

Incredible experience! I am sure there are things I am forgetting but I can’t wait to go back for a...

Stayed for a wedding this past weekend. The wedding party slept at the castle and the rooms were unacceptable. Our sheets had old mysterious brown stains on them and there is no staff after 8 pm, so when we returned from the rehearsal dinner/first night out we had no recourse and slept with no sheets on a chilly October night!

Even worse, the bed itself was not a queen but TWO smaller mattresses next to each other creating an uneven ridge and lump in the bed. so much for huddling up to stay warm.

The windows are broken and do not stay open, antique windows in New England sometimes use rope pulleys and they're just snapped and frayed and left to look awful.

There are no mini fridges.

For breakfast, there was a free coffee bar that had no coffee, so we sat down and learned theres no included breakfast. Thats fine - because the chef was fantastic - the saving grace so far. Excellent eggs benedict. The service however - we had to go find the waitress after sitting around for 15 minutes to pay our bill.

The requested new sheets came in the morning and we received new, just as stained white sheets. I brought those back down again and was told “sometimes the linen service sends them back like that” OK.. So you're telling me you don't even look to see that sheets were clean before sending them to a room? Ive owned a business with a linen service - if you outsource you must still QC before your customer ever sees a linen!

Are there any maintenance standards practiced in this hotel, or are they operating merely on historical merit?

Apparently not because then the owner brought our third pair of sheets which had a gross stained pillowcase in them.

I had wasted my morning trying to sort this out and figured screw it ill just shower… nope. shower has black mold all around the bottom.

So we go to tell the front our issues, and that I didnt want to stay tonight and requested a refund. Keep in mind i am in a wedding i’m not here just for a vacation so i need the room. I was offered no alternatives, fixes, or compensations until I requested them.

The front desk lady (who was trying her best honestly and seemed like she’d never received a complaint before as she froze up when i approached her) said eventually “We dont do refunds but let me check with the owner” - She walks across the room and finds Laura, the owner, and within ear shot but not to my face Laura says “You can refund them if they leave immediately. Get their keys” Keep in mind this is the woman coordinating the venue for wedding i am the best man in later. AWKWARD.

I was asked to leave the wedding of which I was the BEST MAN because they couldnt offer me a clean shower or sheets to get ready in. I ended up using an Air bnb my parents had rented to attend the wedding 15 minutes away to shower and get ready. Not exactly ideal!

Oddly enough the wedding itself went very smoothly and i would have had nothing but positive things to say if i had not actually stayed at the castle manor in the night before. i think Laura should stick to event planning and hire a hospitality manager.

Maintenance and customer service issues happen, it’s in how you deal with them and ive always tried to give a business a chance to fix an issue if it arises and in my experienced opinion, Castle Manor Inn and the owner Laura handled this as unprofessionally...

DO NOT STAY HERE! We discovered insects in our bed and had to pack up and spend the night elsewhere!!! To start from the beginning - we were on a roadtrip with our dog and their motor lodge portion is dog friendly. The Inn is beautiful from the outside but unfortunately the inside of our room was a huge disappointment especially for $150 per night in November! The room smelled so badly of mildew that we had to leave and spend the day in town. When we returned for the night, we noticed something crawling on a pillow. It was a small bug and it wasn't the only one. We are not experts but after researching online we were very concerned about the type of bug and immediately called the owner and informed him we were leaving and left samples of the bugs in a tissue on the dresser. He said that was fine and we would be refunded our money. We immediately packed and had to pay for a hotel elsewhere. Noticing the charge still on our credit card we called to follow up the next day. The gentleman said he did see the bugs and his exterminator would be out that day to confirm what they were but that the bugs were small and if they did not turn out to be bed bugs then we would not be receiving any kind of refund. Still upset over the matter we waited another day and then called again. The woman who answered the phone said the exterminator had not been out yet. She also changed her story multiple times first by saying they found no bugs and then saying she did find them and looked at them under her own personal microscope and she didn't think they were bed bugs. She also said "So what, you think I'm supposed to give a refund to everyone who finds bugs in their bed?" As a small business owner myself I asked her if this was how she typically treats her customers and she hung up on us (Please note that we were upset but no foul or inappropriate language or yelling was used to warrant her hanging up)! It was an unbelievable experience and we never did receive...