The Inn At Millrace Pond — Hotel in Hope Township

Due to its proximity to Jack’s Barn, my husband and I decided to book the accommodations for our guests and our rehearsal dinner at the Inn at Millrace Pond. And out of everything I had planned for our wedding, it is my greatest regret. In fact, I am HUMILIATED by the experience my guests had and cannot express strongly enough how much you should NOT book rooms at this inn, which does not even offer basic amenities, is rude to its guests, overcharges for basic services and is run ineffectively.

Frungillo Caterers bought the Inn a couple of months ago and prior to the closing, the Inn was beautifully run, offered delicious food at its restaurant, and had an innkeeper named Taylor who was incredibly responsive and friendly. It was meticulously maintained and charming. Then, Frungillo came in, let Taylor go and only opens the inn for catered events. And everything changed.

Frungillo did provide delicious food for our rehearsal dinner and all of the staff working the dinner were friendly, attentive and hard-working. In that regard, I do not fault Frungillo. Yet, as for the rest, it was a disaster.

The new innkeeper, Jessica, is unpleasant, unhappy and rude to the guests. When everyone was calling to make reservations, no one answered the phone and my guests had to call multiple times to get a reservation. During their stay, she was rude to them (several of them let me know this) and locked the door after a certain hour in the evening, making it impossible to get any help or ask any questions. When I would email her, it would take her days or weeks to reply, and when she did reply, her answers were clipped and curt. Upon arrival at the inn, all of the guests received a slip of paper saying there was no cable TV in any of the rooms. I was not notified in advance that this would be the case. For all guests stuck there during the day before the wedding began or my Aunt who was there the night of the wedding watching my cousin’s baby, they had no TV to watch. They did not reduce the rates of the rooms despite not providing this basic amenity. On the day of the wedding, the main building had NO HOT WATER!!! Therefore, all of our guests including the bridesmaids and groomsmen had to take an ice cold shower. The men had to do cold shaves. The showers also have no water pressure, so they had to take an extremely long shower under trickling freezing, cold water. I was humiliated. The boiler was broken in the main building, something that should have been checked prior to our weekend event. Again, no discount was offered to our guests and they had to pay full price. The phones in the rooms were all disconnected. Therefore, when our guests tried to call reception (when there was NO HOT WATER), they could not do so. All lines were dead. They had to go down to talk to Jessica, only to find no one at the main desk. I had made arrangements with John to hold an after-party until midnight after the wedding. To simply open the space, they charged us $350 and then another $150 for the bartender. My husband and I and the bridal and groom’s parties did not get back to the inn until 11:30pm. Despite the arrangement that it would stay open until midnight, they locked the door to the tavern on us at 11:30pm. I contacted John about this and asked for a reimbursement for the time we were denied and he never got back to me. He said the owners wouldn’t do it because of the cost of turning on the lights. Huh?! We also paid money to have the firepit made available to us both nights and due to rain, the firepit would not work one night. We were supposed to be refunded for that and again, that never happened.

The Inn at Millrace is extremely charming and does have beautiful rooms. Yet, in the transition to the new ownership, it is no longer being effectively run. Therefore, while they figure it out, I would refrain from booking any major...

We had our wedding very recently here and there were some big positives and some big negatives. It may be a bit of a read, but it may help you in your decision making!

Pro: -Trisha (the innkeeper) and Tracey (the day of coordinator) were absolutely fantastic. Tracey and her staff were absolutely incredible, polite, and on point. They made the entire night magical for us. -If it weren't for these two, I don't think I would have given 3 stars. They really redeemed the venue for us.

Con: -Maria (the sales woman) and Michelle (the one that sends you the bills were both incredibly pushy (and quick to communicate about money), hard to reach about questions, and felt very out of touch with the venue itself. They are quick to sell you the dream, but it was a struggle to get information when we needed it.

Pro: -The Venue is breath taking. From the old style, to the new barn, to the well kept grounds. It allowed for our photographer to take some hopefully amazing photos!

Cons: -We ran into a few issues throughout our time in the property. IF YOU BOOK THE BRIDAL SUITE… YOU CAN NOT USE THE SHOWER OR TUB. The sulfur smell when you use the water is so incredibly strong and potent that it will fill the air and make you gag. After speaking to them they said it's a problem they have had for a while and they were working to fix it… BUT WHY WEREN'T WE TOLD AHEAD OF TIME THAT WE COULDN'T SHOWER BEFORE OR AFTER OUR WEDDING?! It really was a negative because it made one of the selling points of the suite a no-go. It was nothing more than a bed. -The floors are also incredibly slippery, especially when wet. -The top windows also did not have blinds, so the Christmas lights and outdoor lights shined directly into the suite... Which made it feel like daytime.

Pro: -The Chef was incredible. The food was absolutely fantastic and the chef went out of his way to talk to me and accommodate allergies. Props to him - the food was incredible and it was one of the best steaks I've ever had.

Con: -Rooms in one building experienced leaking overnight when it rained. We were assured this never had happened before - but it did affect 2 of our guests. -Rooms were either extremely hot or extremely cold and there was no in-between as they were hard to control.

Pro: -The day of was magical. Truly.

Con: -We booked 8-9 months before our date. At that time, the patio in the back was slated to be completed in April. It wasn't. I called many times about it, often struggling to find someone who could answer my question. I was then promised that they would let me know in November where it stands. They didn't reach out. I eventually had to get in touch with the owner to talk directly about it. This is where it felt that Maria and Michelle were out of touch with what was happening at the Inn.

Pro: -Jerry Frungillo was extremely understanding, polite, and heard us out. He was accommodating and did his best to help us when we were eventually told the patio was not an option for our wedding. We just wish we were told earlier than the month of.

Ultimately, the redemption came the day of - where the staff was amazing and allowed for our day to go off without any problems! We cannot thank the day of staff enough for making our day. But the stress beforehand had to...

I waited a year to write this review until after my daughters wedding here on 11/15/2024. She and her husband fell in love with the venue. They loved the vibe of the various buildings, the property etc.

Let’s start with the positives. The staff the day of the event were fabulous. I cannot say enough about Tracy and Leah. If you have the luck of having them then your event will be seamless! The rest of the staff.. servers, bartenders etc could not have been more friendly, accommodating and everyone got a multitude of complements from the guests. The food for the main course at the reception was delicious and the presentation was excellent. My cousins, who are caterers in NY and guests at the wedding even commented on the food!

From the start they charge for everything! I was able to negotiate not having to pay $150.00 to use a 3 sided wooden arch for the ceremony and another price for vendors. As previously mentioned, my family is in the catering business so I was aware of customary chgs. In return for this they upped my min from 110 to 140 guests!!! I thought 125 was fair but they were firm.

They did tell us if there was a wedding the night before we would have to get ready in the farmhouse. The up and down stairs, the moving everything back and forth was not a great option in hindsight.

The farmhouse for the cocktail hour was crowded and the outdoor space we were shown initially was not open. I don’t know if they were waiting for permits for the new covered outdoor space?? There was minimal seating and tables for guests. So much so that people that got seats did not want to move. Watching people holding a drink and plate with no where to go and trying to navigate the stairs was a concern. One of the guests fell on the stairs carrying his 3 yr old.

The line for one station upstairs was overly long and a lot of people were not aware of another station in a small room on the first floor.

If I had it to do over I would ask for a tray of the pass arounds because I missed a lot of them. Or even asking for some while waiting for things to get started for the bridal party. I don’t feel that would have been out of line as I paid for a majority of the venue cost.

We wanted pillar candles placed on the table. They were box ready with the candles in each. They wanted to charge us $450.00 to put them on the tables. A friend of my daughters had them done in 30 min.

When we booked thankfully we were told we could bring snacks to munch on while having hair and make up. Presently there is an additional charge for that.

We were given pricing for the rooms onsite. The prices were $165/205 etc. I understand prices do go up but we should have been told that so we could inform our guests. The rooms ended up being $289.00 which included an $8.00 room cleaning fee!

The venue is beautiful but with that and the historic rustic buildings there are risks for elderly, handicapped etc guests that one needs to think about. Getting my mom around the venue and even into her room was a project that many...