The Margate Resort — Hotel in Laconia

We had our wedding there in October and this was the only vendor that made the process from start to finish challenging. Pros: An enclosed pavilion overlooking the lake and a reception room also overlooking the lake. You can have all of your events on the property but they cannot always have you in the rooms that you would like (You might need to eat in breakfast area instead of the nicer rehearsal dinner seating) The bartender that we had for the wedding was amazing (helped me with a homemade remedy for a yellow jacket sting) Jordan was very nice Cons: Right from the very beginning after we signed the contract, anything that we had questions about were met with a "no" from Caroline. We also heard a lot of "this is just the way we do it and it works just fine." Booking of rooms is antiquated and challenging. This is something that they say "works just fine" but your guests have to follow the process of calling us on the PHONE. You can't book online or the reservations don't show up under your wedding party. Many guests called and never even got a call back so they booked elsewhere. Even more embarrassing was we had a guest stay in the hotel and they were not on our list from the venue so they did not get a thank you bag. You only get your honeymoon room free if guests book there so it was pretty disappointing to us to hear at our wedding that people just couldn't get through to stay there. Our wedding planner, Caroline, is a sales person - She definitely was not detail oriented about all the things on the wedding day. A warped table was put out for our sand ceremony and there was not place to put our flower lanterns. Thankfully, we had an amazing florist who had a great eye for detail and helped to ensure that things looked just right. I would not really have had any idea where I should be or at what time if it was not for our photographer and videographer - Beyond that, I think I saw Caroline when I went outside to head towards the pavilion. A guest commented on how surprised they were to see someone fluffing my dress in "street clothes." The photographer was kind enough to crop around that. After the ceremony, I had a yellow jacket in my dress under the outside layer which my friends alerted me to and they got it out. When I came in for my first dance after being outside for sunset photos, there were another set of friends who alerted me to the fact that I had another yellow jacket under my dress and they helped me to get it out. After dinner, I was stung on my shoulder and the yellow jacket fell in my dress and stung my chest after which I ran into the ladies room and a friend got it out and killed it before it could sting me again. Jordan was so sweet and came to see if I was ok and I told her I was and then the bartender got me a baking soda remedy and put it on my shoulder to try to draw the stinger out. Caroline did email 2 days after the wedding saying she was sorry to hear this but didn't even ask if I was ok - I actually had a reaction and was completely swollen and itchy for several days after the wedding. They do not have a separate room for you to get ready - It's just the bridal suite. As a result, if there is any mess from the day, including lunch buffet, no one comes to take care of the room. As a bride, I would not think that I need to ask but rather that they should suggest it and leave it to me to decide if that would be a good idea.

Overall, our wedding day was beautiful but if I had to do it over again, I would look for a location that is overlooking water elsewhere. The frustrations that we encountered did not ruin our wedding day because we had other vendors (photographer, videographer, florist, DJ, and caterer) who had us covered and took the greatest care of us. The Margate looks good on paper but they need an update on their customer...

We went to Laconia to look at used vehicles and chose to stay here. It was more expensive than many other places but we were excited about the game room and the pool and the rooms looked cute. The best thing I can say about this place was that the people working at the desk seemed nice and approachable. Oh, and being on the lake is probably nice but it was cold and raining when we were there. Actually, having a fridge was also nice. Here are the things that weren't good: • The walls were very thin and they seemed to group guests such that we heard many shrieks from kids staying down the hall and a drunk wedding party. • The rooms were not really dirty but also not exceptionally clean. • The faucet leaked so that when you turned the knob, water came out at the base of the knobs. • Very small shower. • Extremely firm mattress that didn't allow my gf to sleep more than an hour and I tossed and turned. We left as soon as we were nominally awake along with another couple who looked like they'd had as bad a night as we'd had. • Heater smelled like burned hair when you turned it on, so we didn't and were cold. • Very thin, not very warm blanket on the bed. We used the blanket from the other bed to double up. • Really awful coffee available in the room through an off-brand keurig situation. • The game room was not just closed, but down a deserted hallway that was being renovated with one eerie lamp lit at the very end. To be fair, I'm sure we weren't supposed to be in that hallway, but we really wanted to use the game room. It's apparently closed from labor day to memorial day, but this was not mentioned anyplace we saw on the website. • The pool that looked fine in the pictures was 1. frigid and 2. murky such that you couldn't see the grout lines at the bottom of the pool through the water. We didn't go in. • The hot tub looked clean so we did go in. We both got chlorine rash. This isn't usual for us. And yes, we showered right away after. • A maintenance person came into the pool room (which was also cold, oddly) as we were using the hot tub. We hoped he was going to see about filtering the pool. He stuck a finger in the pool, awkwardly said "Having fun yet, ladies?" and opened the door to what I assume was a maintenance area and disappeared. The maintenance area opening looked like the top of the basement stairs in my gf's house that was built in 1775. I'm sure no one spends money to make maintenance areas look nice for guests, but the fact that they have people trying to maintain the place utilizing grim spaces is sad. • The "balcony" that every room has was one plank of wood with a banister behind a glass door that no longer opened for safety reasons. This was true for every room we could see from the outside. • The pillows were an odd cube shape. Turns out they're so thin, they were folded in half inside the...

I wouldn't recommend an overnight stay at this hotel anymore because of this experience. First of all, the ONLY reason she decided to stay in a hotel in the first place is because we were on the beginning of day 3 without power. We have a family member that needs an oxygen concentrator - therefore, we really wanted to have electricity, not to mention there's the many other obvious inconveniences of having no electricity. I was with my mother when she purchased the room (she was driving me home from a doctor's appointment) so I had my service dog in the back of the car with me. My mom dropped me off at home then went to settle in. When I visited later, I saw the room and was underwhelmed. The room and bathroom were small, the 2 beds filled the majority of the room and were rock hard, the only window to the room was a sliding door that didn't even open, so there was absolutely no way to get any fresh air in the room. It was boring overall. The feedback I heard from my family's night in the room was that the room was mediocre and the beds were uncomfortable and difficult to settle into - they were hard. Later on my mother received a call from a restricted number after her stay The Margate told her that her credit card will be charged because they accuse her of bringing dogs into the room, which isn't true and she tells them that. They allegedly found fleas in the room and saw the dog when my mother purchased the room. Yes, my service dog was in the car with me when my mother purchased the room for herself. My mother explains again that there was no dog in the room. They say there were empty cans of potted meat in the trash, so there must have been a dog in the room. This one made me laugh when I heard. My mom explains that since we were without power, potted meat sandwiches were what they were eating for dinner. Most the food in the fridge at home had gone bad by day 3 and they weren't going to spend any extra money after purchasing the room and potted meat is non-perishable. They tell her that they don't believe her and will review this further. My mother also explains that my dog, as well as her own dog, are both wearing fairly expensive flea collars and have not had fleas or ticks at all in the past 2 years that we have used this brand's collar. Not on them, not in our homes, not on us. No where. We heard nothing about what their "investigation of the cameras" and we received no apology. We are ignored completely, so I reshare my review of the hotel on facebook. The following morning, the Margate called my mom and asked her to have me remove my review. My mom suggested I did to not cause any trouble... I won't do it because what The Margate did was wrong. The latest laugh/insult is they declared that they did us a favor for having rooms to rent after a power outage. Thanks for the favor, that my mother...