The Black Swan Lee - Lenox, an Ascend Collection Hotel — Hotel in Lee

Beautiful view of lake from room. We had a back balcony.

Nicely decorated hotel and rooms. Very neat and clean, maid service great. Indian restaurant, mint, excellent and accommodating, they made us Indian food without hot peppers! Unbelievable. Restaurant staff wonderful, caring and well trained.

I loved the coffee machine that was available all the time and had a latte. Capucino. Espresso and something else I can't remember what.

Im a property manager and I'm paid by complexes and companies to notice everything wrong for the purpose of correcting issues and write reports. I think you need someone like that to go to these hotels for a few days to check them out.

I am a senior community manager. I am also known as a customer satisfaction observer or, at the worst an undercover snoop.

The property is not senior oriented.. we, my husband and I, are seniors and would definitely not recommended this hotel to any of our senior friends.. But for the overal ambience, price, value, we would recommend it to others.

Our room door was hard to close, twice I thought it was closed put on the chain once and it popped open in the middle of the night when I went to the bathroom I could see outside through the crack and I had to slam it several times to get the lock to catch.

Second time i did not use the chain and because it did not close properly a neighbor knocked and it opened so she walked right in.. We knew her thank goodness.. It was necessary to slam the door hard to close it and it was difficult to lock, the slamming had to be annoying to others.

I Informed the front desk I lost a key and they immediately brought us 2 new ones and took the d one back. Great customer service.

No night lights to see or walk around safely in the dark. It was pitch black so we had to use a flashlight so as not to wake each other up. Not good, especially for a senior who is more likely to fall than others.

No safety rail in bath, when we called, the staff vame to the room and we were offered a handicap room but we felt it wasn't necessary because handicap rooms should be held for someone in bad shape or who uses a wheelchair. We were offered a suction cup handle but refused it. It was a nice gesture.

No rail to hold onto outdoors by two steps needed to use parking lot by back door if you parked left of the building. There was a ramp but you had to use a step first, that needed a ramp too.

The emergency door in the breakfast room has steps that no senior could get up to get out of in an emergency they are too high.

We had to call someone to explain that the drain was a pop up and you had to push down on it for it to pop up again and let the water down. My husband was showering in 4 inches of water and had to get out of the tub without a rail. They should have a notice on the wall in every unit. The sink worked the same way. The staff came to check and was very nice and accomodating and showed us how it worked.

We would come back and bring our own night lights and grip rail and not use the back door but that should not be necessary.

JUST SO YOU KNOW, I would have charged you 250. a day plus expenses, gas mileage, tolls, the use of the room and meals. and another $250. for the report.. So be happy you received this analysis for free. I also would have looked for more if I was being paid and would have stayed in two different rooms. It would have cost around $2500.altogether

It really is a lovely place. Most of us in the breakfast room were seniors and we spoke to lots of them.

Remember, Seniors make up a majority of the demographic in hotels such as this one and will tell everyone about everything down to the type of yogurt in the breakfast rooms, the brand of oatmeal and ketchup you offer. So take care of these things..

I forgot, the napkins in the dining room were overkill, very large, thick, and probably expensive. They are not necessary or worth it. Get a few big pop up napkin holders like most other hotels. It's only free breakfast not a restaurant and people were taking them home, probably to use...

Pretty disappointed - I made a reservation and specified (called in and asked if we could be upgraded to the Lake Front Queen Bed Rooms).

The person I spoke with confirmed that I was all set and that I’d just have to pay a room upgrade charge at the end of the stay - which was fine. I asked her if I could get an email confirming the upgrade and she said I’d get one soon - I never received this email and didn’t think to follow up because she was so reassuring that we were definitely all set with the upgraded room.

We arrived at the hotel for check-in and the front desk person, at first, does not bring up that we have the 2 queen beds with lake view - instead stated that we have 2 double beds/no lake view. I have to ask/confirm and after some searching, she said that while there was a note on my reservation for the upgrade, the hotel had overbooked and that no lake front rooms were available - even though everything was confirmed over a call just the week before. Apparently someone was supposed to call me to let me know about the lack of an upgrade - but no one did that (no trace of anything - no voicemail/no text/no email).

Why promise something if you already know you’re overbooked? I made the reservation the same week we were going to stay at the hotel, so more the reason to know what would and would not be available and don’t over-promise something to customers when you cannot deliver! And if you cannot deliver, have the courtesy to call/leave a voicemail or send an email letting your customer know about the change. It was embarrassing because I’d told my friends I got us a room upgrade for the lake view and when we got to the hotel, all excitement died down.

We were stuck facing the parking lot on the 1st floor which also faces a road that has a steady flow of cars passing by :( Paying over $400 for just one night - this was not worth it at all! If I wanted parking lots and speeding cars, I would have rather just stayed home and not traveled all the way to The Berkshires.

Rooms are bare-bones and pretty basic if you don’t have the option to see the lake view behind. Rooms are dull-looking, as if stuck in the 70s, not modern, cozy and don’t give you that “I’m staying at a hotel” feel. The photos on their website make the rooms look better than they are in real life - it is a very old hotel. They also need lots of upgrades/full refreshes. TV is not a smart TV, WiFi can be spotty - we had to adjust the lamp shade to make it less lopsided and found tears in the shade :/ Some of the wooden furnishings were chipping as well.

Feels more like a motel than a hotel. I do not see the charm in this hotel that other reviews seem to refer to, other than the lake out back. Being a Choice Ascend Collection Hotel, I did go in with higher expectations and came back disappointed. There’s also a white board at the front desk that specifically calls out the names of “Choice” members staying at the hotel that day, as a welcome, for everyone to see - first initial and the full last name. I found this very odd because guests should be entitled to their privacy when staying at hotels. I was not asked if publicly calling out my stay at the hotel that day was ok. Is this normal Hotel protocol?

Pros: General guest access to the lake (even though we did not have the lake front room) via a back door at the hotel was a plus. Beautiful lake views and very peaceful. The person at the front desk was easy to talk to. Although old, the hotel is organized and clean. The breakfast was not as bad at the other reviews seem to call out (no freshly cooked eggs and bacon, but the other options were pretty solid). The Indian restaurant and their staff was kind and friendly.

Would not...

When I made my reservation the lady told me I had a King Superior Lakeside room, jetted tub and (working) fireplace. I called the hotel to make sure that’s what I was reserved for and they said I was not but gave me a “free” upgrade, ok. I’m glad that it was dealt with but it wasn’t supposed to be a free upgrade. Apparently some of the rooms have a fireplace that is just for decoration? I would have been extremely disappointed had I landed in one of those rooms. I paid approximately $100/night off season. This is acceptable, if I paid whatever the peak season rate is I would not have found this property to be well matched with its price point. The balcony’s need some attention, I didn’t use because it’s winter but it looked like it needed a sanding and some stain/paint. Little things about the room were not up to standard in my opinion. At the base of the tub there was wear and tear that could easily be resolved with a sanding and some paint. Visible mold on the sides of the tub where it would need to be recaulked. The tube also spit out some mold when you initially turn on the jets. It was easily dealt with but again if I paid peak season rates I would be annoyed. We had hot water the first night and the third night but not the second night. The walls are pretty thin so I could hear our neighbors quite clearly. The heater/air conditioner makes noise all literal night long and sometimes loud noise (like a knocking or banging). The fireplace worked without issue. TV is standard cable not a smart TV. No binder in the room telling you about the hotel or where to eat etc. we didn’t try the Indian restaurant on site, all main courses started at $20. The breakfast is somewhat standard fair for hotels that include breakfast. The pancake machine was ok. They had free range hard boiled eggs the 2nd day we were there. Once breakfast is done that room gets cleaned and wrapped up chairs on tables so if you wanted to sit down and look at the lake while eating lunch you couldn’t in that room. The hotel staff where very friendly and helpful. I would stay again at the discounted rate absolutely no...