Wave Resort — Hotel in Long Branch

Area: I love the area of the place. It's fairly new as well. I love Bubbi's Bagels. Upon arriving the first day, the sign at the front said that The Bar was open for happy hour. There were no workers there, however. It was around 3pm I think. I liked the smell upon entry. There were these lavender pouch things you could bring to your room. There's a pool table, you would have to ask the front desk for the balls (and possibly triangle). For religious groups, the elevators are not Shabbot elevators. There are 2 stairwells, locked 2nd floor for security reasons, which I understand, but could be fixed with a keycard access in the stairwell.

Rooms: At one point the hallway on my floor smelled like we*d. This smell traveled through the vents into my room multiple times. Not pleasant. On the second or third day, the tv broke. The remote lit up, but the tv wouldn't turn on, even using the power button on the tv. Upon inspection, there was so much dust on the wires and the outlet behind the tv. Maybe the outlet was fried. Moving the wire to another socket and removing dust on the outlet didn't fix the issue. Each side of the beds appeared to have a shallow and deep pillow. There may have been some sand in my bed. Nobody in my bed went in the sand. I understand that sand can be hard to remove. The door to the balcony has a child lock on it. I wouldn't of been able to open mine if I didn't see the instructions on another room's door. The instructions on my door were peeled off. Pretty easy fix. The sink stopper in another room was broken. The one in my room worked at first, then broke. I was unsuccessful at properly fixing it. This may partially be the fault of Kohler. There is no fan in the bathroom, just a vent. The mirror fogs up as in many other hotels, which is fine. There is an outlet fairly close to the tub shower. This is due to a space issue. The water pressure and hot water is good. The tub shape makes it a bit inconvenient for the shower curtains. The inner curtain doesn't like to stay hooked to the hooks. The bathroom door(s) is/are a minor inconvenience. There is no lock for the bathroom. I was not expecting 1-ply toilet paper. Not really an issue for me. I'm wondering if it was chosen just due to the location. A metal piece above the curtains in another room was loose. An air vent in another room was missing its cover. Note that the thermostat only has 3 air pressures and that the vent is close to the room door. One of the outlet sockets wouldn't allow anything to fit. According to a family member, the power went out and she got stuck in an elevator for 20 seconds. Of course the alarm clock in the room reset as well. The tv audio (on live tv) goes in and out, very annoying. You have to fiddle with channels to get it to be more audible. The front desk said this wasn't normal, but another room I was in had the same issue. Not sure if this is Samsung's fault.

Pool: The pool deck had wood planks that were a bit flimsy, one being beside the concrete entrance to the pool, could become a tripping hazard. A sign said "no lifeguard on duty." However, there is a lifeguard. One on duty was on her phone. I understand that parents can watch their kids and that the lifeguard would be used for emergencies, but something here should be improved. They should at least pay a bit more attention. One of my cousins got water in his nose and she didn't even pay attention to him. The pool bottom is tile, can be slippery, not an issue for me. They gave free ice-pops out at the pool one day. I was not expecting that.

Games: I like the activities outside near the Carousel Bar. Bean/sand bag tic-tac-toe and corn hole as well as giant Connect 4.

Tips: Upon receiving the bill, it was found that there were coupons for places we went to. Consider asking for deals at ANY hotel before going anywhere nearby. Also note that coffee and water are free in the rooms, but you will be charged for anything in the basket or mini-fridge (in cabinet below coffee maker) if taken. Also note that the 2 customer elevators use separate...

This place is awful. Got married here and stayed as a hotel patron. Do not recommend either for the money. Even though we got married here, my husband and I decided we won't be coming back to stay again. The rooms are new and modern and if you have an ocean view it's a nice view. Some price points are expected for the location and of course if in season but they treat you like they don't care about your patronage and nickel and dime you for everything.

We stayed here this weekend for our one year anniversary (we got married at the Wave a year ago). Regarding our hotel stay, mid winter, was close to $400 for one night.

The "resort fee" of $63 per night in winter is a terrible way to further extort money. Look at what the resort fee includes in the winter.. basically nothing. A welcome drink?? there was no welcome drink when we arrived. The desk agent asked us what the occasion was and we informed the desk agent that it was our anniversary (and we got married there...) and no warm welcome, no congrats, nothing and no resort fee welcome drink. For the $63 resort fee "perk" we were given two chips to use for coffee... which is a joke right? When we went down to order our coffee, I ordered a latte and was told the chip didn't cover that. Unbelievable. The latte was also not good.

The $55 for parking in winter to park across the street (which was free last winter) is another sad attempt to pillage their customers.

The room had some hair in the bathroom so not cleaned exceptionally well. It's basically the same as any Marriot/corporate hotel, just newer.

As for our wedding one year ago, the management was actually shady. Just an FYI they do not provide you with a bridal suite for the day. The wedding staff was nice but there was a laundry list of avoidable issues.

What I recall a year later about our wedding- Around the timing to submit your wedding menu, I was asked for what we wanted. We were never invited to a tasting or anything, just what do you want. I asked about a tasting and I just think the coordinator forgot or I don't know. So we went to a group tasting that was for couples interested in booking wave as their wedding venue and it was the new season's menu, so our menu wasn't even being tasted that night. We randomly picked our menu without knowing what most of it tasted like. It took us three hours to drive there that night and three hours to get back. I almost cried. Our wedding coordinator who was dealing with personal issues throughout our planning called out on the day of the wedding. The hotel block prices we were given were literally more than posted online. I brought that to their attention (honestly was disgusted by this) and there was some excuse and we were given a nominal discount. All guests had to book by phone which is ridiculous and MANUALLY give their credit card numbers. Many guests calling me confused because they were not given accurate block info, told the block was full etc. One of my guests had a brand new credit card which she told me after manually giving to Wave Resort she had fraudulent charges on and she had never used the card. Other guests including ourselves had another fees that we needed to remind them to be dropped off. They block your key cards so you can only travel to the floor where your room is. At a wedding you have a lot of people traveling to bride room, other bridal party rooms etc and it was chaotic for no reason because people could not go easily from one floor to the next. Minor detail but the lighting during the wedding was extremely over lit for the time of day (sun was down). I had to ask someone to find someone to turn the lights down. You can see the results of the poor lighting in our...

I got married here last week and here is my full and unbiased review if you're considering this venue. TLDR, look elsewhere. This was not cheap ($40k) and the service provided was not worth that money at all. Biggest flaw is communication within the in house team, seems like there is none between hotel and venue staff.

Problems.

From the get go, guests trying to book in our block could not. "Website issues" or other excuse. Customer service is outsourced and it was a nightmare being rerouted constantly with no direction. We covered parking for our guests in our contract and guests who booked rooms still had to pay online while booking. I had guests constantly contacting me asking why they kept having issues. Be aware that this mandatory $40-50 valet parking is to a gravel lot 50 feet away.

Tasting: We went over options, knew what we wanted and confirmed. Laid out and sent a nice pdf of our menu and what we'd like to try. We did not receive one item on our menu when showing up. Had to redo but the issues were rectified and the food ultimately was great.

Night before wedding: Guests checking in again had to pay for parking though it was covered, none of the front staff knew what it was going on and it was an absolute mess. It took a large issue with mother of the bride and the manager to rectify. Night of was nice though, we used the lobby and played pool and it was a great experience.

Wedding Day: The wedding was very nice. Got lucky with weather, direction from venue staff was good, it all went off without a hitch in a very nice space. The space is beautiful, have to say. My gripe is that as soon as 10pm hit and our financial contract was over, we were done. The hotel wanted nothing to do with us. No bar for after and our lingering guests in the were rudely shooed away by the manager and security. The bride was shown a text from security from the manager Craig to "Get them out of there" and that we couldn't hang out though told the night before because "we didn't get it in writing." Appalling and embarrassing. This is a wedding with 160 people that we paid a ton for, you know what you're getting. Treated like use your imagination as soon as the wedding finished.

However, gold star to Kate at the front desk. Phenomenal. Allison too, she worked with us throughout all of the planning phases and rectified any concerns or issues we had. Craig, maybe you should find a new line of work.

Overall, we were very happy with our day but would not book this venue again due to both the issues our guests had trying to attend and the way they were treated afterwards. Overall, lack of communication and subpar service. As the groom, I did not get bell service with my luggage and was told to use the delivery entrance and I wheeled it up myself on a work cart. As I also type this, we're disputing a charge to our room when we didn't order food and cleaned up before we left.

Messy, no communication, it's a Kushner hotel on the beach to take your money. There were many hidden fees and charges and we felt the hotel tried to get our guests for everything they could.

We are very easy-going people and it does not take much at all to please us. The treatment afterwards has however left a very bad taste.

Craig, I see you responding....