The George — Hotel in Montclair

The staff, well Kara, who is the ONLY staff I was aware of when I checked in, was AMAZING! She was so helpful, sweet, kind, and professional!

Now for the rooms. The lobby, library are beautifully decorated, warm and inviting. Loved the wine and cheese offered in the library in the evenings. Did not get a chance to experience the continental breakfast offered each morning, but the breakfast room looked lovely.

My first room, which was a standard room, was below my expectation. No drawers! I was there for 6 days so I didn't want to live out of my suitcase. I wanted drawers. There were none to be had. The bathroom had a nice enough sink area and shower, but NO hooks for towels, robe, shower caps, or whatever else you use bathroom hooks for. Speaking of robes, they were provided, which was nice. There are no closets. There are industrial racks to hang your clothes on. That was ok. Fit in with the boutique theme I guess. The "night stands" on either side of the bed didn't have drawers either. They had a very small cubby cut out on each night stand.

I loved the "name theme" of the rooms. Rooms have names not numbers. Each room had photos on the wall of the corresponding name. If you're in the James room, all photos in the room are of famous Jameses.

Upon sitting on bed after finally hanging everything up and putting toiletries and things away, the bed "fell" in at one area. It was broken. In order to contact the front desk, Kara, I had to either call from my cell, as there are no telephones in the rooms, only tablets, or use the tablet to reach her. I decided to go downstairs to see her in person. She immediately helped me move, with a luggage rack, to a king bedroom. The room was larger, nicer AND HAD DRAWERS! The drawers looked like a trunk with really cool lining on the inside. There were also hooks in the bathroom. JACKPOT, or so I thought. I've decided that either the bedroom is great and the bathroom is not or vice versa. Though this bathroom had racks on the wall, the sink and shower were extremely small. When standing at the sink, I couldn't lift my left arm or it would hit the wall! Also, the sink was so tiny, absolutely NO counter space. I had to put a towel on the floor, underneath the sink, so it would catch the water that fell when I washed my face. Very poor design. Also, since there was no counter space, I pulled in the little table that held the carafe of water and 2 water glasses to use to hold my toiletries, makeup bag, etc. There was nowhere to put things! Case in point, the nice Dyson hair dryer they provide is on the desk OUTSIDE the bathroom because there's NOWHERE IN the bathroom to put it! I managed - as the bed was very comfy and cozy and there was a lot of room in the bedroom area. Nice large tv with Netflix, Hulu, etc. Cleaning staff came each day to clean.

Security: Definitely needs improvement. Staff, I was told, leaves at 11:00 pm. NO ONE IS THERE IF NEEDED. I was told they could be there within 3-5 minutes if called. I don't know about you, but I like a hotel where there's someone I can reach immediately who is ON the premises. There are no peek-holes in the room doors, so of if someone does come to your room, you can't see them without opening the door. That could be dangerous! Also, since NO-ONE is there after 11:00 pm, if you order food, YOU HAVE TO GO TO THE LOBBY DOOR TO GET IT. The front door is locked from the outside and can only be opened with your room key, so a delivery has to wait until you come open the door. Again, verydangerous!

Final thoughts: As with any place, there are pros and cons, but security is very important to me. I can say I stayed there, but will not...

On Wednesday, Aug 19th, my family checked into the George for a one-night reservation at The George in Montclair, New Jersey. My sister was getting married that following day. We booked The George for its beautiful rooms and proximity to the venue and asked about taking photos inside the hotel. The hotel manager, Ariana Pakizegi offered us a wedding package that included unlimited photos anywhere in the hotel as well as food and alcoholic beverages. We declined the offer since we were primarily there to get ready and we had already paid for another location to take our main wedding photos. We then asked if it was allowed to take 1-2 photos in the lobby on our way, to which Ms. Pakizegi agreed. I also spoke with another employee named Frances, who authorized us for a late checkout time of 2:30 pm. So we booked.

The next day, my family and I woke up elated for my sister’s wedding. We completed our preparation for the day (dressing, makeup, etc) and all the morning photo sessions inside the room. It was around 2:00 PM and the groom was running late so we decided that we wouldn’t do a first look photo at the hotel and to go straight to the photoshoot site. On our way out, the photographer snapped a couple of photos of the bride on the staircase while the rest of the family began to demobilize at 2:30 pm, loading our luggage in the car. Ms. Pakizegi suddenly appeared at the door to inform us that she would be charging us $1,000 for the photos and that we were past the 11 am check out time. Perplexed, we noted that we had an agreement for a late checkout. Additionally, we declined the photoshoot service and had not violated any of the photo agreements (i.e. mobilizing in any public spaces). By the time we exited the premises, it was approximately 3 pm.

Nonetheless, Ms. Pakizegi grew extremely hostile, leaving us feeling that we were being extorted for additional payment. Ms. Pakizegi had restricted my family from departing until she received payment. The duressing situation resulted in the bride to break down into tears while in her wedding gown. We kept repeating that we were approved for a late checkout and didn’t violate any of the rules. After lashing out at the bride, she then proceeded to confront the rest of my family in a similar matter. She said she would not charge for photos, as we had complied with our end of the bargain, and instead coerced us into paying for another night’s stay due to the fact we exited the premises 30 minutes later.

We attempted to cooperate with Ms. Pakizegi several times to no avail. She told us she needed to charge us for the “lost sale” despite the fact Ms. Pakizegi herself told us the hotel was not at capacity and no one had booked the room we stayed in. Ultimately, we were pressured into paying for another night’s stay despite the fact we had no plans to stay in the area. At the risk of being late to our own wedding, we were intimidated into paying the cost due to the extremely hostile situation. We never ended up staying in the room.

It seemed that the end goal by Ms. Pakizegi to extort money out of my family and me in any way possible and kept changing her reasons to charge us whether it was for the photos or the late checkout or a room sale. Despite our pleas and attempts to reconcile our willingness to pay for a late check out fee, she charged us for a full night’s stay -- even when the room was left empty and unused. Ms. Pakizegi’s inconsistency with her words and aggressive and hostile demeanor has assured us that we’ll never return here and do not recommend...

Beautiful hotel but the management needs to be re-evaluated. List of issues:

1. Booked on HotelTonight. An hour after getting confirmation number I get an abrupt email saying there was an “inventory issue” and my reservation had been cancelled. No assistance, no compensation, just "too bad you’re canceled". After a multitude of heated calls back and forth between the hotel (multiple times going to a voicemail first) and HotelTonight, I was told I could get in.
2. We show up and the “GM” who I had been speaking with regarding the cancellation, who KNEW how upset we were for being canceled and left to fend for ourselves, was there to check us in. He was slouched down in a chair and all we got was “yeah, sorry about the mess up” and gives us our key...no common courtesy to stand up...if you’re not going to properly greet us then at least sit up straight. VERY surprised that this was the "GM" who was greeting us.
3. they offer a continental breakfast until 10:30a. At 8:50 we get an obnoxious knock on the door (again, we’re on pacific time so didn’t appreciate getting woken up). We answer to an unapologetic women who barks “are you gonna eat breakfast?” When I asked why it mattered because I thought breakfast was offered until 10:30 she replied “well yeah, but Nick (GM) wants to know who is eating”....no idea why?? If your breakfast is offered until 10:30, then let guests sleep and eat at THEIR leisure, not yours.
4. since we’re up now, we go to breakfast....and it just goes downhill from there. Most of the food is picked apart and clearly needed to be refreshed (why did you wake me up if haven’t refreshed the food in quite a while?). There are no forks or spoons in the utensil holder, only knives, so I went up to the front desk and was greeting by Nic, still slouching in the chair and asked for forks and spoons. Back in the breakfast room, we're sitting waiting for the forks and behind the service door, we can hear Nic and the employee arguing about how there are none out in the breakfast area. She walks out with one fork and about 10 spoons. I ask her for a second fork as there was two of us and she annoyingly walks over to the set up and barks, "they're right here....oh, yeah, well I guess we're out". Back behind the service door she goes to get more and we can hear Nick on the phone SO loudly (maybe intentionally) talk on the phone about "the issues" from the night prior and proceeded to use my name three times....i don’t appreciate that as there were other guests in the breakfast area who could also hear. Nick and the very annoyed employee continued to argue and I hear Nick ask her 4 times, "are they smiling? I just want them to be smiling...are they smiling??" Some advice Nick....if you want to see if we are smiling then maybe YOU should come out and greet us to see if we're smiling. Common sense here. To play devils advocate, there ARE good qualities about the hotel. The comfortable bed, the quality linens, the impeccable décor, the quality of the amenities, including the $400+ Dyson Supersonic hair dryer, the Nespresso makers rather than the cheaper Keurig's, CLEARLY imply the goal is to have this be a luxury boutique hotel. But for it to get there, it needs to have the STAFF to get it there....and this hotel clearly does not. Staff needs to be properly trained to provide the service it is striving for....a luxury boutique hotel, not a roadside in. Good...