Captain Grant's 1754 — Hotel in Preston

I am generally not inclined to leave reviews of places and generally reward great service with repeated business and spreading information on a good experience by word of mouth. I literally just returned from a 3-1/2 day stay for a wedding at Captain Grant's 1754--and I want to warn potential customers and especially wedding parties and the like to STAY AWAY. My reasons are outlined below:

Ted and Carol have at best unprofessional and at worst deceptive business practices. After multiple instances of confirming in both email and via phone that our wedding party booked ALL 5 rooms in the main inn we arrived only to find that TWO additional couples had been booked for the same day our wedding party arrived. This was brought to Ted's attention and rather than confirming what was agreed with Carol---he brushed us off and said we were dealing with him now??!

It took a year to plan for the wedding and over time it became apparent that neither Ted or Carol have any problem having you come crash someone else's wedding to inspect the inn for your event or double book others AFTER you have already made reservations with them and paid well in excess of what another customer could later pay for a room you already reserved for a large wedding party. This is simply greed and lack of integrity!

On the surface Ted appears to be cordial and nice, but he is very rude to his hotel staff and talks down at the women who work for them. I witnessed this several times and spoke with hotel staff about it. A lady admitted to crying virtually everyday she comes to work. Ted is an understated jerk. The ladies who work here are THE REASON for all that is good about it. It ends with them.

These folks do not take notes and cared nothing for the details of the rental items that were being delivered to the inn for the wedding. We explicitly stated that the rental company would deliver extra tables, chairs, dishes, coolers, etc. for the wedding and would return to pick them up the Monday following the Saturday wedding. Carol agreed to this. They then expected us to take all the items delivered with us as we checked out Sunday morning! Our party was up at 7 AM that Sunday morning and we cleaned up, packed up, and neatly staged all the rental items out of the way where the rental company would return to pick them up. This was not good enough and Carol insisted we move everything to the Inn basement as they had "other guests arriving". On top of the thousands of dollars that were paid to book the inn we paid another $500 as an "event fee"....for apparently nothing. We literally set up everything for the cocktail hour and reception, had a chef and catering team do all the cooking and serving, and we tore everything down and cleaned up such that one would not have known a wedding party was hosted there. Needless to say we refused to move the rental items to the basement of the Inn!

While I recognize my personal dislike for B&Bs this one sealed my feeling on the matter of historic type B&Bs. I could not get to sleep because of the never ending creaking of the wood floors from other patrons moving in their beds in their own rooms. If that is the "Haunted" feeling folks want to come here for....that is fine. We needed sleep and rest to host a wedding and got very little of either.

There are good reviews of this Inn and the owners here on Google, and I cannot dispute the experience of others. I can only offer our experience and I am unequivocally warning all who would consider this inn for an event (wedding, birthdays, etc.) to look elsewhere. My verdict on this place is: the proprietors are unprofessional, greedy, RUDE, and dishonest. Did I say RUDE already?? I will say it again: they are RUDE.

If any of the ladies that work at Captain Grant's 1754 ever read this---please know that we appreciated all of you and you are the reason for all the good food and hospitality anyone feels about this place. I am sorry you work for such terrible owners who appear as something they are not. God...

Not at all what we expected!!! We spent around 2 nights at this location in July. While the couple is friendly and the family style breakfast was so warm & welcoming other things did not meet our standards. First off the picture of the room it showed on expedia vs the room we got did not match. Upon looking through the expedia listing many of the room pics are mish moshed all together. Sometimes that happens on expedia so obviously not the owners fault but something to look into. The biggest disappointment was our room wasn't even in the captain grant home but next door. I really wanted to be in the home & would not have booked if we had known. We had doors that were not at all safe(glass patio doors to our room & this is our opinion because a hard push could probably let you in) and continued to stick and we had to call the owner. I do want to add he was kind and woke up early to get a lubricant to help the key stip sticking. The room really could use a refresh. As in a good deep clean & some touch ups. This room was supposed to be Victorian themed but only some of the decor is Victorian. The door to enter our floor remained opened day & night & with the flimsy door to enter our room I did not feel safe or satisfied. The door to enter should be locked at night for sure. We asked about switching our room for a couple of reasons but we would have to spend one night here another in another room & that would also be a hassle. They did seem pretty open to that option but it wouldn't be very relaxing. This is where things went south for us. On the second day we planned to go out and the location did not allow a pet therefore we were leaving our senior chihuahua (5lbs) and very sleepy doggie to sleep in our room. She is chill & travels with us often with no issues. We specifically made both the owners aware at breakfast not to have the women who clean the rooms come into ours to complete cleaning services. We explained we did not want pur doggie to be disturbed by someone she doesn't know which makes her nervous in this very tiny room or wander off. We go out & come back.....they entered our room despite explicitly telling them not to. Thank God our dog cannot run anymore because of bad back legs because again this door out is always open and a slight push she could have been gone forever. This could have been so bad especially on a busy road. I do not know who was in that room or care. The safety of our beloved pet matter. This upset us immensely. Also in this convo telling the wife about our pet she seemed so dissatisfied with us leaving our pet in the room. Nothing stated pets cannot be unattended or I wouldn't have stayed there. She even made a remark about my dog being in a cage like that was an expectation. Another issue I want to note that despite telling us to park at the bottom we arrived in the dark to find no parking on a busy highway like road which was not safe when backing out. A couple other issues- It's not really cleaned well & the premium bedding either wasn't available or needs to be updated. It's torn & stained. The couch is also stained in a couple spots. There are cobwebs in the room & mildew all over the air-conditioner that barely cools the room on a hot day & my goodness was it humid. The shower is so small I'm 5'2 and barely fit comfortably. The shower curtains feel need to be changed & the water doesn't drain on the shower. The one picture shows how the light shines into the doors because it's like patio doors with see through lace over it. I found us having no privacy at all because of this. Lastly the house is directly on the road. They provide you a white noise machine but you can still hear cars all night & the lights from the cars flashing past the windows all night. Not at all what I was expecting. I am a lover of old homes & b&b but we could have stayed in the Hilton in Mystic for less money and had our pet safe in the room without someone entering. I know things happen and they likely forgot but it...

Captain Grant's Inn was an amazing experience! I stayed there for one night with my girlfriend and youngest daughter who is almost 5 months old. The room we stayed in was the Adelaide room, which has more activity than any other room. Oh, did I mention that the Inn is haunted?! I having never had a real super natural experience, I was excited to spend the night. Ted, one of the owners, greeted us at our car with a welcoming smile and showed us to our room. The house we stayed in was breathtaking. Built in the 1600's, owner Carol spent a large amount of time and energy to beautifully restore this historic home. Not long after settling in we decided to go check out the cemetery across the back yard, I started filming with the camara on my phone and tucked it in my front pocket facing outward. Before leaving the room I told the "Spirits" to play with my sunglasses while we were gone. Apon our return to the room, a teddy bear that was already in the room had been moved right next to my sunglasses. Odd and unexplainable due to the fact that the door locked behind us and no one went in the room during the fifteen minutes we were gone. On top of that, a couple hours later when the sun went down, we made our way back out to the cemetery for a creepy dark stroll. On our way across the field we spotted another guest at the Inn walking around the cemetery with a flash light. In an effort not to spook them or us, our daughter is strapped in a carrier on my girlfriend's chest, I turned on my flashlight so they could see us too. After walking up and through the entrance to the cemetery, to our surprise it was completely empty. We looked around and behind the back of the cemetery, which dropped off about ten feet and ran down a leafy steep hill to a river. No one was there or able to get away without being caught. It was creepy to say the least! On our walk back across the field back to the Inn, we looked back a caught another glimpse of the lonely wanderer in the cemetery. The next morning, after a beautifully relaxing sleep, we were served breakfast. It was a communal meal so all the guests ate together. The company was just as enjoying as the food! I enjoyed the homemade jam so much that I bought some to bring home. We sat at breakfast with the owners Carol and Ted. They were so welcoming and open to talk about their experiences in the B&B business. Carol informed us that she wrote a book and was willing to sign if we were interested in buying one. We were and ended up reading about 1/3 of it outloud on our ride home to MA. After getting back home and sharing our experiences with others, we realized that we need to go back with more people and soon! Accommodations like complimentary sherry in the room along with beer and wine in the common room, a game room with board games and a nine foot pool table, and the welcoming feelings from the owners and gentle spirits occupying the home are just three reasons why we plan to come back with our oldest kids for another...