The Sagamore Resort — Hotel in Town of Bolton

The view from The Sagamore truly is incredible!!! Absolutely unmatched in the northeast.

I wish I didn’t have to give this resort 3 stars but here we are…

First I’ll share what we loved about The Sagamore because there are plenty of great things about it. 1) The view is definitely the best!; 2) The food was great! The new executive chef’s menus are excellent! The lobster roll, New England clam chowder and lobster bisque were all amazing; 3) So many great activities for the kids! The pools, the lake, the dock to fish, the sandy little “beach,” the Morgan boat ride, complimentary ice cream daily at 3pm, complimentary full s’mores kits nightly (not just marshmallows) and the Rec center were all so fun!

The not-so-good parts of our stay list is actually longer. It really is upsetting bc the resort has so much potential. 1) The staff seems really unhappy and therefore, often rude at times. I would say very unaccommodating. We often heard them complaining to each other about their managers and working there. With the exception of executive chef Marco, the bartender at Lakeside and the bartender at BRGR, no one was particularly friendly torwards us. No one went out of their way to make our stay comfortable and enjoyable. Hospitality definitely needs improvement.; 2) The room that we stayed in (Lodge 2, 1 bedroom w living room and kitchenette with lake view) was so outdated that it’s unbelievable that with taxes and fees it’s $1000 a night. It badly needs a refresh. It looks like 2003 in there with its red wallpaper peeling off the bathroom walls.; 3) Tuesday evening after a day at the pool my family of 5 + our babysitter needed showers before heading out for s’mores. One of my son’s showered for 10 mins and then my second son went in and after a few minutes started complaining the water wasn’t hot enough. We felt it and it was luke warm. He gets out and then I get in and take a freezing cold shower. My husband calls the front desk and they send the maintenance crew to figure out why we don’t have any hot water. They determined that the thermostat of the room across the hall from us wasn’t working and was affecting our hot water heater. They needed time to work on it (in both our rooms). In the meantime, my husband needed to shower bc it was holding up our evening activities. The front desk suggested that he go shower at the pool. There’s one shower and 2 changing rooms in the men’s restroom at the indoor pool. The shower was occupied so he needed to wait in line. When he finally got back, maintenance was still working on our hot water heater situation. Once fixed, he told us we should have hot water again in 30-40 mins. We understand that things happen and I would have felt better about this situation if someone followed up with us to make sure we got hot water back, if someone called to apologize about the situation and ask how they could make our stay more comfortable, or if someone would at least acknowledge the inconvenience of not having hot water in a $1000 a night room. I worked in hospitality years ago and if something like this happened where I worked, my manager would have personally spoke with the guests and comped them to apologize. We heard nothing from anyone.; 4) Housekeeping was poor. The room sleeps 6 and we were a party of 6. The room came with 4 towels. Not sure how this makes sense. We called housekeeping to send more towels. They never came. My babysitter brought 2 towels from home and good thing bc we NEVER got additional towels our entire 3 night stay. Housekeeping also didn’t clean our room until 4pm.; 5) They charge $44 for a basic $5 fishing rod. There’s no option to rent. A word of advice: Bring your own fishing rod from home. They sell worms for bait. I wish we knew this ahead of time. I feel incredibly ripped off.

All in all, would we go back to The Sagamore Resort? Only if they renovate the lodge rooms and if I read reviews that claim service and hospitality has greatly improved. We will definitely bring our own fishing rods (and towels haha)...

My husband and I had a very pleasant 2-night stay at The Sagamore Resort, Bolton Landing. Frankly, I was a little worried reading the many negative reviews AFTER we made our non-refundable reservations. I’m like what are we getting ourselves into for the price we just paid! We were there several years ago and it was very nice but now after reading the reviews I had no idea what to expect. I will admit, I am very critical about hotels, especially the cleanliness. I’m here to say that we had no complaints what so ever. Our room was awesome and very clean. The grounds were meticulously kept. We watched the workers taking care of everything right down to checking the hand rails of the outdoor steps to make sure they were in good working order. The flowers on the grounds were beautiful as well as ones indoors with beautiful fresh flower centerpieces around. Upon arrival we were offered prosecco and received wrist bands that acted as our room key as well as key to the locked areas on the resort. I appreciated the locked areas so the resort was just for guests and not flocked with others that didn’t belong there. The shuttle was a nice touch to bring us into the little town of Bolton Landing as well to other areas on the grounds. The free Morgan boat ride was a nice hour excursion. It runs three times a day (10-12-2) and each goes a different direction for each cruise….take all three! We didn’t have the best weather so we didn’t use the outdoor pools or the beach area (although others took advantage of the heated pools). I did take notice that there were several chairs to relax on and the ‘no saving your chair with a towel’ policy was nice. Another nice touch, for the ultimate relaxation, is that while sitting outside you could get food and/or drink service whether at the pool, sitting in the Adirondack chairs or on the veranda. We will return….maybe for a fall foliage trip next!|It is unfortunate that others found fault with the resort but we had no complaints at all. My POV regarding some of the complaint reviews I read:|Staff was rude: NOT at all! Everyone we encountered was very friendly and helpful. |Restaurant food was not good: We ate at the La Bella Vita, BRGR Kitchen & Bar and, Splash Bar. Everything we ordered was great with the one exception of the pastry (Cinnamon Roll) I ordered to-go from Bella. It was not served warm, was a little crusty hard and while I’m not 100% sure, it appeared to be a packaged roll and not homemade from the restaurant.|Rooms needed updating: We had a 1-bedroom, lake view double queen suite. Our room was excellent! The rooms were exceptionally large and well appointed. Dorm size refrigerator was nice to store our drinks. Robes were available in the room as well as two bottles of water daily which came in handy to make coffee with the Keurig machine. Note: We always pack our own Keurig machine because hotel ones are typically gross and I refuse to use them. This one was new and very clean. The room views were spectacular. The bedroom had windows facing two different directions so we could see 2 different property ground views and different lake views. We had no problem with hot water as some reviews indicated.|There are a lot of kids: Were there kids? Most certainly! A LOT! I’m thinking some blogger mom somewhere recommended this place to bring the kids and you know she was right! We always brought our kids to the beach…I would have never thought of going to The Sagamore because I always thought it was more exclusive for adults. If you have kids there are a TON of activities to keep them busy. If our grandkids were closer we would love to bring them. The kids we saw were well behaved and didn’t bother us but if you wish to have a quiet adult get-a-way I would recommend going when the kids are...

There is no doubt that The Sagamore has a great location (right on Lake George) and that the grounds are quite beautiful. Additionally, the hotel does have plenty to do onsite (golf, tennis, etc.).

That said, given the price you pay to stay here it leaves much to be desired. During our recent stay we found several things that made the ~$700 per night price not worth it:

Room Quality - at this price point you'd expect to stay in a well-maintained and updated room, but you'd be wrong. Upon our check-in we were given a room in one of the lodges on the property which was ~5-10 minutes from the main hotel building where the lakefront grounds are. The room looked more like an old motel room than what you'd expect when paying that kind of price; it had old carpet and furniture, a tiny bathroom, beaten down closets, etc. We actually upgraded to a different room in the main hotel because of how disappointed we were with the room. The room we ultimately stayed in was nicer and more updated, but still could use some work.

Cleanliness - many of the facilities around the pool area where filthy, as if someone hadn't attended to them at all. Our friends who visited while we were there remarked the same thing. My wife who went for a massage at the spa said that the pillow on the massage table had clear black marks on it from previous guests. Lastly, the hotel grounds were littered with empty glasses, can, etc. in the morning from the night before.

Service - this was by far the most disappointing thing during our stay. I can understand that it's an old hotel and the decor of the hotel is geared towards that aesthetic or that the hotel may need more time and/or staff to clean it's large grounds. However, when you're paying 5-star prices (or even if you're not) you'd expect to feel cared for during your stay. This was not our experience. While waiting for our new room we decided to sit for a late-afternoon lunch at one of the hotel's restaurants. We waited ~15-20 minutes at table and no one showed up to bring menus or even pour water, we wound up getting up because our room was ready. -We got back late in the evening one night and were hungry so ordered in-room dining. After waiting for ~1 hour we called back to check on our order. Because the in-room dining service had ended by that time we got connected with the security guard and asked if he could check on the order to which he simply replied "I can't do anything, just call back if you don't get it". At check-out the front desk did not show us our folio and only asked if we wanted a printed our e-mailed receipt; typically a hotel would review the charges with you. When we got the e-mail receipt we noticed 3 charges we didn't recognize. When we returned to the front desk to inquire the attendant said he would go in the back and check the receipts. After waiting 45 minutes for him to return he said he could not find the receipts and would wipe them from our bill. We asked how they got there in the first place and didn't get an answer, instead we were told "there was a stack of papers in the back that made them difficult to find". The attendant offered no apology for having to wait or the mistake and honestly made us feel as if he were doing us a favor.

All-in-all it seemed to me this hotel is largely resting on the laurels of it's location and pays little attention to customer service or maintaining/updating it's accommodations while charging a hefty price tag on it's guests.

In my opinion if you're staying in the area you'd get more value for your money looking elsewhere. If you're looking for a high-end experience you'd also be better suited going to a...