Gurney's Montauk Resort & Seawater Spa — Hotel in Town of East Hampton

I was very excited to visit and had high expectations for Gurney’s. Stayed two-nights with my husband for our wedding anniversary. Booked a Deluxe Ocean View King room. We were assigned room 506. The room was fairly small, small bathroom, no refrigerator but overall clean. The “ocean view” was a sliver of a view of the water IF we stepped outside the room on a shared porch to look. Being that it was April, fairly cool and we weren’t going to be sun-bathing on the beach, I at least wanted a full view of the water. The valet and front desk staff (on the first night) were great. I spoke with from desk staff and they were accommodating in upgrading our room (for a fee of course). Being that we drove a couple of hours and I had such high hopes for our stay, we reluctantly paid to get the most out of the experience. We upgraded to an Ocean Front King room, which the view with a semi-private balcony and day bed, essentially made the trip for me. However, the room, which can go well over a $1,000 a night during peak season, left much to be desired. We stayed in room 310, which was very nice in terms of location on the property. The door entering the room wasn’t as heavy as you’d expect and had some “wood” and paint chipped off near the lock. Not the most secure. There’s an immediate snack bar to the left and pretty expensive which is to be expected. The small mini-bar “fridge” never got cold and there was sink/wet bar. The bathroom was immediately to the right. Not the cleanest - shower had scum and some “black stuff,” shower head appeared to have never been cleaned and caked up with residue so much that some holes were blocked and you didn’t get a full spray. Shower heads were rusted. The shower drain was unfinished with some construction markings visible. The bathroom sink leaked the entire stay. Again, maybe my high expectations given the star rating and reputation of this resort but the room furnishings were cheap and very worn. The bed was ok but there were hand prints above the head board from the previous guests. There’s a small desk and chair in the room and the floor underneath was heavily scratched. The couch was visibly soiled. I was disturbed by the condition of this room especially given the times we live in. The couch looked as though it hasn’t been cleaned in a very long time. I was hoping for something that felt more fresh, sanitized and clean so I could relax. There were big sliding doors leading to the semi-private terrace. Again, this was my favorite spot but the day bed wasn’t made up with fresh linens. I did call and ask for pillow cases for the bed (if available) and a change of the blanket on the bed, which was covered in debris. No one ever came.

We had reservations at one of the “Bungalows,” which is a private heated outdoor space for dining. They look much better on the website than in person and cost $25 per person to reserve. No fur blankets were out like in the photos. It still was a little too chilly for us. We transferred our reservation to the indoor restaurant, Scarpetta Beach. The restaurant’s vibe was nice. Food, menu and service were ok - nothing extraordinary in our opinion. The outdoor fire pits were also nice.

The following morning we tried Tilley’s for breakfast - it was better than average.

Another unfortunate piece here was the lack of amenities, which is definitely carved into the nightly price. I searched on the website for weeks before our stay to plan out an itinerary. I did not see, or at the very least it’s not prominently displayed, that there’s construction going on and the gym, spa and pool are closed! All of the gym equipment had been stuffed in a small room and honestly didn’t look safe. But I did find the fur blankets bagged away for the Bungalows in this closet. And for the pool, I was told we’d have to drive to their sister property on Star Island, 11 miles away with no traffic, to swim.

The location and access to the beach is the selling point of this property. If you have money to burn and really only care about spending time on the beach, then...

This was my second time visiting Gurneys and I can definitely say I will not be returning. Really the only positive thing about this resort is the location, the beach is stunning and it has an amazing proximity to the water. But the service here is horrendous. To start things off, immediately upon arrival there were many construction workers in the parking lot and at the hotel entry, they were actively paving the driveway and working on the lobby. When we entered the new lobby door I noticed that many parts of the lobby were blocked off by cheap looking curtains. The lobby was completely renovated and not for the better. It looks basic and a lot less nice compared to the old lobby. The workers at the desk then handed us paper bracelets that said Gurneys, apparently we needed to wear them for the entire duration of the trip. It felt like we were at a cheap waterpark. Throughout the trip, most times when we entered the lobby there were loud drills going on and other loud construction equipment. This construction would not be a problem if we were notified beforehand, but we were completely unaware of it before arriving. We then went to our room only to find it extremely dirty. There was old food left out on our porch, no restocked supplies (toilet paper, shampoo + conditioner), and was overall not very nice for what we payed. Later that night we went to the restaurant which was a complete disaster. Firstly, they lost our reservation which meant that we had to squish at a table too small for us, and we had to deal with not getting in trouble with Open Table for “not showing up”. Our food took ages to come and many items were not available that were on the menu. The food was not great compared to the previous restaurant Scarpeta Beach. This was one of the first days that the restaurant was open, and that was extremely apparent. The inside of the restaurant was not yet open, there was brown paper covering the windows that was falling down, and visible construction equipment inside. The breakfast situation is also horrible. The first day we tried to get breakfast they were having a buffet instead of their normal service, because something was wrong with the kitchen. When we finally were able to have a normal breakfast it again took way too long to come. The breakfast arrived to the table in takeout containers, and the items were different than how they were listed on the menu. The eggs and bacon came with no bacon, and the oatmeal with fruit and brown sugar came plain in a takeout container. When we asked for the missing items they never came with the bacon, and they brought plain table sugar instead of brown sugar. The coffee situation is also horrible. There is nowhere to get coffee. The first day we had to search for a very long time until we could find coffee. Eventually we ended up at the Host stand for the breakfast restaurant to get our coffee. It again took very long to get the coffee, but finally they brought it out. The last day, when we tried to get coffee, nobody was there so we couldn’t get any. There was no store to buy anything which was extremely inconvenient, and the front desk barley had any amenities. For example, we needed a hairbrush so we tried to call the front desk. The phone in our room was broken, and nobody picked up when we called from our Iphones, so we went up to the front desk. They didn’t have any brushes. There was no warning about any of this. The beach club might be the only functional thing there. But it also takes a very long time to get service. Not to mention the servers never coming back to clean up the containers from the food. When we were leaving on the last day we noticed that money from the car was no longer there, we were positive that it had been there when we checked in to the hotel (the last time we used the car), so it must have been stolen by someone working the valet. It was way too overpriced for the service we got. Do not waste your money on coming here. The overall experience we had visiting in October was a million times better than...

I was disappointed, to say the least. The price we were charged to stay in this resort, plus the overpriced and unprecedented resort fee, was not worth our experience and is robbery. We upgraded to a room prior to coming that would not face the parking lot, and would have a beautiful ocean view, which it did. However, the building itself was run down and looked like a shack that could collapse at any minute. It was the junkiest structure on the property, obviously not maintained or taken care of at all.

Our room had a balcony that had uncomfortable chairs, stained, and a barbed wire fence blocking the view as opposed to the nice boat wire and wood balconies on every single other building on the property. Even the most basic rooms had better accommodations. The interior had dust on the AC unit, and bugs flying around. There was sand on the floor from the second we checked in, and the couch had stains on it. The in-room coffee pot did not work. We called to have it replaced and they said they would send us complimentary coffee for the morning and replace it when they clean the room later that day. They sent us the coffee with a bill I then had to call and complain about to get removed from my room charges. The next morning we went to make a complimentary coffee to enjoy on our balcony with what we thought was a new coffee pot. It was not replaced and once again, no complimentary coffee. We called down to the desk to let them know that once again we did not have ability to have coffee. Her solution was that the housekeeper would bring a replacement later in the day. Needless to say, we had to leave the room and our only option was a $9 coffee in the lobby. Broken promises. The resort fee you are charging is absurd. For that price, I can’t say we received more than towels and a water bottle per day. There were no happenings. There were no events, no spa, and nothing that we could pinpoint our resort money going toward. I understand Covid brings restrictions, however, the resort fee should reflect that. Especially because it was also off season. We also felt as though we were treated poorly at times, and that those who were staying in more expensive rooms would get better treatment. Our first night at the fire pit we were asked to move for another couple that the hostess said she was “holding” seats for. Isn’t the fire pit first come first serve? The last night at dinner, we asked to be seated by a heater. We were then seated at a table without a heater, while there was one empty table behind us with a heater. When asked if we could use that heater, they said only if no one came and sat at that table within 20 minutes they would be able to move it. Why is the heater not first come first serve? Why didn’t we get the spot at the table with the heater? If someone had come and sat there after the fact, would we have been robbed of the heater we had recently gotten moved? Poor treatment.

The service was poor. We would be sitting at the fire pit or beach club for long periods of time while the workers just walked around on their phones. It was not busy. Once we got their attention, getting the check at completion was another challenge. Chasing them down for a cup of water or a check took forever. We even had to send drinks back for tasting so poorly. For the price of the alcohol, we expected more. In addition to the horrible service, the attire was absurd. Workers either walked around in barely any clothes at all, or in pajama-like outfits. For a resort of this price, we expected professionalism rather than women walking around wirh no bra or their shirts unbuttoned to their belly buttons. Others wore sweatpants and sweatshirts. And this is a place where French fries cost $15? It also took 20 mins to get the shower to a decently comfortable temperature to shower in. It required running the water for 20 minutes from the shower and both faucets in the room. Paper thin walls as well. heard everything- kept me...