Journey East Hampton — Hotel in Town of East Hampton

Qualification: I went to the Cornell Hotel School. Know a thing or two about hotels and hospitality.

We booked a room here last-minute and when we entered the lobby, we were glared at as if we were somehow lost. After informing the front desk we had a reservation, it somehow "hadn't come through yet" from Hotel Tonight, even though it should be instantaneous and the reservation was placed an hour prior. She proceeded to "finish something up" on her laptop for 10 minutes while we waited to check in. HELLO! Welcoming and checking-in your guests should be your #1 priority. We immediately felt unwelcome and unwanted. If there are such pressing matters that your guests need to wait in the lobby for 10 minutes before you attend to them, then hire more staff. Pretty basic stuff.

After being shown our. room, we were happy with it overall. Quality bed, nice design, Molton Brown toiletries. It still very much had a "motel" feel, however, because that's exactly what this place is--a renovated motel. While a good amount of care was taken to renovate the property, it still does not escape the motel vibe it once was.

We came back from a nice dinner around 10:30pm. Our keycard no longer worked...we saw the lobby was now closed at 9pm (another surprisingly bad feature for a $500/night property). Fortunately there was a number there posted to contact. I called and it was the same unwelcoming and arrogant woman that checked us in. After explaining our keycard wasn't working, she let out a long sigh and said the lobby closes at 9...but she will come and assist us. After waiting another 10 minutes (I assumed she was driving from nearby to assist), she came out of a door right next to the lobby. Another needless wait. She explained to us that keycards can become demagnetized if they're in a pocket next to a phone, implying this was somehow our fault. She then said we may have not pulled the door all the way shut. She tried our keycard and it did not work. With an insincere and begrudging apology she made a new room key.

All in all, I would give the facility 3.5 stars, given the price point. If this were a $100-200/night property, it would be 5 stars. For service, it was so bad I was beyond the point of anger--it was literally astonishment. There is not a shred of hospitality to this property, and beyond that, a palpable condescension to the point where it is truly bizarre. I can only assume that there was either a recent family tragedy or the business is...

Some really nice things about this hotel is that it’s affordable, conveniently located to the town of East Hampton and not at all far from Sag Harbor and Montauk. The decor is beautiful and the staff was friendly.

However, there were a few things that made my fiancé and I not want to return. We stayed a total of three nights, with the first two nights being extremely cold (low 20s). The heat was barely working when we arrived Friday night. It would come on for a few minutes and then turn off to an economy saver setting but would never turn back on. Saturday am we told the woman at the front desk. When we returned to our room in the afternoon, it had not been fixed. I sent in a request on the iPad each room has and still no one from management tried to help. Thankfully, we solved it ourselves by realizing we had to crank it up all the way to the 80s to stay on longer than 5 mins.

On Sunday, we woke up to zero hot water. There was no hot water in the shower until Monday am. I told the woman at the desk that I had put in two maintenance requests on the rooms iPad but she said the requests don’t say which room it came from, which is poor logic in my opinion. Also, Saturday am I told her that the drain in the shower was not working properly (inches of water every time we showered) and nothing was done to help fix this.

Lastly, the walls are paper thin. You can easily hear neighbors walking, talking, watching tv, etc.

Overall not sure it was worth...

The room itself was honestly great — modern, clean, and clearly remodeled with attention to detail and decor. The grounds are well kept with a pleasant pool and small garden area for relaxation. The grab-and-go breakfast option, however, was underwhelming and really not worth mentioning as an amenity. Some other amenities, like water, coffee and soda supply, were to be chased most of the times.

At the end of the day, this is still essentially a motel: rooms open to the outside, there’s so much constant highway noise and neighbor noise (walls are indeed paper thin, even when staying in a 2nd floor room, we heard every single word of the next door family), and there are limited front desk hours. For the rates they charge (well over $1,000 on weekends in peak season), it’s really tough to justify the price when you compare it to true resort or boutique hotel experiences in the area. Let alone the resort fee they charge. If having a very stylish, well-done motel close to East Hampton and Amagansett is your top priority, you’ll probably be happy here. But for the price, the overall value just isn’t there. Beware, their marketing and photos are fantastic (congrats to whoever is managing that). For us, it just didn’t add up compared to expectations and the high rate, and we won’t...