The Pridwin Hotel & Cottages — Hotel in Town of Shelter Island

I planned to leave a better review, but my experience with the management and customer service since my stay trying to deal with a lost item has been so abysmal that I can't.||For the positives- it is a really beautiful setting right on the water. I had visited for a drink with friends and ended up booking a last minute stay for the next night. They only had a cottage left, (which was pretty overpriced) but it was cute and spacious with a nice terrace. Service at the pool was great, and a drink on the lawn with the sun going down was almost enough to make up for the very poor customer service. ||Unfortunately, the service with the concierge and restaurant just felt unprofessional, disorganized, and unhelpful throughout the stay and after. When I made the booking, I asked for a late checkout request to be put in because for the price of the room, check-in at 3 and checkout at 11 meant very little time to actually enjoy it. When I checked in, they said they would need to ask housekeeping in the morning and would let me know. I wasn't given any information about the hotel or amenities offered which was a little odd. There were no golf carts available, so they gave me directions to for the cottages. One showed up right as I was leaving but I said I thought I would be fine, but I had not been informed that my cottage was down a long winding, gravel path that was difficult to roll bags on. I had bought lunch from a place on the island and left part of it on the kitchen area counter when I headed to the pool; when I returned, housekeeping had already done a very early turndown service and thrown out the rest of the food. I called the front desk and the response was "Well they must have thought you were done so they threw it out"... That should just never be a response to a guest informing a hotel something of theirs was discarded. I was eventually offered breakfast by a manager; I hadn't planned on eating breakfast there, but appreciated the offer so said sure. However, my experience at dinner was really disappointing. I had asked if there was room outside and was told that it was full but they could "fit me in inside"- already a strange start as I had a reservation, was a guest, and the inside was completely empty. I was seated at a table that was wet and not set up for dining; my waitress did not greet me, or introduce the restaurant, menu, etc. but just launched into asking what I wanted. I had ordered several different appetizers rather than one entree and they were all brought out at the same time. No one came by to check in or refresh drinks. After that, I let the front desk know I would rather not have breakfast at the restaurant, and asked if some kind of credit could just be provided for the previous issue instead. I was told a manager would contact me. The next morning, I had not heard from anyone about the credit or the late checkout. I called the front desk and was told a manager would call me back. No one ever did. When I checked out, I was finally able to connect with a manager, who was the only one throughout the entire experience that felt competent and was able to provide some credit for dinner instead. But it should not have taken multiple follow ups (that were ignored) in order to actually receive assistance.||I was frustrated with the experience, but left feeling a little better after checkout and some issues being addressed. Unfortunately, because housekeeping had started knocking at my door right at 11 that morning (which seemed pretty unnecessary), I was in such a rush to finish getting my things out of the room that I ended up leaving a bathing suit. I called as soon as I got home that day and was told to fill out a lost item report, which I did. I then received another call from the front desk saying they had found a swimsuit in my room and was it mine, as if the previous call had not happened. I explained the situation, and was told they would use the address on my report and send me the suit. I then kept getting updates from the lost item report saying they were still searching for the item, while also seeing an additional charge from the hotel in my account. I followed up with the hotel multiple times and was told that the report updates were incorrect, and that the charge was for shipping. Then I was told by guest services my item had been shipped. 10 days later, I still had not received it. After not receiving any response to two emails, I called this afternoon and an extremely unhelpful desk agent told me he would "send me a link to fill out" so that it could be shipped to me. I explained repeatedly that I was informed by the hotel the item had already shipped 10 days prior. I asked to be connected to the GM and was put on hold; then a different desk agent picked up and I had to re explain the situation. For a hotel that cost almost $2000 a night, for such a basic issue to become a several week long frustration where I am continuously being given the run around by management is ridiculous. It's sad because there is so much potential for the hotel, but this level of customer service, and at such a high cost, is just...

I planned to leave a better review, but my experience with the management and customer service since my stay trying to deal with a lost item has been so abysmal that I can't.||For the positives- it is a really beautiful setting right on the water. I had visited for a drink with friends and ended up booking a last minute stay for the next night. They only had a cottage left, (which was pretty overpriced) but it was cute and spacious with a nice terrace. Service at the pool was great, and a drink on the lawn with the sun going down was almost enough to make up for the very poor customer service. ||Unfortunately, the service with the concierge and restaurant just felt unprofessional, disorganized, and unhelpful throughout the stay and after. When I made the booking, I asked for a late checkout request to be put in because for the price of the room, check-in at 3 and checkout at 11 meant very little time to actually enjoy it. When I checked in, they said they would need to ask housekeeping in the morning and would let me know. I wasn't given any information about the hotel or amenities offered which was a little odd. There were no golf carts available, so they gave me directions to for the cottages. One showed up right as I was leaving but I said I thought I would be fine, but I had not been informed that my cottage was down a long winding, gravel path that was difficult to roll bags on. I had bought lunch from a place on the island and left part of it on the kitchen area counter when I headed to the pool; when I returned, housekeeping had already done a very early turndown service and thrown out the rest of the food. I called the front desk and the response was "Well they must have thought you were done so they threw it out"... That should just never be a response to a guest informing a hotel something of theirs was discarded. I was eventually offered breakfast by a manager; I hadn't planned on eating breakfast there, but appreciated the offer so said sure. However, my experience at dinner was really disappointing. I had asked if there was room outside and was told that it was full but they could "fit me in inside"- already a strange start as I had a reservation, was a guest, and the inside was completely empty. I was seated at a table that was wet and not set up for dining; my waitress did not greet me, or introduce the restaurant, menu, etc. but just launched into asking what I wanted. I had ordered several different appetizers rather than one entree and they were all brought out at the same time. No one came by to check in or refresh drinks. After that, I let the front desk know I would rather not have breakfast at the restaurant, and asked if some kind of credit could just be provided for the previous issue instead. I was told a manager would contact me. The next morning, I had not heard from anyone about the credit or the late checkout. I called the front desk and was told a manager would call me back. No one ever did. When I checked out, I was finally able to connect with a manager, who was the only one throughout the entire experience that felt competent and was able to provide some credit for dinner instead. But it should not have taken multiple follow ups (that were ignored) in order to actually receive assistance.||I was frustrated with the experience, but left feeling a little better after checkout and some issues being addressed. Unfortunately, because housekeeping had started knocking at my door right at 11 that morning (which seemed pretty unnecessary), I was in such a rush to finish getting my things out of the room that I ended up leaving a bathing suit. I called as soon as I got home that day and was told to fill out a lost item report, which I did. I then received another call from the front desk saying they had found a swimsuit in my room and was it mine, as if the previous call had not happened. I explained the situation, and was told they would use the address on my report and send me the suit. I then kept getting updates from the lost item report saying they were still searching for the item, while also seeing an additional charge from the hotel in my account. I followed up with the hotel multiple times and was told that the report updates were incorrect, and that the charge was for shipping. Then I was told by guest services my item had been shipped. 10 days later, I still had not received it. After not receiving any response to two emails, I called this afternoon and an extremely unhelpful desk agent told me he would "send me a link to fill out" so that it could be shipped to me. I explained repeatedly that I was informed by the hotel the item had already shipped 10 days prior. I asked to be connected to the GM and was put on hold; then a different desk agent picked up and I had to re explain the situation. For a hotel that cost almost $2000 a night, for such a basic issue to become a several week long frustration where I am continuously being given the run around by management is ridiculous. It's sad because there is so much potential for the hotel, but this level of customer service, and at such a high cost, is just...

The Burnt Toast of the Town!

Let me first start by saying any of the 5 star ratings on this site must be attempts to keep this horrible hotel above a 3 star rating. I'm not going to fill this review with a lot of fluff, I'm just going to give you the facts so you know exactly what you're getting if you stay here.

My boyfriend and I checked in for a 5 night stay on Sept 8th around 8:00 PM. It wasn't until we checked in that we were told "the hotel restaurant and bar are closed and will remain closed unless the hotel reaches 50% capacity". I'll ruin the suspense and tell you that the hotel never reached 50% capacity and I had no idea what a huge issue that posed until about an hour later when we were driving around the island looking for something to eat.

Let me warn you now, the day after Labor Day apparently marks the change between Shelter Island and Gilligan's Island. Almost everything is closed due to the "Off Season". There are no food options -- especially after 9 PM. The continental breakfast offered at the hotel is laughable and there's no mini fridge in the room to store food, so we found a grocery store and loaded up on non-perishable items. My idea of a relaxing vacation isn't driving around in search of food, all because someone failed to tell me this vital piece of information prior to my stay.

The Pridwin isn't a "Gatsby Era", charming, family-run hotel. It's old, rundown, unkempt, dirty, putrid smelling, and I can assure you there isn't a sweet, family-run, charming quality to this establishment at all. There was one gentleman working at the front desk, James, who was the only nice staff member I encountered. Our bathroom smelt like a locker room, our AC didn't function properly (the common areas of the hotel didn't have working ACs either), and the game room literally has a stained carpet that smells like animal urine.

This is already becoming longwinded, so I'll sum up my stay at The Pridwin: We left 2 nights early because we couldn't bare the thought of staying one more minute. I can't even explain how disappointed we were. It was the first vacation either of us had in 2 years and we felt completely robbed of an enjoyable vacation and robbed of our money. As we were walking up the main entrance stairs to check out, I literally stepped over a roach. As if I needed anymore convincing, that was a clear sign that we were making the right decision.

We weren't expecting our money back (although it would have been nice and the decent thing to do). We really just wanted an apology and some customer service. However, the Accounts Manager called me the next day and was not only unapologetic, but RUDE! "We don't have roaches here...I don't know why no one told you the restaurant would be closed, because we know when it's going to be closed for the season, but it's up to you to do your research before staying here...I had 5 other guests check out today and they'll all be staying with us again!". I can promise you, there literally weren't 5 other guests staying at the hotel at the same time as us.

If you book this hotel you may as well feed your money to your dog and let him defecate...