The Harbor Front Inn — Hotel in Town of Southold

I already shared this feedback with the hotel directly, but posting here because I'm so disappointed in this hotel. My mom booked us 2 nights at the Harbor Front Inn as a birthday gift for my husband. It's off season, so we emailed the hotel months in advance asking for a balcony view of the water on the 3rd floor. They responded with no promises but said they would try to accommodate.

The hotel is well located on Front street, the main drag of Greenport. Walking distance to lots of shops and restaurants. We arrived to check in around 4pm on the first day of our 2 night stay. The front desk staff had no record of our request for a 3rd floor water view. She said they were totally full and couldn't accommodate. I believed her at the time but in retrospect the hotel didn't seem full all weekend. We got a second floor room with no balcony and a view of main street (opposite side of the hotel from the water). We planned to just hang out and relax and grab a few meals in town so this was fine, disappointing but ultimately fine.

The front desk staff told us "I'm so sorry but you will have to pay for parking and its $20/night." What!!! Why? What is the purpose of the "resort fee" if it doesn't even include parking in the lot next to the building? Absolute robbery. We parked far away in the free municipal lot and lugged our bags to the hotel in freezing cold weather.

When we got to our room, there was a large tray of snacks taking up the majority of the limited countertop space in the room. The mini-fridge was also completely filled with drinks available for purchase at an inflated premium. We were staying in the hotel for 2 nights for a leisurely getaway and we didn't want to have to look at the expensive snacks we can't afford the whole time. We asked the front desk to remove it and the staff said, "you could just not eat it" which I found kinda rude? I asked again, and finally she agreed to remove it but didn't remove all of it, leaving cookies and boxed water for some reason.There was also a bottle of wine chilling on ice in our room which the front desk claimed to know nothing about. We were afraid to drink it without knowing whether we would be charged!

Our room had no tea or coffee maker, which I found very unusual for a hotel of this price and advertised quality. Even in low-end motels I'm usually able to have hot instant coffee in my room. I asked the front desk about it immediately, and was told that there was hot water in the lobby. Well unfortunately, the communal hot water and coffee station in the lobby was not maintained by staff at all - it seemed like they filled it up in the morning, and then never again. It was frequently empty or lukewarm, and when we requested them to be refreshed there was a 50/50 chance it wouldn't happen. We'd ask the staff, they'd say "ok" then we'd come back 30 minutes later to find empty carafes. There was one woman working at the front desk who acted quickly when we asked for refreshed hot water, but that was it. We had to ask multiple times every day for the carafes to be refreshed over our 2 night stay. I get that it's off season, but per the front desk who couldn't accommodate our room choice, they were "fully booked." I'd expect better attention to the coffee given the fully booked hotel!

The vending machine on the second floor was out of order, and it looked like it had been that way for a while.

The sink water in our bathroom took over 5 full minutes to get warm. To speed it up, we had to run the hot water in the shower every time we wanted to get even warm-ish water from our sink.

The "continental breakfast" cheerios were stale, and the selection was very limited otherwise. Again, they claimed the hotel was full but the breakfast quantity and options didn't reflect that.

I know it's off season for this hotel, but this was one of the most sub-par hotel visits we have had in memory. I would have been happy to pay a price that aligned with the level of service this hotel offered, which we felt was minimal at best. But this wasn't...

UPDATE (after hotel 'deleted' my prior posts) For a hotel that "prides itself on its exceptional customer service" it is odd that the hotel still has not given any official apology and cannot write an apology letter. That's all that would take to make amends, but for some reason can't be done. As stated before when asked about an apology letter, the manager Jacqueline Dube (the manager) stated "we'll consider it". Very odd that a hotel with great customer service wouldn't just say 'yes' to such a simple request, but states 'we'll consider it" (and that is has not been done)

Also suspicious that that hotel would DELETE the prior comments (listed below) off their facebook page...

The error was found by the guest, and was only corrected when I, the guest, called repeatedly, not the hotel.

Even in your reply here on this page, again there is no "I'm sorry", and always an excuse such as "WHILE there was an oversight...(insert excuse here)..." Just an apology letter would solve everything, but for some reason can't be done.

Your reply "all levels of management for the inconvenience". I have received no call from Brad for apologies, and only had one discussion with Jacqueline where no sincere apologize made, and again no addressing the comments of the manager stating "The owner doesn't speak to guests".

Initial post below:

Most disrespectful and dishonest staff (Brad Born) at any hotel that I have ever dealt with. Despite this being a wedding event, disorganized and poor communication skills. Was overcharged for rooms (as were other patrons) and this was only discovered after we ourselves asked the wedding couple involved about the room price. The hotel did not reveal this error themselves and it took multiple calls/attempts in order to speak about this issue with the staff. Very suspicious what the staff would have done with the extra amount charged had we ourselves not brought this issue up. Hotel staff on first phone booking conversation, when asked about a special event rate, denied and stated rates were as they are. Eventually found out that it had already been a month prior that a different event rate/cost was decided, which somehow the staff 'forgot'. When directly questioned, staff/Brad still without apology and just stated it was just an 'oversight'. Hotel has not provided any compensation for error and seems uninterested in correcting their mistake. If they remedy these errors, will update, but thus far, most disappointing, especially for something as important as a wedding event.

UPDATE: Discussed with manager (Jacqueline Dube) today, and was told 'mistakes happen' and told owner was informed of situation but that I couldn't speak to owner because 'the owner doesn't speak to guests'. Again poor management and cannot give an apology without making excuses. A simple "sorry" would have been just fine, but instead always hearing "sorry BUT...; apologize BUT". When asked if an apology letter could be written, was told "we'll...

I want to say first of all, I have been to this property many times in the past and have always enjoyed my stay. This past time, however, the level of service had completely deteriorated. I called the hotel when we were on route to request an early check in and no one answered at the desk (I tried about 5 or 6 times) and there was no way to leave a message. I am 8 months pregnant so I just wanted to see if we could get into the room a little bit earlier to relax before dinner. We arrived around 3 Pm and I told the front desk clerk that I had been calling. He responded that the phones had been very busy that day, while actively not answering the phone that was ringing. He was very rude and said check in is 4 and I'll see you then. We returned promptly at 4 and there was no one at the desk. A line of about 5 rooms worth of people formed and eventually someone showed up around 4:30. We got our keys and headed towards the room, but when we got there, the keys did not work. I walked back to the lobby and waited on line again and received new keys. By this point it was probably about 5 o clock. Upon entering the room, we sat down on the bed and found out that the sheets were wet, more than damp. I would say they needed another 30 minutes in the dryer. I called the front desk, no answer. I walked back down to the desk and was told housekeeping would come change the sheets. About a half hour later, two visibly aggravated women came in and changed the sheets. However, the sheets had been so wet that they made the comforter damp as well. They did not change out the comforter, making the new set of sheets get damp again. When I went back to inquire to speak with a manager, I was told one would not be on site until tomorrow morning and that the manager was the only person who could change our room. They said they would send him a text and about a half hour later, I called back and was told they would comp me 1/3 the room rate. I wasn't pleased but it was better than nothing. The next morning, I spoke with the manager who told me that information was not correct and that since I had booked through a third-party website (chase travel), they could request compensation, but I could not. Well, it's been a week and they have denied chase travel's requests for compensation and caused me the headache of over 3 hours of phone calls trying to get them to even respond to chase travel. Here's to say, I am so disappointed as we really enjoyed our trips out there, but for almost $500 a night, the level of service is remarkably subpar. I would say out of the 4 staff I interacted with, only one of them was not extremely rude and condescending. We will...