The Nest on Saratoga Lake — Hotel in Town of Stillwater

My husband and I were in town for a weekend hockey tournament and decided to stay at The Nest because Expedia offered a great price at $105 per night with breakfast included each day. We decided to stay based on this price and wanted to treat ourselves to a nice lake view. We booked the Beachside Bungalow room for 2 nights in an off-season. Overall, I was underwhelmed with the stay, room, and service.

The Nest is small and very secure. There is a front door code for guests. I appreciated the keyless entry to the room so I didn’t have to worry about a traditional hotel key. The room was quaint and beautifully decorated. The lake view was beautiful. There is not a fridge and microwave in each room but there is a small communal fridge and microwave in the hall just outside the room. I recommend packing a cooler if you’re staying for an extended period of time. We did this and it worked great.

The rooms are not individually temperature controlled. Each room is provided a fan and space heater. This was a nice amenity that you don’t typically get at a main stream hotel.

We stayed for 2 nights. While gone for the day, room service included taking out trash and replacing used towels but not making the bed. This may have been an oversight but I just thought it was odd.

I recommend bringing your own pillows if you are particular with firmness of pillows, I thought the pillows could’ve been more comfortable but I will say there were several options for size and firmness on the bed. On our second night, there was some late night noise coming from downstairs that woke me out of sound sleep. When I went to check it out, there were no guests in the upstairs or downstairs hallway and the restaurant was closed. My only educated guess could be some employees horsing around at the end of their shift but that is not confirmed. The noise continued for 30 minutes. When I reached out to Ella, the innkeeper, she responded quickly even though she wasn’t on site. Thankfully the noise did quiet down. I’m not sure what I would’ve done had it continued. There isn’t a front desk attendant available 24 hours a day like at main stream hotels. I will note that some rooms are directly above the restaurant bar downstairs and noise does travel easily in this building. While they weren’t too loud, we could hear the couple staying in the room next door to us through the walls.

Breakfast was included in the Expedia price. On our first day, we opted not to eat breakfast because it didn’t work with the hockey tournament schedule. Breakfast started at 10am. I personally feel this is too late of a start for people like us who have a schedule to follow while in town. Ideally I would’ve liked breakfast to start at 8am at the latest. Usually people who are visiting from out of town want to get up, get their day started, and see the sights. Because breakfast was included, I would’ve liked to take advantage of that both days of my stay. On our last day, we waited until 10am to try the breakfast. When we got there and asked about the included breakfast, we were informed that our only choice was the “breakfast special” listed on the menu as 2 eggs, toast, home fries, and coffee. The menu price for this is $8. I personally wanted something different for my breakfast so I ordered the breakfast burrito (menu price $14). The food was excellent, the best home fries I’ve ever had! Since breakfast was included in my price per night, I would’ve liked to use the $8 value toward the breakfast of my choosing and pay the difference. Instead I was charged regular price because I wanted something different than the included breakfast. I will give the staff credit for crediting my husband his juice because he didn’t want the included coffee.

Based on our overall experience, I won’t stay here again because like I said I was underwhelmed. I’d rather opt for a hotel that’s $20 more per night to have an earlier breakfast with variety, more service, & an attendant...

My husband and I stayed here for one night (Saturday) since we were in the area for a wedding shower and wanted to check out Saratoga Springs before driving back to Boston. Our experience was "meh" which was a shame because it would not take much to make this place an excellent spot to stay.

First, the self-check-in would normally be fine (we often stay in Airbnbs and have never had an issue), but for some reason I did not receive the check-in email from The Nest. Based on other reviews from guests, I can tell I am far from alone in that experience. Luckily, we showed up during business hours for the restaurant on-site (there is no guest house person on staff far as I could tell) and they checked us in no problem. However, they weren't forthcoming with information like how to get into the building after-hours, the Wifi, or where amenities like the mini fridge and extra coffee were (there is NO FRIDGE in the guest rooms; it's on the 2nd floor in a little nook).

All in all, this wasn't horrible - we figured it out, but I feel like this would be frustrating for others and therefore would not recommend this place.

As for the room, we were in the Josephine, which I had picked because it's the only room with a king bed and I am 7 months pregnant and we have a king bed at home, so I thought we'd be most comfortable. While the bed and the room itself were comfortable, that room is on the back side of the building and ground floor - meaning right across the hall from the bar/restaurant (again we were staying on a Saturday night), AND about 10 feet from the main road that goes around the lake. We heard both cars traveling fast along the road and the bar patrons. It wasn't horrible - we live in the city, so these sounds kind of became 'white noise', but another reason why I wouldn't recommend this place to others. If I'd known, I'd have probably chosen a room upstairs (lake view) instead, even if it meant a queen bed.

Advice to management: Do better with the self-check-in. You don't necessarily need to have someone on staff to receive guests for such a small guest house, but really, you CAN do better to ensure guests are sent their check-in details ahead of time. Have an info sheet in guest rooms. Include Wifi info, how to access the building after hours, and location of the fridge/microwave particularly for guests on the ground floor (or for that matter, invest in a mini fridge for the TWO guest rooms on the ground floor). I feel like this is a basic necessity you can very easily implement. You may also consider having other options than just coffee (not even decaf) for your guests, especially since the on-site restaurant does not open until 10am. Consider doing something about the noise for ground floor guest rooms, such as closing the doors from the dining rooms at a certain point, or improving the insulation in the rooms. It wasn't terrible and I feel that the bar closed reasonably early (I want to say around 10:30pm) for a Saturday night, but this could be a problem for other...

This place is very cute and lucky for us (judging by the other reviews) the restaurant/bar was actually closed during our stay so we didn't experience the noise from it.

It was very reasonably priced and cozy. However our stay was not perfect.

I had made our reservation a month prior to our stay, which was a Saturday night into Sunday morning. We had decided almost immediately that we would like to try to stay Friday night as well if possible. I made our reservation through Expedia...their site showed no availability for our room for Friday, however the actual website for The Nest showed availability. Long story short, I tried on 4 separate occasions to get ahold of someone to check on availability with no success. I emailed once, called twice, and had Expedia try to no avail. I to this day have never received a response of any kind.

Secondly - the room was not entirely clean. For the most part it was up to par, but there was hair on the bathroom floor, and hair in the shower as well as some on the stand that held the towels. The floor in next to the bed had some sort of crumbs or something and the carpet under the bed did not appear to be vacuumed. It wasn't horrible but definitely noticeable. It appeared that whoever cleans changes the sheets, towels, and whatever else has been used up but maybe is rushing.

Also - although not anyone's fault - just something to keep in mind. This is right next to a main road, so there is A LOT of traffic noise. We stayed in February so there were also snowmobiles going by late at night literally right outside of our window (ground level). And overnight there was some snowfall and periodically a plow would go by that made a scraping sound that could wake the dead. We stayed in the room right next to the main entrance (Josephine) so we were able to hear every person who came in. Some were around midnight so even though I'm sure they were trying to be quiet, you could still hear them very clearly.

Also the room next to ours you could hear almost every move they made. The shower, the TV, the toilet lid getting shut.

If your a light sleeper, this place may not be for you. Otherwise it was decent and cozy. And very affordable!! I probably would not stay during the summer when the rates are higher based on these things. Hotel rooms can be around the same price but...