Front Street Inn — Hotel in Wilmington

Update: The GM was promptly in touch with us following our stay. He was very responsive to feedback and was kind enough to refund our stay. From what we have gathered, you should be able to find a relaxing experience inside one of the interior rooms or at their sister property.

Our room was beautiful and my husband and I splurged on the Zermatt Suite for our Anniversary. There were areas in need of improvement. Parking was confusing as the small parking lot for guests was roped off with customers for the espresso bar standing in front. We tried parking next door but needed to drive around the block as there were no spots while we called the inn for more info. Our check-in process was simple as they had preloaded a code after walking through the outdoor area of the espresso bar. We were immediately disappointed to find that our door was directly behind a wooden partition with a Restroom sign pointing to the right of our door. Once inside of our room, the interior was beautiful but the noise from the bar continued. We could hear every beat and bang from the kitchen and every time a customer banged on a bathroom door. This continued in the bathroom as every time a customer flushed in the bathroom next door or water was being used our shower would turn cold making every shower frustrating as the bar bathrooms were in constant use. We left the inn to make a dinner reservation and returned to a very busy crowd to weave through as we walked past to enter our room. The bass from the music could be felt through our walls and did not stop until 11:40. Unfortunately, this started again at 7:30 AM the next morning when the bar opened for the next day. We laid awake and listed to the shouts, conversations, banging of doors and dishes, loud music, and continuous filling of ice buckets. We tried to enjoy some peace by turning on the fireplace and TV to watch a movie but the sound of the bussing electric fireplace was so loud that it was distracting and needed to be turned off. Suddenly power to our room was turned off while the bar continued to have power as if a breaker had been flipped to our room. Once all customers had gone home and the music finally stopped, we tried to sleep but the outdoor lights and porch lights from the bar had been left on and our room was filled with light from the windows leading outside that are above and around our room. This made it incredibly difficult to sleep making the early noice from the bar incredibly frustrating. Our stay was far from relaxing. The staff was friendly and the room was beautiful but we would not recommend The Zermatt Suite for a relaxing stay...

We have stayed at the Hemingway room twice. It's a lovely room, charming. Staff is incredibly friendly and gracious. I have left 2 stars empty for very specific reasons. One is due to the place needing a little fixing over the years. I love that the room feels aged and comfortable. Little things like a squeek in the floor now and then are my favorite characteristics. The french doors are wonderful except one is clearly coming off the hinges and the doors don't all have pegs for the closing pins so its very hard to get the outer doors to stay open or closed. The private balcony is wonderful for relaxing with a drink but once you get those doors open, prepare to do battle. The jacuzzi tub is wonderful, we like to sit and relax while taking in the view through the doors. The bed is very comfortable, the pillows and blankets were clean and soft as were the robes provided. You can hear the clip clop of the tour horses intermittently which I love, just be prepared for a little noise from the late night crowd if you're staying on the weekend. There is a corkscrew (very important ha) and a few pieces of silverware, but no plates or napkins. A stove but no pots and pans so if you plan on cooking, bring everything. There is a fridge but you might want to buy a bag of ice as we did. The fridge, while cool, is not cold and any room temp items will take quite a while to chill (we kept everything in the freezer). A larger trash can (the one provided is TINY) and perhaps a trash bag would be good. We brought back food to the room and had coffee grinds from the coffee maker provided, but I didn't feel right about dumping all that into the bare bin and even one take out container would fill it instantly. Taking all this into account, I think the price point could be slightly lower which is why I left the second star off. I think fixing a few things would create a 100% satisfactory visit and warrant the $270 a night we paid. We have stayed in a few other B&B's downtown that were comparable in price that were in better repair but didn't have the balcony or the jacuzzi so kind of a toss up. Almost $300 a night, maybe fix it up a bit. Cheaper places, I would expect to bring my own stuff. At this price point, I expect to get a little extra. Provide a few paper towels, plates... We aren't very high maintenance so none of this really bothered us but a few fixes would make the stay 5 star. Overall, we...

The reviews we read were highly complimentary so we booked a room here being that our usual B&B that we stay at while in town was booked up. Now, maybe we just have high expectations because our usual B&B is so impressive, but we were highly disappointed, and to be completely honest, we can't understand how the reviews here are so great. To put it bluntly, you'd be better off staying at a hotel (and we wish we had.) If all you're looking for is to crash for the night and wake early to get back on the road then this place is fine. However, if you're looking for a nice weekend getaway with a B&B experience, you won't find it here. The check-in process literally consists of retrieving your room key from a metal box and reading a typed note with directions on how to locate your room. To check-out, just drop your key in the box on the way out. Nobody will greet you. Nobody will chat with you about the goings-on in the area or interesting things to see while there. Nobody will ask how your stay is so far. Nobody will ask how they can make your stay comfortable. If their purpose is to have as little interaction with the people staying there as possible, then they nailed it. There's a breakfast made every morning but you're not encouraged to eat in the dining room, but to instead take your breakfast to your room. The lady who cooked the small breakfast (owner? Manager? Who knows!) asked us if we'd be eating breakfast the next morning and we replied that we would. She responded that she'd "see us tomorrow". She planned on having zero interaction with us for the next 24 hours...The kitchen is then locked, where you will have no access to a drink, snack, hot water for tea, or even ice. That's right, no ice machine. No snack machine. No way to warm food... There's a small metal table outside with 2 chairs but no other seating, so sitting outside to enjoy the weather is a no-go, although you wouldn't really want to as your view only includes a gravel parking lot and no ornamental landscaping, plus a smoke shop covered in neon signage directly across the street. The best part about this place is the location and how near it is to all the downtown shops. In closing, you'll get a clean bed and room, plus a lukewarm small breakfast, but leave your...