Henry S.
Yelp
I do not normally write reviews unless I either had a superb experience or an awful one, and this one was much closer to the latter. I came here with my mother for 2 nights and we were sincerely disappointed is to say the very least. Before I get into everything wrong with this stay, I will briefly discuss the actual redeeming qualities of the establishment just so you understand that I'm not being overly harsh. The facade of the hotel as well as the lobby and tea area are legitimately quite nice, and do feel quite historic in its essence. Additionally, the staff themselves were quite hospitable and were accommodating when things were requested, and the location of the hotel is probably the biggest draw, but this is as far as the positives go. Those 3 factors of the stay are the only thing preventing this from being a 1 star review. Anyway let's get into it.
As aforementioned, the lobby and facade of the Harraseeket do give off quite a historic feel, but upon checking in to our room, it felt much more like a road hotel. Additionally, the room was not vacuumed sufficiently and looked as though it had been cleaned with indifference, which is quite frankly unacceptable when you are paying this much per night (which I will get to later). Now admittedly, if the room was the only qualm then it really wouldn't have been that bad, except it unfortunately gets much much worse. My mother loves to swim and the pool at this inn is a well known draw for the place, however it is currently CLOSED INDEFINITELY, which we were not informed of in any manner prior to arrival. Anyway, aside from the initial disappointment, we were still quite hopeful as to the quality of the hotel and the many amenities that were supposedly offered. After we got ourselves situated in the room we went down for the afternoon tea, where we were greeted with pastries that would be described as painfully mediocre, and some of them were flat out bland and stale. Upon realizing the quality of the tea time itself, we left the hotel and went into the main of Freeport (which is about a 5 minute walk), where we had a nice time and some better food.
Upon the next day, we were looking forward to the "delicious breakfast" that was advertised, that we were told to make reservations for (which we did). When we went down to go to our breakfast, we were treated to a short line, which was quite surprising given the fact that supposedly all of the guests had reserved a time for their complementary breakfasts. Even more ironic, it was quite astounding that you even had to wait to be seated in the first place given the fact that the "delicious breakfast" was in reality a pretty standard breakfast buffet, and was not even of high quality. While the waitstaff was quite pleasant, the food itself was not remotely worth its supposed value. Additionally relating to breakfast, we were served incredibly bad coffee to the point that I didn't even finish a full mug (which is saying something as I love coffee). Following breakfast we went to spend the day in Portland (which I would highly recommend), and did not return until around 6-7pm. Upon our return, we found that housekeeping had not come to our room and had thus not replaced any of our towels. Now this was quite surprising to us, so my mother went down to ask about this. She was informed that there was a "sign in the bathroom". This so called "sign in the bathroom", was in reality a literal sticker on the bathroom mirror where in very small text it mentions that if you want housekeeping services they must be requested.
The next morning the breakfast quality was a little better, but the coffee was still just as bad, and the line to be seated was twice as long. Standing in the line did provide me with some valuable information, as I was able to speak with a guest of the hotel who had been coming for 20+ years, who informed me that the previous owner had passed away about 3 years ago, and the hotel officially came under new management about 3 months ago. This made a lot more sense to me, as when reading about this hotel I had only ever seen good things, and was incredibly surprised by the experience we were receiving. For reference, she agreed that she would not be returning again.
In conclusion, this hotel is absolutely NOT the hotel that it once used to be, and the new owner is absolutely capitalizing on its historic appeal and prior reputation as a complete and total cash grab. To call this hotel a rip off would be an understatement. Again, I don't blame the staff, and am sympathetic toward the breakfast restaurant as they are understaffed, but I most certainly am not going to act as though that is not a management issue. I would strongly advise that you NOT rely on older reviews as the hotel is sincerely not offering the same quality of experience as it once did, and if I were you I wouldn't be paying near $500 a night (after taxes) for terrible coffee, mediocre breakfast, poor internet, and no room service.