First my deepest sympathy to the staff and family of George Filopoulos who was the owner of Gurney's with big vision for the property and the east end. I got the pleasure to meet him several times and enjoyed speaking to him about the passion he had for Montauk. I decided to book a stay at Gurney for our anniversary. My boyfriend flew in from LA and we drove to the hotel. They said check in was 4 pm, at 4 pm our room was not ready. We waited a few mins and went up to the room. If you are not a person that like uphill steps, this place is not for you. Lots of steps to the room, when we arrived at the room it looked really nice, the view was spectacular, definitely an ocean view. We settled into our room and went to explore the property. We had dinner at the hotel the first night, it was good not great. Around 9 pm, we heard a dog barking, the dog barked for hours. I went to the front desk to complain, I was told the hotel is pet friendly and there was nothing they cannot any do about it, they can only have security go speak to the owner. Three nights in a row we could not sleep. The owner left the dog alone went out and the dog barked all night till 2am. One night a guest from another room knocked on our door to find out if we had a dog because they could not sleep. We asked the hotel to move us to another room. The gentleman Will at the front desk is amazing, he has empathy and knows how to take care of guest. He arranged to move us to a quiet room. Oh, I forgot the second day our beautiful view was replaced by a crane putting up a large white tent blocking the ocean front view. The construction started at 7am. Although the new room had more steps to get to, we really like the room and Amani the bell man with two other bell men helped us move our belongings to the other room. They were amazing!!!!!! After settling into the room, we hanged out and I wanted to surprise my boyfriend by extended our stay. I went down to the front desk to ask to spend another night. I went on their website and book another night at a room on the beach. Will had informed me that the room we were in was booked. We checked out of the room and waited for the room on the beach to be ready. On Sat at 2.19 pm received a text that the room was ready. I went to the front desk to get the key, I was told that was a mistake, housekeeping called and said the room was not ready. At 4 pm I went back to front desk for an update. I was told that there was a problem with our room. They said in a few hours they will have another room with two beds. My things were already delivered to the room, I asked my boyfriend to go with Will to see what the problem is, He came back and said there was a leak in the shower, and it did not look too bad, Will informed me that engineering was looking into the problem. I was exhausted, we had friends staying at the hotel and we had early dinner plans. I arrived at the room, it was right on the beach, my boyfriend went to take a shower, The steam from the shower started to peel the ceiling and it was falling all over him, the shower was also not working properly, the water was dripping not flowing. When the pieces of the ceiling fell down, we could see black mold in the ceiling, black mold was everywhere, that means it was leaking for a while. I went to take a shower at my friend's room. That was crazy, not in a million years did we think the ceiling will go from bad to worst. I wanted to have some wine, the glasses in the room were dirty with lipstick on the rim. I called down to guest services to get clean glasses it never showed up, we had one towel in the room, had to call to get more towels, that took hours to arrive. They warned that something was wrong with the fridge, it was making a lot of noise, they promised engineer was going to show up, he never did, we had to sleep with ear plugs. The room needs to get some overhaul and repairs. Furniture should be replaced; floors need to be cleaned, housekeeping needs to do better. The staff at the front desk can only do so much, they report to the hotel manager, if you say you are a 5-start property, you need to operate on that level. No one should come out of their room and see a ceiling looking like that, moisture and mold, hire a contractor, find the leak, fix and paint it. Also, the hotel manager needs to be replying to guest who are leaving so many horrible reviews of this beautiful place. Take a moment and read the reviews, see where you can do better, make repairs, have a meeting with your team, in every breakdown there is a breakthrough. It's not ok to ignore the reviews. Also maybe have the dogs to one side of the property. Guest needs to sleep. We are paying to stay at the hotel, not asking to stay for free. One of the owner key strategies was listening to his guests, providing a resort experience that is both classic and contemporary. He was committed making every stay every memorable. I hope his legacy continues and the manger gets this property back to the vision that George had for this resort and the community. Again, Will and Amani was amazing!!!! If you venture to stay at this resort, ask for Will at the front desk. Amani at the door. They care. Check out the gallery of photos. Photos do not lie. GH…
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.