Finger Lakes Inn & Suites

I wouldn’t recommend this hotel. We came for two nights for a wedding in Hammondsport, and although our room was clean, the stay had several problems. On the second day, the TV stopped working properly and there was no hot water. My wife and I couldn’t shower before the wedding or before leaving for the next part of our trip on day three. The hotel also seemed to be housing people there long term. At Friday check-in, they tried to charge me nearly $200.00. I explained that I’d booked and paid through Booking.com, but the clerk said there was no record. After I showed the email confirming my CC payment, he did something on the computer and said it was all right. I asked for a partial refund, since we stayed and the room was clean. A full refund wouldn’t have been fair. The desk clerk said he couldn’t handle it and gave me the manager’s email. I wrote on Monday after we got home; they replied that day and said they’d get back to me by Tuesday morning. By Friday there was still no answer. I emailed again and was told I’d hear by noon, but nothing came. It’s now been over ten days.

UPDATE: After we posted the review below on Oct 4th, the hotel apologized and said the credit would take 5-7 days. I checked, and our credit card has now been credited $112, so I’ve changed our rating from 1-Star to 2-Stars. Mistakes happen, even though we haven’t had this happen before. If the credit had been made promptly after one call instead of six, I would have given 3 or 4 stars. Oct 04: We never stayed there, but Finger Lakes Inn & Suites charged our card $112 two days after the date of the reservation we had cancelled. My wife booked months earlier for a wedding nearby on the first Saturday of September. Weeks before the one-night stay, we needed a larger room for more family, so we cancelled within the period when we weren’t supposed to be charged, then booked another hotel with a five-person suite. My wife called the desk after the charge. The person asked her to call back because the staff member who handled these matters wasn’t working. When she called again, a man who sounded like the same person acknowledged the mistake and said he’d refund or credit the card. She called six times in all, and each time he said he would take care of it, but didn’t. We said we’d give him until Oct 8th, one month, to issue the refund. If it still didn’t happen, we thought we’d call the State Police or Sheriff’s Office in the area to file charges. It felt like clear-cut theft, and everything was documented. We were prepared to travel back from eastern NY to follow through with the legal part. $112 won’t break us, but it’s the principle, and we wondered how many others this had happened to.

ZERO STARS. There was no coffee in the room, and the coffee in the lobby was cold. The vending machine didn’t work either. Our door also wouldn’t lock properly, and there was a weed smell in the hallway, with drug addicts outside the front door. The room hadn’t been cleaned after the previous occupant. There were used towels and soap, plus hair in the bathtub. When we complained, they said housekeeping wasn’t available, but brought fresh towels and soap and new sheets, though the sheets looked used too and I can’t confirm that.

The last night, we woke at 1:30 AM to young kids making all kinds of noise on the floor above us. They didn’t even sound five years old. This wasn’t the best hotel we’ve stayed at, but it was NASCAR weekend at Watkins Glen and every hotel was booked. We’re 75 and 70, and being stuck on the 4th floor with the building’s only elevator out of order the whole time made for a rough stay. We arrived the first afternoon and it was already broken. The hotel had set aside one whole floor for homeless people, we found out after making reservations, and signs said not to leave things in the room. There was a TV and coffee pot in the room, but no remote or coffee. We asked for coffee on day two and waited around five hours before it was brought up for my room and two others. My 73-year-old sister, also on the 4th floor, had four people in her room and asked for two more towels, but never received them. I felt for the maids, hauling sheets, towels, and a heavy sweeper up and down five flights of stairs.