Comfort Inn Ellsworth - Bar Harbor

The stay itself was clean, quiet, and affordable, and we were very happy with it until checkout. We came to Acadia with our dog and toddler, and appreciated the little touches for dogs, like treats and a water bowl. There was a different soup for guests each evening around dinner. For the record, I didn’t have an $8 per night resort fee on my bill, despite what other reviewers said. The evening front desk staff we saw most often were very friendly. Checkout was the problem. On our last morning I went to return the keycards, but the man at the desk was on the phone with another customer. I waited a couple minutes, then left the cards in the return bucket because my family was waiting in the car and we planned one last hike in Acadia. They already had my credit card on file, and I’ve never had a problem leaving keys at the front desk when a place has my payment details. When we got back from the hike, I had a voicemail from the front desk saying there was a problem charging my card. He told me to call back immediately and said he’d hate to have to get the police involved. I called and asked what was wrong, since they’d charged the deposit to that same card at check-in. He said cards sometimes couldn’t be charged unless physically swiped at their terminal. I told him that had never been an issue elsewhere and asked why he thought it was okay to threaten police over what seemed like a misunderstanding. They had my card and ID, so we weren’t trying to leave without paying. He brushed that off and asked for another card number. We gave him one, he said, “That worked,” and hung up. We had a great experience apart from that poor checkout interaction. You can feel comfortable staying here, just make sure you leave with the final payment receipt in hand.

We stayed here during the first week, then at another hotel the following week. That place had a 3-star rating, but Comfort inn was much better: the rooms and staff were better, breakfast was better, and there was plenty of parking. I’d recommend it over the 3-star hotel down the road.

The front desk was so kind and gave us chocolate chip cookies. We arrived in the evening and tried the lobster bisque soup they had that night. It was really good, and there was a different soup to try each day. Loved the service!

The hotel is central to lots of amenities in town, and they serve soup in the evening. The staff were friendly and very helpful. The manager, Mr. Zuberi, was especially excellent, knowledgeable about the area and happy to help.