REVIEW: CHERRY GROVE BEACH HOTEL
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THE CHERRY GROVE BEACH HOTEL
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CHERRY GROVE FIRE ISLAND NEW YORK
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Junk Stored At Grove Hotel 
Molded Grove Hotel Bathrooms
I just got back from one of my favorite places, Cherry Grove in Fire Island. Over the next week, I am going to give our millions of readers reviews on several places there, but the first one I have to give you is on The Cherry Grove Beach Hotel. And it is not happy. Having stayed there so many times over the years, I knew this was no Hilton Hotel. But they always had reasonable rates ( compared to Fire Island standards ) and last summer the place was sold to a new owner. I have been very busy all summer in the Hampton's and working on our websites, but after so many e-mails from the new owners saying how packed the place was and when I looked at their website, all the rooms now had Air Conditioning and TV's, and even know the room rates went up a huge amount, I booked a room there thinking the place was finally fixed up. How wrong I was.The Cherry Grove Beach Hotel is the biggest dump I ever saw, worse than when the old owners had it. There rates for this dump vary from day to day but they go as high as $500.00 a night. And you may ask what do you get for this? Well you don't get beds like they advertise, you get more like cots. You get a bathroom with mold all over the ceilings, walls with pipes hanging out of the walls, ripped carpeting, linen that is never changed while you are there and windows that are painted shut. You get a TV that almost every channel says can't get a signal. The lock on the door was broken and every time it took me 10 minutes jiggling the key to get in. My lungs are killing me from breathing all the mold spores in the room. I woke up with bite marks everywhere, and I don't know what was biting me in that room. You can't even go to the front desk and complain and check out and get a refund, because they do not give refunds. There website uses photos from probably 25 years ago of everyone dancing in there club the Ice Palace. It says dance till dawn. I guess you could, but you would be dancing by yourself. Even at there highpoint on Saturday night, the place would be considered dead by almost any club standard. There looked to be very few people even booked into the hotel. They used to give after summer discounts, but this new owner still thinks its summer with these outrageous prices.
I talked to one guest from New Orleans. He said he had been coming there for years and would never stay again. He is going to go to the Belvedere, which is one of the best guest houses anywhere. I talked to Fire Island residents and former business owners there. They said because of the shape of the hotel and the very high prices, people are just going elsewhere and the businesses all over Cherry Grove are suffering. I had my best friend come over to the island and he was so disgusted by the room, he went elsewhere. The fact remains, you can get along just so much by ripping off customers before they go somewhere else. I consider this hotel unsafe, Garbage and wood stored on the side of the hotel, Rusted fire extinguishers. Toilets that take 3 or 4 flushes to flush. No ice machine and they tell you to go to the bar, but if it isn't open, you are out of luck.
One last note, I also noticed that the owners apartment on top of this garbage dump was being renovated to look beautiful. I saw them working on french doors and workers painting his place. Nice to have another greedy business owner in Cherry Grove !
Comments
Having just battled mold in the lungs from a work place... and a 10 day hospital trip... I would report them to the county health department. This stuff is NOT healthy to breath in and damn well might kill a person! PS You can check out a place with a ten dollar mold testing kit from hardware stores. I suggest everyone check their homes and their work places. Much of the US has had excessive rain this year.
Unless you are into lecherous staff members spying on you during intimate moments don't go. Disgusting. I'll never be back and will never recommend this place to anyone. I was completely embarrassed and humiliated and it ruined our trip.
James