Why It's So Hard to Get a Reservation at The Surf Lodge in Montauk

June 3, 2008 at 3:56 PM | 0 Comments

This morning we noticed a recent comment on one of our stories about the new Hamptons hotel hotspot, The Surf Lodge from HotelChatter member NoVacancy.

NoVacancy was peeved, to say the least, that they could not get a hold of anyone at Surf Lodge to make a reservation. Here's the frustrating account:

At the time of this posting, I have emailed the Surf Lodge 3 times inquiring about rates and availability with not one single reply. They have recently removed the email addresses from their website.

I have also called (no exaggeration) 12 times to only receive a busy signal or no answer.

They said the hotel is "beachy" and "laid back" but this is ridiculous! This might have been acceptable in the 80's club scene to create a heightened sense of exclusivity, but it most certainly is not today.

We often forget that we are in the hospitality business not Cain Nightclub. Here's an idea... Service your customers!

Uh oh. We feared that this serene little Hamptons spot was turning into another nightclub with rooms attached, at least as far as service goes. Thus we set out to get an official answer from the hotel about reserving a room.

Keep reading for the Surf Lodge's Official Response

Here's what Steve Kasuba, Director of Marketing and Communications for MCM Hospitality had to say about NoVacancy's unsuccessful attempts to book a room:

We are actually quite overwhelmed with reservation requests and are doing our best to get back to the thousands of emails that continue to pour in daily.
The email address was indeed removed from the website for this reason, we do not want to upset anybody else! To add insult to injury, our phone systems have been working sporadically, and people are having a difficult time getting through.
We are all very concerned with maintaining our mission at The Surf Lodge, to not only be "laid back and beachy" but also to maintain the highest level of customer service. To that end, we have been working around the clock to rectify these issues and to get The Surf Lodge reservations systems working smoothly.
Our on-line reservation system will be on-line within the month, the phone company assures us that our new system will be operating flawlessly any moment now, AND every email that has been received will be answered. Thank you!

We kind of expected that Surf Lodge would be a difficult place to secure a room. Afterall, this is the Hamptons and models, modelizers, Hamptons elite and other famous and infamous people probably get first priority. Throw in the Sam Talbot restaurant and the small amount of rooms, and the place fills up quick.

Yet we have a few suggestions for Surf Lodge: First, we would go all Godfather on that phone company and have them fix the phone lines ASAP. Also, get that online reservations system running ASAP as well, preferably before June is out.

Finally, invest in some spam filters and hire a bunch of interns to have all legit emails answered promptly. Just letting us know the hotel is all booked up is still better than no answer at all.

Tags: Hotel Booking Tips / Hamptons Hotels / MCM Hospitality

by juliana

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