Ocean House

This is a fabulous hotel. Unfortunately, the food is terrible. The service is unimpressive. We had a birthday lunch on the veranda yesterdayand it was a big disappointment. It is pricey, which you expect but the food was marginal at best. Stay here but eat in downtown Westerly where there are lots of great places.

My husband and I stayed at Ocean House for a long weekend and had a phenomenal experience. The little details and care by the staff really made the hotel stand out as a wonderful place. We just took a trip to a different "luxury" hotel and couldn't help but compare our experience to our trip to Ocean House - which blew everything out of the water! We're already planning our next trip. Some standouts: - The spa was incredible! From the pool, to my massage, to the relaxation room, everything was perfect. Highly recommend. - The grounds and common spaces are impeccably maintained. We loved spending time in the main lobby, sitting by the firepit under the stars, and walking the beach. -Our room was well-appointed, clean, and the housekeeping staff continued to delight with little gifts and treats throughout our stay! -We ended up eating every meal at the hotel since we were there during the off-season, and really appreciated the friendly service by all of the hosts and waitstaff. Having one special dinner at Coast was also really lovely. I could see this hotel having a different feel during the season with more families (as there are a lot of family activities on offer), but we loved the cozy, quiet atmosphere of mostly couples. It felt like a real escape!

I’ll start off by saying that both Ocean House and Relais & Chateaux have ignored an email, listing my below complaints. The service at Ocean House was disorganized, the policies were arbitrary, and the staff were exceptionally rude & had no clue how to run a five-star property. Biggest issues we experienced— * Because the bar menu only offered snacks and junk food, we were made to eat lunch outside on the verandah in 45-degree, inclement weather, just to order a proper meal. Staff would not allow us to order a lobster roll outside and eat it at the indoor bar. * The verandah had no heat lamps, which is unacceptable for an ocean-front property with unpredictable weather, especially mid-May. It was drizzling & windy for the duration of our meal. * The front desk claimed blankets would be provided while dining outdoors, but only light shawls were available. I had to go upstairs to our room to grab a blanket and while venting by the elevators about how awful the service had been, a member of staff poked their head out of the service closet, stared at me, and slowly closed the door. * When we asked why indoor dining wasn’t possible, the front desk manager, Joe, responded glibly, “we can’t control the weather,” rather than addressing the restaurant’s inflexible and illogical seating policy. * We were offered a comped lunch and dinner as a gesture of goodwill, to the exclusion of wine. Given that we’d ordered an $800 bottle the night before, this felt both calculated and cheap. * Since our lunch didn’t wrap until 4:00pm, we didn’t even end up using the dinner offer. * We tried to order late-night room service and were hung up on by a staff member who couldn’t hear us over the pianist, playing in the lobby. No one called back, despite our room number being visible. * At the spa, my husband was initially denied access to the steam room; he was told that it was only for guests who’d booked treatments. We both had 50-minute massages booked the following afternoon and I was currently getting a pedicure at the spa. When he entered the “busy” steam room, it was completely empty. * On arrival, a bellman dropped our suitcase on the bumper of our car. * Days later, a different valet took nearly 15 minutes to retrieve our vehicle and triggered the car alarm twice in the process. * On our final night, we returned to the hotel after dining off-property and requested to order a bottle of wine. The hostess informed us we could drink our bottle “in the lobby,” as they were unwilling to allocate a proper table. * It took 25 minutes to deliver the bottle of wine to our room, with a 22% gratuity automatically applied for room service. Along with other service charges, this jacked the price of the $650 bottle we ordered to just under $850. Additionally, upon reviewing our credit card activity, we discovered pending charges, in excess of 30k across two cards (Chase & Amex) for a three-night stay. While we assume some of these charges will fall off, it appears the hotel has issued multiple overlapping authorizations and cannot properly distinguish between point redemptions and direct charges. This level of billing confusion is unacceptable and raises serious questions about how guest accounts are being managed. Not to be dramatic, but this was one of the worst hotel stays we’ve ever had. We tried to be understanding as there was an event on property during our stay, so we know staff were likely overwhelmed. We even gave the front desk the opportunity to rectify the situation and they failed miserably. It’s a shame because we enjoyed two prior stays at this property in 2020, but it’s clearly gone downhill since then. I’m aware that in this economy, my complaints sound very tone deaf; but no one enjoys being ripped off, and at 2k+ a night (not counting the enormous sum we spent on property), Ocean House absolutely swindled us.

4th visit over last two years and it gets better every time. Service, venue , staff and meals are outstanding. Wine tasting experience on Wed evenings are informative and fun. Every staff member we interacted with was professional, polite and responsive. Our room was beautiful, well appointed and spotless. My wife and I absolutely loved our experience.

Made a reservation for my middle aged husband and I for a Saturday brunch at The Bistro during our vacation in the area. Rebecca sat us in a side room by the windows looking out at Taylor Swift’s house. Seated my husband right next to the waitstaff area that meant he pretty much had servers coming for water pitchers, replacement silverware (several times - who needs that much replacement silverware coming out of a heavy noisy drawer?), coffee cups etc. The room was empty except for us. Why seat us here, do we look like we want to be interrupted by that noise? Or that we want to gawk at a celebrity home? We came to enjoy a meal overlooking the ocean, which I believe I noted in my reservation. On to the food… ordered the lobster salad, which came with the equivalent of 1 claw, costing $40 (would’ve taken a picture but didn’t want to be observed looking like a gawker). Ordered a salad and added a crab cake that is about 1.5 inches in diameter. Drank only water. Oh yeah, and the chef ‘amuse bouche’, which was 1 cucumber slice topped with hummus and paprika. The meal cost over $100. Ridiculous! At least the valet parking was only $5.