The Inns at Equinox

We enjoyed our business retreat with our group of 20 at the Equinox very much. Maxine was taking care of us in our dining room gatherings most evenings. She was outstanding! We all literally clapped for her, that's how everyone felt about her going above and beyond to make us feel welcome. Always smiling and always eager to please. Also, compliments to the Chef and kitchen. Great job preparing our delicious meals. It came out hot and timely. Not an easy task for a group our size!

Beautiful Grounds, great rooms, wonderful staff and food was great! Take a drive up to Mt. Equinox, go to the Outlets and explore the History and Architecture in Manchester or just relax with a drink by the firepit on the deck!

A friend of mine and I decided to take a mom‘s celebratory vacation to Vermont. I grew up in the Manchester area and she had never been. This was something to celebrate two single mothers who accomplished their children graduating high school and moving onto their college years. We had booked a double queen room with a Mountain View back in July as the rooms for the week we were traveling were booking up fast. I took the prepaid option just to ensure that we indeed got the room that we wanted…… Upon arrival Wednesday we were informed that there was an engineering issue with our room. And they offered us an upgrade. ….. I asked if we still had the same Mountain View. And James politely said no. But we still had a view. He also stated that due to the engineering issue there were no other options for the Mountain View rooms available…. Mind you we paid an inflated price for this room. We were escorted to the Orvis house and after going up two flights of stairs, we came to the Sweeney Todd room. Which we were greeted with another flight of stairs….. we realized this only after we realize that none of our key cards worked. We dragged our luggage back downstairs to the front desk, where James had escorted us to our room and had to use his master key to let us in. Mind you we got there at 5 PM and had a plan to go on an evening hike……. he stated the engineer would come out and fix the lock so we should have access to the room. Upon arrival of the engineer, he was unable to fix the room so every time we needed to unload our luggage from our car and hike it across the parking lot up to the room we needed to stop at the front desk and get James to unlock the room. We were not offered bag service or any assistance with the stairs. After the engineer said that he needed to fix everything we were asked by James to stick around the property so we can gain access to the room. Needless to say we were unable to participate in our hike. We changed and went down to the Falcon bar to have dinner. At 7:05 PM James informed us that our room was operational and our keys should work. We finished our dinner had a cocktail and went back to our room from which we still had no access. We did not have access to our room until about 11:15 pm…. from which James had to come across the property and let us in yet again. His solution was not to leave the room for the evening because we had no way to gain access back to our room. He also offered to comp us the night since we missed our hike and also did not have reasonable accommodations. Not to mention the room is dirty. The toilet seat is broken. The refrigerator was not working and there is absolutely no view whatsoever. It is in an attic….. The next morning we were greeted at the front desk by another young man named TJ who assured us that the room would be fixed that we should wait around in the morning for engineering to come and take care of it. At 1 o’clock in the afternoon, we still did not have access to our room. Not to mention the refrigerator failure cost me my medication as it had gotten above temperature and we had no access to ice. When I let TJ know about the situation, he handed us a couple of plastic bags and told us to go to the bar and ask them for ice…… Which is unreasonable. I had asked to speak to the facility manager and they gave me a business card for a gentleman named Kyle. I left Kyle a voicemail and did not receive a return call but was informed by the front desk that he had left the property for the day instead of returning my call And that I should try again tomorrow. We left and tried to salvage the afternoon and arrived back at 5:30 PM, where we were greeted by TJ stating that they had to change out the entire lock system in our room and we should have gotten keys. We asked him how that would be possible as we were not on the property and did not receive any call, email or text. He then went and got the engineer to create new keys for us. But unfortunately, we missed our dinner reservations at the chop house….. I did ask again about the refrigerator and he Told me I needed to speak to Kyle and the best bet would be to hang around tomorrow and wait for him to come in. The next day, I waited in the lobby to speak to Kyle. I explained the situation to him in detail and he said that he would be willing to comp our rooms and if we wanted to extend our stay, he would make sure that it was up to standard. I tried to call him later that afternoon as we had still not received the refrigerator he had promised that morning. When I tried to get a hold of him, there was another young woman named Taina Who intercepted the phone call. I told her I wanted to speak to Kyle as we had spoken previously and she said she would take care of it from there……. at 5:30 PM, we finally received some ice and a small refrigerator. She informed me that I needed to speak to her in the morning before I checked out in regards to the comping of the rooms. The next morning during checkout, I waited at the front desk for about 30 minutes as she was showing rooms to a potential wedding party. They told me I should come back later to speak to her. I let them know that I was supposed to meet with her before I checked out as this was going to delay our departure and future plans. When she arrived at the front desk, she said she only offered me compensation for the first two nights, even though we paid an inflated price for the Mountain View for the Friday night stay. I informed her that we were not in the room that we had paid for. She said she needed to speak to Kyle in regards to what he had offered us for compensation…. She also informed me that my $20 drink credit credits per night were not going to be honored even though I am a preferred member and it is listed in my reservation. At 4:30 in the afternoon, I received a phone call from a private number and it was Kyle. Stating that he was going to compensate me back for the three nights... minus the credits I used for meals at the bar. Which is absolutely reasonable…. an hour after that conversation Taina called and said that she was only going to send me back $538.00 mind you I spent almost $1100 on the room plus another $150 upon check in for incidentals. She then stated that she was having a hard time refunding my card on file that accounting would have to do it on Monday. She assured me she would email me a copy once it was refunded to my card and give me a phone call to follow up. I tried to give the resort a call today as no email, credit, or phone call was received. I asked again to speak to the facility manager. I was once again told that I should call back tomorrow to speak to her or Kyle. I informed them of the situation and they gave me the name of the facility manager and told me I was welcome to leave a voicemail.……. The saddest part of this experience is that there was another couple that was experiencing the same kind of situation we were in, in front of us. And they were offered a king suite with Mountain View.…. this was after we were told that there was no other options for us…. I’d also like to further state that I understand that I am a younger individual. I am a retired combat veteran and I do have some significant scaring and tattooing that is very visible. When I came in with everything covered, I was treated in a very professional manner. When I arrived post hike, in athletic attire. I was treated as if I was a nuance and they tried to usher me away from the lobby telling me I just needed to call at a later time or date. It’s very unfortunate as this iconic hotel had a prestigious reputation that it did not live up to.

We were here for a family wedding, and the wedding was absolutely beautiful. I was nervous at first because previous reviews were not that good. We stayed in a 3-bedroom townhouse, and it was clean, comfortable and the bathrooms were updated. So, we were happy our experience was a good one.

The course continues to be a group favorite. The changes and improvements over the years have only made it better. The golf course staff is attentive and welcoming, especially Joan MacDonald who insures that all things run smoothly for our group! Many more years to come!