Laingdon Hotel

Stayed here recently, room 12, 4^th floor. We enjoyed it. The room was a decent size and the AC worked fine in the middle of August. Cute balcony overlooking the ocean. Lots of charm here.
The negatives were the tired mattress and the lack of a proper blanket. Still, I’d come back here again, although there are several other local B&B type hotels that I might want to try first.

I made a reservation for 2 rooms but needed to change the date of our stay. When I called to try to change, the male owner told me that they couldn’t book the weekend prior because they had a family reunion to attend. So, I cancelled. I saw a charge on my credit card for the full amount and when I called to inquire, the man said, in no uncertain terms, «TOO BAD». I reminded him of our conversation (how else would I know that he had a family reunion?) and he was extremely rude and denied it and refused to honor the refund since I didn’t have a cancellation #. I do not recall receiving a cancellation #, which was my mistake, but these bed and breakfast places are so antiquated, i didn’t expect one quite honestly. He continued to tell me that they lost a lot of business because they couldn’t book the room and I was baffled because he didn’t seem to understand that he was the one that made the mistake!!! Honor and integrity will take you a long way in life; obviously this man is willing to compromise that for a measly $ 275. I ended up staying at the Sea Spray Inn, which was simply amazing.
Stayed June 2015

Stayed at the Laingdon this past weekend for a quick retreat from the city. The location alone was well worth the money as we were able to enjoy the Laingdon’s ocean view from the front porch and 2^nd level balcony. The room was small but a good value compared to other B&Bs that we called whose rooms started $ 75 more than the one we had at the Laingdon. Our room was clean and nicely appointed, actually better than I expected from the limited photos on their website, so I’ve included two of my own. We found the owners to be friendly but not intrusive whatsoever. They are older seniors, quiet but certainly not rude. There don’t seem to be many Unilocal reviews for most Ocean Grove inns/b&bs for some reason, so I felt compelled to write this review for this hotel given what I feel was a great overall experience at this hotel.

This is the worse place I could’ve even imagine staying. I paid $ 190/​night and when I got to the room the lock was taped with black duct tape. I immediately sent the owner an email and later I found her in the lobby. She was nasty, rude, and had an attitude with me because of the email. I did not say anything that was not true. How am I paying almost $ 200/​night for a room where the lock is taped? Completely unacceptable. She became very defensive and I guess she wanted to show off because her daughter was in front of her. I would never recommend this play or stay here again. It not only had the lock issue, it’s dated, smells old, décor is awful. The only good thing, is in front of the beach and the bathroom was nice. Other than that, stay away from this place. It is not worth the money.

I just stayed at the Laingdon Hotel for ATP Festival. While I have taken to putting the vast majority of my hotel/​motel/​B&B reviews on Tripadvisor because it is dedicated to those businesses and I can more easily keep track of where I’ve stayed when returning for a future trip, in this case I felt the previous review was so off-​kilter that I needed to post something over here. Although I should probably thank the previous reviewer for helping to scare people off so that when I went to book for ATP far later than I should have, the Laingdon had two rooms left when most of the rest of Asbury Park and Ocean Grove were sold out. I got a very nice room and had a decent experience at the Laingdon. It’s not perfect, but it’s dern nice if you understand what B&Bs are like and what you are likely to get.
First, it seems like the last guy had some problem with the fact that the Laingdon (which is clearly a B&B even though it calls itself «Hotel») doesn’t automatically bump you up to the nicest room when you book a cheaper room but there’s nicer ones available. Maybe some B&Bs do that, but the vast majority of them in my experience do not. For most of them, including the Laingdon, you choose the room, or at least the type of room (i.e. ocean view, porch, no ocean view, etc. with prices accompanying each room or type) when you book, and when you show up, what you booked is what you get. Hotels, like the Marriott, Sheraton, etc. are busy year-​round and are operating on a different economy of scale, so it’s pretty easy for them to bump up a traveler to a nicer room if there’s one available, although they do not always do that either (unless you’re in some loyalty program that entitles you to an automatic upgrade). B&B’s, by contrast, have periods during the year (or even during the week) when they are definitely not busy and not full, and if they went bumping people up to the nicest room every time they had a nicer room available, with no corresponding change in price, then pretty soon those rooms, which are often larger with more amenities requiring more cleaning and maintenance, would be in use far out of proportion to the benefit the innkeeper *might* be getting from a repeat visitor.
Moving right along, again if you stay at a lot of B&B’s you’ll find that there are two different types of owners. The first kind pretty much puts you in your room, maybe says hello to you once a day at breakfast time, but the rest of the time leaves the guests alone unless they specifically request something. The second kind want to chat with the guests, hang out, make conversation, and generally be more involved with them. Obviously the older couple who runs the Laingdon falls in the second group. Also, it may come as a shock but there are B&B guests who actually appreciate an owner being friendly and chatty and don’t like it when the owner disappears after check-​in. I would add that the way the Laingdon is set up, the main living room, which is also the lobby area for guests, is clearly where the couple who lives there «live» during the day, in contrast to some other B&B’s that have a living room mostly for the guests and the proprietors do their daily sitting and TV-​watching in a different wing of the house. You can’t blame the owners for wanting to hang out in that living room because the view of the ocean is there, and they probably want to enjoy their own property too. In any case, like most guests I was only in the lobby for like 5 minutes a day in between going out sightseeing and to ATP shows, so exchanging a few words with the owner during those 5 minutes wasn’t burdensome.
I was pretty impressed by the fact that when I arrived at 9 pm after several hours of train ride, in the cab of someone who did not know the area and couldn’t find the house, Bill the owner was actually out on the front steps waving me in. He insisted on carrying my bag up several flights of stairs (no elevator here) and was just nice as could be. My room with ocean view and fireplace was lovely, quite clean (I would have liked a little more frequent change of the sheets), had a minifridge and wet bar, and best of all REALLY good plumbing! Most older house B&Bs have wimpy water pressure — not this joint. Wi-​fi worked great. Breakfast was cereal/​muffins/​toast/​fruit on paper plates, so if you are looking for fancy hot foods on china go somewhere else — again given my agenda I was just as glad to skip the fuss.
Only bad thing about this place is that in hot weather, the room ACs apparently don’t work well and drip water, causing a plastic bag to have been placed over part of the furniture under the unit. I would be cautious of staying here in hot weather, but for end of September, not a problem — the balcony doors that open on the ocean provided more than enough cool breeze. Overall it was a nice place for a stay, at least in the cooler months. A little pricey but for a sold-​out festival weekend, that’s expected.

My husband and I stayed at the Laingdon Hotel for a week in September. The fact that it is one of the only hotels in Ocean Grove with Ocean Front rooms made it a must stay. The rooms are clean, comfortable, and beautifully decorated. The view was spectacular, especially from our private terrace. It was getting a little cold a couple nights so we were able to use the fireplace in our room which was very romantic. I enjoyed the breakfasts. The muffins were amazing. The family that runs it were very helpful and friendly and made sure we had what we needed. hey also gave us suggestions on places in the area to go for meals and entertainment. Ocean Grove is a very quaint little town and the beach is beautiful and clean. Parking on the weekends is tight but so much is in walking distance that we just left our car where it was and enjoyed the beautiful views on the boardwalk. We will definitely be back.

This place was positively awful, and no matter what your tastes or preferences are, I find it hard to believe that anyone could truly be satisfied here.
First off, we were staying during the Jersey shore’s off-​season, over the holidays this past New Year’s. There was one other couple there for the first night or two we were there, and for the last two nights we were all alone.
Now, at EVERY other hotel I’ve stayed at in small towns across America, you agree on the advertised rate and get the room you pay for. If, on the other hand, there are nicer rooms available, upon check-​in you give the customer the best room you have, with the understanding that it’s better to keep people happy and make them feel special than to have empty suites.
The Laingdon does not believe in this very basic element of customer service, and even though we weren’t in the cheapest room in the house, we were by no means in a suite. We were in a moderate room with a view of the water, but there were at least 4 empty rooms that were much nicer that remained empty.
To make things worse, the male proprietor came up to us as we entered one night and said we could use the suite’s living room and fireplace, but we couldn’t sleep there. WEIRD!!! Why would you make this gesture and spring it on us but only go like halfway!!!
The man who works here is nice and old and has a weird toupee, and I’m sorry the fact that you have to sit and listen to him go on and on about crap if you want some coffee from downstairs is something many associate with country charm, I just think it’s annoying. He’s nice, but man we got all stealthy at times trying to strategically avoid this guy…
The woman who works here is nasty and rude and if you call with any sort of question, she basically barks at you on the phone. If you hate your job, find another one, lady…
In addition to this, the beds are extremely uncomfortable, the heat and air are incredibly noisy, and the wireless internet is spotty at best. Oh and if there’s a problem with the internet, don’t call the front desk to complain or the crazy mean lady will eat your face.
We stayed for 4 nights and will never return, and have encouraged many others to avoid it as well. I normally don’t go through the trouble to create a page for a business that I don’t like, but people really need to avoid this place. You go for country charm and beautiful ocean views, but you LEAVE because of bad service and sub-​par accommodations.