I rarely have negative comments to post, that being said, I would not stay at the Island Inn again. In fact I don’t know how the hotel can in good conscience rent out the first floor rooms let alone charge $220 a night!!. Management is well aware of the problem and they have had numerous complaints (heard this from the front desk staff). You WILL be woken up by the tenants above you walking around. If you are unfortunate enough to have children in that room, you will be miserable!! The townhouse suite above our room had a spiral metal staircase directly over our bed. Spiral staircases are notoriously noisy even when trying to be quiet. 4 children running up and down the stairs well you can imagine….

My wife and I chose to visit Martha’s Vineyard for our anniversary. We wanted to stay at a romantic B & B. Believing that the main tourist season was well over and waiting for Hurricane Earl to pass, we booked our stay 2 weeks before our anniversary. Mistake. Everything was booked in Oak Bluff with the exception of the Island Inn. That should have been a hint.

We stayed in room 37 in Building G, the ground floor. The building has two levels of rooms with the second floor rooms set up as two level townhouses. The building is well maintained with recent paint. The room was clean though the layout is somewhat unusual. The bedroom in the two room layout is closest to the hall. The walls appear very thin with little insulation or soundproofing, particularly the ceiling. We were woken up the first morning at 7 am. For the next 90 minutes the kids ran up and down the stairs. It was just short of being inside a bass drum. I called the office several times and at 8 am finally reached someone and was told there were no other rooms available. We made the best of it and started our anniversary a little early. We came back from the beach and took a nap at 5:30 and were awoken at 6 pm. Sunday, as we expected, no alarm was necessary. The day started at 7:20 with the pitter patter of 4 sets of feet running up and down the stairs. At check out I spoke to the front desk staff who listened to my complaints. They nodded agreement, and in perfect customer service fashion, apologized for a known problem. If only I had known in advance. Unless the Management undertakes a major renovation to sound proof the downstairs units, no one should rent a first floor unit!! Please be forewarned.