We stayed at the Clark House in Vineyard Haven several weeks ago. The lady who seemed to be in charge of The Clark House set a new standard for rudeness. One of the things we have liked about B&B's that the host/hostess have been friendly and uniformly helpful when we need suggestions as to where to eat, visit, etc. Not with this lady. She seemed very unwilling to talk to us about anything.

The B&B itself was pretty good. There was a bit of road noise. But it was clean and the beds were comfortable. But we would only go back there if the owner got rid of this lady who seemed to be an employee. She was BAD!

I will start by saying that the rooms were decent and clean. Everything else was horrific.
We got to the hotel in the middle of the night after an almost 10 hour drive... Waking up in the morning we walked down to breakfast at 10:07, we were told (barked at, to be precise) that breakfast was over at 10:00. After some reasoning we were offered coffee and leftovers (they were there anyhow but we needed to beg to get them). Later on we were notified that we had to move a room, something we knew about previously and what was NOT a problem, except that we were asked (barked at again, may we note) to check out immediately from our room and told that we would get another room only at 3 pm. After telling the host that this seemed a little unreasonable (expecially since we were paying a high price for this inn... way too high..) we were again talked down to... and then were again told we had to get the things out RIGHT NOW! (great way to start a vacation by the way). We cleared our things and dearly hoped to clear ourselves from the inn (or from its new name - the inn that made us want get OUT of it all the time) yet we were prepaid for the room. We thought we could put the things in the new room without staying in it (since they said they needed to finish cleaning it) and upon walking into the open room were "surprisingly" screamed at again (what is that, 4 times from the time we got up on our first day of vacation?).... We later got the room, which again we have to note was really ok.
We were told later by the other owner that this inn isn't for everyone... Well, that is right but we would like to rephrase that: This inn is certainly for NO one.
Furthermore, Martha's Vineyard is one of the nicest places with the nicest people we have ever met. We stayed an extra day (in a different inn - VERY VERY NICE!!!) just to change our feel of the island after this one and that is what made this experience even more extreme. If you do not want to be nice to people, please DO NOT run an inn.... Or at least notify guests in advance that an angry face will greet them upon entering...

We might have been satisfied with our stay, but our room at the front of the house at one of the busiest intersections on the island was very unpleasant. The traffic noise, busses, motorcycles, etc . was unbearable. We were there for Friday and Saturday nights, and we got very little sleep. When I mentioned it to the owner, he said that we should have realised because we had a "front" room that was slightly less expensive. How were we to know that this meant we would have to deal with loud traffic noise all night long? As for the cleanliness, breakfast and hospitality, etc., all of it was mediocre at best. We did enjoy the bicycles!

Dirty Old Inn.....My husband and I got to Clark Inn around 4pm the day of pur arrival and we were greeted by an envelop waiting for us with just my name on it; there was no one to greet us. It contained the key to our room. We entered the very tiny room which smelled old and unused for a looooooooong time. We found one half used robe behind the door and another dirty robe inside an old closet. The rom was poorly decorated and looked like something from an old scary movie with a 9inch tv and discolored bed linens. The bathroom was down the hall and the bathroom curtains were filthy, the floor in the bath was peeling and the curtain rings were old and rusty. What a sight! Our skin crawled with disgust. We called the inn owner that same night and he claimed that the manager who is normally there, had left for a few days. He was in the Hanover Inn, now, please note that there are two inns next to each other, we stayed in the Clark Inn, which we discover is old, dilapidated, dirty and we even saw a mouse running along the floor. The were covered with dust, and the pillows in the old wicker chair were dusty, mildew, and down right stunk! In fact, the what is supposed to be wite wicker, is stained with dirt and neglect.
The first morning went to breakfast at the Hanover Inn, as there was still no one in the Clark House to assist us. My husband asked for a waffle and the owner brought him a hot one, that had a long strand of hair in it! The owner saw that there was a problem and he just walked by us as the helper took the waffle away. He perused around a bit while ignoring us. I am not sure if he was upset because we had called him the night before, but we felt deliberately ignored.
The next day there was finally a small thin woman witha very unfriendly face. She didn't greet us. I said good morning to her, and she replied without looking to acknowledge our presence. Then she turned and said, "Oh, you are staying in the Tisbury room upstairs right? In a very unpleasant manner. We helped ourselves to breakfast. The waffles and toast were extrely dry from being on the warmer for an extended time. We noticed that there was only a mother and her daughter on the porch with us and it seemed like the rest of the inn was empty.
At check out with went to speak with the owner in a very polite and civil manner. He started to raise his voice at us, he was turning red with anger when I expressed that we were disappointed. He yelled "Well what do you wnat me to do now, you didn't say anything before!!!!" As we mentioned earlier, we called him the first night, and he ignored us the next day, and the inaccessible inn keep was unfriendly and nasty to us. We were on our honeymoon and we didn't want to have any major problems, so we were just trying to make the horrible Innexperience. It is a wonder he had room in that inn, since we could find any empty rooms in almost all of Martha's Vineyard, yet there were roms available at TwinOaks Clark and Hanover Inns.
We told the owner Steve that we didn't like the way he was treating us and talking to us and told us to get out and that he would be happy if we never return because he has had over 25,000+ reservations and he doesn't care that we didn't enoy our stay!!! He also turned to my husband and asked him "Does she always complain?" attempting to demean me, which was inappropriate and rather unprofessional! We reported the incident to the Martha's Vineyard Chamber of Commerce, as many people are just exhausted after there vacation and they do not bother to follow up with a negative experience. They usually forget and move on. We just do not want this to happen to anyone else, so we are letting you know that this place needs to be renovated, it is rather filthy and violating health codes. Nothing romantic about this place. Horrifying experience..we are very well experienced travelers and this is not a good place. Will post photos shortly after we upload them.