Hotel LBI is a welcome new addition to the assortment of motels and bed/breakfast offerings on beautiful Long Beach Island. Although their price point is exceptionally high for an off season stay, we chose to spend a brief anniversary weekend at this relatively new property. There is much potential here, but they are seriously understaffed for the expected service level and if leadership starts at the top, General Manager Julie Barlow is woefully incapable of running this property. The problem this property has is an expectation level for the room rates they extract. If our total nightly cost had been much lower, as is the case with just about every other property on LBI, we would have expected much less. And in a sold-out situation, which we were led to believe was the case at this hotel due to large wedding parties, this property simply was not capable of servicing the needs of their guests. Upon arrival, we were greeted by valet parking staff who told us the hotel was short-staffed and they could not assist us with our car or luggage. The wood floors of our King suite were sticky and the single shower floor was incredibly dirty, indicative of a housekeeping staff that was either too busy, poorly-trained, or simply didn't care. Linen replacement excluded wash cloths, and when we inquired they found an extra one somewhere in the hotel but apparently their linen inventory is far too low. Dishes had been left in the dishwasher, and hotel policy is if you don't request housekeeping by 10:00 am you won't have your room cleaned that day. We made it a point of making that request every morning, and the response to our daily call was "we'll put you on the list but can't tell you when they'll get to your room." During our three night stay they inexplicably missed one day. Our experience in dealing with front desk personnel was perfunctory at best and dismissive at worst (Alexis in particular could use some rudimentary training in bedside manner), and in the case of the missing housekeepers we were told we were out of luck. Given this subpar experience, we requested an audience with GM Julie Barlow several times, only to be told she wasn't available or in a meeting or not working that day. Upon check-out, we even asked the front desk employee Liz to please interrupt her, but were told she was to busy to speak with unhappy guests of her hotel. Liz subsequently gave us a $500 credit toward, and we left both of our names and full contact info with her for the GM to follow up with us. It's been a week and there has been no word, so we can only assume this GM is having extended meetings with hotel personnel to teach them the basics of helping and managing guest relations. Unfortunately, unless the management company (Gulphcreek Hotels) or the property owner (Chris Vernon and Mercer Development) of the LBI Hotel are made aware of what is going on day-to-day at this new property, nothing will change to make it a place anyone visiting LBI would want to visit and stay at. read more