What has happened to our beloved Mainsail cottages? For 45 yrs. It has been our home away from home for 10 days at the end of August until Labor Day. The original owners when we started going there was Chet & Diane. They were very fussy & strict with rules and policies for the guest's, which was good because it was meant to be a family friendly resort. They kept the place in pristine condition with 5 or 6 college age youth constantly cleaning the grounds , keeping the pool clean and tending to the beautiful flower pots that they had hanging from each and every porch. And at night they had one of them sit on the park bench in front of the office and guard the place. All this is what made it well known on the beach to be the Best place to stay at. They did not allow any riffraff to stay and cause trouble. When Dave & Kara bought the place they carried on the tradition and policies of Diane & Chet and continued to make it the most desirable place to stay on in Hampton Beach.
This past year Sol Lupoli, the owner of the casino on the boardwalk, purchased the hotel and cottages,. Not exactly in the family friendly business. You will notice 90% of the good reviews are from last year or prior before new ownership. As I said my best friend of 46 years along with her family and mine grew up together going every summer for that end of summer week and for the past 15 years have stayed in the same cottage. This past March my friend lost her battle to cancer and died in March 2024. I received a call from the new owner around that time to see if I was renting the cottage this year. I told him " No my best friend that I went with every year passed away. But I told him I think her children are interested in renting it. So I called my friend's son and daughter-in-law and told her to call right ways if she was interested. She called him immediately booked it. She verified with him " Now this is the same cottage my family has been in every year correct? It has 3 bedrooms and is unit C2 the single cottage across from the pool." She was assured it was the same cottage. He said as you know our policy is to collect 1/2 the rent to hold the cottage. And then he told her that she had to pay & $800. now. And she did so assuming that the total rent fee was $1,600. For the week.
When she arrived on Saturday August 24th 2024 they had changed her unit to a second floor apartment with only 2 bedrooms. She has 5 children, luckily they weren't all there at the same time and her husband was coming up later in the week. One of her children is a very active 4 year old on a very high second floor porch with extremely dangerous stairs that are so steep and the threads are all different sizes. She had to watch him constantly. When she went to the office to complain the desk clerk, Joe was extremely rude. He said " that's what you got." She said I want to talk to the owner" Joe said " No we can't call him we have to text him. " On top of all this when she checked in he charged her $400 more stating it is $2,000.
She said " You are charging me $400 more for a unit that is only 2 bedrooms and half the size of the other unit and on the second floor with a 4 yr. old. She gave him $200 more because that's all the extra cash she had at the time and he expected for her to pay the rest later. She tried to convince him that wasn't fair and asked him to reconsider. She had the phone number of the owner a second owner Joe Hermann because it was on her caller ID on her phone from when he called her back to book it. She left a message and he never returned it. I went to stay with her for 2 nights I could not believe the condition of the apartment . It was a degusting PIT. The blue paint on the floor covering the hardwood floor underneath was peeling off the floor you could see it collecting underneath the bureau, the door jams had gouges of wood under the paint with wood splinters sticking out, the white painted kitchen cabinets were the same, none of the doors on any of the rooms had locks on them ( never mind they didn't even close and stay shut it looked like it hadn't been cleaned all summer.) They must have had a lot of rough, dirty guest this season because it wasn't left like that last summer. As I said there were no workers, you never saw anyone cleaning the units .
Every year we would go the same week and there were other families in the other ten cottages that we became friendly with. Well out of those 10 cottages only one other family rented this year. They said they would not be back again. They had company and asked if there company could park for 3 days . The parking lot was half empty and Joe charged them $60. And he would only take cash he wouldn't let him use his credit card. I'm sure the owner will never see that money.
The Mainsail's good reputation is dead, as are so many memories and good times. read more