Cottage Place on Squam Lake, Holderness

I love going to Cottage Place -- I've been there 5 years in a row; the staff is friendly, the rooms are clean, but what makes it is the quiet and the peaceful lake -- I hope it never changes!

liked friendliness of the place, the staff and the other guests we are over from ireland and everyone was so welcoming. really enjoyed sitting on the beach and watching july 4th fireworks. we did not find the road busy at all. my son got out on the lake with other kids and had a fab time. we had to bring gram crackers back to ireland where we made 'smores. Some other friendly folks taught us how to make and eat them round the fire pit . we hope to come back sometime thank you.

Read some other reviews - sounds like someone expected the Taj Mahal- this is New Hampshire! This is a very hospitable, family-friendly, reasonably-priced, bathrooms-spotless-clean, comfortable place to stay, with a great beach and a dock, beautiful views over the waters of Little Squam, walking distance to town. It's not fancy, but if lots of money were being thrown into it at once, visitors would be paying much higher fees - sorry, people, but not everyone can afford that. Innkeeper Sue is very personable, willing to do anything to make you feel at home, and has lots of friendly, upbeat help who are willing to jump in and assist without having to go out of your way to find them. Upgrades and improvements are constantly being made, each year is a little nicer, and yes, there are people who return year after year - next year will be my third, Cottages 3 and 4 have had the same visitors in the same week for at least five years. People would not return if they weren't happy (those who aren't happy, go to the nearest Hilton). Can't wait till next year, looking forward to it already!

I enjoy going to the Cottage Place every summer and winter. I love the relaxed and rustic feel you get when you are there. It is for sure not an amazing 5 star hotel but it gives you the basic living essential and the owner is the nicest down to earth person you will meet. I have read a few reviews about this place and the people reviewing it are WAY to harsh. It is a working process its not perfect but give them some credit they are not the richest people but they are living out their dreams with the money they do have and there are tons of people who come back year after year because of the great people and times the experiance. I personally love the beach although it is next to a busy road; you cant help that. the water is clean and the beach is well kept. As for the rooms the beds are not the comfiest things in the world but the rooms again are well kept and always clean. i would reccomend going to the Cottage Place if you enjoy a relaxed stress free atmosphere with alot of great people and service.

I hope that this reaches as many people as it can. The real question is where to start. The back of the hotel was nothing but a junk yard. Broken down things rusted out, there was a trailer next to the hotel that was painted up like a wilderness scene to hide the fact that it was falling apart. The service at the desk was okay but the person at the desk was not dressed in any formal attire for a hotel staff. The rooms were nothing special to speak of, circa 1950 throughout and never updated. Furniture is dilapidated and in ill repair. The bathrooms looked clean but the shower curtains and ceiling had mold on them and were slimy to touch. There was no adequate pressure in the shower to speak of, almost non-existent. Turn water on full blast in the sink and you'd get a trickle. The toliet system took three to four times to flush. The floors were dusty and had dirt on them and in the corners. There were utensils and plates and kitchenettes in the rooms but I don't think I dared to touch any of them. There was a sponge on the sink, that was really nasty. The beds were all washed but the linens didn't smell crisp and clean. More like stale and musty. They had those nasty white fuzzys all over them. All of the mattresses had a sag in them. They were not safe at all as the ones that we slept on, the smaller twin one slipped off the wooden frame that it was sitting on. The air conditioner in the place smelled like it had not been cleaned properly as it had this foul odor eminating from it when it was turned on and was plugged up with gunk. There were no proper electrical outlets in the room. The ones that were there had extension cords running under the beds and were plugged in to the walls near the beds. This easily can cause a fire. There were NO CLOCKS in the rooms anywhere. Thank god for the modern cell phone alarm clock. The rate that was charged.......Outrageous!!!! I could have and I should have stayed at the comfort inn or another place for three nights what I paid for this place. There was only one patched & rusted spiral stairscase to the second floor. This was amazing to me, as with all of the new fire codes. Yet there was an old ladder fastened to the building with a few screws. But I don't think that it could be used at all during a fire as someone would fall trying to reach it. If they didn't fall trying to reach it they would definitely hurt themselves trying to get to the ground as it was over 7 feet off the ground. To walk around the grounds was okay, but just don't look at the property in great detail, hanging wires from cable extensions, doctored up boards, falling roofs, no proper lighting around for walking areas. We won't even get into the reviews and documents from the state about the insuffienceny of the owners to comply with state regulations of water samples. All of the federal grant money that they have recieved and awards from the town. I think that people need to adjust there vision goggles a bit for those too!!!( All of that can be found on the internet, too!!!!) Had I not known all of this in advance I would have never stayed there. After talking with the owners, the long hours and hours of driving from the city and the description of the wonderful rustic expeience that we would have. I was looking for a nice quaint place in new england by a beautiful lake. Instead I got this, had I known this I would have never stayed there......I can only hope that this reaches as many people as it possibly can as I am going to send this to as many sites as I can find. In hopes that no one will have the awful and disgusting stay as I did.