The Madison Fire Island Pines

Staff - the most unfriendly, unwelcoming, snobby staff ever. The don’t say hello, they don’t greet guests, they don’t smile. Nothing. Personalities like mud.

Accommodations - the pool is beautiful so if all you want to do is swim in a pool then this place might be for you. Location is perfection. But the accommodations — the place is tired as hell. It’s in disrepair, it’s not well maintained, it’s definitely NOT clean. This place used to be awesome - but like a lot of the Pines - it’s lack-luster. It’s seen better days. From the old dirty doormat, dirty front door, and filthy windows to the moldy in-room air-conditioning unit and shabby bathroom it’s perplexing how this place is still open.

Frankly - the place is embarrassing. According to their website, they serve some kind of continental breakfast - but what I got for breakfast was the Speedo-wearing cell-phone-addicted staff person asking me “You want toast or something? ” Give me a break. There is another option for a guest house in the Pines. Go there and avoid the Madison. It should be called the Sadison.

If the staff weren’t so miserable, I might have given it two stars. All in all - it’s a solid 1. I’m sure you’ll agree.

I stayed here for my birthday weekend and was given great service. I love everything about the Madison and Cody the house dog was so adorable. I love the roof top to do some tanning & it felt private. The only negative I have to say about my time at the Madison is the ants. SO MANY ANTS. After talking to a few other guys on the island they told me its the same everywhere on the island. You can’t keep food in your room without expecting ants to come. I just wish they made you aware of that because I encountered 50+ ants during my stay. Every time I entered my bathroom there was 20+ in the sink. No clue why they were so attracted to the sink.

I stayed a couple nights in June and overall I liked this place. It was about $700 a night for a weekend stay- Saturday and Sunday night. It seemed a little on the expensive side but I know there are limited options in Fire Island Pines.

I liked:

The rooms were amazing- loved the bright white everywhere and the white curtains. It was relaxing and amazing. Modern and nice everything. Definitely a unique place.
Loved the space on the second floor overlooking the pool. And there was a cool area on the third floor with amazing views of all of Fire Island Pines. Was nice to just relax up there for awhile. Had chairs and a table.
Big nice beach towels they provided.
The pool was amazing. They had redone the decks it looked like so that was nice. Chairs and tables all over were nice to have.
Breakfast was very good- and there were more options available than I thought there might be. The second day it took the cook awhile to acknowledge I was there waiting which was a little strange.
I loved the lighted pool with color at night- very cool.
Loved the little laser light setup at the entrance and the LED lights along the walkway- very cool look at night.
Very nice greeting and easy checkin by someone that was waiting in the pool area.
Steps away from the ferry dock which was extremely nice given you have to walk to your hotel as there are no cars to take you. Being close to center of town was very nice.

Suggestions for improvement:

I was in Garden room A- I'm not sure where the garden was because I could see the pool on one side (which was amazing) and a small area with some bamboo trees on the other (guessing that was the garden). I noticed on what was the garden side that there was lots of debris from wood construction work (guessing for the new deck). Would have been nice to have all that cleaned out. There were some old stairs that were just kind of laying there. Just not the best view.
The overhead lights in the room had half the bulbs out. Not sure if they just burned out or there was an electrical issue going on.
There were a couple dimmer switches in the room and bathroom- neither worked and seemed to be missing pieces of the switch. Would be good to have that functional to set the mood in the room at night.
Not a lot of storage area/ counter space in the bathroom but I made it work.
Some areas needed a little touch up work. It's such a cool space- just needed a little more attention to detail.
There were suitcases and just all kinds of stuff in the main living area which was strange to me. Just seemed like it needed to be cleaned out and organized some.
The jacuzzi was not working which was a little disappointing.

Overall I did love the place and will be back.

I am planning a nice getaway for my birthday weekend, I was thinking of booking here but the abundance of bad reviews from not the place itself but the manager of the place has me second guessing