Wayfinder Newport

The WAY FINDER is a great option for visiting Newport Rhode Island.
Although the property is NOT located in the historic district, it is close enough for access to all the events of Newport.
The property provides a shuttle service and bicycles to guests for use during their stay!

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The retro feel was so great. Loved the whole esthetic! The staff were so accommodating and friendly! It feels like we left old friends behind.

I stayed at the Wayfinder with my son during FIFA World Cup 2026. I couldn't recommend it highly enough.

cleanliness of the room and bathrooms. Comfortable bed.

My stay started with disappointment and only got worse from there.

To be sure, though, this hotel is OK. It’s clean. The staff are wonderful. It is just fine when you’re a part of a large group for an event, but I’ll never stay there out of my own interest again. I want this to be a fair review, and I hope it is. Again, the hotel was “ok” but fell so far short of my expectations.

It seems the staff try, and I truly felt bad for them. They just can’t get out in front of an awful building. The building is probably one that should have been completely torn down after the fire and rebuilt. The company spent a LOT of money redecorating what existed, but it’s 90% form and 10% function.

Even the parking lot makes no sense. It’s not very obvious for the first timers arriving and pulling into the lot. And then you find that there are two “rows” of parking separated by a grassy median. But when you drive down one and can’t find a spot, you make a u turn to try the other row, and you quickly see you’re driving the wrong way. Both sides of the lot are one way, going THE SAME WAY. I’ve never seen anything like that before and I’d be surprised if I’m the only one to notice that.

Next: on a Friday, you should wait until 5pm or later to check in. Trying to check in at 3:30 or 4pm, I waited in a line for 35 minutes (at one point the line wrapped around the painfully small lobby.). While a nice touch, a F&B manager had a table set up, giving out samples of food and beverage to market the restaurant. Well, that only further complicated the too-small a lobby and the wait for check in and made it very challenging to even walk through the lobby, let alone manage being in a line to check in with bags. People. Carts. Luggage. Dogs. Bags. Laundry bins all tripping over each other. Be extra careful if you are wearing flip flops as your toes are sure to get stepped on or rolled over.

When I got to the desk, the nice lady did her best, and I knew she felt awful that my room just wasn’t ready yet. But it was a lot of unclear messages, trips to the back to the “manager” and saying she doesn’t know what was going on. After several minutes, I was asked to hang around the lobby while she waited to find out what was going on.

So no details. Just “wait for more details.” So I took my bags and sat in the lobby. Looks nice, but so completely poorly designed for flow and a normal lobby, I just sat there to watch the cluster going on with maybe 12-15 people waiting in line, crowded lobby. With staff carts, guests, everyone trying to get through. The only word I could find to describe it was cluster. People trip over the ottomans and furniture items in the lobby even when it’s not crowded with people.

After about 30 mins I approached again and the lady stumbled through trying to think of something to say to me. But she got me a different room. And she was very apologetic and gave me a $26 f&b coupon. We both knew it was not her fault and again I felt bad for her.

I travel enough to know I’m no one special. I know things happen. I’m patient. But the whole experience of seeing staff try so hard and just being “cut off at the pass” by the logistics and design of the building. and unable to succeed was frustrating.

I got to my room it. it looked nice. Newish. But just didn’t feel right. It looked like more time went into making it look good than functional. Awkward.

One light near the bed was so far away you couldn’t turn the light on or off while in bed. The light switch at the door does nothing. The weird wall mounted metal sculpture that was supposed to be the closet looked flimsy and was weird to use. Very weird. And your clothes covered the thermostat for the HVAC. The hangars on that “closet” will surely scuff up the wall in no time if it doesn’t already. The rest of that wall was bare. The opposite wall had a comfortable looking chaise chair, but the opposite corner had a small table with one chair, cramped into the corner by the window and HVAC. One chair?

The bathroom sink had no towel rack, so you could only leave your wet hand towel on the sink. The towel bar in the bathroom shower section was right over the toilet paper roll.

Every lamp was a plug in cord that was too short for where they mounted the light. So the cord was taught and at a weird angle.

The hallways are dank dark and dreary. And the rooms are so beyond loud that you can hear conversations from the hallway. From next door. Footsteps from above you.

I do believe this hotel does have a lot of large groups and a lot of weddings, so be prepared for partygoers to wake you up at 12am and 1am and 2am.

I left comments on an online form you’re presented with when you check in on the WiFi and have not heard any response yet. But given how busy they are, it might take a while. I can tell the hotel staff genuinely care and want to give the best possible experience to the guests. But they can only do so much.

I was also disappointed by my check out experience. I was asked by the staff how was my stay. I replied, “ok.” She asked, “just ok?” And I said yes, just OK but no follow up questions for details. Just an awkward nod suggesting she wasn’t surprised and some reference to maybe my next stay would be better.

Frankly, I was really ready to leave and get out of there. I don’t know when it was originally built, but it’s just wing after wing of rooms separated by closing double doors. I felt like I was walking the bowels of a submarine and passing through one door lock after another.

To be clear, though, kudos to the staff. Nice. Friendly. Smiling. Polite. Professional. If only they had a better-organized and laid-out physical structure to work in.

If you’re part of a group, you’ll be fine. But I’d never stay there and never pay the resort fee on a personal vacation.

I hope that’s fair.

We liked the cleanliness, the coffee we could buy at the coffee stand every morning, the shuttle service from the hotel to the marina, the décor of the room and the lobby, and the pool. We enjoyed our stay at the hotel despite a few shortcomings. The staff was always friendly and helpful, assisting us with our room cleaning requests and helping us when the shuttle from the marina to the hotel failed to pick us up.

Great decor to the rooms with high quality products in the bathrooms. The free bike hire.

Great location, shuttle to Bowens Wharf, loved the decor, and the staff were very friendly and helpful.

The shuttle into town was so convenient!

Beautiful clean line furniture and decor. Comfortable bed and room layout and friendly staff and great food.

This hotel has recently been updated and the rooms are lovely. We didn’t use their shuttle into downtown Newport but instead drove our car in (and paid for parking). I’m sure that mid summer the shuttle would be a needed benefit. Very nice stay.

Older hotel with personality.

Had a great experience. Appreciated the van taking hotel guests to town and picking us up. Very good people. Highly recommended

Hot mess. Clearly they've invested in great marketing/photos/sales and not in the actual in-person service experience. So disappointing. Hotel was mostly empty, yet our room was super far from the lobby, down a dark cold hallway, adjacent to the maintenance team door that slammed endlessly, with the pool filter system directly outside our window kicking on at 5 AM. The website has a "Happenings" calendar which is complete BS. The calendar lists daily "wine tours" and when I asked to book one at the front desk, they had no idea what I was talking about (FYI they do NOT do wine tours despite the website literally listing that they do). There is a shuttle to the main warf area that we were told leaves the hotel on the hour and picks people up downtown on the 30 min... spoiler alert, it doesn't follow a schedule at all and we were late for our dinner reservation both nights and then couldn't get in touch with them for a ride back.... leaving us stranded until we called an uber. Finally, there is a "pool shack" that offers food and drink by the pool. You order via QR code on your pool lounger. We sat by the pool, placed an order, and after waiting almost an hour I went to the front desk where they told me the pool shack was closed (ahem, turn off your online order system then, which auto charges the bill + tip) -- the front desk told me they'd refund my order. It's been 10 days, and still no refund in sight. The have been so difficult about it that I've resorted to having my bank dispute the charge. Normally I wouldn't sweat over a small charge, but I was so disappointed in this stay I refuse to give them more money for food/drink/tip that never happened!
Save yourself and stay elsewhere. Newport is amazing! Wayfinder is not.