Wayfinder Newport

Hotel is 1.5 miles from busy Newport, which requires visitors to drive and pay for parking or take a rideshare. Important to note, not all rooms are accessible by an elevator. We were housed on the third floor without elevator access. Is a pet friendly hotel. Our room must have been previously used by a pet family, as a large carpet stain was on the floor. The hotel suffered a fire in 2023, and has been renovating. The lobby/front desk area is nice. As of July 2024, the dining area wasn't opened yet, but looked nice.

The wayfinder is clearly in a transitional phase. Rebuilding after a fire, only one wing of the hotel is open. There is no lobby or common since, just a few hallways of rooms. The staff is very young and unprofessional. Uniformed and with minimal training, it felt more like they were playing at the job rather than doing it., It was strange to the point of being comic. When we could get our keycard to work, the only staff member manning the desk set off at a boyish sit in t j k edging us squarely in the dust holding our bags. When we caught up to him, he stood in the hallway doing what I can only assume was some sort of fortnight dance while he waited for us to catch up. I’m serious - couldn’t make it up. The best day we asked for the room to be cleaned and for fresh towels. Another young gentleman at the desk had the opposite demeanor, and seemed to be nodding out as we spoke. I couldn’t tell if he was high or tired, but as his head bobbed he assured me the staff was too busy to take care of it, but he’d ask for me - all without writing down a room number. Needless to say, no service. The Wayfinder will be under construction until summer of ‘24, if not later. If you want stories about silly staff behavior, by all means visit, but I’d steer clear until they’re back on their feet and functioning like a professional hotel again.