La SAmmana is a great deal in Brigantine, NJ. Located in what appears to be an office building, it has great rooms-some of the best that I've ever seen. I have stayed at the two bedroom suites with kitchen and living room area and, on my current stay, was in a junior suite with kitchenette and a double bed. The rooms are very luxurious and the staff is otustanding. There is a free shuttle to casino hotels in Brigantine and Atlantic City. There is a nice outdoor pool on the roof and there is an "owners' lounge" on the third floor that is a large room with flat screen tv and chairs, an area to play games and a internet connected computers. The only downside is that the hotel still does not have wireless a year and-a-half after it was promised. I recommend a stay in Brigantine and, in particular at LA SAMMANA.
frankraffa
frankraffa@aol.com

I booked a suite a month and a half inadvance before I was going to AC. I showed up on Sat 5/5/07 to check in and they said well someone with the last name beginning with "Z" canceled. I said well that's ok because I did not, she told me to hold on. Came back to inform me that someone with a last name similar to mine had canceled their reservation but the hotel canceled my reservation instead by accident. Now she shows me the other lady's name which was Zladtnik. Mine is Zieminski and our first names are completely different!! I do not understand how you screw that up! She proceeds to tell me that they have one room left available in the entire hotel and it is a small 1 queen bed room, now I booked a suite cause there were 6 people staying! I had no choice and had to take the room. They did give it at a discounted rate but this ruined our stay. The discounted rate doesn't compensate how they thoughtlessly made this mistake.

Then I took a shower before going out and there were 2 small bottles. I figured one was shampoo and one conditioner. Well it ended up being one shampoo and one lotion and I washed my hair with the lotion.

The shuttle only drops you off, we had to pay $25 for a cab from Borgata back to La Samanna. But that was also late night, so the shuttle might not run so late.

Also a friend of mine stayed at the hotel and had requested a smoking room. When she arrived they said oh did you request the smoking room, and my friend replied yes. They said sorry to inform you but we gave that away.

If not for all of the above, the hotel was very clean and the rooms were nice.

We wanted to stay at our favorate casino, the Borgata, but since this was a Friday, the rates were over $300! La Sammana is only about 10 minutes away down Brigantine Blvd. This was off season - so traffic was non-existant.

Our rate was $139 + tax, for a very nice, remodeled room. It had a small modern kitchen which we did not use. The plasma TV was nice and I would rate the room quality close to the Borgata. They have their own parking deck (free) and the staff was very nice. The room was very clean and they gave us the top floor with a ocean view.

The only down side is that the hotel is not on the beach and breakfast was hard to find in the area (the off-season thing again). This is a great alternative to experience a fine hotel without the high weekend rates at the casinos. We would stay there again.

The better half and I stayed at La Sammana for a long weekend and had a very enjoyable time. We had a one bedroom "suite" and loved the moderness and comfort of the room. The better half walked through the door before I did and I heard the luggage hit the floor and a, "WOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWW".

The LR/DR/Kitchen area contained a full refrig, two burners, coffee maker, very cool dish washer, sink. There is a half bathroom as well. The LR had a very comfy couch and a terrific chair that had a great lamp above for relaxing reading. The best part of this area was the 42 inch flat screen. Hence much of the WOWWWWWWW. LOL.

The bedroom was equally cool. The master bathroom was nice, although I was wishing for a jacuzzi tub (hey a girl can dream).

The location is great. It is about a block (or less) to the beach. There is a great italian place a few doors down that you can get carry out or sit down. Just one more door down is a liquor store that had a fantastic selection. A bagel place is also very close as well.

While the facilities and location were impressive, the thing I liked the most was the customer service. Check in was a breeze. I went up to the room and the keys did not work. I went back down received a sincere apology and they re-keyed the keys. I went back up and I had no problems. As we went into the room, I realized I was not inserting the keys correctly the first time. Yet, when I walked through the lobby I again they apologized again. I explained that I had not put the key in properly and she apologized for not explaining how to do it. It had nothing to do with the explanation, just that I was a ding dong. I liked that even though it was my fault, the staff went out of their way to be sure I did not feel bad.

On the Saturday I was there I really wanted to watch the Penn State football game. We wanted to plan our day around watching the game and could not figure out if we should chance it and hope that the game was on our 42 inch flat screen with fridge full of our fave beverage or find a sports bar. I took a shot and called the front desk and asked. They answered saying that they knew a Penn State fan that had the same cable channel and would call them and call me back. A few minutes later the front desk called saying we did get the game. This helped immensely in planning our day and I was impressed by the front desk going above and beyond.

The free shuttle driver was super nice and strongly encouraged us to use Brigantine Cab as they charge a flat fare of $14 (I think) to go from AC to Brigantine. When we went to leave AC cabs told us it would be $25 to get back to Brigantine. Thanks to the advice and card that the driver gave me we got picked up by Brigantine Cab and saved a bunch of money.

I hope these examples help you understand how much I loved customer service and the facility. I can't wait to go back!!!!!