Like almost everyone else I stayed at the Lakeside after a write up in NYMag. For 300 a night, we got a large comfortable bed, and a family of spiders. There were about 5-10 of them living on the ceiling, 2-3 squished onto the wall. The sliding door overlooking the lake didn't lock, which made me very nervous, but there were no staff to complain to, as there was only someone in the office for check-in and check-out. There was about a 2 inch space between the door and the floor, so on a windy night, mulch blew in through the gap. The cleaning lady did not clean it up the next day. (she did replace the towels) I was rather appaled that the owners felt it was okay to charge 300 a night for this stay. The view was lovely, and the bed was nice. I felt as if the owners spent all their money on ihomes and comfy beds, and then ran out of cash for things like locks, bug removal, and proper cleanings of the rooms. They were obviously still doing work on the place, which is fine, but i wouldn't recommend staying at a hotel where owners feel it is okay to charge $600 for a two night stay in a room with bugs squished to the walls, and no locking door.

I read about the Lakeside in New York Magazine and after checking out the Inn's website, I booked a room. When I made my reservation there were no pictures or reviews up on tripadvisor.

The night before leaving for Montauk I happened to check again on tripadvisor and found two VERY negative reviews and some scary pictures. I nearly called off the entire trip!!

I was extremely relieved (and pleased) when I finally saw the room. It was clean, simple and spacious. The view of the lake and the patio were a nice. The ipod dock was in the room but the wireless internet connection was not working. The only compaint I would have is that as our room the second closest to the road, you could occasionally hear a car or two drive past outside. But it was hardly noticable and really not an issue at all (certainly not bad enough for us to ask for another room). It was a great stay and I intend to return.

The website should win an award for salesmanship. Twenty bucks says the New York Magazine staff never actually went to the Lakeside Inn.

So allow me to fill in the gaps for you.

The Lakeside Inn appears to have been built by This Guy I Know Construction, Ltd. There were exposed two-by-fours holding up the sliding door to the bathroom. More importantly, the rooms, as pointed out by others, aren't sealed. And by "sealed", I mean, "there should not be a one-inch gap between the bottom of the front door and the ground." Not a problem, unless of course, your motel (i mean "Inn") is adjacent to a GIANT BODY OF STANDING WATER. My wife had seen more bugs in her hostel room in Peru, true, but on the other hand, those places provide mosquito nets. Perhaps I could have called the front desk and asked for one, if there had been a phone in the room, and if the office didn't close at eight PM.

The iPod speaker connection was some crap electronic thing like the kind you might see for sale on a Manhattan street corner. It doesn't matter, because you really only want to be in the room the bare minimum amount of time, with the lights off, rather than jammin' to your tunes.

With the lights on, all there is to do is view the aftermath of the Texas Chainsaw Bug Massacre that is present on the white walls. Mmm, dead mosquito guts streaked with recently feasted-upon human blood. Or you can play Super Mario Bugkiller and contribute to the smeared guts by jumping up and killing bugs resting on the ceiling. That's romantic. Pass the champagne.

(there was no champagne, by the way. Nor were there bike rentals.)

On one hand, because there is no television, there's no being kept up by your neighbor's porn selection in the next room. On the other hand, THERE'S NO TELEVISION. I guess it's my fault for not asking. I didn't think "cable TV" was still an optional provision in a $200 a night room, but what do I know.

But you can still watch the Nature Channel at night, if you go into the shower and turn on the lights. There, on the exterior of the lake-facing windows, you can watch the six or seven gigantic spiders race from insect to insect as they eat through their web-ensnared orgy of lake bugs.

If I may suggest a better establishment, try ANYWHERE ELSE. All the motels in "motel gulch" are better positioned to the town, the beach, and away from the bug lake. If you have money to burn, go to Gurneys. Yes, Gurneys rooms look a little shabby, but it's a real, functioning hotel, not a scam. If you're looking to spend less, The Ocean Resort Inn looked very nice.

But what do I know. Maybe The Lakeside sounds like your cup of tea. Finally, you say, a motel that caters to your desire for you and your family to be kind-of sheltered from the elements. Obviously the crack research staff at New York Magazine had a wonderful time. If so, knock yourself out. Snuggle up in the warm, cozy sheets covered with dead bug guts, flick the ladybug who is crawling across your chest off the bed, and sleep tight, safe and warm and knowing you spent $200 a night on paradise.

We just returned from Montauk having stayed at the Lakeside for 3 nights. We were intrigued and excited about the hotel after reading the flattering description in New York Magazine's travel section and viewing the inviting photos on the hotel’s website. We had never been to Montauk, but were swayed by its description as the anti-Hamptons; we just weren't interested in the intense Hamptons scene.

We were shocked upon arriving at the hotel, best described as a motel with a fresh coat of paint. Much of the deck and edges of the hotel were raw and unfinished. In fact, there was a workman hammering away when we arrived. The check-in process was unprofessional and unsettling at best. We were greeted with doubt and disbelief that we held a reservation for that weekend, though I had made the reservation almost a month in advance as was ultimately confirmed. At that point the clerk proceeded to repeat over and over that they were overbooked and she'd have to bump a more recent reservation. (Frankly after settling into our room, we wished that we might have been bumped to another hotel. In fact, we discussed moving after our first night, due to the unfinished nature of the hotel and our room, but later opted to stick it out.)

The room was inadequately cleaned, namely the bathroom where dark hairs virtually clogged the shower drain and covered the shower floor and edges. We were never given soap throughout the 3 nights. (No worries, we did buy some at the deli.) While the patio off of each of the rooms could have been as calming and picturesque as it appeared on the website, the entire patio was perpetually splattered with bird droppings. If they had put something up to block birds from sitting on the roof, it might have been a very lovely spot on the lake. Additionally the shower with its windows onto the lake would have been more special if the views hadn't been obscured by spider webs and dead bugs. The windows certainly haven't been cleaned since they were installed.
In the NY Mag article, the rooms are described as “minimally furnished” which is too kind. The inn touts the special conform-to-your-body-mattress and the wick-off bed sheets - those were fine and nicely white. The walls were all white except for the bug carcasses. The closet was an Ikea-type free-standing frame with clear plastic enclosing it (see photos). The hangers didn't have a bottom bar or clips from which I might hang my summer skirts. There was no shelving in the room except for two tiny bedside table drawers. It would have been helpful to have some shelves or drawers for clothing, etc. Mostly we lined our things up against the walls or left them in our suitcases to pull out as needed resulting in a very cluttered, sloppy look. There is no TV in the room, which was fine with us, but helpful to know ahead of time. We did have a radio/iPod docking system in the room, though we didn't use the iPod feature.

Other guests we met did have the complimentary champagne promised on the website, but only because they stumbled upon the staff while exploring the motel. When we checked in, we weren't told/reminded of this welcome gesture. It would have been thoughtful. Also other guests did remark that they had used the kayaks available at the hotel.

There is a bar attached to the hotel. When we toured it after arriving in the daytime, we thought it would be a nice place to hang late night. We did have a couple of drinks there Friday night with another guest, but it didn't seem to be open again that weekend. Just a few folks staying elsewehre stopped by that Friday night. It certainly wasn't the happening site I had envisioned – and cash only. And as for the raw bar menu listed on the motel's website, there didn't appear to be food served here, nor would I have trusted raw seafood from the bar had it been available.

Staying in this motel was not what I expected. This felt more like camping than a hotel to me. Perhaps had the rooms been better sealed, there wouldn't have been the volume of bugs we encountered. Had we paid half the rate we did pay, I would have been satisfied.

The hotel is conveniently located to the golf course, bars/restaurants, and the beach.