Collective Governors Island - A New York City Retreat 825 Gresham Road, Manhattan, New York,

"honestly surprised why anyone would pay this amount for a night here. with the exception of the person who checked us in, the service here is quite lacking and disorganized. no one seems to know what is going on in terms of events or where to go for things. our first night we were excited to do smores but the staff wasn’t well prepared. the person starting the fire had no idea where to go and then there wasn’t anyone at the check in station. eventually someone came but then directed several of us to go to the bar to ask. the person at the bar had seen us asking around earlier but didn’t say anything to us…. frustrating. eventually the person at the bar went to the back to get the ingredients which were just thrown into jars (not the quality you would have expected from how they advertised on their website). then the heating in our tent wasn’t working well. had to play around a lot to get it to work. in the morning we saw it was leaking water near where the wires were which is a dangerous situation. the food here was reported to be great but we found it was severely lacking and super expensive. the duck was not properly cooked and very rubbery. the vegetables were done well though were a bit burnt."

"My husband and I stayed at Collective for my birthday this past weekend. I really hate writing negative reviews, but unfortunately, I had very high hopes for my visit and my biggest concern was my safety, which is a deal breaker for me and likely most others as well. My husband and I left our tent for dinner and came back to see furniture moved around, food in our bed, all the sides and windows closed, and a very strong smell of marijuana. Clearly someone wanted to have fun turning our tent into a hot box, but the fact that someone could just easily walk in is extremely concerning. We immediately head to the check in area to raise our concerns and all we were offered was a freshly made bed. When we were told we could head back after standing at the check in area for about 30 minutes, we were told that the people who came into our tent were removed from the property, but they were clearly still in the vicinity as we could hear and see them causing a commotion in the area. They were clearly under the influence, but I don’t know if they have anything that could hurt someone. When I asked staff if the individuals were removed from the island about an hour later, I was immediately dismissed for asking about the situation and never received confirmation. No one at the property let guests know when these individuals (who may have gone into other tents too for all I know) were gone. As a result, my husband and I could barely sleep because we were concerned about our safety as we were sleeping in a tent that is simply zippered closed for “security”. No one at the property ever checked back in with us or offered us anything as a result of our safety issue. While this is an island and there is security for the island, it appears very easy for someone to be able to come in and out of the Collective property. I have no idea if the people who came into our tent were paying guests or not, but all it takes is someone avoiding security when the island closes and the wide open gate onto the Collective Retreats property or the short fences to be able to get on the property. In addition, the safes in the tents are only slightly larger than a hotel safe. Given the lack of ability to lock the tent space, I would have at least expected a locker sized safe to sufficiently fit our belongings. Were are lucky that none of our belongings were stolen when the unexpected visitors came into our tent. Also, while not safety related, we paid a fee that included WiFi and we did not have WiFI in our tent. All in all, safety should be a top priority for any kind of lodging and it simply didn’t exist, which is abysmal for a place that cost us $700 for 1 night."

"The highlight is the view, everything else is a let down. I was hoping for a luxe feeling with the prices paid and it sadly turns out to be very casual all around. Accommodation: The bed was very comfortable. The headboard was coming apart, the bed warmer was broken and needed on our chilly night, and the floor is peeling so shoes are needed to avoid splinters. Restaurant: The food was okay, under seasoned but not bad, cocktails were a miss. Service staff are under trained and don’t know how to handle simple requests. We had dirty glasses, a wobbly table, mix match silverware, and empty salt shakers. Small misses that could have elevated the experience. Camp Grounds: The grass was overgrown and dirty cups were everywhere in the communal spaces. The lawn games are broken, dirty, or partially missing. Our tent backed up to a construction pit that was sightly and could have been nicely hidden by a fence. Also would have been nice for the grounds crew not to wake guests up mowing the next door field early in the AM. Overall: Not the experience we expected though the gorgeous sunset and night lights helped us forget about the mishaps for a moment. Small, easy fixes and some nice additions, like better staff training for friendly customer service and overall maintenance, would make it much more quality."

"I came here with my best friend and our daughters. Our kids were blown away with the tents and all the lawn activities. The tents were super comfortable with easy heating and cooling (we used both). After exploring the island all day, we came back and had great drinks and dinner. The girls loved hearing the live music. At the end of the night, we enjoyed 'smores by the fire, while looking out at the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. In the morning, we had a great breakfast and explored the island more. It felt like we had the entire island to ourselves. Our kids have officially requested we make this an annual event!"