The Madison Fire Island Pines

Fire island is absolutely beautiful and this house is well kept with spacious rooms, quiet environment (during the week), and good amenities (pool, towels, chairs and umbrella for the beach). What ruins it is the staff. The manager on site (Mike C) is really not welcoming. He is rude to customers, condescending when they ask questions, barely saying hi and overall very abrasive in his answers. It’s such a pity for a hotel that charges >$300 a night. And for a place who could get a 5 star review, his attitude makes it a 1 star. Shame.

Booked for a short midweek stay. Location 1 minute from the harbor. This is Fire Island Pines, the very specific “house share” concept may be newer to some, but my experience on this sandbar goes back 2 decades and The Madison has it right. All spaces are shared like a B&B except for your room. Since I was traveling solo I took a small room by the pool. Bed was comfortable, sheets and linens clean and fresh, the bathroom was also clean and towels fresh. Small fridge, TV - everything you need. The full size pool was clean and reasonably warm. You don’t come to The Pines to sit in your room. You come to sit at a pool, on the beach, get a cocktail then dinner. Newbies to Fire Island may not be accustomed to this dynamic and assume this is a beach hotel. It’s not, it’s a really great Pines B&B share with friendly people and clean rooms 1 min from the shopping/eating establishments and 1 minute from the beach. Come relaxed and open to a different way of life. That’s what The Pines is famous for. I found what I got absolutely worth the money - especially with the free morning coffee and continental breakfast included which is typically not a perk here. Will stay again. Thanks boys!

The Pines is fun and a little crazy on a weekend, but you want a little sanity where you stay (or at least I do). This boutique guest house is beautiful, peaceful, and upscale. The vibe is super friendly, the pool deck is very large and chill, and the rooms are bright, with modern bathrooms. You can tell walking in that it's professionally run - it's clean, well maintained and has nice touches - at night the whole place is lit nicely and takes on a romantic feel. It's a wonderful place to stay on the island.

The Madison has the best reputation of all the guest houses in the Pines - it's been around for years and is kind of the gold standard out there. I've gone there several times and love it. Wonderful outdoor spaces, great cool, comfortable and attractive indoor space and tons of places to lounge. They have a terrific professional staff, while most of the other places in the Pines don't even have staff - you make an Airbnb reservation and fend for yourself with a bunch of strangers. This place is gorgeous, modern and well run. The people who manage it are super friendly. Highly recommend it.

Staff - the most unfriendly, unwelcoming, snobby staff ever. The don’t say hello, they don’t greet guests, they don’t smile. Nothing. Personalities like mud. Accommodations - the pool is beautiful so if all you want to do is swim in a pool then this place might be for you. Location is perfection. But the accommodations — the place is tired as hell. It’s in disrepair, it’s not well maintained, it’s definitely NOT clean. This place used to be awesome - but like a lot of the Pines - it’s lack-luster. It’s seen better days. From the old dirty doormat, dirty front door, and filthy windows to the moldy in-room air-conditioning unit and shabby bathroom it’s perplexing how this place is still open. Frankly - the place is embarrassing. According to their website, they serve some kind of continental breakfast - but what I got for breakfast was the Speedo-wearing cell-phone-addicted staff person asking me “You want toast or something?” Give me a break. There is another option for a guest house in the Pines. Go there and avoid the Madison. It should be called the Sadison. If the staff weren’t so miserable, I might have given it two stars. All in all - it’s a solid 1. I’m sure you’ll agree.

Chic

I stayed here for my birthday weekend and was given great service. I love everything about the Madison and Cody the house dog was so adorable. I love the roof top to do some tanning & it felt private. The only negative I have to say about my time at the Madison is the ants. SO MANY ANTS. After talking to a few other guys on the island they told me its the same everywhere on the island. You can’t keep food in your room without expecting ants to come. I just wish they made you aware of that because I encountered 50+ ants during my stay. Every time I entered my bathroom there was 20+ in the sink. No clue why they were so attracted to the sink.

I stayed a couple nights in June and overall I liked this place. It was about $700 a night for a weekend stay- Saturday and Sunday night. It seemed a little on the expensive side but I know there are limited options in Fire Island Pines. I liked: The rooms were amazing- loved the bright white everywhere and the white curtains. It was relaxing and amazing. Modern and nice everything. Definitely a unique place. Loved the space on the second floor overlooking the pool. And there was a cool area on the third floor with amazing views of all of Fire Island Pines. Was nice to just relax up there for awhile. Had chairs and a table. Big nice beach towels they provided. The pool was amazing. They had redone the decks it looked like so that was nice. Chairs and tables all over were nice to have. Breakfast was very good- and there were more options available than I thought there might be. The second day it took the cook awhile to acknowledge I was there waiting which was a little strange. I loved the lighted pool with color at night- very cool. Loved the little laser light setup at the entrance and the LED lights along the walkway- very cool look at night. Very nice greeting and easy checkin by someone that was waiting in the pool area. Steps away from the ferry dock which was extremely nice given you have to walk to your hotel as there are no cars to take you. Being close to center of town was very nice. Suggestions for improvement: I was in Garden room A- I'm not sure where the garden was because I could see the pool on one side (which was amazing) and a small area with some bamboo trees on the other (guessing that was the garden). I noticed on what was the garden side that there was lots of debris from wood construction work (guessing for the new deck). Would have been nice to have all that cleaned out. There were some old stairs that were just kind of laying there. Just not the best view. The overhead lights in the room had half the bulbs out. Not sure if they just burned out or there was an electrical issue going on. There were a couple dimmer switches in the room and bathroom- neither worked and seemed to be missing pieces of the switch. Would be good to have that functional to set the mood in the room at night. Not a lot of storage area/ counter space in the bathroom but I made it work. Some areas needed a little touch up work. It's such a cool space- just needed a little more attention to detail. There were suitcases and just all kinds of stuff in the main living area which was strange to me. Just seemed like it needed to be cleaned out and organized some. The jacuzzi was not working which was a little disappointing. Overall I did love the place and will be back.

This is were the boys stay - it's in the Pines, duh ...

I am planning a nice getaway for my birthday weekend , I was thinking of booking here but the abundance of bad reviews from not the place itself but the manager of the place has me second guessing

We just returned from 4 nights at The Madison. This was our third time staying there and I have to say it just keeps getting better every time. The pool and decking is pristine, the rooms are fresh and smell real clean not just Fabreeze. And the continental breakfast is a plus with a friendly staff. But, what we appreciate most is the location and size of the guest house, not too big. And the quality of the others guests was most agreeable. An experience we look forward to again!

First timers with no real knowledge of the Pines, or friends to share a house with so we went with the Maison and glad we did. Room was a good size, and basic but clean. It's not "luxury", but none of the hotels are. Breakfast was good, and the guys that run the place are friendly and attentive to the pool making sure it is always in great shape. They were also not always in your face which we appreciated. There is a nice upstairs patio, and another rooftop deck which were very nice. Kitchen was available to store food items, and prepare small meals on your own (breakfast was made to order for the days we stayed - including eggs). The weekend we were there, the other guests were very quiet and respectful (ie/ not a party hotel) which we were happy with. Best part - its literally one minute from the Ferry and bars/restaurants around the Dock. Recommend.