My wife and I just returned from a three night trip to Newfoundland. I had read a review that mentioned The Beach House, and how nice it was, and we decided to reserve a room there for the first night, and then stay downtown St. John's for the other two nights.
When we arrived at the Beach House, we were totally amazed at the view of Portugal Cove and Bell Island. The hotel overlooks Conception Bay, and you can watch the Ferry go back & forth to Bell Island. We stayed in the Sand Piper Room, and it was breath-taking! Wonderful room with a million dollar view of Conception Bay. The room was very clean, and very modernly decorated. It also had a walk out balcony, where we sat and watched the boats in the Bay. We had made reservations at the Atlantica Restaurant, as suggested by previous reviews. Our dinner was amazing. We highly recommend it, but you must make reservations, as locals dine here also. The restaurant is not that big, but has a great view of the Bay. Upscale dining. (not cheap)
We were sorry to have to leave as we had reservations downtown St. John's for next two nights at Blue on the Water (which is ranked #1 in St. John's on Tripadvisor). It was nice and location was close to stores, restaurants, and George St., but to be honest, not even close to the experience we had at the Beach House. We ended up checking out early, and spending our last night back at the Beach House. We stayed in one of the Signature Rooms, which was very, very cozy. No walk out balcony, but a great view.
The staff was wonderful.
We will be back soon.

We stayed at the Beach House in their Piping Plover Cottage for 3 nights while visiting St. John's .... and felt that we could not have chosen a nicer place to stay! The cottage is nicely decorated, looks like it has been recently updated as everything is quite new, clean, well equipped for cooking, has a separate bedroom....and best of all, lots of picture windows to enjoy the incredibly beautiful views. The private deck has a couple of "Muskoka" chairs and there is a shared BBQ on a patio next to the cottage.

It is a two unit building, with the Puffin Cottage below, however, the lower unit was unoccupied while we were there so it was very quiet.

This cottage is at their main site in Portugal Cove (as others have mentioned, some of their accommodation is 10 minutes away although it appears that most units are at the location where we were).

We were glad that we stayed in Portugal Cove for our 3 days in St. John's ... the drive each way was approx. 20 minutes, but well worth it for the luxury of having such a nice place to stay. (The airport is midway between P.Cove and St. John's).

We took the ferry to Bell Island to explore it for an afternoon.... had a great time! Don't miss the lighthouse and a tour of the mine if you go.

A couple of previous reviews mentioned poor service, but the few times that we requested items, they responded right away. We didn't eat in their restaurant so can't comment on it, but noticed that it was quite busy on Saturday evening.

All in all a wonderful time and I would highly recommend it!

Let me begin by saying that I was in love with this hotel after viewing the fantastic website. I was slightly alarmed when I called the hotel directly and for approximately 4 hours was unable to reach ANYONE! I was more alarmed when I finally did reach someone who had little/no respect for customer service...

I however, booked into the 'luxury' Pelican Cottage which boasted "ocean-front view, located next to the ocean with wireless internet, private deck and bbq... It still sounded like perfection! I explained upon booking that we wanted to maximize our time there and asked whether it would be possible to have an early check in and late check out? I was told "no problem, there is no one in the cottage prior to or after your arrival".

We arrived AT check-in time and were greeted by the unfriendly woman that I had spoke to on the phone. She belittled us in such a manner that we stood at the reservation desk and debated leaving immediately! My boyfriend walked into their 'fine dining establishment" and she yelled after him to 'get out of there' that the room was being prepared for dinner seating (at 3pm) and closed the door to block us out from it. We inquired about dinner reservations and without even checking she said "I'm sure it's full." She then advised us that our cottage was not ready (despite confirmation that no one had been there the night prior) and that we would also have to leave promptly at 11am upon morning of check out as a group would be coming in the following day (and they do need more than 24 hours to clean a room!) By this point I was feeling very mislead...

After check-in she advised us that the cottage was about a 10 minute drive and pointed us in the general direction (no they do not provide real directions- you will be lucky if she leaves the desk to point you left or right) and off we went...

Our cottage--- The ocean front is blocked by a road, a steep hill that you cannot climb down OH... and HYDRO POWER LINES! You must tilt your head at a very interesting angle to truly get a clear 'ocean view'...

The Deck-- You are lucky if you can stand on it for more than 30 seconds without pieces of a tree falling on you or spiders crawling all over you. It was incredibly run down and I would not recommend going outside there if you are not prepared for a wilderness experience!

BBQ- No propane! Was not clean...Was not suitable for cooking!

The Wireless Internet- Simple... NONE! We tried for hours... didn't work.. Called the front desk... NO answer...

The Cottage overall- nice. no frills.... OH except for the red wine stains that had been left by the previous guests weeks ago and were only cleaned the day of our arrival just before we arrived.. (the cleaning staff were still there when we arrived and confirmed this for us!) We were forced to walk on wet carpet for our entire stay...

Overall- Stay somewhere else!
Maybe if customer's stop buying into the owner/operators snobbery they will have to get down of their high post and re-evaluate their service level and realize that 5 star service is just as important as 5 star facilities!

We booked a room online with plenty of advance notice. The setting of The Beach House is truly spectacular, but upon arrival our room had some major glitches: the A/C leaked buckets of water and the internet didn't work in our room, neither wired nor wireless. The hotel offered us a discounted rate for our room, but also offered us the opportunity to check-out and find us a room in St. John's. We accepted and were delighted to stay at the Delta in town for less $$ and much more value.

Another note: the design of the Signature Rooms is strange. A lovely jacuzzi stands in the middle of the room attached to the bathroom, thus making toilet/shower privacy rather impossible. The amenities are top-notch, but not well thought out in a design fashion.

If you do plan to stay here, reserve the restaurant Atlantica well in advance. It may be the hottest dining spot in Newfoundland and was completely booked for weeks on end.