The Preserve Resort & Spa review is about a membership class in free fall, and whether a membership at The Preserve at any level is worth the money. We have included detailed evidence and personal experiences to this story.1
Reference: Beyond Yelp for additional information. There is a postscript to this story.
Is the Spa, Dining and Range Membership Worth It?
The Preserve Resort & Spa is open to the public, so it begs the question, “Is this membership worth the money?” Keep in mind that the member-specific activities for this category are almost non-existent as of this writing. Although billed as “Spa, Dining & Range” the only existing tangible benefit is for the “Range.” Besides, it’s what we call a “Step-member” membership category because Range members are “second class citizens.” Here, we are using the word “membership” loosely.
There is NO tangible spa benefit either. Unless you consider a $10 discount for the day pass a “benefit.” There is NO benefit for the Double Barrel restaurant, a public restaurant by the way. Range members don’t have access to the “private” bar area. You need to fork up at least a $15,000 initiation fee for that “privilege.” The Social Diary has been to this “private” bar. Our dressing room is bigger.
The Preserve Resort & Spa promotes this membership class as a “package.” However, it’s a lopsided offering. It’s apparent not much thought went into this membership “class.” That is the way it flows at The Preserve Resort & Spa. It’s in constant revision, without any clear cut vision.
It’s important to note that this review is not about personnel at OH! Spa or the Sporting Shoppe.
The Preserve Resort & Spa
The decision to open up the Double Barrel restaurant and the OH! Spa to the public was a financial one. We first heard about this move in December 2022. The Oh Spa management also confirmed this.
Opening up an existing “members” area to the public is a clear sign that something is not working. A private members’ club cannot survive without the support of its members. It shouldn’t go public for the bottom line either.
Whilst The Preserve offers booking reservations to the general public, it operates as a “semi-private” club. This operation is different from the Ocean House in Watch Hill which is a public resort that is open to the public, but also offers membership for high net worth clientele.
‘Dropping the Ball’ on Membership
We were still looking for membership at a “private club” setting. After the disaster that was The Hope Club visit, we looked elsewhere and discovered The Preserve Resort & Spa.
The Spa, Dining and Range membership interested us, so we arranged for a tour. The Clay membership was also an option. However, after our tour we considered the RAM membership, which included more benefits. After all, we were looking for more “social” activities and inclusion. Therefore, we requested additional information about it.
Christine Smith, hired as the membership sales executive, never responded back. What her role really entailed was anybody’s guess. Thus, a lost revenue for The Preserve. Probably a blessing in disguise, in hindsight.
Apparently followup is not a strong suit at The Preserve. Neither Ms. Smith or Claudia, our guide, reached out to us after the tour. Not even to thank us for our interest. Both Smith and Claudia are no longer with The Preserve Resort & Spa. They left their positions after a short stint. Smith arrived with much fanfare and write ups in local trade.
Our ‘Legacy’ Story
In business and in life following through and following up is the act of an accountable and responsible person. Children also learn from adults. Therefore growing up, our lessons included deportment. We wrote notes of thanks, RSVP to events, and were pleasant to everyone we met. Etiquette and manners was an everyday occurrence in our household. Moreover, to be thankful and supportive of those who serve us.
As “legacy” children to our family’s private members’ clubs, we literally grew up in this world. As adults, we made our own way as members of other private clubs and establishments. We have a lifetime of ‘lived experience‘ in this culture, and are subject matter experts as well.
We have served on committees, including as young Patrons under 30, and under 40, in addition to our appointment on The Board of Governors of our private members’ club.
Traveling is also in our DNA and we have visited some of the best clubs in the world. Therefore, we can state, without reservation, that The Preserve Resort & Spa doesn’t offer anything beneficial below Clay Membership. But even that’s questionable.
Elite Gun Range & Peace Dale Shooting
Meet The Preserve Resort & Spa’s competition, Elite Gun Range. They might be the busiest indoor and outdoor shooting arena in Rhode Island. They may lack in size, but they pack a punch when it comes to membership benefits. So let’s compare the numbers and benefits.
The Preserve Resort & Spa: Clay Membership
The Clay members at The Preserve Resort & Spa pay an initiation fee of $15,000 and most all benefits are “access” only, which means you still pay a fee for cart, clay birds, spa, equestrian centre, racquet club and seasonal pool, for starters. The annual membership in 2023 was $2,400 for single and $3,600 for family. This includes the fitness centre and the indoor range, but there is a fee for firearms locker. There is no members’ lounge, only a dining area and bar accessible for this type of membership, which comes with a charge account.
Elite Gun Range: Estate Membership
At nearby Elite Gun Range and Peace Dale Shooting Preserve, The Estate level members have both the indoor range and outdoor clay. For $2000 per annum (reduced for PSD) and $500 one time initiation fee, you get 2000 complimentary clay birds to start, a complimentary firearms locker (with your designated name), a no fees access to the members only lounge, unlimited complimentary firearms rental for indoor range with no time limits, and unlimited guest passes. This membership also extends to the immediate household.
If you aren’t a clay member, the price per clay bird for non-members at Peace Dale is $0.55. That’s the same price as Clay members at The Preserve Resort & Spa as of January 2023.
The Preserve Resort & Spa
Step-Members
The Preserve Resort & Spa membership page does not list spa, dining and range. But it lists all the other membership classes with initiation fees of at least $15,000. So, you can’t find this membership class unless you went on either OH! Spa or the Sporting Shoppe pages.
OH! Spa only refers to membership as “Spa and Dining,” whereas the Sporting Shoppe lists it as “Spa, Dining and Range.” Why the inconsistency is anyone’s guess. Moreover, this membership class feels like a “step-member” category.
Instead of a parking sticker, members in this class receive a tag that hangs on their rear view mirror. The cost of membership is $1000 for couples and $750 for singles.
For $250 more, plus a one time $500 initiation fee, Elite Gun Range gives you access to their Platinum Members’ Lounge and includes the fire arms locker, in addition to complimentary gun loaners for their pistol bay. Elite offers discounts for military and law enforcement, dropping the annual cost to $900, extended to the whole family.
Let’s explore the “Range” membership. We already discounted The Double Barrel “dining” as a non-benefit since it’s a public restaurant. The OH! Spa is a Whoop-de-doo “benefit.”
Indoor Range
The indoor range is state of the art but there is a daily time limit of one hour. Members can bring a guest or guests for a fee. Members have “access” to the long range, but it costs $35 per hour. There is no adjacent member’s lounge and no complimentary fire arms locker. The members only section of The Double Barrel restaurant is not open to this membership class.
OH! Spa
On the spa side, all members can buy a day pass for $75. Non-members pay $85. In addition, the spa is open to members on the weekends. The infinity pool, however is only available with a spa service. The fitness centre used to be a benefit when it was located in the OH! Spa, but it has since moved to the clubhouse. It is not available to spa, dining and range members, only Clay members and above.
To “add insult to injury” it appears that even Wine Down Wednesdays are now ALL public access for 2024. It is highly doubtful if The Preserve even cares about this membership class based on all the “limits” imposed.
The Preserve Resort & Spa
OH! Spa: Wine Down Wednesdays for Freeloaders
February 2024 will be our last “Wine Down Wednesday.” Our decision to join was solely based on the social aspect of membership. So with this event going public, it diminishes our involvement.
This public event also invites members to attend but members will have to compete with the public for spa and salon “space.” Free doesn’t necessarily equate to sales. Sometimes, it opens the door to freeloaders.
During February’s Wine Down Wednesday, we encountered a group of women who were only there for FREE wine (booze), lite bites, foot massage and nail service. One woman unequivocally said “No” that she was not at all interested in membership. She kept munching away with her mouth open. She and her friend emptied a bottle of wine and started in on another one. Apparently they needed more wine during their nail treatment. Another woman said she was at the event “because it was free.” She tagged along with her friend.
RSVP & Non-member Fee Policy
Another group of women decided to skip the Lily Pad where the event took place. They migrated to the “relaxation room” reserved for members and guests with a spa appointment. OH! Spa sometimes includes this area for their Soiree, but not for Wine Down Wednesdays.
Granted the Lily Pad is not ideal for more than six comfortably, but people should have common sense. OH! Spa events website specifically notes the “Lily Pad” as the location for Wine Down Wednesday. We make reservations beforehand, so the kitchen at least knows how many people to serve. It is doubtful the women attending made reservations, based on the allotment of food provided for the evening.
Additionally, why not charge non-members a gratuity fee of $10 to participate and pool the money for the spa and salon technicians? We always tipped during Wine Down Wednesdays because even though the event is complimentary, we were still being provided a service. Now that the event is public, we are re-evaluating attending, and whether we should even tip since there is no benefit to members.
OH! Spa “Attendance” Problem
OH! Spa has an attendance problem. This is the reason Hilltop café inside the OH! Spa never got off the ground, and closed the last two years. The Spa Manager admitted they had personnel issues and did not know when the café would open up. However, our investigation discovered that OH! Spa actually has an attendance problem.
Unless there is an ammo sale or clay shooting event, The Preserve Resort & Spa is a virtual “ghost town.” Even OH! Spa events are not that well attended.
Here is another one of their “fails.“
This advertised Members Day Holiday Soiree never got off the ground. There were only three people attending the yoga and zero other members for the lite breakfast in the Lily Pad afterwards. Additionally, OH! Spa ended up cancelling the whole Hilltop shopping experience, and no sipping champagnes since they didn’t set anything up for this day. Instead of notifying us of the cancellation prior, we arrived for yoga in the morning and found out during breakfast there was no event in the conference room.
The lack of planning and effective communications is a serious issue at The Preserve.
The Preserve Resort & Spa
Double Barrel Restaurant
If you are a spa, dining and range member, you have ZERO ACCESS to the members’ only dining area of Double Barrel. This policy also includes the members’ bar, as confirmed by OH! Spa management. OH! Spa membership brochure notes that this membership class has access to the “front room” of the Double Barrel, which is the public area.
We attended one restaurant event in 2023 where we thought the food was quite good. The service was a bit slow, but the staff for the most part was friendly, with the exception of the Toplofty who checked us in. When we were children, we had amusing names for people who exhibited certain personality traits.
It’s amusing that people who serve members, sometimes are the snobbiest people of them all. You find them at the most luxurious resorts to high end hotels and members only clubs.
There are plenty of quality restaurants locally, so the Double Barrel isn’t on our radar. Besides, “Nobody puts Baby in the corner” (Dirty Dancing). You don’t put any “members” in the “front room” with the public, if there are private accommodations! Full stop! It would be different if this was a private lounge where you need a code to gain access, but this is a public restaurant! The Preserve is running some sort of “caste” system with this setup.
It’s as if The Preserve doesn’t have a clue how a membership club operates.
The Preserve Resort & Spa
“The Last Straw” Annual Members Meeting
So, here we were at the annual members meeting. We already established that The Preserve Resort & Spa is in constant revision and this is evident by their inconsistent public diary notices, lack of communications skills, and cancellations without prior notice. The Annual Members Meeting was yet another example of disorder and chaos.
The Preserve Resort & Spa doesn’t know what they are doing. Full Stop!
There were no specific details about the Annual Members Meeting. There were no exclusions of who could attend either. Listed as ‘members only,’ our secretary called to RSVP. It’s also common courtesy to RSVP, even without instructions, since it helps the host with a head count and the kitchen better prepared to cater the event.
We have been programming our social diary for many moons now, so it is hard press for us not to notice a diary change, especially on a website. Moreover, we make it our business to know who is doing what, where, when and all the details related to that event and ANY revisions to it.
We make sure that our Social Diary is full, vibrant and interesting throughout the year. Planning at least six months out limits conflict. We are after all very engaged with life, and dress accordingly for every occasion. This includes garden parties, gala balls, opening night, closing night, premiers, museum exhibits and everything in between.
Therefore, when a “members” club or association, whether private or “semi-private” can’t handle simple membership processes, we take note.
The Toplofty Experience
Our first Toplofty experience began with brunch at Double Barrel. Our second was at the Annual Members meeting. The membership liaison is on a leave of absence due to family issues, so Toplofty stepped in. Unfortunately, a rather mismatch for the role. Deportment is something we value in a membership liaison, not rudeness.
We discovered during checkin-in that the Annual Members meeting didn’t include spa, range and dining members. If this was true, shouldn’t The Preserve Resort & Spa include this detail on their diary posting for the meeting? Again, another ball dropped and no one took responsibility. Imagine having the wrong membership. On top of that Toplofty refused to give us a brown packet handed out to other “members.” Apparently you had to be a Clay member or above to receive one.
Regardless of the “cold” reception, everyone we met at the annual members meeting was quite nice, and Toplofty even warmed up as we chatted after the meeting. We still didn’t receive a brown packet, but invited to stay for the meal that the staff had prepared. However, we decided to go home, instead. We couldn’t soon forget how the Toplofty treated us like Step-Members and we had no intentions of hanging out to break bread either.
People don’t change stripes. Toplofty, is in the mid 60s, so very doubtful if the icicles will ever thaw completely. We made our excuses and left.
Show us the Evidence
Toplofty made a big deal that the Annual Members meeting included Clay members and above. Where does it say, “Clay members and above?” No where!
Sometimes, people get ahead of themselves, or what we call an ego trip. This is not competence, its shortcomings from a strategic execution failure.
Wine Down Wednesday Lie
The Toplofty also stated that Wine Down Wednesdays were “always public.” We wondered if this person ever views their own diary. She is wrong, as usual. In 2023, Wine Down Wednesdays, mostly member oriented, interested us in joining. Now that it is open to the public in 2024, we terminated our membership.
The Social Diary has a generous annual social budget. However, we don’t waste money and time on incompetence.
It’s always better to admit you don’t know instead of ‘making up a story that is not even true. This sums up Toplofty and The Preserve Reserve & Spa in a nutshell.
The Preserve Resort & Spa: Diary Postings
Here is yet another example why The Preserve Resort & Spa diary postings are a “hot mess.” As stated, it is obvious that they don’t know what they are doing, with multiple revisions of the same event. Even cancelling an event the day of the event whilst members are present, expecting the event to happen.
Here are three additional examples.
- The Preserve listed a FREE Charcuterie member event on January 27th. They then changed that to a $20 FEE to cover the cost of the board, except they forgot to change the header. It still said Price “Free.” LOL! We had no interest in taking home a Charcuterie board since we make our own. We had enough ingredients to make one at home.
- The members’ game night on February 27th, changed to a murder mystery night. Maybe not enough members had board games to bring to the event.
- Yoga at OH! Spa on February 24th changed to Yoga and nature hike. It doesn’t even look like the same event. Google noted changes made on February 23rd. Why change an event the day before the event? Not shocking at all since we already experienced OH! Spa cancelling the Holiday Soiree event the day of the event without even notifying us prior.
The rule of thumb for events is don’t make drastic changes once it goes live. It confuses people and it doesn’t look very professional.
- The Preserve “Resort & Spa” is a mixed used facility that serves both “members” and the “general public.” The Social Diary explores whether joining as a member is even worth the money or investment. This story was updated to include relevant information and formatting including link to “Beyond Yelp” The Preserve Resort & Spa. This replaces the previous Yelp link which is not active. ↩︎