Hollowell's Motel — Hotel in Atlantic Beach

Stayed for two nights in mid-June 2016, stayed an extra night after finding the hotel and area a neat place to hang (we aborted a night at Kings Dominion for this). ||Let’s be honest, this is not the greatest motel I’ve ever stayed in. The furniture in the room was a little stained and one chair, apparently missing some stuffing, was hard to sit in. The parking lot is rather small and one with a large vehicle must be careful. The pots and pans in the free kitchenette were cheap, and somewhat unusable due to burns, etc. To the owner (Mike Lawrence?), I’d make the following suggestion: I was happy to wash the dishes before leaving, per your statement that not doing so would result in a $25 charge. But think about this: I washed them well, a courtesy to you and the folks coming in after me. But I also washed them when I arrived, because my thought was “what if the guy before me wasn’t very good at it?” Think about it. Might be worth jacking your prices five bucks and night, putting a dishwasher in your laundry room, and just cleaning the dishes yourself to assure safety. The thought of the previous customers, who may have been tired and not excited about the task, washing my dishes for me? Kind of creeped me out. ||Ok, that’s the bad stuff, lets talk about the good. I say it's not the greatest hotel I’ve ever stayed in, because I’ve paid $300 to stay in a resort many times. But I think a review should be based on cost, expectations, and compared to the surrounding area. with that in mind, this IS one of the best motels I’ve ever stayed in that cost under $100 a night. And consider where you are (see “location”). ||The room: as clean as your going to get near the shore. There’s sand, there’s water everywhere, and it’s hot and humid. Still, the girls cleaning seemed to work their butts off to make it a pleasant experience. The room was HUGE, important to us, as we had two kids. The bathroom was small, but clean and well-kept. The kitchen (note the dishes issues, I’d bring a pan or two next time) was a real nice touch. With a Food Lion one mile down the road, we saved a fortune and ate healthier because we had a kitchen, refrigerator, toaster (nice!) and microwave. Note to future clients, there’s no coffee maker; bring your own, or head down to McDonalds, a short walk on a warm morning. The beds were comfortable.||Staff: Beautiful people that made me feel welcome. Mr. Lawrence seemed to always be there, and always running around with a rag and a spray bottle of cleaner (which almost says “yeah, I give a damn”). Met me driving in, made me feel welcome, gave me the lay of the land and suggestions on eating, etc. When I wanted the room for an extra night, he dropped what he was doing, ran in the office and made it happen. Other employees I ran into were always smiling, always accommodating. The girls cleaning were at it early and were ON IT, minding your privacy but making sure you had what you needed. Just a good, good feel. ||The Pool and Grounds: A nice pool, decent sized. There are tables and chairs inside the pool for resting, having a bite, whatever. We also found a nice picnic table around the corner from our room, where we took most of our meals. In the office, the owners keep a litany of pamphlets and info on the surrounding area. ||Finally, LOCATION!. So you’ve checked into this decent, clean motel, for which you’ve paid about a hundred bucks a night, and the owners and staff have treated you like family. Then you say “which way to the beach?” Answer: About two minutes away. The main Atlantic Beach is a short walk, past an expensive parking area you don’t need. So close is the beach that one night we drove up with chairs and a cooler. We all walked to the car when we were done and my wife and daughters started walking while I packed up (took me less than a minute) and drove back. They were waiting for me when I got there. Note that when the main beach is crowded, ask the owners about the other public accessway, located about two blocks up the road. Two of our three days, the main beach was crowded. Although the other areas have no lifeguards (and we didn’t want them anyway), there was almost no one there. We swam with dolphins two days. Beautiful white sand. ||This was just a nice experience. I want to congratulate Mr. Lawrence on making this old gem work well. Acceptably clean, well-managed. Made me feel like I was at home, enough so that I didn’t want to leave. It’s a long way from our PA home, so I don’t know when we’ll be back, but we’d stay here again, and we’re recommending it to friends that are tired of paying $250 a night in the...

My husband and I travel to Atlantic Beach frequently. We have always seen Hollowell's Motel as it's right next door to our favorite breakfast spot but never thought to stay here. The exterior of this motel does not reflect the quaint retro rooms inside. We decided to take a chance on Hollowell's this time.||||Upon check-in, we were greeted by a very pleasant woman who got us our keys and explained the parking. Each room has it's own numbered parking space. This is a great perk in Atlantic Beach! Most places you stay in AB you have to hope and pray you get a spot close to your room or even close to the building. Not this place! Assigned parking! Now, keep in mind, this is Atlantic Beach and the parking lot is very tight. Only one car can enter or leave at a time. There is not enough room for 2 cars to get through. Not a huge deal but, something to be aware of.||||The room was clean! I was a bit worried when I noticed the age of the furnishings and fixtures. The tile work appears original. Circa 1960. With that much age on the shower and bathroom, I expected to see some mold or mildew...especially in a beach motel. I was pleasantly surprised to find no mold or mildew! ||||The bed is a little firmer than I, or my husband, prefer and the pillows were not very comfortable. When we return, and we will return, we plan to bring our own pillows from home. This will fix that issue for us.||||Our decision to return to this motel was solidified with the events of our second night. We returned from dinner to find that our toilet was no longer usable. We called the front desk just as Paula was closing up for the night. Paula immediately took ownership of the problem and worked through a solution. She moved us to an available room. Through the process, Paula made us feel like we were staying at her own home. She was thoughtful and understanding. She turned an otherwise stressful and concerning situation into another comfortable night at her "home".||||Check out was just as easy as check in and, again, we were made to feel like we had just stayed at Hollowell's "home". If you are looking for a great place to stay while at Atlantic Beach, consider Hollowell's. They are not fancy or newly remodeled but they truly care about their guests and keep their rooms very clean.||||I have a couple of suggestions for management:||1. Upon check-in, give each guest the "after-hours" number in case of need. Had I not caught Paula in the office just as she was closing up, I'm not sure that I would have known to go look on the office door for the after-hours number. Either giving it to each guest or having it posted in the room would be a convenient feature.||2. Turn on the fridge prior to guest arrival. We had brought cold food for our weekend and had to wait for the fridge to cool down before removing the food from our cooler.||||Overall, thanks for a great weekend! We'll see...

We userly stay here ever year infact last year we had 7 rooms booked at one time with extended family and family we all booked here that trip was fine however my dad whom has stayed here many years in a row now 70 years old has a service dog that never leaves his side with proper identification for the dog small less than 10 pound dog said couldn't stay when an employee there told us the year before that it would be fine because the year prior my dad rented an air band b because of it so this year he booked there after the employee told him that it would have been fine he drives all the way down and then told no after the room was paid for which I'm pulling up the confirmation email to see a lawyer that says paid in full they then said no that was just the down payment okay so he paid what they asked then went to the room the AC was broken that was in the 2nd room that was for my brother and wife a 2 kids one special needs they said well I don't have another room and then they were told they wouldn't be getting the security deposit back because it was the day of but remind you they weren't able to stay due to no ac not there fault after driving 5 hours there now no room with ac and they 2 Lady's in the office was pure rude and not only lost us ever booking there but our whole family which in July is 5 to 7 rooms and would have been more this year due to the fact that my daughter and her family this year was booking there instead of the air band b they stayed in last year because all of the other family was booked there but let's be honest it was a okay place nothing to brag about very dated . Not nasty but not clean clean that I would like infact I went to the store last year and bought cleaning supplies so I could clean so I would feel okay for the 10 days we was there for. Book at your own risk they do have right many people who live...