Hotel Atwater — Hotel in Avalon

With all be pros and cons I listed, I would say this hotel worth of my rating as 3 stars at this moment. Hopefully after their 18 mos long remodel for their 100 yrs anniversary, hope it will change my rating.

It is our first stay at Hotel Atwater. The hotel is right in the prime location and we just need to walk to wherever we need to go within 5 mins. It is a 3 levels of the hotel. The lobby looks nice and cozy. We need to walk up stairs to our room which it isn't a problem. There might be issue for some elderly people and family with strollers. They offer complimentary breakfast from Ben's bakery which it about 1 minute walking. The checkin process was fast and staff was friendly. Be aware that they should have given your breakfast card for each day upon your check in. I did not get all at once upon checkin and when I tried to get them on next day, the other (male) staff got fussy about the issue the breakfast cards. Housing keeping was not great. They took out the dirty towels but they didn't leave the clean ones.

Pros: location, location, location Ask hotel lobby front desk staff, they can provide you 10% coupon on joining tours, activities and dine out under the same parent. - Catalina Island Company (feel like it is same as Irvine company - monopoly in the area) Friendly staff except few of them Price at the time for my stay seemed reasonable Bed seems comfortable. They provide beach towels and they are very soft. AC works and it is pretty strong.

Cons: room is small Bathroom is very tiny Very outdated decoration and amenities in the room Dirty bathroom (see photos) Dirty carpet (everywhere, lobby, hallways, guest room) Night shift staff was not available at the front desk at 540am. Claiming he was helping other guests (as he put up the sign) and turned out he was somewhere else. Had to call him on his phone. He came back with his coffee and breakfast - understandable but just don't put up a sign saying helping other guests). House keeping is not effective in my point of view. By 330pm, my room was not cleaned. May be they clean rooms that checked out on that day first and others later? Or they thought people would not come back in the middle of the day so they could take it easy? They seems they didn't start to do cleaning until 9-10am. Unlike other hotels I have stayed before. Weird.

Conclusion:

I heard they are going to close in Oct 2017 for 18 months and get ready for summer 2019. Would I want to stay again? It is mixed bag but I will wait and see other people review with real photos (rather than the hotel posting those suits on their website and not mentioning anything about it. It seems misleading. But I guess all hotels...

We stayed at Hotel AtWater and experienced nothing short of disgraceful treatment:

Unjustified Lock-out & Extortionate Late Fee

Without any prior warning or documentation of the check-out time, our key was deactivated at 11:40 AM while our luggage remained inside. The front-desk supervisor flatly refused us re-entry unless we paid a $25 “late fee,” then coldly gave us just 10 minutes to grab our things.

Malicious Misrepresentation & Racial Harassment

She brazenly claimed the 11:00 AM check-out was “clearly printed” on the paper we signed—yet never explained its contents or provided us a copy. Her tone was not only dismissive and condescending but carried a distinctly hostile edge toward us as Asian guests.

Abysmal Room & Accessibility Conditions

-Soundproofing: Walls so thin you hear every footstep and conversation. Bathroom: Toilet repeatedly failed to flush. Odor: A foul, persistent stench made the entire room unbearable. -Elevator & Access: There is only one elevator in the entire hotel, and our room was located so far from it that every trip required climbing stairs. This is profoundly unfriendly—and potentially dangerous—for guests with mobility issues.

This was an appalling display of poor service, outright extortion, and possible racial bias. Avoid Hotel Atwater until management overhauls their policies, staff training, and basic maintenance. We will never return.

Update:

Thank you for your response. For clarity,

Our room key was deactivated at 11:40 AM, not “noon”. We were never clearly informed of the exact checkout time when we checked in. A $25 fee was charged to our credit card without notice or consent when we were locked out. We were told we had only 10 minutes to retrieve our belongings or face an additional $50 charge.

My initial and second requests to waive the charge were refused. Only after a third, extended discussion did the supervisor finally agree to waive the fee. Your claim that the fee was “happily waived” is misleading—it was waived only after repeated requests and extended argument.

These are the facts. I believe it is important for future guests to be fully aware of how this...

I’ve never left a negative review at a hotel before but this experience was so incomprehensibly bad I thought I should elaborate.

-The hotel offers to shuttle you from ferry and bag delivery. There was never a shuttle upon arrival or leaving island. -The hotel says they will comp tickets on the catalina flyer. We had to call the 800 number twice in order for them to do so, which took a total of 30 minutes. -We booked two rooms. One of them being an upgraded premium room. They checked us into the wrong room after we explained at check-in the parties staying in each room. We didn’t realize they had made this mistake until we went down and told them how incredibly small our room was. After realizing the mistake they could not upgrade us because they were fully booked and they would not discount us on the basic room. -The basic room we were given was beyond tiny. I couldn’t not fully open my suitcase except on the bed. Only one person could fit through doorway at a time. The rooms were not insulated we could hear people walking through the halls at all times. -There is no direct line to the hotel - ever. If you have any problem with reservations, or promotions promised through website, you cannot talk to anyone at the hotel. You have to talk to Catalina Company. This proved to be increasingly difficult throughout the trip, when we were trying to buy tickets on the flyer, trying find the promised shuttle upon arrival and trying to find the lost luggage of my sister that barely made it to the ferry 20 minutes before its departure.

I spoke to one of the managers before I checked out about my concerns. I am not one to go around leaving negative reviews so I wanted to inform one of the managers of all our difficulties hoping that something could be done to salvage our vacation. We booked this “luxury” hotel for a reason. It is not a luxury hotel. If you are looking for one I suggest staying elsewhere. Somewhere not owned by the...