Sea Otter Inn — Hotel in Cambria

May 12th, 2024 I rate the service as poor, even though it started off high for the following reason:

Although the rooms were clean, and the young woman that greeted us the day before Mother’s Day was warm and friendly, things took a turn for the worse when the short, stocky man took over the day before Mother’s Day that evening. To start with, my son (an adult) told me that he was going to the front office to ask if there were any snacks or drinks in the afternoon. He told me that the man at the front desk was not very friendly and told him there was “nothing” for him to give to guests. Then my son noticed a bunch of cookies, and a pot of coffee and tea in the front office and essentially said: “What about these?” He said the man didn’t say anything in response. My son then told me he continued to strike up a conversation about good places to eat in Cambria, and that the man pretty much refused to engage with him and was not very friendly. Then I had my encounter: Since this was Mother’s Day weekend, and our son met us her after a long drive from southern California (we came down from the San Jose area to meet him), we were looking forward to watching a movie with our son after eating. When turned on the TV, I could see that Netflix could be selected, but every time I tried to login, the TV would freeze. If anyone from the hotel is reading this, please note: I am very well versed in using computers and set top boxes, since the company I worked for used to direct OEMs and ODMs in how to design them. The issue was with the TV=not the “TV box.”

Since the TV box seemed to not be working properly, I disconnected it and ran my computer laptop directly into the TV HDMI ports (I tried ports 1 and 2) and had the same issue: my laptop display would come up, and the TV would “freeze.” I tried this several times. The TV box was completely powered off and disconnected at this point. I say this, because I tried to explain this to the same young woman the next day, and she insisted that it must have been a problem with the TV box. No, it was not. At any rate, Saturday night was when I went to the front office to ask for help. Then man that I previously mentioned above was just getting ready to leave since it was 9pm. First, he told me that he didn’t think the TVs could get Netflix, but he wasn’t sure. When I told him the problem was with the TV, he pretty much shrugged and left. When I spoke to the person in the front office the next day, she was not very helpful or encouraging either, although I thought she said, “we have extra.” I think she meant TVs. I then asked for a late checkout and was denied because the person before me was “the last one” that could be allowed that privilege. Really?

A big deal? Well, I guess not so much. We came down to enjoy the area, not watch TV. However, the complete lack of interest on the part of this employee to at least try to understand how he could help us was underwhelming. Add to this his unfriendliness, and we will not be coming back. Too bad. I liked the location of the Sea Otter Inn, although I found the lack of help and interest in customer support to be appalling. My advice to management? Hire better and have your support hours cater more to the hours of your guests. Closing at 9pm? Not opening the front lobby until 8:30am? The term “bankers’ hours” comes to mind. How many people get there after 9am? More importantly: how many people wait to “hit the road” until 8:30am and might need support in the morning before they...

We needed to head up to the area to check in on an older family member. Since I knew our journey would be shortly after Christmas, I decided that we would stay at Sea Otter Inn. We've been there many times in the past and have always had a pleasant stay. I checked with their Covid precautions and the website was very detailed on how they stay safe--including contactless check in with outdoor accessible rooms. They also included tickets to the Cambria Lights Festival--an outdoor safeguarded light display. Perfect. Then the shelter at home orders came. I called and the hotel assured me everything was fine. I paid over $400 a night to stay, which is pricey by all accounts.

We pulled in on Monday and the contactless check in, which you do on your cell phone, was pretty painless. We were given wristbands for the Cambria Lights and told it ran from 5-9 pm. No shuttles there. That's fine. I wouldn't want to get in a shuttle with other people now anyway. We were taking our precautions very seriously. We drove to the hotel where the lights are located outside of. Every single outdoor food stand was closed except for one place that had a small selection of drinks at the front. Um, this is weird. Whatever, we went through the lights and it was pretty.

On Tuesday, we asked about late check out for Wednesday. The late check out is at 12 pm instead of 11 am. We were told we had to ask the day of departure. Um, okay. The next day at 9 am we called and were told no we couldn't have late departure. Really? We asked the day before and were told to call in the morning. Double masked, I went into the office to inquire. I was told we were too late two other people already asked before us. We called the day before? Well, the two other people called before you the day of. The interaction was quite terse. I expressed how disappointed I was in this and the fact that the Cambria Lights had no open booths. "They don't on Monday and Tuesday nights. It's on our website." Um, no, it wasn't when I booked in November nor were we told upon check in. "I spent $60 more a night when I booked in November than the room is even going for now." "Ahh, so sorry," was the patronizing response I got back.

It was rude and a flippant interaction to say the least. I understand that there are challenges with Covid. The cleaning service takes longer I'm sure. However, the hotel looked to be only about a 1/4 booked. It literally was an hour difference in check out we were looking for. Even beyond not getting the late checkout and the dramatic increase of pricing for the time period, it was the terse and patronizing response to my complaints from the woman behind the counter. We had to go up to the area anyway for our family, and I thought it would be good to help out a local hotel that I assumed must be struggling during these times. Yet, this experience will probably cause us to find a new place up there once this pandemic ends and we start traveling again....

We had a wonderful 4 night stay at the Sea Otter Inn! We spent 3 nights in a king/patio room and then had to move to a 2 queen/patio room for the last night. The staff was wonderful in making the move seamless with luck of prior room occupant checking out early and housekeeping cleaning the room first so we could move our stuff before our check out time. It was a bummer to have to move rooms but we were glad they were able to accommodate us last minute with another room.

I was however disappointed as we had to pay an exorbitant rate for the last one night stay. We booked the room last minute when we were checking in so we understood the increased rate. The disappointment came when I received a message from the office early in the evening of our last night asking what time we were checking out; to which I did not respond as I felt since we paid almost $50 more for the last night we were entitled to an 11:00 am checkout the following morning. As if the message the evening before wasn't bad enough, housekeeping staff was knocking on our door shortly after 9:00 am the next morning!

Neither rooms were the 'cleanest', but we are over the top picky so we gave them grace. There was leftover food scraps on the microwave handle, dirty coffee cups, patio door blinds were dusty and the turn handle was filthy. I also noticed the floor was dirty when I bent down to pick up a couple of dropped items. Common touch points could've used a bit more attention as well. We personally loved the fact of their no daily cleaning and we always managed to find the maid cart in the corridor to get fresh towels. It was nice leaving the room and knowing it was going to be the same when we returned.

The gas fireplace in our room was very quaint and romantic! I loved that the hearth was generous enough to sit and enjoy the warmth and also served as a useful 'flat' surface for unpacking and packing.

The morning breakfast basket was just the BEST!! What a wonderful treat each morning to have the darling basket arrive at your door with fresh, hot breakfast.

My suggestions for a more comfortable stay would be better lighting (i.e. brighter light bulbs) in the room as well as the bathroom and hall outside of the bathroom. We kept the drapes closed as you can see right into the room with them open so the need for brighter bulbs was a must!

We sat by the firepit every night until the office staff turned them off at closing time. It would've been nice to stay out there longer but we understand their reasoning.

The fresh cookies in the office were to die for! I'm not even a 'sweets' eater, but the peanut butter cookie was on point!

Overall, we will definitely book with the Sea Otter the next time we visit Cambria! Thank you to all the wonderful and accommodating Sea Otter Inn team for making our stay...