Ocean Palms Beach Resort Carlsbad Beach — Hotel in Carlsbad

Editing my review to 2 stars because it’s midnight and the neighbor noise is so loud I have been woken out of a sleep 3 times from the pounding. This is insane. The neighbors are probably just walking but these walls are insanely thin. I’m going to try and switch hotels tomorrow morning.

Listen, I’m truly not trying to be a Karen, but unless you’re paying for the nicer rooms, this place is…. Not great and I do not recommend. We stayed here in September and honestly had a magical time. The room was perfect (besides the fire alarm going off every night in the middle of the night????? And the shower not draining and smelling terrible). We were willing to overlook those things because everything else was great.

We booked more last minute this trip so we got a smaller room that is on a lower level. You can hear literally every single step from the people above. I’m laying in bed right now and have been listening to the people above me walk around and move stuff for over an hour. lol I can hear that they have rolly suitcases they are moving around their room. The rooms don’t have individual AC units (the last room we stayed in did have this) and so the room I’m currently in is SWELTERING. there’s some strange mold looking stuff on the blinds. The sheets smell musty and kinda gross. Probably a result of not getting a lot of airflow? The kitchen is so nasty I had to go buy Clorox wipes and clean it before I felt comfortable doing anything in there. The bathroom is ADA accessible, which is so great, except with how the shower is designed, it makes it so water legitimately just covers the entire bathroom. Like every inch of the bathroom floor and counter get wet.

The people at the front desk are AWESOME. I don’t fault them at all, and they’ve been great to us both times we have stayed. The grounds are super fun and beautiful. The location honestly can’t be beat. It’s right across from the beach. The beach right now is completely covered in rocks so you have to walk a ways to get to actual sand, but again, that is not the hotels fault. Just something to note if visiting not in the summer months. It’s also so close to fun restaurants, shopping, and coffee! Once you get to the hotel you don’t really have to drive at all, which is SO nice. Anyway, we won’t stay here again in one of these rooms, but if you have a chance to stay in the bigger villas without anyone above you and your own little deck, I would...

In a nutshell: RIP OFF and Unscrupulous!!

As the person in my family charged with organizing family reunions, I looked into this place as a possibility for our next summer reunion. Since I'm from Carlsbad, I'd driven past this place and thought "looks cute, good location," looked on line at their rooms and thought "PERFECT!" Decided we'd give this place a trial run over Thanksgiving with a mini-reunion.... so, I booked a room online for the third weekend of November thinking that was the weekend of Thanksgiving. My credit card was charged the full amount immediately [??!!]. Thought this was extremely odd, but didn't really care since I intended to stay there, so "whatever..." I thought. One of my relatives quickly informed me that T'Day was actually the LAST Thursday!

Not knowing how to correct my error on line, I phoned and spoke with the front desk. told him my error and made inquiries as to costs for pets, discounts, etc. and called it a day. I sent an email out to my relatives who then called and booked rooms.

Cut to the 3rd Thursday of November... I got a call around 11:30 pm asking if I was going to check in. The guy was nice and I told the him that I was part of a group checking in the following week. He said he'd check with the owner and get back to me. In the next couple of days I got a call that the owner would let me move my reservation, but I'd have to pay for an "upgraded" room since my level of room was sold out. I was a bit miffed since I'd corralled the rest of my relatives into staying there, and totally overwhelmed with the details of putting together a T'Day for 30 people.

The owner called me to repeat his "offer" [which was about $100 more on top of what I'd already paid] and I told him that given that I've got accommodations at my mom's house I didn't want to spend $200 more. He repeated his "offer" several more times as if presenting new options. He refused to give me my money back and told me I'll have a credit! Never heard of something so asinine given that the weekend I'd technically booked wasn't Thanksgiving nor was it peak season.

On a side note, the feedback I got from relatives was that most the rooms were pretty crappy and that they didn't even have blow dryers in the room, but offer to sell them to you...

An overwhelmingly charming, independently owned, family-run hotel with a surprising number of amenities packed into an unassuming lot. Not to be cliché, but the above-and-beyond customer service provided by Beau and Ruger truly made us feel like family during our short stay. The love and attention put into every detail of the hotel grounds and the rooms reflects the owner’s dedication and passion to his business, from the tiki heads carved into the palm trees within the common grounds to the one-of-a-kind mural of a Hawaii beach painted onto the wall above our bed.

And the showers. Oh my gosh the showers. This hotel has BY FAR the best water pressure of any hotel I’ve ever stayed at, by miles. But when your suite has a shower the size of a walk-in closet, one shower head isn’t enough. No, after a long day at the beach, you deserve to be blasted with warm, cleansing water from THREE independent showerheads! I never thought I’d have a life-changing experience from a hotel shower, but here I am telling you that you owe it to yourself to experience it. Apparently the larger suites have SIX showerheads, so add one to the bucket list. Not a shower person? Take a dip in the adjacent jacuzzi, it only takes like two minutes to fill up (and sounds like you’re standing next to a waterfall) because Ocean Palms Beach Resort has harnessed the power of Poseidon himself to pressurize the water.

On top of all that, the hotel has everything you need for a relaxing day at the beach ready to check out, including beach towels, chairs, umbrellas, and more. This is great, because you’re probably going to spending a decent amount of time at the gorgeous stretch of beach conveniently located about 150 steps away from the hotel lobby. At night, relax next to a series of firepits lit within the outdoor common area and relax before going out and enjoying the Carlsbad nightlife.

Thank you Beau, Ruger, and the entire Ocean Palms Beach Resort staff for making my wife’s and I weekend getaway truly special and something we will...