Carmel Resort Inn — Hotel in Carmel-by-the-Sea

Update: I have not been contacted whatsoever by the owners to try to make this right in any way since posting this review a few months back. I think this speaks volumes for the property owners here.

This place is in dire need of a real renovation. I am fairly certain we stayed in a unit that has a photo online, but it no longer looks that way. First, the layout of our unit was weird. We got a two bedroom, and each room had a sink in it because the toilet did not, so you walk across the whole unit to wash your hands. Second, there were many things broken in the unit that just gave a vibe of hanging on by a thread and made me uncomfortable. If these things were not taken care of, can I trust the sheets to be clean? Can I trust the water?

The floor had water damage, I think the unit had flooded possibly a few times. The fridge had rust spots on the bottom, likely from the flooding. The coffee table was made from particle board, and as I gently moved it closer to the couch, one leg didn't move with it and was very obviously broken and poorly fixed. This was our only table in the unit, but not because there wasn't space for a table. There was another one against the wall, but it had a microwave on it.

The bathroom didn't have a bathtub, just the shower, which bummed our young kids out since they wanted a bath. There were many things poorly fixed in the bathroom too, the handle for the shower was falling off even after it looked like it was tried to be reattached with chalking. The tile was painted in the lower half and peeling at the grout lines. The toilet paper holder was falling out of the wall and the light switch plate was fractured. The quaint blinds were broken too.

We visited in winter and it was pretty cold when we first walked into the unit, about 50 degrees inside. So we turned on the heater on the wall which started the fireplace in the corner. That was all fine and good, but it took a long time to heat the room and it didn't control the bedrooms. In our bedroom, the floor radiator was separate and the dial was installed wrong, so when it looked like it was off, it was actually on and when it looked like it was low, it was actually high. We figured it out and we were warm by the end of the night.

Overall, I wish we had paid a little more money and stayed at the...

We stayed at the Carmel Resort Inn cottages August 23-25, 2018, during Historic Car Week. The personnel greeted us warmly, and check-in was simple and quick. They have a coffee and tea station at the check-in area and lots of information about local events, restaurants and places to see. Our room was spacious, with two very comfy queen beds that were beautifully made up with very nice linens and pillows. There was a dorm sized fridge, microwave and coffee maker next to a bar height table with seating for three. We used that space to do a little office work each day. The fridge was stocked with yogurt and a carton of orange juice, but we did not drink the oj because it was already opened. The towels were plentiful, fluffy and were changed out each day. The fireplace added a warmth to the room, though we did not use it. There was an outdoor gathering area with a fountain, patio seating, bbq and large ice machine.

This place is very vintage, a testament to the glory days of the Monterey area. The only thing I would focus on to make improvements, is the bathroom and separate vanity area (in the bedroom). The sink in the bathroom was so low, a child could use it without a stool. The shower/tub worked very well, but the caulking and paint and woodwork were old and beat up and need replacing. This was where the room looked a little bit shabby, though it was very clean and spacious for a hotel bathroom.

Though our cottage was located right next to Carpenter Ave., on the busiest weekend of the year, we could not hear the road noise, which was a surprise. I would stay at this property again, and hope that the new owners put some work into the...

I have never left a bad review of a hotel before, but this place was awful, so here we go:||- The room had fleas. Watching fleas jump around the sheets that my family and I are sleeping in was revolting ||- It was apparent that someone had tried to force entry to the room by attempting to cut around the door jam. No efforts had been made to repair this damage. The window screen had also been cut out, and someone had taped it back up with tin foil insulation tape. I hope that whoever was in the room when this forced entry occurred didn't get murdered in this room?! ...it's a really scary look.||- The phone didn't work. No dial tone at all. My phone didn't work on the spotty wi-fi so if we'd had an emergency, we would not have been able to call 911. (Like say, for example, if someone had tried to force entry to the room again while we were there?) I reported this to the front desk and was ambivalently advised it had been pulled out from the wall, and would need to be reconnected inside the wall. We certainly didn't pull it out from the wall, so I wonder how long they have known about this and simply are not fixing it.||- There was a laminated public notice posted outside indicating that the "cottage" was soon to be demolished and rebuilt as an apartment. So basically they're continuing to rent out what is a nearly-condemned structure.||||I understand that lodging is pricey in the Monterey Bay area, but this whole fiasco cost significantly more than a nice 3.5 star hotel would in the also high-end market where I live (Marin). I ended up spending $823 total for two nights in literally...