Clarion Collection Carmel Oaks Inn — Hotel in Carmel-by-the-Sea

We were visiting Carmel-by-the-Beach for a wedding last weekend and found this place on Expedia. We booked two king bed rooms for one night through the third party site with no issues in May. When the time came, we found out the day before that we needed to obtain lodging because my mom is horrible at planning things. So I went to their front desk and thankfully they had vacancy, and the rate was even cheaper than the Expedia rate for the next day! The place is cozy and has parking. I only dealt with a man when interacting with staff, he was super nice and waved whenever he saw us. He does have a slightly thick accent (maybe he speaks Urdu?), but that didn't bother me. The room was clean and had the usual accommodations. Toiletries, bath mat, phone, alarm clock, mini fridge, microwave, hair dryer, iron, coffee machine, TV... We really appreciated the lamps on both sides of the bed also had USB ports. We left the next day to get coffee in the morning and it's such a short walk (like three blocks away) from the downtowny area (Ocean St). Many shops, cafes, and restaurants to explore! When we got back we saw a black insulated picnic bag with our room number at our door. We discovered it was their continental breakfast! It contained two containers of frosted flakes, prepackaged pasties, a banana, an apple, nutrigrain bars, milk containers, and OJ containers (like ones you'd see in an elementary school cafeteria). We were so excited to get this and loved it! We then left our room for about two hours and came back to a freshly cleaned room. We weren't expected this as it's become normal for places to clean only if the stay is at least three days. Since this is near restaurants and such, don't be surprised if you hear people walking by outside at night. We were able to hear my brother's snoring because our headboards shared the same wall, but we overcame this by playing rain sounds from our phone. One thing we were sad about is we realized my brother's room has a ceiling fan, but ours didn't. So our room was uncomfortable hot with no way to relieve it (we kept the analog thermostat dialed to "40°", but we're not convinced it actually did anything). The second night we saw there was a box fan in the closet area - we plugged it in and it worked for like five seconds. I moved it around and it turned on then off two more times before I gave up. I didn't want to bother the staff since it was about midnight so we just dealt with the heat. The shower gets real hot by the way! A negative about the bathroom is the window faces the walkway so while it has frosted panes, you can see directly into the bathroom (and room if the door is open) if you open the window. With the proximity to the beach, comparable pricing to other lodging in the area, and friendly staff I would definitely stay here again if I'm...

May 2021 We enjoyed our stay at Carmel Oaks Inn & Suites, by Clarion but they have serious problems with their billing department. When we checked in we were told the system was down and could not get a total for the four days we stayed at Clarion Collection, but were quoted the price per day. It turns out we were charge $59.39 over the correct charges for the four days. While we were there we did not check our credit card charges. Instead of staying the four days we left a day early and when we asked for a receipt at check out there were more problems, but said we would get an e-mail receipt. When we got home we had four charges on the credit card for our stay, one was the initial overcharge and three charges for the early check out. Right away we called the hotel and asked about the overcharge and were told that he would turn it over to his account department. Three days later we got the e-mail with the bill. I noticed that the “other tax” was incorrect and they charged us the four nights not three. I responded to the e-mail about the tax and pointed out also about the $59.39 overcharge. They then took off the $59.39 and the one day for when we left early; this left three charges not explained yet. We thought maybe they canceled the three charges since the bill was corrected. I have an unusual credit card and some of the charges do not show the negative sign till posted or may have been canceled so had to wait before going into this problem. After posting the first two were the exact amount which was greater then the daily change one negative one positive so they canceled out each other. May have something to do with being over charge at the beginning. The third was the correct amount, but instead of deducted from the charge account it was added to it, now we were over billed again. My advice is to check your charges if you stay there or another option is there is a Comfort Inn a couple of blocks from the Clarion in Carmel. In the past I stayed there and did not have...

The hotel is in the center of Carmel and relatively close to the beach (about 15 minutes walk, and you'll be going a bit uphill on your way back). The location and working wifi are about the only good I can say. Parking was tight and we got the last open spot; should some guests arrive with more than one car they probably run out of parking spots. The "Poppy Room" we stayed in was old and run down. There was nothing reminiscent of poppies in it. Bedding looked old, the room was spacious but in major need of updating. There was a dirty, worn out couch too. Bathroom was small with a tiny shower I wouldn't have dared step into without flip-flops. They serve breakfast, which they deliver in cute baskets to your door, however it is very poor quality, packaged sweet buns, a tiny box of milk and some cereal. Nothing fresh. In the center of a place like Carmel I was expecting something much better. Oh, but I almost forgot the most shocking part, there was no staff at the hotel overnight! I needed an extra pillow so I called the number on the closed office door. The guy who checked me in told me he had just gotten home because they had closed the office at 8PM since all guests had checked in and there was no other staff there. He very unhappily came back and brought up a pillow to my room. But what if there was an emergency overnight? Zero security, zero...