The Coupeville Inn — Hotel in Coupeville

Coupeville is a small, quiet town with not much to do after dark, so we needed a hotel that we could relax and comfortably spend a lot of time in. This wasn’t it. ||PROS:|- LOCATION. I’m a huge fan of the movie Practical Magic, so staying in Coupeville has been on my bucket list. Since the Owens House doesn’t actually exist, the next best thing—if you want to experience any of the locations where the movie was filmed—is historic Front Street, so it was important for us to find accommodations as close to it as possible. Even if your reason for visiting Coupeville has nothing to do with the movie, you’ll appreciate the short walking distance from Front Street and the wharf.||CONS: |- FRUMPY DECOR. It’s old, but not in a charming, old-world, Victorian, Owens House kind of way. The town is filled with gorgeous, historic Victorian homes, but this hotel is decorated like my grandparents house was in the 1980s. I loved my late grandmother very much, but she couldn’t decorate to save her life and neither can the person who decorated Coupeville Inn. While there are some nice antique furniture pieces at the Inn, most of the decor looks like it came from a garage sale. |- VERY UNCOMFORTABLE. There was no sofa or loveseat, and no small dining table to sit across from each other and have some wine or coffee or snacks (no coffee makers in the rooms, either, by the way. You have to go downstairs to get coffee). They put random chairs in the rooms, but they are stiff and uncomfortable, and not placed where you can sit in them to watch TV. There’s not enough space in these rooms to reposition the chairs, either. To watch TV, snack….everything… we had to sit in bed. |- VERY LITTLE SPACE FOR CLOTHES. Neither of our nightstands had drawers in them, and there was only one available drawer in the one dresser. The closet is also very small, and also houses the small refrigerator, leaving no room on the floor of the closet for shoes or luggage. Adding to the tacky decor were multi-colored plastic tube hangers, rather than the nice wooden hangers you normally find in a hotel room. There’s also no door to the closet, so exposed tacky plastic tube hangers, exposed clothes, and an exposed refrigerator just adds to the already tacky aesthetic of the room. |- TV TOO SMALL. Not much bigger than a computer monitor, and sitting a little too low to be comfortably viewed while sitting across the room in bed.|- NO COUNTER SPACE OR OTHER STORAGE SPACE AT ALL IN THE BATHROOM. There’s no place to spread out your makeup, or hair styling tools. And no other place in the bathroom to store them. The whole bathroom is generally very small and dark. |- VERY FEW BATH AMENITIES. The one shampoo and one conditioner were in the tiniest bottles I’ve ever seen. Good thing he’s bald or that would have never been enough for both of us for even one day. Other than that, just two tiny bar soaps. There was no shower cap, which I really needed on the day I wanted to shower without in getting my hair wet. They left an extra roll of toilet paper, which was appreciated, but the quality was so thin and weak it would tear off immediately in tiny pieces instead of rolling until you had enough. I had to take the toilet paper off the roller and keep it on the back of the toilet with the spare.|- NO IRON OR IRONING BOARD OR in STEAMER IN THE ROOMS. If you need one, you have to ask the staff to get it out of their supply room.|- NO STAFF ON DUTY AFTER 9:00PM. The front desk closes at 9 and I’m going to assume that means that after that time, there is no personnel on site at all. So if you need to check in after 9, or you need an extra blanket, extra pillows, the iron and ironing board, or you need to complain about noise, or need any help at all for anything, there won’t be anyone to help you after 9.|- BAD ELECTRICAL OUTLETS. These days with everyone having electronic devices that need recharged at night, every hotel should have a convenient, easily accessible place on both nightstands to charge. Ideally, there would be lamps with built-in USB ports in them. My boyfriend didn’t have that on his side of the bed. There wasn’t even a good spot on the desk for it. He had to charge his phone on the floor on the other side of the room. On my side of the bed, there was one electronic outlet with one available plug, but the holes were too big and my charger just kept falling out of it. |- NO FIREPLACE. For some reason, when my boyfriend booked a room at Coupeville Inn, he was under the impression that it would have a fireplace. He was certain he saw a photo of one of the rooms with a fireplace online somewhere. But ours did not have one, and I honestly don’t think any of the rooms have one. We didn’t notice any chimneys. |- POOR SECURITY. Instead of the card keys used by most hotels these days, their keys are the old-fashioned kind attached to tags with the room number on them. To make it worse, the code to enter the hotel through the exterior doors is written on the key tag. So, if you lost your key, not only would the person who found it have the code to get into the hotel, they would know your room number and have the key to get into your room. |- NO FITNESS ROOM||It’s not a good place to stay if comfort, functionality, and atmosphere are...

Coupeville is a small, quiet town with not much to do after dark, so we needed a hotel that we could relax and comfortably spend a lot of time in. This wasn’t it. ||PROS:|- LOCATION. I’m a huge fan of the movie Practical Magic, so staying in Coupeville has been on my bucket list. Since the Owens House doesn’t actually exist, the next best thing—if you want to experience any of the locations where the movie was filmed—is historic Front Street, so it was important for us to find accommodations as close to it as possible. Even if your reason for visiting Coupeville has nothing to do with the movie, you’ll appreciate the short walking distance from Front Street and the wharf.||CONS: |- FRUMPY DECOR. It’s old, but not in a charming, old-world, Victorian, Owens House kind of way. The town is filled with gorgeous, historic Victorian homes, but this hotel is decorated like my grandparents house was in the 1980s. I loved my late grandmother very much, but she couldn’t decorate to save her life and neither can the person who decorated Coupeville Inn. While there are some nice antique furniture pieces at the Inn, most of the decor looks like it came from a garage sale. |- VERY UNCOMFORTABLE. There was no sofa or loveseat, and no small dining table to sit across from each other and have some wine or coffee or snacks (no coffee makers in the rooms, either, by the way. You have to go downstairs to get coffee). They put random chairs in the rooms, but they are stiff and uncomfortable, and not placed where you can sit in them to watch TV. There’s not enough space in these rooms to reposition the chairs, either. To watch TV, snack….everything… we had to sit in bed. |- VERY LITTLE SPACE FOR CLOTHES. Neither of our nightstands had drawers in them, and there was only one available drawer in the one dresser. The closet is also very small, and also houses the small refrigerator, leaving no room on the floor of the closet for shoes or luggage. Adding to the tacky decor were multi-colored plastic tube hangers, rather than the nice wooden hangers you normally find in a hotel room. There’s also no door to the closet, so exposed tacky plastic tube hangers, exposed clothes, and an exposed refrigerator just adds to the already tacky aesthetic of the room. |- TV TOO SMALL. Not much bigger than a computer monitor, and sitting a little too low to be comfortably viewed while sitting across the room in bed.|- NO COUNTER SPACE OR OTHER STORAGE SPACE AT ALL IN THE BATHROOM. There’s no place to spread out your makeup, or hair styling tools. And no other place in the bathroom to store them. The whole bathroom is generally very small and dark. |- VERY FEW BATH AMENITIES. The one shampoo and one conditioner were in the tiniest bottles I’ve ever seen. Good thing he’s bald or that would have never been enough for both of us for even one day. Other than that, just two tiny bar soaps. There was no shower cap, which I really needed on the day I wanted to shower without in getting my hair wet. They left an extra roll of toilet paper, which was appreciated, but the quality was so thin and weak it would tear off immediately in tiny pieces instead of rolling until you had enough. I had to take the toilet paper off the roller and keep it on the back of the toilet with the spare.|- NO IRON OR IRONING BOARD OR in STEAMER IN THE ROOMS. If you need one, you have to ask the staff to get it out of their supply room.|- NO STAFF ON DUTY AFTER 9:00PM. The front desk closes at 9 and I’m going to assume that means that after that time, there is no personnel on site at all. So if you need to check in after 9, or you need an extra blanket, extra pillows, the iron and ironing board, or you need to complain about noise, or need any help at all for anything, there won’t be anyone to help you after 9.|- BAD ELECTRICAL OUTLETS. These days with everyone having electronic devices that need recharged at night, every hotel should have a convenient, easily accessible place on both nightstands to charge. Ideally, there would be lamps with built-in USB ports in them. My boyfriend didn’t have that on his side of the bed. There wasn’t even a good spot on the desk for it. He had to charge his phone on the floor on the other side of the room. On my side of the bed, there was one electronic outlet with one available plug, but the holes were too big and my charger just kept falling out of it. |- NO FIREPLACE. For some reason, when my boyfriend booked a room at Coupeville Inn, he was under the impression that it would have a fireplace. He was certain he saw a photo of one of the rooms with a fireplace online somewhere. But ours did not have one, and I honestly don’t think any of the rooms have one. We didn’t notice any chimneys. |- POOR SECURITY. Instead of the card keys used by most hotels these days, their keys are the old-fashioned kind attached to tags with the room number on them. To make it worse, the code to enter the hotel through the exterior doors is written on the key tag. So, if you lost your key, not only would the person who found it have the code to get into the hotel, they would know your room number and have the key to get into your room. |- NO FITNESS ROOM||It’s not a good place to stay if comfort, functionality, and atmosphere are...

We have stayed three times in the past several years at The Coupeville Inn, each time staying in one of the more expensive second floor upstairs view rooms facing Penn Cove and the town's main street. At $177.12, ($160 plus taxes) it is on the expensive side, but worth it for the occasional splurge on a vacation, or in this case, a major birthday's "Celebration of Life" seven-day road trip.||||The French Mansard-style Inn has 26 rooms from small to large, many with private balconies and views, and range from rather inexpensive to our room, which was, I think, one of the most expensive rooms. But our renovated and nicely decorated king bedded room, one of 12 with antique style furnishings, view balcony, and private bath with shower and tub, seemed worth the price, and gave it the cache of a country inn rather than a small motel. And the public areas of reception and hallways also carried out the boutique country inn theme.||||On the second floor is a large hospitality room where the complimentary breakfasts are laid out, and it included fresh-baked muffins, eggs, fruit, bread and bagels for toasting, cereal, coffee, tea and juices, a continental plus kind of breakfast.||||The little historic, waterfront town of Coupeville is one of the oldest towns in Washington state, and the inn is located just one block from the town's main street, running parallel and right next to the water of Penn Cove. As such, it offers a great, central location to the colorful little businesses, including art and antique galleries and shops that line each side of Front Street, and an easy walk to your choice of several restaurants and cafes. And just a block away from the inn and jutting way out over the water some 250 to 300 feet, is the oldest pier in the state of Washington. The colorful, historic waterfront town and the colorful, boutique inn really complement...