Inn At Avila Beach — Hotel in Grover Beach

Good: Great view, lounge area on the sun deck with cafe really sells the place. At the cafe there are a variety of drinks you can order similar to any coffee bar and a small variety of pastries. Also available there are a few beers to choose from. The free cookies, pie and ice cream in the evening were very nice touches. You also can rent (or borrow?) Skim/boogie boards and I think even paddle boards at the hotel. The hotel itself is very unique even aside from these amenities in its deisgn. There are chairs all over the hotel to lounge in and its very green nearly anywhere you walk with many plants. The hotel also appears to have been updated with finished wood in certain areas which really made it cozier. The parking also is something of a plus as if you get there early enough you can grab a covered spot within the hotel. Apparently they also even have a laundry room guests can use. Lastly, the staff there also were all very friendly and responsive to any needs (see issue with the TV below) which certainly can be critical to a guest's stay.

The bad: Alright I know this spot has lots of positive reviews and we really liked it like everyone else but we had issues that really need to be noted. While they do a very good job of making you comfortable anywhere at the Inn, you still get the feeling its a much older motel masquerading as a higher quality hotel. This unfortunately became much more the case when we stayed in the Ford Suite, where the sounds of running or flushing water, footsteps and a very loud TV from the room next door were very audible. The mattress also felt pretty used with the pillows smashing flat when lying your head on them. We also had issues with the wifi as well as the TV in the room too. The TV was quickly fixed but we never were able to figure the wifi out (the network didnt show up most the time for us).

Overall: Despite the issues, we'd go back (hoping the issues we had were confined to the Ford Suite). The design of the hotel and that sun deck really are very well done and make this place stand out above the others we looked at. You may find other hotels in the area also have somewhat similar amenities to the free cookies, pie and ice cream and free use of beach equipment as they all compete for customers but we really enjoyed them here; they certainly were icing...

Avila Beach: I call it probably the most non-commercialized beach town between San Diego and San Francisco! I think that’s a great thing but others might not. The in at Avila Beach could not have a better location. Sit out and watch and listen to the waves crash on the shore. Walk down the very short boardwalk. Walk around the small sleepy town.||The Inn has amazing amenities. The Wi-Fi worked well. The evening pie à la mode, may have been too good! Joe Mama coffee sun deck on the fourth floor is somewhere you could just spend your whole day; Piper was a great hostess for breakfast! The staff in general was helpful and friendly. Free parking is awesome! Old-fashioned key is a nice touch.||At the end of the day, you use a hotel to sleep, and that’s where this one fell off by one star. The bed was super high up, but more importantly, a lumpy mattress. It doesn’t have air conditioning or central heating, which is not a problem in this climate , but I’m not sure that the automatic fireplace would’ve been able to heat it in the winter. That’s just speculation. It’s not speculation is that the curtains are extremely old and old-fashioned and there is a difference. You can see from the picture provided that there’s about Six or eight mini partitions of the curtain that you have to reach up and sequential with one ring at a time move it like an inchworm to try to cover the entire window. It’s an arduous process that’s never complete and makes you not want to open the drapes the next morning. The curtains themselves are not blackout.||If you get one of the premier direct ocean view rooms, which to me are definitely worth it, there are two floors: second and third. Hot tip: choose second floor. The third floor rooms are directly under the sun deck so breakfast time which is 7 AM to 10 AM, is seat and furniture moving time as well as high heels clicking on the wooden floors time which means somebody is dancing on your ceiling. Not very conducive to sleeping in!||If they can fix their curtains, change out the lumpy mattresses, and you would choose the second floor for ocean view, this is a five star experience! All in all when I think about this weekend, I smile...

Book an Owner's Suite if you can!

We've stayed here several times and absolutely love it! It is right on the beach and tons of little shops, restaurants, etc. right there.

Last time we booked a room, I mentioned to the front desk that I wanted to book a room for a special occasion/trip with my new wife :^) and he told me that an "Owner's Suite" would fit the bill! I hadn't ever heard of those at the Inn, so I booked the best one on the property (Suite 305).

I couldn't find any information about the Owner Suites, probably since they typically aren't for rent (because the people who own the suites that ARE rented out, stay in these suites when they're in town). As you might imagine, they're really nice!

Suite 305 is the most secluded suite there, at the top, left corner of the property. It's located at the end of a hallway that leads to the owners' suites, so almost no foot traffic. Right above the suite is lounge area, but we didn't hear any noise from up there, especially at night because it closes down. It was really nice to walk out of the door, up a few steps, and we're at the lounge to eat breakfast, lunch, or dinner (which is free by the way), along with all the beer you can drink (also free).

I wish I would've taken pics of the bathroom, sitting area, etc. (sorry about that!) The room has a nice walk-in shower (no tub though), sitting area with couch and large coffee table, wet bar with small fridge, small closet, huge big-screen TV with surround sound system (with BlueTooth connectivity), dimmable LED mood lighting around the ceiling above the bed, infrared fireplace that heats up the room well, 2/3-wall sliding doors to the balcony with counter-height table and chairs, lounge chair, etc. It's amazing to fall asleep hearing the waves crashing on the beach and feeling the ocean breeze.

Staff is always amazing. Parking is free, but will require some skill to back into the narrow stalls. There's parking right in front of the Inn too, if the lot is full or you have a...