Hyatt Carmel Highlands — Hotel in Monterey

Decades ago, this hotel used to be a wonderful resort. No longer. I would not recommend the Highlands Inn in Carmel to anyone. It needs to be closed for major renovations and reopened under new management. My family and I stayed here in early October, 2024, and had one of the worst hotel experiences of my life (and I am a frequent traveler). We were returning guests. My husband and I stayed here 16 years ago and had a wonderful experience. My husband's parents stayed at this hotel 30 years ago and also had very fond memories. The hotel currently is nothing like what any of us remember from our past stays - but it is deceptively marketing itself as a luxury hotel and charging premium rates. ||My overall impression was that the hotel seemed run down and in bad need of repairs and renovation. The rooms were musty and dated. The pool was closed for repairs. A section of the hotel near the pool was covered in tarps and sandbags and I saw a county condemnation sign on the door of one of the rooms saying it was unfit for habitation. Cell phone reception was terrible and WiFi was weak and unreliable. The resort appeared to have cut many services since we stayed there 16 years ago. There is no longer an in room dining option. No gift shop and the hotel spa offers such limited services it is not really an on-site hotel spa and should not be marketed as such. All this hotel still has going for it is the spectacular views. ||If these were the only issues with our stay I would simply say the hotel is past its prime and not worth the money it is charging. However, we experienced several other much more serious issues during or stay that led to us checking out in the dark of night halfway through our stay and switching hotels. On the first day of our planned four day stay, one of our rooms flooded likely due to some nearby hotel construction work that implicated the sprinkler system. Several inches of water suddenly appeared on the floor of the bathroom area. Although staff came to clean up the room, there was a complete lack of urgency about the situation. Staff informed us they would send someone to clean up the room later that day - never mind that during this time the bathroom was functionally inaccessible due to several inches of water on the floor. Thankfully, none of our possessions were severely damaged, the flooding did not spread to the carpeted area, and we planned to be out of the rooms for most of the day anyway. The next day, the water was cut off to our other room - again, likely due to nearby hotel construction work. We found out when we returned to the rooms after being out all day. We had only an hour and half to shower and get ready for dinner - with no water in the room. The hotel restored it; but again, staff treated the situation like a minor inconvenience saying not to worry that water would be restored "in a half hour or so." The conversation made me think that the hotel knew the water was going to be cut that day and simply never informed us. ||That same evening, we returned to the hotel late evening after dinner to find all the power had been cut to our entire block of rooms. No lights, no WiFi, no hot water, no heating or air conditioning. This time, the hotel staff waived a piece of paper in our faces saying that it wasn't their fault, PG&E cut the power to parts of the hotel because of nearby road construction and that we were notified. We were emphatically NOT notified that the rooms we had booked were going to be without power for one night of our stay. If we had been notified, we would have made alternate arrangements. Nor did it appear that any of the other guests in nearby rooms had been notified as we were not the only angry guests in the hotel lobby at 10:30 pm with flashlights wondering why there was no power to their room. We found out from the staff at the front desk that the hotel KNEW PG&E planned to cut off power to portions of the hotel a week prior to our stay. Despite this knowledge, they did not call us before arrival, inform us at check in, send a text message or email, or even leave a notice on our door or in our room (like the piece of paper they waived in our face at the front desk) that we would be without power for a night. The attitude of some of the staff appeared to be that the situation was no big deal - it is only a night we were told, the power will be restored in the morning. Aside from the fact that we paid for these rooms and expected power would be included (as well as water), one person in our family uses a CPAP at night requiring a power source, and another is elderly who should not be maneuvering around this resort nor her room in complete darkness. We simply could not stay there without power - which is why if we had known in advance, we would have found another hotel. It was unsafe for us. After a lot of back and forth, slowed down by the fact that the general manager of the resort had opted to stay away that evening and leave his front line staff alone, with little decision making ability to face the anger of guests who did not have power to their rooms (which is inexplicable to me if the hotel had forewarning this would occur - senior level customer service people should have been available on site), the front desk found us rooms at the Hyatt Regency in Monterey for the remainder of our stay in the area. Although the Hyatt in Monterey lacked the spectacular views of the Highlands Inn, it was clean, comfortable, well run, and had both power and water. ||In short, not only is the Highlands Inn a shadow of its former self, it felt unsafe and we felt defrauded. The resort should not accept reservations for rooms that they KNOW may lack basic necessities like water or electricity during the pendency of a guest's stay. If we would have been informed of the power outage in advance we would have found alternate arrangements in advance. In retrospect, based on the reaction of staff I also think the hotel knew that ongoing construction work on the resort would also cause intermittent water outages. The hotel was happy to take our money and the money of others for the full cost of the rooms knowing that if people knew in advance the potential problems most people would make other arrangements and/or ask for refunds. I believe the hotel made a calculated choice to not make any effort to notify guests of known major problems to preserve as much revenue as possible at the expense of the comfort and welfare of its guests. Even if some of the problems we encountered were not foreseeable, such as the sudden flooding of one of the rooms, a hotel still has a responsibility to its guests to provide safe, clean, functional rooms - or help guests promptly make alternate arrangements. The Highlands Inn completely failed. The state of disrepair of the hotel and the level of service we experienced was unacceptable from any hotel, let alone one that markets and prices itself as a luxury hotel. ||Our stay ended with our family packing up and leaving in complete darkness at 11pm at night to switch hotels guided only by the lights on our iphones because, to add insult to injury, the in room flashlights provided also stopped working. ||Be forewarned about staying...

Decades ago, this hotel used to be a wonderful resort. No longer. I would not recommend the Highlands Inn in Carmel to anyone. It needs to be closed for major renovations and reopened under new management. My family and I stayed here in early October, 2024, and had one of the worst hotel experiences of my life (and I am a frequent traveler). We were returning guests. My husband and I stayed here 16 years ago and had a wonderful experience. My husband's parents stayed at this hotel 30 years ago and also had very fond memories. The hotel currently is nothing like what any of us remember from our past stays - but it is deceptively marketing itself as a luxury hotel and charging premium rates. ||My overall impression was that the hotel seemed run down and in bad need of repairs and renovation. The rooms were musty and dated. The pool was closed for repairs. A section of the hotel near the pool was covered in tarps and sandbags and I saw a county condemnation sign on the door of one of the rooms saying it was unfit for habitation. Cell phone reception was terrible and WiFi was weak and unreliable. The resort appeared to have cut many services since we stayed there 16 years ago. There is no longer an in room dining option. No gift shop and the hotel spa offers such limited services it is not really an on-site hotel spa and should not be marketed as such. All this hotel still has going for it is the spectacular views. ||If these were the only issues with our stay I would simply say the hotel is past its prime and not worth the money it is charging. However, we experienced several other much more serious issues during or stay that led to us checking out in the dark of night halfway through our stay and switching hotels. On the first day of our planned four day stay, one of our rooms flooded likely due to some nearby hotel construction work that implicated the sprinkler system. Several inches of water suddenly appeared on the floor of the bathroom area. Although staff came to clean up the room, there was a complete lack of urgency about the situation. Staff informed us they would send someone to clean up the room later that day - never mind that during this time the bathroom was functionally inaccessible due to several inches of water on the floor. Thankfully, none of our possessions were severely damaged, the flooding did not spread to the carpeted area, and we planned to be out of the rooms for most of the day anyway. The next day, the water was cut off to our other room - again, likely due to nearby hotel construction work. We found out when we returned to the rooms after being out all day. We had only an hour and half to shower and get ready for dinner - with no water in the room. The hotel restored it; but again, staff treated the situation like a minor inconvenience saying not to worry that water would be restored "in a half hour or so." The conversation made me think that the hotel knew the water was going to be cut that day and simply never informed us. ||That same evening, we returned to the hotel late evening after dinner to find all the power had been cut to our entire block of rooms. No lights, no WiFi, no hot water, no heating or air conditioning. This time, the hotel staff waived a piece of paper in our faces saying that it wasn't their fault, PG&E cut the power to parts of the hotel because of nearby road construction and that we were notified. We were emphatically NOT notified that the rooms we had booked were going to be without power for one night of our stay. If we had been notified, we would have made alternate arrangements. Nor did it appear that any of the other guests in nearby rooms had been notified as we were not the only angry guests in the hotel lobby at 10:30 pm with flashlights wondering why there was no power to their room. We found out from the staff at the front desk that the hotel KNEW PG&E planned to cut off power to portions of the hotel a week prior to our stay. Despite this knowledge, they did not call us before arrival, inform us at check in, send a text message or email, or even leave a notice on our door or in our room (like the piece of paper they waived in our face at the front desk) that we would be without power for a night. The attitude of some of the staff appeared to be that the situation was no big deal - it is only a night we were told, the power will be restored in the morning. Aside from the fact that we paid for these rooms and expected power would be included (as well as water), one person in our family uses a CPAP at night requiring a power source, and another is elderly who should not be maneuvering around this resort nor her room in complete darkness. We simply could not stay there without power - which is why if we had known in advance, we would have found another hotel. It was unsafe for us. After a lot of back and forth, slowed down by the fact that the general manager of the resort had opted to stay away that evening and leave his front line staff alone, with little decision making ability to face the anger of guests who did not have power to their rooms (which is inexplicable to me if the hotel had forewarning this would occur - senior level customer service people should have been available on site), the front desk found us rooms at the Hyatt Regency in Monterey for the remainder of our stay in the area. Although the Hyatt in Monterey lacked the spectacular views of the Highlands Inn, it was clean, comfortable, well run, and had both power and water. ||In short, not only is the Highlands Inn a shadow of its former self, it felt unsafe and we felt defrauded. The resort should not accept reservations for rooms that they KNOW may lack basic necessities like water or electricity during the pendency of a guest's stay. If we would have been informed of the power outage in advance we would have found alternate arrangements in advance. In retrospect, based on the reaction of staff I also think the hotel knew that ongoing construction work on the resort would also cause intermittent water outages. The hotel was happy to take our money and the money of others for the full cost of the rooms knowing that if people knew in advance the potential problems most people would make other arrangements and/or ask for refunds. I believe the hotel made a calculated choice to not make any effort to notify guests of known major problems to preserve as much revenue as possible at the expense of the comfort and welfare of its guests. Even if some of the problems we encountered were not foreseeable, such as the sudden flooding of one of the rooms, a hotel still has a responsibility to its guests to provide safe, clean, functional rooms - or help guests promptly make alternate arrangements. The Highlands Inn completely failed. The state of disrepair of the hotel and the level of service we experienced was unacceptable from any hotel, let alone one that markets and prices itself as a luxury hotel. ||Our stay ended with our family packing up and leaving in complete darkness at 11pm at night to switch hotels guided only by the lights on our iphones because, to add insult to injury, the in room flashlights provided also stopped working. ||Be forewarned about staying...

This review is about the unprofessional and inefficient service from front desk here. Our experience was similar to other comments.

One of the reasons that I’m sticking to Hyatt is the service and friendly staffs, but this really fell off. TLDR: A wrong room type was given. The room assigned to us was actually ready at 5:30pm while the check in time was 4pm. See the attached screenshot. Nobody was trying to communicate the above situations proactively from management team until we were at front desk to pickup a delivery. We had to arrange for room changes during the wedding reception. Still giving 3 stars because of the staffs at valet and the restaurant were super friendly and helpful. They deserve a good review.

We were here to attend a wedding. We arrived at 2pm-ish and front desk told us the room was not ready, they would text us when the room was ready, sure, cuz checking in at 4pm is policy. But a few parties then arrived after us and got their rooms ready. Honestly we were a bit jealous and feeling unfair, but we still tried to convince ourselves that it depended on room types and etc.

About an hour passed, we asked around 3pm again since the wedding would start at 4pm, the front desk told us actually the room was ready, but no one reached out to us about that despite our express request to do so and the front desk employee took our number down promising to do that. We wouldn’t know if we didn’t follow up by chance.

Now we had our room. Once we entered the room, I realized this might not be the right suite type. We were given a single level room, but we booked a 2 level ocean suite townhouse. But given the limited time we had to freshen up before the wedding, we didn’t spend too much time fixating over this. And also we trusted that front desk should be professional enough to handle this correctly.

During the reception, at around 5:30, we received a text telling us the room was ready. We found it weird because we already checked in. Then at around 6pm, my husband went back to the room to pickup something, but found the room keycards not working. So he went to the front desk, only then he was told we were given a wrong type according to our reservation. No one told us until we reached out by chance, again. He had to pack so the bellmen could help move stuff to the right room. (Yes, we were given the option to wait till 11pm, but we decided to not wait because who knew how late the wedding reception would end). So that took about two courses of dishes worth of time. Great.

We only stayed there for one night luckily. Not sure why it could be this hard just to get the room right. Nothing was offered to make up for the less than desirable experience.

It has the great location, great view over Pacific , staffs at restaurants and valet were so nice. But if I have to deal with a front desk like this, I don’t think I want to ever return to this place again. It involved two too many “had it not been us reaching out, they wouldn’t tell us what was happening” kind of situation. Very...