Monterey Beach Hotel, a Tribute Portfolio Hotel — Hotel in Monterey

Pros:

The location can’t be beat. Such a beautiful view and easy access to the beach. The hotel allows dogs. Upon checking in, the hotel provided us with 2 free glasses of wine. The staff were all friendly and helpful. The hotel has a store that sells snack foods, large bottles of wine, single cans of beer, some souvenirs, etc. Finding parking was easy. Our room was clean and stylish. The beds were comfortable and large. The shampoo, body wash, and, conditioner smelled sooo good (wood scent). The hot tub was hot opposed to being lukewarm, which we very much appreciated. The pool appeared to be clean and was warm enough to swim in during 60-degree weather. This could be a pro or a con, depending on personal preferences: the pool and hot tub close at 9pm. This is great for those in rooms that are facing this area as it reduces noise at night. This might be a con for those who enjoy swimming or soaking in a hot tub late at night.

Cons:

The rooms themselves feel overpriced. We paid $381 for the first night (a holiday) and $338 for the second night, for a room that should have been priced around $235-260. Our room was facing the pool, not the beach. Lunch is not served on the property. Only breakfast and dinner are offered. I think the hotel should consider making basic sandwiches/wraps and salads to sell in their store since they have a refrigerated section. They could even add some potato salad. As for snacks in their store, they mainly offered junk food. I would have liked to see a cheese and fruit platter in the fridge for healthier snack option. The pet fees were especially high. For a two-night period, we paid $216.21 in pet fees (including tax and all non-refundable). The lounge area was not cleaned up from the night before. In the photos, you will see sticky s'more roasting sticks gathered around the fire pit and charred marshmallows lying in the fire pit and a piece of clear glass, presumably from a broken wine glass. There were potato chips between cushions, a sticky substance on the round table and around fire pit, and a plastic pizza saver with toppings sticking to it on the ground. It might help to have a trash can next to each lounge area to encourage people to discard their trash. Trash cans were not easily visible from this area. The pillows were strewn about, and someone’s sweat shirt and towels were left on the lounges from the night before. As of 5pm, these items were not cleaned up. Once the staff turned on the fire pits in the evening, they took the roasting sticks away. While this is not a luxury hotel where everything is expected to be impeccable, I do think that this price point should include reasonable amenity cleanliness. As expected, there is heavy seagull presence above the outdoor lounge area. As one photo shows, a seagull pooped on me while I was sitting in the outdoor lounge area. Some got in my hair. Admittedly, this was funny. But with the heavy seagull presence, there is a lot of poop spots on the lounge cushions. I think the staff could spot clean the seagull poop in the mornings, before people come out for the day. A small cup of warm water mixed with gentle soap and a soft toothbrush could quickly do the job. If you want a glass of wine before 3pm, your only option is to buy a large bottle of wine from their shop. The bar and the wine machine don’t open until 3pm. They do sell single cans of beer, etc in the store, but no mini bottles of wine. The wine machine could have had a quick wipe down as well (see photo).

While I think the hotel rooms and fees are somewhat overpriced, I enjoyed my stay here and the easy access to the beach couldn't be beat. The pool and hot tub were great. I think there are ways for the hotel to further elevate the experience and the property, mainly addressing the absence of lunch options, cleaning the lounge area each morning, and opening the wine machine at noon or offering mini wine bottles...

This place has been a second home to me for the past 10-12 years, and one of my all time favorite hotels to stay at in the entire world. As a family we come here once a year to either celebrate Mother’s Day, or just come down in the summer time to escape reality. I’m deeply saddened to say that the most recent experience I had made me change my mind. My heart is so heavy as I write this review because of the moments that I shared at the tides.

I just stayed here this past week and I realized that ownership changed and they recently renovated the whole entire hotel. Usually when this happens it’s for the better but not in this case. I’m utterly disgusted, disappointed and frustrated with the changes made here. The front desk staff is super rude. They “act” nice but in reality you can tell they don’t care about any of your concerns and all they are there for is the check which is disappointing.

Managment is horrible. HORRIBLE. I complained and had a conversation with one of the managers and the whole time he was giving the impression that he didn’t have time to really understand or care about how I felt. I told him all my concerns and the only thing he offered me was to switch my room. This is ridiculous in my opinion based off of the concerns I was expressing and how long I been a customer with this hotel. He didn’t think of any other solutions to making my stay better. I called the hotel prior to checking in asking if the construction was going to affect my stay and they specifically told me no. That was a complete lie. As soon as I got there I was affected by wet paint and caution tape blocking off the way to my room which made me have to walk around the whole 4th floor every time I wanted to get to my room.

When I checked in my room, the front desk didn’t bother to say anything about that nor did any of the customers get an email stating what would be affected. The parking lot was also blocked off due to painting causing me to have to park super far away from my room. The communication, customer service, care and compassion completely dissipated from this place and it’s so sad.

The renovations are extremely beautiful the hotel is in such a beautiful spot, literally right on the beach! Amazing! It’s very close to all the main attractions that Monterey has to offer, Cannery Row, Fisherman’s wharf, Monterey Bay aquarium etc. But, unfortunately that’s about all is great about this place now.

The hotel is super expensive! Way overpriced!! There are no microwaves in the room, the tub is super small and you can barley turn around to take a shower, no drawers to put your clothes during your stay, I can go on and on about the changes i seen in my recent stay.

One thing I can say is that the restaurant staff are amazing, super kind, sweet and genuine! Also the house keepers are so kind and full of smiles! I loved them! Thank you for making this part of our stay the happy side.

I pray that the owners and management see this review and take it with a grain of salt and actually change the way things are for the price we pay here. When the vibe isn’t right, I don’t want it ! I’m sure that a lot of people will agree with me on this.

Still indecisive and undecided, if I want to come back. I hope things really do turn...

There’s a lot to like here but also some shortcomings too. Location is awesome. Right on the beach and I mean front row seats. We were in an ocean facing room on the third floor the sound of the ocean breaking drowned out the AC throughout the night. Views are phenomenal. Soundtrack is brilliant! Check in was clunky with delays with all sorts of reasons. Nearly missed our dinner booking in town. But was only 10 minutes after the guaranteed 4pm booking time so no biggie. However throughout this trip to the US many hotels were able to accommodate check ins well inside the guanteed check in period! This one was the only one we encountered where they couldn’t get us in. And it was Sunday night. It was like there was not of organisation at checking in. Apparently when you check in you get an additional card. This is for the wine dispensing machine adjacent to the bar. We used this on the second day of our stay. It’s a neat idea but it wasn’t explained to us on check in. So effectively wasted 2 glasses of wine. Good or bad? No biggie for me just a pity it wasn’t explained clearly to us. Room is ok but shower/toilet area is very tight with not much room to swing a dog! Shower runs all over the floor too. Speaking of which there were dogs in the bar/foyer area whose owners were intent to let them bark at will. I get this is the US but really, people? We’re spending $4-500 a night here and you can’t stop your dog from yapping indoors?? There is a coffee machine in the room but they supply 3 coffee pods. In our world we enjoy 2 coffees each in the morning. Thankfully the lovely lady servicing our room was happy to leave an extra pod. The king bed was comfy and pillows very soft. Tv huge with all the usual movie channels there. Oh no robes either. Breakfast as ok and the food quite good. The server forgot the side of bacon and the two OJs. She did offer the OJ at no charge to her credit. We had dinner upstairs on Monday night and our server, Cameron looked after us admirably. Thank you Cameron and the crew. A great job all round! The starter serves were huge! Luckily we had 2 starters for starters and then another 2 starters for mains! More than enough food! Muscles and the grenadier for the starter starter! And the Duck and prawn salad starters for the mains, great food and plentiful too! We enjoyed an intentional 30 minute break between the starter starter and the starter mains! Honey and salted caramel ice cream followed. Oh we enjoyed the Paysan rose during the meal as well! There are outdoor areas with gas fires and comfy seating. There appeared to be fire pits beside the wall to the beach but I was far too lazy to investigate! Whilst advertised as the only beachfront hotel and it is, it’s an Uber rider downtown. This is not a criticism just an observation. Would I stay here...