Spindrift Inn — Hotel in Monterey

My wife and I just returned from a “West Coast Swing” as we were celebrating our 15th wedding anniversary. We honeymooned in Carmel/Monterey back in 2010 (among other places) and were finally able to head back out to the place where her son was born and she used to live. Oh, and it’s rather nice as well.

We were last out in the area in 2019 where we stayed at the Hyatt Carmel Highlands Inn. It was great, views were amazing and, truthfully, we were set to stay there again. But about six weeks shy of our departure, we received an email that said our reservation was canceled and that the property was closed. I talked to someone at Hyatt who “confirmed” this (but after being out there on our trip, it was quite busy) so it sent us looking for somewhere else to stay.

Enter The Spindrift Inn. Set right in the heart of Cannery Row in Monterey, it’s essentially the opposite of what the Carmel Highlands Inn offered. You’re not “out there” out of town, rather you’re smack dab in it. I had some reservations about the location (noise, etc.) but after our stay – I’ll be back as soon as I can.

The Location As mentioned, this is about as centrally located as it gets. It’s right in the heart of it all with restaurants, gift shops and the Monterey Bay Aquarium just a block or two down the road.

The Room Given the celebratory nature of our trip, we opted for the Ocean view room (we got the top floor) and we’re glad we did. For one, the ocean view cuts out any and all noise from the street and, well, it’s quite a view. If you like sea lions/seals and otters swimming along as you wake up, this place is for you. The room had a nice HDTV, wooden floors as well as a spacious bath. I had no complaints. There was also an option to order breakfast to have delivered to your door the next morning which we happily opted for.

The area We had a rental car (I’ll get to parking in a minute), but if you had no desire to venture outside Monterey/Carmel area – you could get by without one. But we went to Pebble Beach, Mission Ranch and did 17 Mile Drive, so a car was kind of a necessity. The hotel does offer parking for $40/day in which they’ll get your car for you, etc. We did this the first night, but I’d also been told that the parking meters were free of charge from 8PM to 9AM the next day. We used that option instead and “risked it” hoping that the City of Monterey wasn’t too diligent with their traffic tickets. We escaped without one. I’m not saying that this will happen every time, but for us we managed to park for free as opposed to paying the hotel another $120 for parking. Your call, obviously.

Staff, etc. The staff was very nice. There was always at least one person at the front desk and they had a complimentary Happy Hour every day at 4:30 with some fruit, crackers, cheese and wine. The wine was behind the desk, most likely for security reasons, but they were generous with their pours – no complaints here.

The only real issue of note was that the last day, the elevator was out of commission and with us being on the top floor, it was a bit of a hassle to walk up four flights of stairs. I was fine, but my wife suffers from asthma, and she was a bit miffed. The hotel did compensate us $50, so I guess it wasn’t that big of a deal. Overall, I had no issues with the place. Rooms were nice and spacious; the staff was pleasant and accommodating and the location is second to none....

This is a very nice hotel in a great location with 1 major issue on the second floor rooms facing cannery row and maybe not so important to some others. I did fill out a survey for the hotel but never heard back so I thought I would post my review to the hotel here. When I called to make the reservation the hotel never told us that the rooms do not have AC. When we arrived they let us know that the room does not have AC but there is a fan and you can leave the window open. We thought ok we can do that considering the cool evenings. When we arrived in the room which was a nice clean room with a great view from the second floor. There were no windows but the room had french doors which meant that we would have to leave the doors open in order to keep the room cool which we was not acceptable and a safety issue. At the front desk the word window was mentioned twice not door. We considered staying and leaving to door open while we were awake to cool the room off then close them when we went to bed. That's when the next problem came up. The 2 French doors did not lock closed. You could pull the doors open from the outside or push them open form the inside. Either way the doors did not lock securely. A complete safety hazard to us. Called the front desk and they said that maintenence would come up and take a look. The maintanence person was not in the room more than 30 seconds and agreed the doors could not be securely locked without even looking at them. He told us he has notified the staff that the doors on this floor do not lock securely multiple times but nothing had been done. I called the front desk and requested a refund and let them know we would not be staying there. They let us know that they would refund our money in full. We had to pack everything up again and find another room which cost us about $100 more because of the last minute trying to find a room. After all of this we are extremely disappointed at the hotel and staff for 1 not advising us the room did not have AC and putting us in a room where you could access the room just by pulling the doors open. Again I do not expect to get a response from your hotel because most of these questionnaires seem to go unanswered. If I was just my fiance staying there and I found out she was put into a room you could not secure I would have immediately told her to leave. The safety and comfort of your guests should be top priority on your list. Clearly this is not the case of your hotel. It is a very nice hotel and the staff was friendly but that is where our positive experience ended. I will wait to get a response before posting this review online. I am not looking for anything except to try to prevent any other guests going through the same negative experience we...

This is a very nice hotel in a great location with 1 major issue on the second floor rooms facing cannery row and maybe not so important to some others. I did fill out a survey for the hotel but never heard back so I thought I would post my review to the hotel here.|When I called to make the reservation the hotel never told us that the rooms do not have AC. When we arrived they let us know that the room does not have AC but there is a fan and you can leave the window open.|We thought ok we can do that considering the cool evenings. When we arrived in the room which was a nice clean room with a great view from the second floor. There were no windows but the room had french doors which meant that we would have to leave the doors open in order to keep the room cool which we was not acceptable and a safety issue. At the front desk the word window was mentioned twice not door. We considered staying and leaving to door open while we were awake to cool the room off then close them when we went to bed. That's when the next problem came up. The 2 French doors did not lock closed. You could pull the doors open from the outside or push them open form the inside. Either way the doors did not lock securely. A complete safety hazard to us. Called the front desk and they said that maintenance would come up and take a look. The maintenance person was not in the room more than 30 seconds and agreed the doors could not be securely locked without even looking at them. He told us he has notified the staff that the doors on this floor do not lock securely multiple times but nothing had been done.|I called the front desk and requested a refund and let them know we would not be staying there. They let us know that they would refund our money in full. We had to pack everything up again and find another room which cost us about $100 more because of the last minute trying to find a room. After all of this we are extremely disappointed at the hotel and staff for 1 not advising us the room did not have AC and putting us in a room where you could access the room just by pulling the doors open. Again I do not expect to get a response from your hotel because most of these questionnaires seem to go unanswered. If I was just my fiance staying there and I found out she was put into a room you could not secure I would have immediately told her to leave. The safety and comfort of your guests should be top priority on your list. Clearly this is not the case of your hotel. It is a very nice hotel and the staff was friendly but that is where our positive experience ended. I will wait to get a response before posting this review online. I am not looking for anything except to try to prevent any other guests going through the same negative experience we...