Tar Heel Motel — Hotel in Nags Head

Where to begin about the Tar Heel Motel....

Let me say this, if you know the place that you're staying is just to have a place to sleep and clean up, because you want to spend as much of your time and money out having fun as possible, then this could be an option for you. But I have a feeling there may be better motels around the same price range so take what I have to say into consideration. If you are somebody that expects a certain level of standard conveniences at any motel such as ice, working sinks, no bugs, hair dryer, then for the love of God do not come to this motel.

Obviously being a motel it's not going to be amazing. Pictures online are so deceiving they use some kind of filters making the rooms look so much better than they actually are. I wish that were illegal.

The carpet was dirty. I walked around in socks and my white socks were getting brown. There were drain flies and other bugs I found inside. The stopper for the bathroom sink was broken.

The ice machine on the premises was broken. They have a sister property which the gentleman called to see if they would let me get ice there. There was an accommodation offered but I was asked NOT to share it with ANYONE. (Emphasis added as it was emphasized to me). And I would have had to have done it relatively soon after the guy called. I wasn't going to be ready for the ice until later and besides I was asking more to know if I could do this for my entire stay not just that one time.

This motel is designed to be contactless which is nice if you don't want to interact with people. It's designed to where you can park in front of your room but unfortunately other tenants don't always stick to that and for the first two days of my 3-day stay a big ugly red truck kept parking in front of my door. The driveway is also rather small so if you're getting in there late and a lot of people have already parked in front of their rooms and you pull forward and think you can turn around near the back, GOOD LUCK! B/C if you have a big vehicle you'll have to pretty much back all the way back out to the street, and then turn around and back into the hotel driveway if you want to attempt to be near or in front of your room, assuming there's even a space in front of your room.

There is no housekeeping service but there are bins set up near the broken ice machine where you can go and help yourself to extra towels as you need them.

My AC unit worked halfway decent I didn't mind that it was loud because I like to have white noise at night when I sleep and I didn't have a fan with me. However, I discovered that the bathroom would get incredibly hot and there's no fan working in the ceiling of the bathroom. But after the first night I started keeping the bathroom door closed and that made about a 10° difference, at least, in the cooling effect of the AC unit in the room.

No early check-in. I had called to inquire if it would be possible for me to check in before 4:00 p.m.. The gentleman on the phone said that he would check on my room or put my room on a list to see if housekeeping could get to it first. That obviously never happened. It doesn't feel like a three-day stay when most of the entire first day I'm not even allowed into my room.

There is a pool but I never used it and the motel is within about a 5-minute walk to public beach access. If you go to the street and turn left it's not far. There is a shower spicket there so you can rinse the sand off. And the motel does have drying lines in front of the rooms that you can hang your towels and wetsuits on if you would like.

I have stayed in cheap motels more than once and have had far more positive experiences. There seem to be absolutely zero interest in even fixing the ice machine. Frankly I think that should be a staple at any motel or hotel, people need ice for their coolers when they're on vacation.

For the amount of money I paid I would have much rathered stayed at a different motel, or paid a little bit extra and...

I would literally never recommend this motel to anyone! The rooms are decent but the customer service here is absolutely AWFUL!!! This review is being written by someone who is actually a Guest Service Agent for a multi property hotel company, so I have a little knowledge of how guests should be treat. My husband booked this hotel for us to come into town for a wedding. When booking, he put in the notes that there can be absolutely no down/feather pillows or blankets in the room because I have a severe allergy. My husband and I arrived around 9pm, after driving almost 11 hours. Within 5-10 minutes of being in the room, sitting on the bed, I started coughing, wheezing and having trouble breathing. I immediately knew there were feather pillows or something in the room. When I say I was having a reaction, it was to the point that we were considering going to the hospital. I sat in the car while my husband called the emergency line for the hotel. The woman that answered (didn’t give her name, but I assume might be manager Beth, based on her attitude) was one of the rudest people my husband has ever spoken too! He explained the situation, when he asked if we will be receiving a refund, the lady pretty much told him he’s a liar, “That depends. We will inspect the room tomorrow to see if there’s a feather pillow or anything in there. But I’m positive we do not have any feather pillows because we don’t have the budget for it it so..” So at 10pm on a Friday, we were left to find another place and spent and hour driving up and down Nags Head and Kill Devil Hills to every hotel. Eventually we found an Airbnb. My husband was told that he would receive a call back first thing in the morning after they inspected the room. I had a sneaky suspicion that they would go into the room, remove the pillow and claim there wasn’t any feather products in the room. Before we checked into the Airbnb, I had my husband go back and take every pillow out of the case to see. Sure enough, big ole feather pillow. What’s more appalling is the condition of the pillow (see the pictures attached). The next day came and we heard nothing. We called a few times. Drove to the hotel to try to talk to someone in person, no one was there. But just like I suspected, our room was cleaned out. Eventually my husband called the corporate office and was finally able to get in touch with someone. They were very unhappy with the treatment we received and how the situation was handled and immediately told my husband we’d be getting a refund. They said they sent a message to Beth to immediately issue a full refund. We assumed everything was good to go then, WRONG!!! We never received a cancellation notice or anything. We called again that Monday and spoke to Logan (I believe), he was sweet as heck! He informed us that Beth cancelled our stay but didn’t issue a refund. He put the refund through to accounting, sent us the confirmation of cancellation and was extremely helpful! Moral of the story, if you want to be treated like you matter even in the slightest or have any allergies stay away from here as long as Beth is the manager. Such a disgrace because this place could be really awesome if they had the...

First thing off the bat outside out room the Trash Can was overflowing with trash in a smaller than should have been sized trash can since it was the only one I saw near our room 13 right outside our door covered in flies with pizza boxes, donut boxes, beer boxes and used cans! Everytime we opened the door in went the flies so that was a downer. Happy the A/C was extremely loud due to the couple next door being extremely loud all night long way until around 4am in the morning. When I told the lady in front of the office she gave ME a number to call which I think she should have told them to quiet down but she isn't there at night and leaves so she wouldn't have heard their cussing through the walls and I really didn't want to hear their conversations through the walls about grown up stuff my young daughter didn't need to hear. Next the walk to the beach isn't bad but there is a ramp that's long and zigzag's to the top of a steep hill and then the down steep to beach isn't bad going down but going back up is like climbing Mt. Everest with beach chairs and umberalls I would not recommend if you have extra things or she said you could drive a mile down to Jennette's Pier which in the summer is exteremly crowded with folks and you do good to get a parking spot! The water situation is nuts they have a sign at the pool that says wash off but no water at all at the pool. Front office lady said you could use water hose in front of the office BUT no signs anywhere to tell you that so my daughter and I had to walk to the fish washing station spicket to wash our feet off and then walk all the way back. The toliet water is hot and you can feel it on your bottom even asked lady and she said it was a spa for your bottom. PARKING is nuts! You barely have enough space to turn a small car around especially if the motel is crowded in the summer and you have a Dooley truck taking up to room spaces and the man and 2 women get into a heated conversation and you are in the middle about parking! POOL CLOSES AT DUSK at 8:30 is when we were told to get out due to no lights around pool! THE last straw was our room was booked to another family and their son was punching in his code we opened the door up and he said we had his room and of course it was a mixup by staff and that family were sent a email but didn't check it so another thing to break the camel's back!!!!!! Please so NOT stay here and have your family vacation ruined even if you think oh it's a good DEAL, IT'S...