Alante Motel — Hotel in North Wildwood

DO NOT STAY HERE. Long but please read! I really wanted to like the Alante. My mother in law arranged for our extended family to rent a bunch of rooms (I think 6 total) for a week, she booked way back in December but I could not get anyone on the phone when I tried to call & book. Finally my MIL asked the owner M to call/text me, & we made a reservation deposit over the phone in feb. I wasn’t thrilled about the 4 night minimum at $250/night plus tax/fees but M assured me that we would love the room & have a great time. She told me the balance of $900 had to be paid in cash or there would be an extra 7% fee. Fast forward to June when I noticed another $250 charge in my account. I called & she said she didn’t have a record of the payment from Feb but she did give me a refund when I sent her a screenshot of the Feb transaction from my banking statement. But if I hadn’t noticed the charge…||||So the motel is described as retro & cozy, which obviously means outdated & small in hotel speak. The price point is not that bad for the beachfront location but for what we paid, and all the hype about it being a family business, I did expect more. There was ZERO effort put into making our room look nice, cozy or homey. No carpet, just cold dingy tile. Not a single painting or piece of decoration or reminder of the shore. You can’t call a small room “cozy” without making any effort whatsoever. I don’t think the owner has ever been to another hotel, because in my decades of life & professional experience I have never seen a motel, hotel or air b&b room that looked like this. Only my college dormitory was a close contender. I should have taken a photo for this review but it was so depressing, I did not. The kitchenette reminded me of that in my dad’s 1985 camping trailer, with very old gas burners that made me wish I had brought one of those travel carbon monoxide detectors (a room above us actually reported a gas leak during our stay). The strangest part was that some of the other rooms were indeed slightly nicer, with wood laminate floors. Even the TVs were different sizes in the different rooms. Each “efficiency suite” is a large room with a Costco folding table & chairs, sofa bed, 80s kitchenette and then a large closet in the back with 2 double beds. The entire thing is air conditioned by one unit in the back closet bedroom, so you cannot close the door between them at all or the front room will roast. Oh and there is not really a door, it’s a cheap plastic sliding divider. The TV was large but there were no channels- on a rainy day my kids got to watch jerry springer. And WiFi? Nonexistent in any of our rooms (and there no indoor lounge or common area to try either). If that wasn’t bad enough the concrete walls blocked our phone signals as well, making for extremely bored kids on the rainy days. ||||The small pool is only open from 10-7. The one evening they forgot to lock it and the staff was rude to one member of our group who was swimming unaware of the hours. There is no ice machine. The washer & dryer also look original- I even asked the owner ahead of time and she told me it was $2 for each wash & dry. Didn’t mention that the dryer was so old and likely clogged that it required at least 3 paid cycles to dry half a load of laundry. There’s no change machine either.||||My husband’s biggest complaint was the translucently thin toilet paper, which is undoubtedly the cheapest you can possibly buy but also easy on their ancient plumbing. Another clue that no updates have been made in the past 30 years is the lack of outlets. People usually travel wanting to charge their phones, tablets, laptops. But you can’t do that here because there is one outlet in the entire room. ONE. And it is right next to the kitchen sink. A safety hazard? Maybe. A pain in the neck? Absolutely. ||||I was going to leave a generous 2 stars until the last day of our week-long family trip when the air conditioner in my in-law’s room exploded onto the bed where my nephew was sleeping. Thankfully he didn’t lose an eye or a limb but he was covered in brown liquid from the AC unit & the metal grate blown out laying beside him. (As I mentioned earlier, all of our rooms had one large ac unit above the beds.) The maintenance crew was able to clean it up and install a new one within a few hours, but the neither the owner M or her husband B came to check on their valued guests after this traumatizing incident. My mother in law previously had a good rapport going with M. But when they went to speak with her that afternoon she didn’t even seem to realize how narrowly everyone avoided catastrophe (& a personal injury lawsuit, quite frankly). She never apologized, only said she was feeling sick & had a fever. I’ve worked in the hospitality & restaurant business & there a right way & a wrong way to deal with unhappy guests. She never offered even a discount on the hours they couldn’t be in their room because the air conditioner shrapnel was being cleaned. She could have at least pretended to be concerned, for a “family” business it was shameful. Refused to give us a late check out with the excuse that the next guest was checking in to the room early at 11, but we stood around in the parking lot for an hour & no one even started cleaning it. ||||The cleaning staff was very nice & easily the one positive about this motel. Besides the obvious beach location, but there are dozens of other hotels in the Wildwoods within walking distance to the beach. I recommend looking...

OWNERS/OPERATORS OF THIS MOTEL ARE UNPROFESSIONAL AND DETACHED. In previous posts you will see mention of a window air conditioner unit exploding – well it was in my room (No. 207) on Wednesday, July 19, 2023 at approximately 1:30 p.m. with my 3 year old grandson napping in the bed directly under the unit and my 11 year old granddaughter in the front room. The blast was heard around the motel and well onto the beach. As my family ran from the pool area to the upstairs room, I passed the owner/manager, Melanie, who instead of running up the stairs with us, chose to make a right and head the other way. We arrived in the room to find my grandson covered in black pieces of debris, obviously shaken and in tears. The unit blew out toward the alley, thank God, but the lower frame of the vent was hanging off the unit and the top plastic for the controls was lying on the bed where my grandson was sleeping. There were black pieces of debris all over my bed. Photos are attached. After attending to my grandson, I waited around the motel to see when the owners/managers would seek me out to discuss the explosion in my room. It DID NOT happen, rather my daughter and I had to go to the office, hours later, and wait for Melanie to come to the front. She was aloof and claimed to be sick, but mentioned that she sent her daughter to help the maintenance man with cleaning my bed and replacing the ac unit in her stead. I suppose she was waiting for me to be thankful. SHE DID NOT ASK HOW MY GRANDSON WAS, NOR DID SHE APOLOGIZE FOR OUR HAVING EXPERIENCED AN EXPLOSION IN OUR ROOM. She did say that she wouldn’t want to sleep under an air conditioner like that right over the bed – no joke – my daughter and I both looked at each other is total disgust. I told her I wanted an Incident Report and then had to explain to her what an incident report actually was. The next day was our check-out day and prior to leaving I saw Melanie walking near the pool area and I yelled to her that I wanted my Incident Report, she referred me to the office where her husband was sitting waiting in his chair behind the front desk. While Melanie was aloof when confronted about this incident, William was contemptuous. He claimed to not have an incident report for me because HE wasn’t there and didn’t know the facts. He wanted me to write my version of the incident and handed me the backside of a junk mail envelope. Clearly, he found this event insignificant. HE DID NOT ASK HOW MY GRANDSON WAS, NOR DID HE APOLOGIZE FOR OUR HAVING EXPERIENCED AN EXPLOSION IN OUR ROOM – HE DID REFERENCE A FAULTY AIR CONDITIONER UNIT AND MENTIONED THAT IF MY GRANDSON HAD HEARING LOSS WE PROBABLY WOULD KNOW BY NOW. When I received his report it stated “The customer reported an air conditioner breaking in their room. There was a loud noise when the ac failed causing some water to spray from the unit… some water sprayed on the child.” I regret not calling the police/fire department to have documented a true Incident Report, but I have learned my lesson on that. Oh, as others mentioned, while our air conditioner unit was exploding in our room, the maintenance man was in the next room fixing a GAS LEAK and that is why he was immediately on site. The room was cleaned and a new unit was in the window in record time.||||I could go on, there were many other troublesome experiences during our week-long stay, but I think the reviews of prior guests bring them to surface. I would like to add, though, that the management’s response to the negative reviews posted by dissatisfied guests is always that their statements are defamatory. I would like to inform them that A TRUE STATEMENT IS NOT CONSIDERED DEFAMATION. You need to take accountability for your business and acknowledge that you were negligent with respect to your ownership, maintenance, repair and inspection of your premises. Your guests should be your first concern, your culpability should not be an issue. Your lack of concern for my grandson’s condition speaks volumes as to your character.||||For those who care, we are still monitoring my grandson for hearing...

OWNERS/OPERATORS OF THIS MOTEL ARE UNPROFESSIONAL AND DETACHED. In other reviews there is mention of a window air conditioner unit exploding – well it was in my room (No. 207) on Wednesday, July 19, 2023 at approximately 1:30 p.m. with my 3 year old grandson napping in the bed directly under the unit and my 11 year old granddaughter in the front room. The blast was heard around the motel and well onto the beach. As my family ran from the pool area to the upstairs room, I passed the owner/manager, Melanie, who instead of running up the stairs with us, chose to make a right and head the other way. We arrived in the room to find my grandson covered in black pieces of debris, obviously shaken and in tears. The unit blew out toward the alley, thank God, but the lower frame of the vent was hanging off the unit and the top plastic for the controls was lying on the bed where my grandson was sleeping. There were black pieces of debris all over my bed. Photos are attached. I waited around the motel to see when the owners/managers would seek me out to discuss the explosion in my room. It DID NOT happen, rather my daughter and I had to go to the office, hours later, and wait for Melanie to come to the front. She was aloof and claimed to be sick, but mentioned that she sent her daughter to help the maintenance man with cleaning my bed and replacing the ac unit in her stead. I suppose she was waiting for me to be thankful. SHE DID NOT ASK HOW MY GRANDSON WAS, NOR DID SHE APOLOGIZE FOR OUR HAVING EXPERIENCED AN EXPLOSION IN OUR ROOM. She did say that she wouldn’t want to sleep under an air conditioner like that right over the bed – no joke – my daughter and I both looked at each other in total disgust. I told her I wanted an Incident Report and then had to explain to her what an incident report actually was. The next day was our check-out day and prior to leaving I saw Melanie walking near the pool area and I yelled to her that I wanted my Incident Report, she referred me to the office where her husband was sitting waiting in his chair behind the front desk. While Melanie was aloof when confronted about this incident, William was contemptuous. He claimed to not have an incident report for me because HE wasn’t there and didn’t know the facts. He wanted me to write my version of the incident and handed me the backside of a junk mail envelope. Clearly, he found this event insignificant. HE DID NOT ASK HOW MY GRANDSON WAS, NOR DID HE APOLOGIZE FOR OUR HAVING EXPERIENCED AN EXPLOSION IN OUR ROOM – HE DID REFERENCE A FAULTY AIR CONDITIONER UNIT AND MENTIONED THAT IF MY GRANDSON HAD HEARING LOSS WE PROBABLY WOULD KNOW BY NOW. When I received his report it stated “The customer reported an air conditioner breaking in their room. There was a loud noise when the ac failed causing some water to spray from the unit… some water sprayed on the child.” I regret not calling the police/fire department to have documented a true Incident Report, but I have learned my lesson on that. Oh, as others mentioned, while our air conditioner unit was exploding in our room, the maintenance man was in the next room fixing a GAS LEAK and that is why he was immediately on site. The room was cleaned and a new unit was in the window in record time.

I could go on, there were many other troublesome experiences during our week-long stay, but I think the reviews of prior guests bring them to surface. I would like to add, though, that the management’s response to the negative reviews posted by dissatisfied guests is always that their statements are defamatory. I would like to inform them that A TRUE STATEMENT IS NOT CONSIDERED DEFAMATION. You need to take accountability for your business and acknowledge that you were negligent with respect to your ownership, maintenance, repair and inspection of your premises. Your guests should be your first concern, your culpability should not be an issue. Your lack of concern for my grandson’s condition speaks volumes as to your character. We are monitoring my grandson for hearing...