Plim Plaza Hotel — Hotel in Ocean City

I wanted to love the Plim Plaza Hotel - after all, it is a historic part of Ocean City, Maryland. There were some positives, but the negatives outweighed them.

You can't beat the location if you want to be downtown in the heart of Ocean City. The hotel sits directly on the boardwalk. You step out of the hotel and you are immediately amidst the shops lining the boardwalk. The games and rides are just a few short blocks. Oceanfront rooms are available, although the rooms lack a balcony to fully enjoy the experience of being directly on the beach. I knew this prior to arriving, so I acknowledge this was a choice I made. After being there, however, I could see it would have enhanced our visit more than I had realized. It's kind of a waste to have that location - and to pay more for an oceanfront room - but not be able to enjoy it. We had a relatively small window in our room, which would not open. It was also filthy.

The A/C worked great. The room was much smaller than expected. It's the smallest hotel room I've ever seen. No closet - just a small rack on the wall with some hangers. No iron. The bathroom was small and the sink had no surrounding counter, so there was no place to put products or to utilize when getting ready.

The wallpaper was peeling off the walls at every seam. The windowsill was covered in actual dirt. Clearly it had not been cleaned. There was a pump hanging on the wall in the shower that was supposedly a combined shampoo, conditioner, and body wash, but it was completely empty, so whoever "cleaned" the room did not check it.

There was no coffee pot in the room, but the hotel advertised that there was coffee available in the lobby. Unfortunately, the self-serve coffee machine was out of order. When I inquired about this, a staff member apologized and said it had been broken for a month and a half, that it could be made to turn on but it took two people (who would not be in for a couple of hours) with some physical strength to turn it on. I walked several blocks to a Dunkin' Donuts for my coffee.

The vending machine on my floor was broken and none of the vending machines on the other floors carried the same items - I ran up and down looking on every floor. When I inquired about this at the front desk they informed me they knew it was broken. The vending machine had no note stating it was broken.

I was very much looking forward to sitting on the big front porch located directly on the boardwalk. Unfortunately, an enormous air conditioning unit was also located on the front porch and was so loud I could not sit there.

It took at least five or six tries to get into the room with the card key each time we entered, and it took some maneuvering to get the door to shut completely each time we left. The bolt in the door would not recede into the door without manually pressing it in. The problem with the lock was apparently not just my room because on two different occasions, guests in two different rooms near mine stood in the hallway trying to get in their rooms, having the same problem.

Once in the room, the bolt did not turn to lock the door - it just spun loosely in place. A sign hung on the door that indicated the door would be locked when closed. In an apparent attempt to add a second lock that hotel goers typically use to add a layer of security, there was an old-fashioned hook and chain that slid into place, which was the only safeguard against someone with a key entering our room.

The pool was nice. There was a covered bar area that served food and drinks, with servers who waited on guests poolside. This was very nice. There was also live music - a huge bonus. We very much enjoyed the pool area, the service we received, and the live music. Staff was friendly, professional, and efficient. The pool and the service we received there is why I gave this hotel any stars at all. While the location is great, the hotel did not seem to make an effort to capitalize on this feature. I paid far too much for what we received. The bare minimum of cleanliness and non-broken items...

Do yourself the favor and stay elsewhere. This is by far one of the worst hotels I've ever stayed at, the rooms are disgusting, the hallways are filled with Marijuana smoke and the staff are completely rude. Many of the reviews describe the hotel as "dated" which would be fine, if that were actually the case. The room we stayed in was absolutely disgusting, it smelled moldy and musty, we found a sock from the previous guests on the floor, the bathroom was filthy and the tub stained, there was a mold ring around the light in the ceiling, wall paper was yellow and peeling off the walls, the mini fridge didnt get cold and there was dust to the touch on the TV and bath tub. The bathroom door required you to pull up on it in order for it to shut and there was a large gap in the main door where you can see from our room out into the hallway. Upon approaching the front desk with the sock, informing them of the smell of the room and asking for our room to be switched, we were not accommodated and told to "check back tomorrow". No apology for the state of the room, no offer to have it recleaned, just an eyeroll and look of inconvenience from the staff. The hot tubs were brown and not circulating upon going outside to see what else the hotel had to offer. There were several other guests unhappy with their stay and the woman at the desk said "I cant change everyones room, were not doing it." The next day we approached the front desk to check on a room update and to ask for a pen to fill out the request for towels form given by them to each guest (there was no pen in the room)... the girl at the front desk said they have no update on our room change and told me that she could not provide me with a pen for the room, for the form that needed to be filled out daily, at their request, in order to get towels. She very rudely said that if I want a pen I could stand there and use it but can't take it back to my room because it would leave her with no pen and that "wasn't happening" and she "can't let me take it" followed by her returning to texting. Every staff member we encountered maintained being completely rude for our entire stay, the man that sits on the bench in the parking area is one of the rudest individuals we had met our entire stay. He was inconvenienced by a question regarding parking and overall was irritated by guests expecting him to know anything about parking or the hotel and continued his way back to the bench to have yet another cigarette. Not the friendliest first fave to see upon pulling into the hotel but was an accurate depiction of what the rest of our stay would look like. A clean lobby can not cover up the other issues going on in this hotel, the website pictures of the rooms are not an accurate depiction of what this hotel has to offer. The hotel pool bar closes "when it feels like" according to 2 different staff members working it, closing at 6pm, 7pm and 11pm on different days of our stay. One of the staff members at the bar stated that the pool bar would be closing at 6, followed by him convincing a group of guests to buy him shots and then him rudely telling everyone else they were closing, last call, as soon as the group that bought him drinks left. Do yourself the favor and stay somewhere else, I would NEVER recommend this...

This is the review you need to read. I will recommend this hotel to somebody who is not a complete snoot toot , The hotel is an older property it is not highly maintained and there is much to be picked up but if you were out pros versus cons this hotel has a lot to offer. The biggest issue this hotel has is an untrained front desk staff. I’m sure not all the staff but three out of the four that I encountered when I had an issue didn’t offer a solution didn’t offer sympathy didn’t offer any type of compassion towards my Issue they just told me there was nothing they can do and that was that. The issue that I had was my room didn’t have hot water and I feel hot water is not a luxury when you check into a hotel it is a necessity. So after three of the hotel staff basically told me in kinder words to go F myself there was nothing they can do the last gentleman that I had spoke to i Asked him why he wasn’t showing any compassion towards my issue and just telling me there’s absolutely nothing that could be done after I got him on my level and he finally started to show a little compassion he stated that the manager would be here shortly that I would have to talk to him. Once the manager came in he was paged and I started to talk to him despite what the hotel staff had said there was hot water the manager said the hot water should be good and then stated maybe there was something in the line to the room that I was staying in , And then basically told me not much else he could do and then I asked would it not be reasonable to allow me to check another room to see if there was hot water because that’s all my concern was for me and my family to take showers before we started our day he thought that was a good idea gave me two keys I checked the first room it had piping hot water. So for a front desk to tell me that there was no hot water and there was nothing they could do was a bit ludicrous. Other than that on a more positive note the hotel had a very large spacious swimming pool , Beautiful lobby that obviously was just re-done not too long ago nice area to sit in the front and back of the hotel and was right on the boardwalk. The rooms did smell of a light musty smell both of them that we were in as we got moved to the second one that had hot water and are in desperate need of a remodel but we were on vacation and didn’t spend much time in it besides sleeping so was not an issue. The parking as most revers will tell you is limited I suggest you get there a little before check-in time and get a spot in the main lot otherwise you will have to park two blocks away . I was fortunate enough to find a spot in once I park my car for the rest of the week my car sat there and we traveled by Uber or tram. Also true from other reviewer‘s people will be a Holes and just park their vehicle in the unloading section and leave it there as there was a Cadillac permanently parked there are entire stay. Again overall my stay was great the one in counter that I had with an issue that I had was dealt with very poorly by three out of the four front desk staff attendants, The interactions that I had With the staff in other areas of this building...