Sahara Motel — Hotel in Ocean City

We've stayed here multiple times over the last decade and the first few visits were really great. However, this trip and the one before it in 2020 have not been as good. We gave them some slack on our visit in 2020 thinking that covid may have played a part in it. But the motel is not as clean as it used to be--not that it's terribly dirty--but just not as clean as it once was. For example, our toilet had some stool marks stuck to it when we arrived, so it obviously was not cleaned. That made me question whether any of the bathroom had been cleaned, so off to Walmart to get some bathroom cleaner we went! The housekeeping staff was gone for the day but at that point, I just felt better cleaning it myself. On our 2020 visit, one of bedspreads reeked of body odor when we arrived. On both visits, we observed that the vents in the air conditioning unit were full of THICK dust/mold. That can't be healthy to breathe! We were given the option to have room service during our stay or just pick-up and drop-off of supplies. We chose the latter. That part went smoothly, and the housekeeping staff has always been very friendly. ||||||Now for the swimming pool by the cafe: The pool cleaning is not being done to the same level it once was. We noticed a Sahara employee came over to check the pool area after closing each night. We literally watched the employee walk past bottles and other garbage left by the lounge chairs. He walked the perimeter of the pool, pushed open and looked in each trash can, and then left! I'm not sure why he looked in the trash can, but he should have been putting all the garbage around the pool in it! The water in the pool is also not as clean as it used to be. In past years, we used to watch a pool guy clean/treat it every morning and the water was sparkling clear. Not so anymore. ||||Lastly, we are disappointed in how the motel handles (or should I say doesn't handle) disrespectful guests who break their motel & pool rules. Both of our last two visits involved us having to smell marijuana (although that seems to be more and more common throughout all of O.C.) and there were adults in the pool with plastic sand buckets full of alcoholic drinks. I have nothing against drinking, but the pool rules say, "no alcoholic drinks" and let's face it, alcohol and pools aren't a great mix. Notifying the front desk did nothing. Also, unattended children at the pool who were soaking everyone and everything there because they were doing cannonballs. They also hung off the pool chair for disabled visitors. bending it to the point we thought it may break. ||||While all of these issues are less than desirable, it is still not a horrible place to stay. But I hope that management pays attention and gets things back to a respectful, family-friendly atmosphere again, and maybe takes some time to deep clean the rooms better during their off-season (PLEASE clean those...

What was supposed to be a long beach weekend in OCMD for my Mom, my daughter, and myself turned into a complete nightmare.

We ended up leaving our room at 3am on Sunday morning, 8/12, because my Mom had been bit by bed bugs, and I did find them on the mattresses and box springs of both beds. I immediately went to the office, and the response was that there were no other rooms available, they contacted several other hotels and they had no availability either. We were to just wait until morning and they would send someone out to look. I let them know we ABSOLUTELY would not be staying in that room until morning. So we packed up and left. I drove us home (4 1/2 hour trip) on an hour of sleep.

I called the Department of Health in Maryland to file a report on the morning of 8/13. The lady said they were going to send out an investigator to inspect the room. This is where things get REALLY interesting. She told me there was no legislation on bed bugs. That all they can do is inspect the room and make an extermination recommendation if they find anything. And if the hotel already rented the room, they can't inspect it until it is no longer occupied. Since there are no laws against it, they can rent the room back out.

The lady from the health department called me at 1:30 that afternoon and told me that the inspector went out, but could not look at the room because it is currently occupied and will be until Thursday. 😱

So, if you know anyone vacationing at The Sahara Motel on the boardwalk at Ocean City, MD please share this as a cautionary tale. Someone is currently paying to rent room 205, pool side, in the main building. Attached are what they are sharing their room with.

of phone calls I have received from the GM: 0 of apologies I have received from the GM: 0 of offers for a full refund I have received...

We stayed just this weekend and I wouldn't say we had a great experience. Depending on the building you reserve, you are either on the boardwalk or about a half block on 18th street, so the location is fine. The beach doesn't get over-crowded out front. The rooms were fairly clean for a budget motel. The pool had a weird film on it though. Maybe it was just from a lot sunblock, but it was still gross.

So that was the good. The bad was in the evening. I never stayed in a louder motel. The people above us stomped around and the people next to us had kids screaming until we called the front desk, and even then it didn't help at all. They have a posted 8pm quiet hours, but it's not enforced in the least. We did end up demanding we get put into a new room, after asking the people to please be more quiet, calling the front desk to ask if they can say something. The staff obliged, but it still wasn't fun moving two young kids at 11pm that just fell asleep an hour ago. We decided to give the 2nd night a go, since they were nice enough to accommodate another room. It was no better though. Kids (12-14ish) were running around the 4 floors screaming until about 11, when we had to call the front desk yet again because we didn't want our kids woken up. It didn't help much. They quieted down for a bit, but not long. It was also senior week, but honestly, the seniors weren't even an issue. We had some next to us, and they were very respectable. Maybe this isn't completely the hotels fault, but they didn't seem to care how much noise was being made. I can't recommend this hotel at all. Check out thunderbird, unless your main goal is to get drunk/make a bunch of noise all night.

The only other good is that the cafe is quite good for breakfast. Staff was awesome and...