Islander Inn — Hotel in Ocean Isle Beach

Four stars for being one of maybe two hotels in ocean isles that doesn’t require booking a full week and is oceanfront with indoor and outdoor swimming pools. A few downers are the Pool side tiki bar was closed so no rum runners for me during my 3 night stay, they have a elevator but honestly I used it once and wouldn't get in again but that’s my own issues. All rooms are at least 2 flights of stairs. If you get the rooms on the 2nd floor have your inhaler ready unless you’re a energetic fitness buff. I think I lost weight on vacation. The room was nicely updated with wood floors and a small balcony that was hard to enjoy sitting out on in the evening because the heat that radiates from the air conditioner made it too hot. It would be nice for a cool fall evening to have that warmth. COVID restrictions was not an issue during our stay. I brought my own sheets and pillow cases and towels. Housekeeping could give us more than one large garbage bag If you catch them since we are bringing take out food back to the room for each meal during COVID. I did have to go buy a mop and cleaner after we got unpacked in the room. The babies feet got black 2 minutes after touching the floor. I mopped each day we stayed. So whoever got room 3103 after we left on 7/8 You’re welcome for the extra clean floor. The pool was nice and not crowded at all but again there was a downfall that the water could have been cleaner. Breakfast was grab and go with employee getting what you wanted from limited continental breakfast list to take back to your room due to COVID restrictions. I actually prefer to take my breakfast to go (please get rid of the policy of no food leaves the breakfast area) I’m paying good money to stay at the establishment and I should have the choice to take my family breakfast in the morning. We are on vacation. Not everyone likes to get out of bed, get dressed to sit among people for a muffin and juice. The walk to the beach has two entrances. Go through the pool area and take the steps or go from the parking lot next to gazebo down the sand path. I had enough steps getting to the room so I took the path to the beach. If you’re handicap and can’t walk steps then I don’t know how you would get to and from the beach safely. The Sand path is narrow with a slight elevation at the top and it’s where the pool shower water runs down that makes a ditch in the sand. Now on to the beach review. Sticks, sticks and more sticks. I didn’t know I should have packed a rake. You can’t lay a blanket on top of stick filled sand. You have to set up where high tide washed the sand clean which is nice but if you’re a all day beach person then be ready to get washed away when it’s high tide time. Overall my stay at the islanders inn was just as expected and since OIB has very limited hotels to book half weeks I would most likely stay at the Islander again. Nice location close to all the main attractions in ocean isles. Walk to get a Italian ice to take with you for a stroll...

WARNING FOR ALL TRAVELERS!!!! - We have stayed at the Islander Inn 5 times... cannot beat the beach & the view!!! This last trip in Oct. 2023 we had a frightening experience! We checked in to our ocean view room on Sunday and enjoyed the day. On Monday morning near 10AM, I was near the closed balcony door and there came an overpowering smell... a strong chemical smell... kind of like "Bug Spray", that just "happened". I spent the next 10 minutes sniffing everything in the room trying to determine where the smell came from... the chair, the sofa, the bed, the table and nothing I could find had that smell? I could only guess that it came under the door leading to the adjoining room. A couple of hours later, we left for the afternoon... actually delaying our exit a half an hour or so, as my wife said she was feeling slightly nauseous. We returned near 7:30PM and upon opening the door to enter the room, there was a slight "bug spray" smell and I once again sniffed everything to no avail... and placed a towel across the base of the door to the adjoining room. We sat on the balcony for awhile and coming back into the room, I switched the AC unit over to Heat. Within, the next hour the "bug spray" smell in the room became so noticeable, my wife went out on the balcony for air and I went to the office to inquire about another room, as the smell prevented any level of comfort in room 3105. They had another room available on the bay side and said we could move. We packed everything up and moved to that room around 10PM. THEN... as I had still not determined what could cause that "out of nowhere odor" started checking the internet for information. The scary part of what I found is the "Bug Spray" smell that just sometimes "appeared" was likely due to a FREON GAS leak from the Air Conditioning unit. Freon gas is toxic at concentrated levels and this occurrence likely would have only made us ill had we stayed there... but perhaps... as you can't see the gas level... we might not have woken up the next morning. So the WARNING... is to use our experience for your future travels... if there is an unusual... undetectable chemical type smell in your room...do what you need to do to assure your health and safety. I did go to the office the next morning and was told by the "lady" in the back office that the Air Conditioning Unit in that room was going to be replaced.... which you can imagine opened up another series of questions in my mind. BTW...We also were given a 10% discount on our next 2 days of stay for having moved to the...

Absolutely terrible. This was my second stay here and there is no way I would ever return (absent some serious updating to the property). My first stay was during off season in what I now know to be a renovated oceanfront room. I wasn't looking for luxury and the room was a fair price. I would have given the experience 3 stars at that time. I just stayed again with my husband and 4 month old baby. My brother in law and his family also stayed. We had 3 adjoining rooms. We were given rooms in the non-renovated part of the hotel. The carpet looked like it hadn't been replaced since 1970. It was seriously disgusting. The furniture was all old and stained. I had serious concerns about the cleanliness of the hotel, especially with such a young baby. We did not have hot water at all during our stay. Despite our complaining multiple times, the problem was not addressed until our last day. Bathing an infant in cold water is not my idea of a good time. We were not offered any offset for the price of our stay, which is unacceptable in my opinion. Hot water is not an amenity, it is a necessity. We added a day at the end of our stay. It took an unreasonable amount of interaction with hotel management to arrange the extension. We had to move rooms, which was inconvenient but understandable, given that it was high season and we added the extra day after initially booking. What was totally unacceptable was the lack of communication regarding moving rooms and the fact that the new room was not ready until almost 2pm. The cleaning staff kept knocking (pounding) on our door to clean the old room, but couldn't be bothered to clean the new room promptly. Totally unacceptable. This should have been handled by management telling us we could move at 11:30am (30 minutes after mandatory checkout) and ensuring housekeeping cleaned the new room promptly for us. That would have allowed us to enjoy our day instead of feeling required to sit around waiting to be told we could move rooms. In addition, the room was rarely cleaned until very late in the afternoon each day, also inconvenient. The hotel allows smoking by the pool. Disgusting and not a family friendly policy. All in all, I have to say this is hands down the worst hotel experience I have ever had. For the quality, rooms here should be 50% less...