Lighthouse Suites Inn — Hotel in Ocean Shores

The lighthouse inn was a really great match for us when it came to finding a hotel: it's within a short walking distance to the beach, it allowed dogs, and had a continental breakfast. This review is hard to write because there were so many polarizing pros and cons. I'll start with the cons because I genuinely want to end on a good note - we do plan on booking and staying here again, and we will be recommending it to our friends and family.

Cons: The amount of construction was misrepresented. On the website, it just mentions that the pool and spa are closed during construction. It did not mention that the whole building was being reconstructed. Our dog can be a bit barky with unexpected sound, so when someone was power washing our door and window at 6 pm on Friday, it was a bit overwhelming. They also did not mention that the pet zone area was roped off because they were using it for space to store construction materials. We're flexible, so it wasn't a huge deal. However, it would have been nice to know. When we booked our room online, we did so through their website, and since we had our pet, we were told to call their number listed. We did so, talked to a gal who booked us a king-size bed (something we like to treat ourselves with on vacation since it's not our norm) and she put us on the second floor with an ocean view. She asked us a lot of questions about our dog, including weight limit. When we got to the hotel, they explained to us that the pet friendly rooms are not on the top floor and they could only accommodate us with a room on the first floor, without ocean view, and two queen sized beds. (Sidenote: on our last day, we overheard a woman at the front desk with the same problem we had. She booked online and said she had a dog, but the room that was booked for her did not accommodate her dog. Whether she booked through the website like us or through third party, it seems like a common issue that should be looked into.) When we got into the room, we did notice that the first bed was a queen and the second one was most likely a full sized bed. We measured them, and the second was definitely smaller. They did redact the pet fee for some accommodation. However, I'm not sure that $50 total is a significant equivalent comparison for what we originally booked. On our second day, a family was booked in the room directly above ours, and we could hear every step their kids took (I assume it was kids because they were sprinting multiple times from one end to the other) and the next morning the sprinting started at 6am on the dot.

Pros: When we walked into the hotel room, it was very clean! We did notice a few spots on the walls where it looked like maybe a bug was squished and not cleaned up (lol), but it didn't bother us. For being a pet room, there was zero pet smell and no carpets, which made it feel even cleaner. Our room had a kitchenette, which was so nice to be able to store our food. The beds were clean and plush. The location of the hotel again was very convenient. It's far enough away from the stores that it doesn't have a ton of traffic but is close enough to walk or drive to the more touristy things. The continental breakfast had a good variety of foods that accommodated our diets and had access to the filtered water station throughout the day was really cool. The staff were very kind to us and our dog. We felt welcome and already decided we'd love to come back for our next trip. If I had any recommendations, it would be to upgrade or change your booking system online. Having to call in (as directed by your website) was a hassle, all to be told that it was wrong when we got here was a letdown. That, and the wifi would cut in and out, so it wasn't as reliable...

I stayed at the Best Western Lighthouse Inn, in December 2015 and that was the greatest experience I've ever had staying at Ocean Shores! This time was the worst. They were bought out last year by new owners and it showed how quickly the hotel declined, no longer being a Best Western. There was no pool, no spa, no elevators, no sliding glass doors that worked, when entering the building (except for the registration entrance) no lighthouse lookout (Level 4) which was blocked off, no internet and no more restaurant. The hallways were extremely cold, since there were no heaters working and the hallways stunk like paint and there were paint spots on the hallway walls.

The corner view window room I stayed in, had serious problems. The dead bolt didn't work, the sliding glass door didn't lock, the view window didn't lock, the fireplace didn't work, the fridge didn't stay cold, the TV was positioned where you could not watch it, without sitting on a rolling chair, the couch was falling apart and I was informed at check in to be careful sitting on the couch, since they were falling apart and were eventually going to be replaced. The vent heaters were completely blocked with dust and barley any heat was coming through. When I plugged my laptop charger into the plugin socket, a spark shot out and I tried all plugins, in my room and the same thing happened every time. Even though there was no internet there, I still needed to use my laptop. There was no TV listing of channels and most of the channels were repeats.

When I checked in that day, I spent fifteen minutes explaining to the reservation desk agent, I was a AAA member and when I made the reservations, I was given that rate per night. The reservation agent continued to disagree with me and telling me I never informed the agent I was a AAA member. I explained the room rate quote for three nights I was given, by the reservation agent and what the total amount my credit card would be charged. The reservation agent asked to see my AAA card and I showed her. She finally adjusted the rate that I was suppose to have.

The reservation agent said the new owners spent a lot of money repairing the elevators and they still weren't working and the new owners spent over a million and a half fixing the roof. The elevators should have been there first priority, especially watching elderly people having to climb the stairs, carrying all there luggage and instead of spending money to repair the elevators, replace them with brand new ones. The pool should have been there second priority. Most people, when arriving at there destination, want to relax in a pool or spa. I made my reservations two months in advance and at that time, the pool and spa were closed, for renovation. I figured two months would have been enough time to get the pool renovation completed. The reservation agent said the new owners plan on having the pool and spa completed before the end of Summer, which means, if you want to enjoy getting wet, go in the ocean.

There was nothing to enjoy staying here and I couldn't...

The elevator, pool and spa have all re-opened but if you think those are the main reasons to either book or avoid this resort, keep reading.

Keep in mind that my wife and I visited for our 29th wedding anniversary which is in the winter so it's safe to say we stayed during the off season. Side note (when we booked our room, they asked us if we were visiting for an occasion and we told them it was for our anniversary, however I'm not sure why they asked because we didn't receive a discount nor an upgrade nor anything extra or thoughtful for our anniversary. It was just extra information for no reason.) It rained and stormed all weekend, so the beach was nothing more than a backdrop for us, but we booked Lighthouse for the specific reason of having a hot tub in our suite. Our suite was large but everything in it was old and worn down. We had to initial an acknowledgement while checking in that said we knew that our pull out couch was broken and could not be used as an extra bed. It was hardly usable as a couch for that matter too. Older furniture adorns the rooms and everything has an air of dinginess to it. They also have no air conditioning in any of the rooms. Everything is on a timer too. Your electric fireplace is on a timer and not really worth using. Your hot tub is on a timer and they have restrictions on the times when you're allowed to use the jets in your room. If you can call it a hot tub at all. It's basically a two person bathtub with jets because you cannot sit up in the tub, you lie down the whole time and the placement of the tub is not ideal. It was hard and dangerous to get in and out of. We used the spa in the pool area, but it was too hot to be in for long. You cannot eat or drink anything in the pool area and they do offer free breakfast though it's not really worth waking for. Pretty sure they don't have a real kitchen and from what we saw, everything that needs to be cooked is cooked in a microwave or possibly a toaster oven. You make your waffles fresh and that seemed to be the most popular item available.

Pro tip. Bring your own pillows from home. They had six pillows on our bed and yet none of them were worth using.

Be aware that you will hear a lot of noise from your neighbors as I'm sure they'll hear you as well. We had some instances where it sounded like someone else was in the room with us.

The place wasn't dirty per say but it also didn't feel clean. The newest update to the entire room was the tile flooring and it is dangerously slippery so be careful. You'll slide even on bare feet.

Overall, I know we'd book this place again and knowing what it's like will help us plan accordingly but we'll also look for something better before we do book Lighthouse again. Thanks for...