Sea Cliff House — Hotel in Old Orchard Beach

I when I travel to southern Maine on Business during the spring, fall & winter months I always stay at Seacliff. It's conveniently located 20 minutes from Portland, quiet, right next to the beach, reasonably priced and clean. Recently I had a project that required my employees to perform work in Portland, Biddeford & Springvale, Maine and so Old Orchard Beach was a good central location for them to stay while working in the area. I called Seacliff to reserve rooms for the my employees and they would not book the rooms because I was not going to be present when they checked in, even though I was paying in full with my business credit card. I asked the reason for this and they said it was their policy because they were a small business. I have never heard of such a policy for a lodging establishment ever and have booked rooms for employees many times prior to this. Weird considering they were already into the off season. Several weeks later I was going to be working in that area with my employees and so I was able to book rooms for all of us after I assured the desk clerk that I would be showing up in person at check in. All fine and Dandy. ||Seacliff's parking spots are a jumble of room #s that are not in any order attempting to accommodate both first and 2nd floor rooms. The parking place for the 1st floor room I was staying in was waaaaaay down the walk and around the corner from my room entrance. I parked in front of my room instead to unload my belongings and decided to leave my car in that space while I walked the beach and then walked to a restaurant for dinner. There were plenty of empty spaces in front of the building to accommodate the FEW lodgers that were staying there on a Tuesday night in November. While I was in the middle of my meal I got a call from the motel front desk clerk informing me that I was parked in the wrong spot and I must move my car. Not nice....how about a note on the door that I would see when I returned from dinner? When I returned from dinner I had to walk around to find my room # on a parking space because they were not in order. I moved my car. That space was on such an incline I had to hold the car door open while I exited the car. I wonder how they manage this parking system in mid summer when they are full. ||I wonder if they are under new ownership or management and the new owners have no clue how to...

Worst service I've ever experienced. Horrible communication. DO NOT STAY HERE. Please continue reading for an explanation.

I booked in advance for one night of a long weekend visit to Maine from New York. The drive to the Sea Cliff House was over 6 hours, and conditions were terrible - stormy weather and slick roads - causing us to driver slow and elongating our drive.

When I called at 7 pm to update the Sea Cliff House of our later arrival, I was surprised to hear they would not accommodate our late check in because we were only staying one night. While I completely understand this policy, it was never communicated to me to advance. The check-in time window was not provided during time of check-in or in my confirmation email. If a motel has such a strict check-in time window and WILL NOT ACCOMMODATE a later check-in, a courtesy call or at least email notification should be provided. I am curious what they would have done had I not called ahead to inform of our later arrival time. I suspect they would have just closed their offices regardless of the remaining nightly reservations rather than follow-up with a phone call inquiry of our whereabouts.

I further requested to speak to the manager, but the receptionist refused saying she was off-call and wouldn't have accommodated our request anyway. The receptionist further suggested that I proceed to look into other options for the same night even though I explained that cell reception was spotty on the roads and even worse because of the storm.

This was the biggest inconvenience and literally the worst service I have ever experienced. This motel essentially kicked us out of our reservation and put us on the streets three hours before our arrival to Old Orchard Beach.

I repeat. DO NOT STAY AT THE SEA CLIFF HOUSE. I highly recommend staying at the Waves Resort instead - very accommodating, wonderful service, and a better value for your money than the Sea...

I stayed in the penthouse...the view from our balcony was beautiful. I was told check in is 4pm. The room was $289.00 with a $200.00 deposit in case of theft or damages. $515.01 total I thought that it was a bit steep considering it's the off season, you can't enjoy the amenities that you normally would during the summer. So you check in at 4pm and check out is at 11 am that's 19 hours, 8 of which you will be sleeping...it leaves you very little time to do anything. I asked 4 separate times if we could check out at noon...I was told to ask at check in, then to check the morning of check out....the answer is no, even though they were not busy, and you can't check in until 4pm. If you're 15 minutes late checking out, they charge you $50.00.....my money is tight as most peoples are right now, my husband has been fighting cancer for a year and a half and we finally got a cancer free diagnosis and wanted to get away from the scheduled life we've had to live during his illness...I thought that they would have given us a little wiggle room with the check out, nope, not even an inch..my recommendation is this, if you really need to visit the ocean for healing purposes or just to be near it. Go to the Best Western Merry Manor in South Portland/Scarborough line...for the same price you can get the Captains Suite, it has a huge hot tub jacuzzi in the room, fireplace, large comfortable bed with a big continental breakfast, heated pool, hot tub, laundry facilities and they have a gym. Drive to the beach and stay for the day, get your...