Melbourne Beach Resort & Surf Club — Hotel in Palm Bay

We loved our stay but we do have constructive criticism. I would have mentioned some of these issues to management during our stay, but they did not make themselves easily available to do so nor did they seem welcome to it.

Pros:

-The location is great, and the place is nicely renovated, making it both comfortable and quiet. It feels safe too. -The hotel is dog-friendly, which was a big plus for us. We were able to bring our dog, though there was an additional fee. -When we first arrived, our dog had an accident in the car, and Arie came out to check us in. She was so sweet and even provided me with spray cleaner to clean up the mess—such a thoughtful touch! -The rooms were renovated and comfortable, and the fridge was a good size for our needs (see picture). -They don't clean your room every night, but they’ll provide you with anything you need, like extra towels and essentials.

Cons aka constructive critique for the owners

-The hotel doesn’t have anyone on-site outside of business hours to assist you. After hours, you’re left to call for help, which was inconvenient at times. -The “kitchen” area was lacking key amenities, such as a sink and toaster oven, which was a bit of a letdown. -One of the biggest issues was that there was no closet in the room, which was honestly kind of a joke. See pictures! There were only two towel hooks and no shelf in the shower. Being a beach hotel, they definitely need more towel racks and better storage options. -The hotel is supposed to be smoke-free, but we had neighbors who smoked outside every day, and we could smell it on our patio. They even mentioned they’d been coming here for years, so maybe they felt entitled. -Our upstairs neighbors smoked pot daily, and we could smell the weed in our room every time. Thankfully, we eventually got used to it, but it was still annoying. -The hotel advertises as a resort, but there’s no hot tub or typical resort amenities. We paid nearly $400 a night, which felt like a lot for what we got. -There was only one mirror in the bathroom, making it hard to get ready if someone was using it. A full-length mirror in the room is definitely needed. -the grill was out by the parking lot not close to the patio and tables. Not sure if this is something related to sea turtle laws or not. -the tv situation wasn’t great, we didn’t want to put our personal info in to get streaming. For the price they need to offer cable. -When we checked out, no one asked how our stay was, which felt very impersonal. It didn’t feel like the level of service you’d expect at a resort, especially for the price.

If they want to keep charging what they do, they need to step it up or just lower the prices a little and I would stay...

Lovely location, nice pool and excellent private beach. Amazing location for seeing sea turtles coming ashore to lay eggs in June. Somewhat rundown but clean. Holes in the arm of couch, rusted appliances. Oddly furnish with wooden dining room tables in a humid atmosphere, only two plastic placemats provided so hard to use table without leaving watermarks. Doors that stuck or were hard to open. One gate to the pool functioned so poorly that it often stayed open, a danger for families with young children. No response from management regarding that concern (an issue they could not possibly miss since their staff used that gate regularly).

Ocean Front room had a gorgeous view but floor was constantly humid and slippery. Small deck was lovely but a source of frequent wildlife that easily ended up in the room. Huge tree frog in bedroom the first morning (4 inch diameter), crabs and lizards at other points in our stay. Unfortunately the only night we used the deck in the evening we found that there were rats, one of which was in the room residing under the dishwasher. Very disturbing.

Very loose administratively, seldom anyone in the office during our 5 day stay. Very little written information regarding policies. No regular housekeeping or even trash pick up. No instructions on what to do with trash (verbal at check in or posted). Rare for anyone to answer the office phone. Clean towels “available in office” but there was seldom anyone in the office. Staff are “on site” on the property, but unless you know who they are by sight that’s not much help. Phone numbers we were asked to provide for door codes were not programmed in as provided, causing a lot of confusion for our arrival after 5 pm.

We stayed on after a three day family reunion only to be treated coldly because management was angry that, with no housekeeping or trash instructions, some rooms had been left with multiple bags of closed up trash bags and were not ‘clean enough’ when guests left from the family reunion. After the rat showed up in my room I was informed that a refund for even that one night would not be provided unless ‘penalties applied to other rooms during the reunion the previous weekend were paid.’ A very short sighted and inappropriate management decision. In addition a ‘penalty’ for smoking in one of the rooms the previous weekend was assessed to a room with non smokers. Although that penalty was probably appropriate if levied on the correct room, it was sloppy to levy it on the wrong room (which also happened to be the only room that had a mixed race family...

We made reservations in advance for two separate rooms, when we got here one of the rooms #8 was 80° when we asked the staff about it she said, it was supposed to be fixed already! Christa the front desk person said she called the ac people and they were going to come fix it. Check in was at 3pm it's almost 9pm still no ac. Christa put a small portable ac unit in the bed area but, the front room is so hot you can't sit in it much less cook or prepare meals there. The portable ac unit is so loud it's impossible to sleep. Christa left us her cell number but turned the sound off and the manager Stephanie is conveniently out of town. Finally at 9:30 pm Christa returned my call, I asked her to call the manager or business owner to get us in another room. She said that we could use room #16 for the time being but it was too late to move our stuff so my husband slept in that room for the night. We cooked breakfast in room#16 cleaned up then went about trying to enjoy the day as people on vacation do, while we were relaxing pool side at 10:30 am Christa approaches to inform us that she is going to buy a window ac for our kitchen and we needed to move our things from room 16 because the group that reserved it was checking in early! Once again we are not relaxing on our vacation we playing musical rooms. About 3pm two ac repair companies show up to fix the ac we were expected to sit and wait until they attempted to fix the ac again not what you do while on vacation, one tech said it needs replaced, the other one Joel's ac repair said he had already put freon in it a couple days ago and now it needs a new coil! We have photos of the tech from Joel's taking parts off of an old ac unit in the back of his truck and putting the parts on another unit at the hotel. I have left several messages with the hotel owners on voicemail but no reply. I will pursue a refund via any avenue that is available to me. Stay away from...