Tides Oceanview Inn & Cottages — Hotel in Pismo Beach

This property has potential but should not be operating as it currently does. My party consisted of myself, my husband, daughter, son-in-law and four-year old grandson, and we rented cottages 112 and 113. Each consists of two bedrooms and one bathroom, a living room with two chairs and a couch, and a large kitchen with a dining counter and four bar stools. There is no writing desk. The property also offers other cottages, including a three-bedroom unit, as well as a two-story block of hotel rooms, plus a one-story oceanfront block of two separate but contiguous units down a long, narrow, sloping walkway. The view of Pismo Beach and the coast from the latter rooms is amazing. ||||The amount of indoor space and the layout of each cottage we stayed in is excellent, and each has a contiguous driveway for ease of unloading personal belongings. The partial whitewater ocean views are lovely, albeit partially obscured by a chainlink fence at the edge of the property. ||||Unfortunately, during our stay, we encountered many issues which need to be addressed in order to make this property comfortable for its guests. Firstly, when I arrived for checkin (not keyless) at around 5:30 pm, no one was at the front desk. I waited 20 minutes, then called the hotel number, and no one answered. Then I called the after-8 pm number listed on the website, and someone from an adjacent property answered and said he would try to contact hotel staff for me. Eventually, a young woman appeared and explained that she was the only person on site because the hotel was in the process of transitioning seasons(!). ||||I had called the property to make the reservation and had explained that my husband and I needed a room on the ground floor with easy access to our car. However, at checkin, we were assigned one of the two oceanfront rooms down the long, sloping walkway, which we could not accept because we have mobility issues and there was no bellman to help us carry our luggage down there. Fortunately, cottage 113, adjacent to cottage 112, where my daughter and family were staying, was available, so we took that instead, even though we did not need a two-bedroom unit for just the two of us. Although there were three steps leading into the unit and no railing, we were able to unload everything with the help of our son-in-law. ||||The size and layout of the unit was impressive, but once we settled in, we discovered a number of issues that prevented us from being comfortable. The living room has no heat or cooling, and the gaps in the front and back doors let in a lot of air. It was cold at night, and turning the HVACs in the bedrooms to a high temperature did not solve the problem and made those rooms too hot. The only lighting in the living room was the very bright overheat fixture, which had no dimmer. The bedrooms only provided overhead lighting and bedside fixtures, so it was impossible to borrow a lamp from those rooms. Only one window in our unit had a darkening shade. Those in the living room only block sunlight and do not prevent outsiders from seeing inside at night. The front bedroom window was covered with Venetian blinds that did not work. Additionally, that bedroom was missing a rod for hanging clothes in the closet alcove. There are no window coverings in the kitchen. Despite the presence of an ice bucket in the kitchen, there are no ice cube trays in the freezer, necessitating a long trek up to the ice machine located outside of the two-story block of hotel rooms. ||||As for the furnishings, the chairs and couch in the living room (which interestingly, does not open to a sleeper) tilt back at a 30-degree angle, making them uncomfortable for reading. As mentioned, there are no lamps anywhere. My daughter's living room lacked an area rug. There is a sizable yard behind the cottages, and the front oceanview lawn has several chairs. The yard furniture in the rear yard was protected by dirty covers, and the yards are not private. We saw a number of people cross our yard while we were there. The entire property, needs landscaping, and the walkways need to be improved to allow for easy passage around the property. There is no pool. ||||Alarmingly, we did not see any sign of housekeeping, even though there is an envelope in the kitchen for leaving a tip. A large message is posted above the refrigerator, instructing guests to empty all trash and place all dishes in the dishwasher before departing or risk incurring a $500 fine for excessive additional cleaning. The notice also states that the front desk is open from 7 am to 10 pm - clearly a misrepresentation, given our experience. We received a text prior to checkout reminding us of the charges for late checkout. ||||All in all, while this property calls itself an "inn," in its current state, it feels more like a short-term vacation rental with a neglectful, absentee owner/manager, who for some reason chooses to ignore guest comfort. At the very minimum, it should lower guest expectations, not with an accusatory sign warning of fines for mis-use, but with a disclaimer promising that fixes to improve quality are on the way. A discounted rate until those fixes are accomplished...

Friendly staff. Easy and quick check-in. My family and I stayed in the beach house during our visit. The beach house was very spacious and semi-comfortable for two small families, a total of 10 (one being an infant), with a beautiful view! The house was a bit out-dated, which normally is not a problem, as we usually enjoy a break away from modern day living. However, some of the out-date features in this house were a small inconvenience. One of the three showers was inoperable (the middle bathroom), no biggie, as we were still able to use the other two showers. The water pressure in the showers was very high, to the point where myself and my younger children could not stand directly under the water. We attempted to use the bathtub in one of the bedrooms (with queen beds) and upon warming the water in the tub, the pipes began to rattle loudly throughout the entire house, so we went back to using the shower. The shower door in that same bathroom would not close all the way, allowing water to spill on the floor. The only other inconvenient experience was dealing with the sofa beds. We were really relying on using both sofa beds for the older children, however the blue sofa in the game room was broken and could not be pulled out and the sofa mattress in the living room was so thin that the bed rails could be felt while laying on the bed. Luckily, we had brought our air mattress from home to use just in case. So two of the kids had to sleep on the living room sectional. I do believe I seen an extra air mattress in one of the closets, however at the end of the day I didn't want to take a chance on a mattress that I wasn't sure would deflate over night. Other than the showers and the sofa beds, our experience was very enjoyable. The kids had lots of fun using the pool table and Foosball table. Full sized kitchen was fully stocked with small appliances that made it easy for us to cook our own breakfast. We ordered out for dinner (Cool Cats was delicious, and Del's pizza for the kids) and they delivered right to the door. The cottages are fairly close to each other, with outdoor gathering areas allowing neighboring visitor noise to come through the walls. However this was not a problem for us. After being sheltered at home for 2 months, the extra noise of families enjoying themselves did not bother us. The view of the ocean from the game room was beautiful!! One more downfall was the private beach access stairs were blocked off. It would have been very convenient to walk down to the beach using those stairs, but the drive to the pier was only blocks away, so that made up for it. I think just a couple of updates to the beach house (sofa beds and showers) would make this house even more enjoyable. I would probably return again to experience the...

Do not book at this motel. Normal I am not one to post reviews but I do not want anyone else to be fooled by this motel's website. the reviews on the website all stated that the rooms were very clean. Upon entering the room the first things we noticed were black dirt marks all over the walls and ceiling. There were stains on the carpet and dirt covering both the bathroom and front door. There were holes and chunks missing from the walls in the bathroom and what appeared to be some mold along the showers wall. There was dirt all along the windows and the bathroom window didn't even lock. Our room's back wall was facing an ally that contained a dumpster so we heard the garbage truck very early in the morning and people throwing things away all night long. They did not give adequate amounts of towels. We booked a room with two queen beds for 4 people and were only given two of each towel.They did not offer or inform us that there was no turn over service so we had to go ask for towels at least 3 times. (Which I understand could bea new policy due to Covid but we should have been informed) The towels were stained. They lacked basic amenities such as a hair dryer and microwave. Overall the room did not look or feel clean. The beds looked to be clean though minus a few stains on the pillow cases. It was not what we expected for the price that we paid. While there was an ocean view from the door of our room there were no chairs or place to sit to see the view. On the website they advertised public places and barbecues to sit at and for about 11-20 rooms there was one barbeque away from the view with only two chairs provided. When we explored the property and found more chairs and a barbecue we were rudely asked to leave them by a staff member because they were only for one of the cottages yet it was not posted anywhere that it was. When we asked where the public seating was she pointed two scraggly benches that faced a chain linked fence.While the location made it very easy and nice to get to and from pismo state beach and all of the shops and restaurants this motel is right off highway one and right by the freeway so you will hear traffic. Based on the lack of cleanliness, lack of amenities and the rudeness we experienced from the staff you would be much better off paying a slightly higher price for a much better room...