Driftwood Motel — Hotel in Point Pleasant Beach

We had an absolutely terrible experience at the Driftwood Motel. This place is a motel by every definition except at 4-5 star nightly rates, we paid $322 for a single night. I will give a fair and honest review of the facility after my customer service review.

I booked this motel 2-3 weeks in advance of our stay for a Friday and Saturday night in August. We were flying from California to New Jersey for a business seminar. I checked in after 11pm Friday then on Saturday while at the seminar I got a call from the motel stating they were trying to get the room cleaned for the next guests and I need to remove my items. I had to leave the seminar to speak with the motel owner to find out they only had me staying for 1 night, not the 2 nights I booked and I need to remove my items because they were fully booked. They "graciously" found me another room at another establishment for $350/nt because it is the high season in August and every place was fully booked. The owner Paul totally lied to me telling me he pulled a favor from the other establishment's owner getting me a room they don't typically rent because they reserve it for themselves. I know he lied because when I told the other owner the story he laughed and said that wasn't true.

Paul refused to take any responsibility for this issue stating this had never happened before in any of his 6 motels. He consistently told me "I'm not blaming you but it's not my mistake" and there's not much he can do for me.

To put salt on the wound after I removed my items I came back to further discuss with Paul but the desk clerk Bettyanne told me he wasn't available. She then began to give me a major attitude when I asked for his name and contact information telling me I can have her phone number which was posted on the front door. She then proceeded to tell me verbatim, "you're lucky I even found you another room!" Awful awful customer service and you can read the other Yelp reviews which basically state the same thing.

When I found Paul I expressed to him that any reputable business that considered customer service important would work something out since I'm missing out on my business seminar to deal with this fiasco. The best he would offer me was dinner at his restaurant and I could use their beach for free ($50 value). Trust me this was after 2 different conversations and was given begrudgingly.

Onto the facility review.... Pro's: Located directly on the beach. Has an outdoor pool but I didn't get to use it since we were kicked out so I can't tell you much more. Has a little snack shack but same as above. Room has a full size refrigerator and microwave. Plenty of outdoor patio furniture for socializing.

Con's: There is no reservation system or emailed confirmation system (I called back the night reserved because I realized he never asked for my email) I leaned today they are a small "mom and pop place" according to the owner. So ensure they have all the details correct or you'll run into the same issue as I did. Parking is Extremely limited (approx. 25 spots) so get there early or you will be finding another location. Immediate neighborhood is permit only during the high season. Light outside room door which cannot be switched off was invested with gnats, spiders and mosquitos. Make sure to turn off your room lights before exiting or they will come into room. (Other Yelp reviews had a similar experience) Room furniture was extremely dated. No closet and the dressers wreaked of mildew. I'm only assuming these were not replaced after hurricane Sandy 7 years ago. Very thin walls and ceilings. We could literally hear the people above us stomping around well past 1am. (Another Yelp consistency).

Thanks for reading this long review. I'm writing this a few hours after my debacle and I can tell you now where I lay that there are way better and cleaner places to stay for $300+ in Point Pleasant.

Caveat Emptor -...

Long, but worth the read. I am only writing this review for people to know what they are getting into. I chose here based on reviews which now I know were way too nice. My bf and I made reservations with only one room left during the time we were staying. We didn’t have much of a choice as to what room we wanted. That was our first mistake. When we arrived we had been in the car for about 2.5 hrs and just wanted to lay down and look around. The man that checked us in took a while. I know he was just being nice and wanted to talk to us, but at that point I was in no mood. We paid just about 2K in cash and we just wanted our key to the room. The office was a disaster, smelled like smoke, even though there were no smoking signs up. There were papers everywhere and an ancient turn dial microwave sitting on a table in the corner. First off, the parking lot was a disaster every day. The parking spaces were not accommodating and very tight. I wouldn’t be surprised if they had an accident there every week, that how bad it is. People were double parking and leaving their vehicles wherever they wanted and the staff did nothing about it. On other reviews I have read I learned they have recently remodeled, but there’s no way you’d ever know. If this is what remodeled looked like, I would hate to have seen it before. We agreed this was just going to be a place to sleep anyway, but regardless. When we first walked into the room it was hard to breathe through the musty stench. We were told we were going to have two queen beds in our standard room but at best they’re full. Above the mini fridge the ceiling was caving down. It wasn’t cold until our last days. The bathroom was basic but the shower was very claustrophobic and when I hit into the surrounding walls it sounded like they were falling off. The window in the bathroom was broken. It didn’t slide open or closed. We arrived to a hot room with no A/C on. There were only 4 hangers which were attached to the pole in the closet. Also, there was a mirror to do hair and makeup but with only one outlet for the A/C that was impossible. The outlet cover behind the nightstand was broken all over the floor which leads me to believe the cleaning ladies didn’t do their job before we came in. Don’t be fooled when they tell you there’s a snack bar on the premises. There may a place for food but that doesn’t mean it’s open. After going to the beach in the afternoon they were always closed. Not once did we ever have a chance to eat the food there, so you’re on your own. Back to the cleaning service, I am utterly disgusted. Every day the women came at different times. In the beginning, they always came when we were on the beach which was perfect. One morning they woke us around 9:30 to do a cleaning. From then on their times were completely random, or they didn’t even come at all. When they did, they did not empty our trash. We needed 2 towels each since they were child’s size towels, but they only brought what they felt like. The icing on this disgusting cake is: blood on the sheets! The cleaning ladies randomly changed the sheets on the bed, but the last time they changed them there were blood spots all over. How dare they EVER put bloody sheets on someone’s bed?! That was my last straw. It was then I had decided to write this review for all of you to know. Good luck if you ever come here, and if you want my opinion, DON’T. Do not waste your money here and give it to a place that’s actually worth it. I apologize for this being as long as it is, but you all deserve to know what you’re getting yourself into before committing. During our last days I wanted to just leave. We discussed it, but it just wasn’t worth going down to the office to try to get our money back for remaining days. I would never come back here. I’m sorry I even came here in the...

We recently decided to spend a final weekend down the shore in Point Pleasant. My wife booked a room at the Driftwood Motel for our family of four based on a co-workers recommendation and the on-line reviews. We had a reservation for a one night stay Saturday through Sunday.

The exterior of the motel looked OK upon our arrival. Checking in at the office did begin to change our view of the motel. The lady behind the desk was pleasant, but struck both my wife and I as somewhat disoriented in her dialogue and we felt like the conversation was going in circles. My wife had paid via her CC over the phone and was quoted a total price of $175.00 for the one night stay. The CC was charged $175.00. Upon checking in, the woman behind the desk stated that we had to pay her another $25.00 for " motel tax". Looking at each other with a puzzled look on our faces, my wife and I asked how that additional charge could be levied on us at that point. The room was quoted at $175.00 and if there was such a fee, it would have been quoted as such and immediately charged to the CC in order for the reservation to be paid in full. It sounded like a shake down to us and as we began to both question this sudden additional $25.00, the lady then backed off and said " she'd waive the fee". Really???? Felt like an attempt to get some extra money out of us. We didn't pay that fee and left it at that. Tax is included in the room price as far as we know...it's always been that way when we've booked rooms.

Now, we get to our room, open the door and to our surprise, were looking at the most simple, plain room we've ever encountered. No pictures on the wall, plain old off white painted walls, no decor. Three beds; 2 full and one twin. A table with a chair, a dresser and that was it. The bathroom was clean. A TV was also there for us to view. The room smelled moldy and to my surprise, for a $175.00 a night room. could've been more equal to the price point. For that price, I've stayed in much nicer rooms for the night! Now comes the icing on the cake...no hot water! We had gone to the beach and boardwalk and upon returning to our room at about 9 pm, my sons went to shower and had no hot water. They took very quick showers due to the cold water. My wife attempted to and could not manage a cold shower and I just said the heck with this and didn't shower! We explained our dilemma to the same lady we encountered at the front desk and she couldn't understand why that had happened. She came into our room and played with the water knobs saying maybe they were reversed... we tried that the night before! We went to the beach and returned around 9 am. The motel owner was in the office so my wife explained the scenario to him. He apologized and said we should have told him last night, he was there until 2 am...who knew he was there? Office was dark and usually the office closes after a certain time only to reopen in the morning. The owner stated that due to the end of season, they had some lines to room turned off and that if he knew, he would've turned on our hot water. Now, if a guest books a room, don't you make sure EVERYTHING is ready for the guests upon arrival??? I would think so. The owner was very apologetic and refunded my wife $50.00 on her CC which we appreciated and thought that was the least he could do.

Considering the owner's courtesy and effort to make things right, I rate 3 stars. We will not be booking again here for our future trips to Point Pleasant....