Holiday Inn Express at Monterey Bay by IHG — Hotel in Seaside

Arriving, the lobby is clean and nicely decorated though I wish I could say the same for the rest of the property, discussingly dirty. Look up, loads of pigeon crap on every ledge . The back of this place hotel looks like the setting for every cold case mystery. A creepy lake with a trail inhabited by some homless and suspicious men hanging around. The staff on the other hand were professional and quick to assist with providing my family with extra towels for the pool with the out of order hot tub. Park in the rear of the hotel at your own risk, no security to be seen anywhere. No place on this property feels safe to let your children out of you sight. Especially in the back. Let's talk about the room. Fist off the smell of cleaning products makes the carpet feel even dirtier then it already looks, nasty. The bottom threshold seal the bottom and side of our room door was half gone leaving gap about half an inch wide just perfect for those critters that dine in those boxes that are located in plain sight throughout the property, unbelievable. I've stayed at other Holliday in properties and in comparison, this place is a dump. The people that gave this place a good review must have absolutely no standers do to their lack of expectations. If only I were sleeping in the lobby and not on the fith floor with the pigeons. This property is in need of a complete renovation inside and out.nasty, nasty, nasty. Best thing going here are the staff members, polite, professional and happy to serve. 10:34 pm, night 1# had to revisit my review to add to the disbelief. We just finished praying with the kids when all of a sudden i here what sounds like a dog in distress, crashing sounds and incoming emergency response vehicles. Turs out it wasn't a dog at all, just a deranged Goose on meth or something. As for the police response. Not sure if they found what they were looking for in the bushes but somebody got taken away in the ambulance. Day two, Breakfast. Food is fresh, Hispanic service woman gracious and had everything looking in order and vary kleen, likewise was the dinning. area. Second night returned from a long day to find the parking lot both front, and back completely full do to three C10 dump trucks, one tour bus and a armada of bobtail trucks all parked length wise. Unbelievable, had to circle the building till something opened up, brutal. Let's talk room 505, carpet frayed and nasty, in room charge port broken, beds are soft though I di find the plastic packaging from a three pack of Modelo tall cans stuffed under the matress from one of the previous guests, I left it there. Bathroom was clean but the towels smelled Hella weard so I ordered up some replacement towels, no different.. If your a light sleeper, forget about it. Sounds like ever Camero and Charger in town uses the massive chilli's parking lot next door as burn out central , all nigt long, being only outdone by what sounds like space X launching rockets and doing fly buys all night long, brutal. If your looking for an over priced motel that houses every traveling construction worker, truck driver or low budget vacationers, this is the spot for you. Were I lay my head is everything to do with my vacation experience. In closing, being that my wife booked are stay i couldn't say anything about my displeasure, lesson learned. Next time I'll book. God bless . Yours truly...

My husband and I stayed this past weekend, our first time here. We previously stayed at the Holiday Inn and IHG at Cannery Row many years ago when I could still use my free nights, but now those places are ridiculously expensive on weekends. I don't understand why this hotel costs $500 on some weekends. My early check-in time was honored, and Josh did a wonderful job with this request. However, I wish I had waited for the right room, as it might have been better. The room we had was not the one I reserved, and it was a downgrade with no upgrade. I was fine with this just to check in early. The room was ordinary, dated, and had a smell. It was small, the TV was old, and the AC/heater was quite loud. I had to turn it off at night because I had a hard time sleeping due to the overpowering noise. Some outlets were not working, and the toilet felt like it was going to collapse. Although the room was clean, everything felt dated. The walls were thin, so I could hear everything, although it was mostly peaceful at night. Breakfast was standard, but I enjoyed the coffee machine, which had a coffee grinder for fresh coffee at all times. The room faced the lake, which was a plus. However, the surroundings were not well-maintained. Josh was energetic and enthusiastic during check-in, but he didn't mention my IHG Platinum status, unlike most IHG properties. The interaction was transactional, and he only mentioned the breakfast hours. I hope he told me that coffee was available 24/7, as I didn't get out to get coffee later that night. There was no coffeemaker in the room. Checkout was the worst, as the staff member just took my key card without asking about my stay. This is not what I expect from a weekend stay that costs $500 (I paid 50,000 IHG points, which is a lot). Compared to their Waikiki property, which costs 30,000 points, I should have saved mine for my next Hawaii trip. When I made phone calls from the room, the staff sounded rushed and unpleasant. Having stayed in many upscale locations, resorts, and hotels, I expected more. Despite this, I think the location was great, just 3 miles from Cannery Row and Fisherman's Wharf, and close to many stores and businesses. I will still recommend this hotel due to its breakfast and location, but they need to improve their customer service and other aspects. They might also need to overhaul their channel selection, probably when they update their TVs.

UPDATE: I decided to revise my rankings based on the owner’s reply. I am giving them 4 stars overall. I am confident that they will deliver better service on...

The pros: The location is convenient to many attractions. There’s an In-N-Out burger directly next door. There’s a pool. The staff that we encountered were pleasant. There is a decent breakfast included with an awesome pancake machine and the lobby is in good shape.

The cons: The rooms are super tight and dingy. We are a family of four with two small children. We booked a standard room with two double beds. We had to rearrange furniture in order to stuff a pack and play into a corner next to wall mounted HVAC unit and it barely fit. There is a narrow aisle way between the beds and desk/counter area in the room which we had to take turns to walk by to get to and from the bathroom as two people cannot easily pass each other in such a tight space. The rooms are accessed from the outside and the rooms have one huge fishbowl window so anyone walking by can see directly into your whole room unless you have the drapes closed which then lets in no natural light as both layers are blackout type curtains. The AC/heater unit under the window is large, loud and emits a bright blue light all night when in use which is bothersome is you’re sensitive to light or noise when sleeping. The carpet in the room was stained and fraying. The bathroom sink kept malfunctioning so that the drain would randomly close up when the sink was running. The water pressure in the shower was not good. The toilet/shower space is absolutely tiny. The room phone was not functional so we could not call the front desk from our room. The TV looked to be from the early 2000’s and had a black line going down the center of the picture. The hot tub was non-functional and closed. We had booked a three night stay and we went down to the lobby within an hour of checking in to cancel the other two nights. We found somewhere else to stay for the remainder of our trip and will not be returning to this “hotel”. Our first impression really said it all.. two tweakers were exiting the parking lot by foot as we pulled into the driveway and then the front desk lady suggested at check-in that since our room faced the back lot, we should park in the back lot so that we can see our car from our room. Safety concerns were an issue due to the sketchy people hanging out by public walking path and fishing dock in the back. All I can say after this disappointing experience is that not all Holiday Inns are created equal and this one really gives off cheap motel. We do not recommend staying here for a...