Royal Palms Motel — Hotel in Tybee Island

When my family travels for vacation, we typically stay in a Hampton Inn. We like the chain and find the quality consistent. With that being said, we were not willing to spend almost $300 per night for a room we planned to spend about 9-10 hours per day in to sleep. We looked at many, many reviews of hotels on Tybee from budget to higher end. We found the price point of Royal Palms manageable for the quick get a way that it was intended to be. The reviews seemed positive- and thankfully no mention of bed bugs. Booking was easy and when I had a question I called, left a message with VM and received a call back quickly. We received a text with our room number and door code the day of check in and never had to go get a key card or see anyone at the front desk. Nice! The room was a typical 60's motel style- smallish- but comfortable size for 2 adults. It was cutely decorated with a retro fridge, microwave, and matching Keurig, chair and ottoman, and queen sized bed with white linens. Towels were laid out on the bed. Upon getting into the (very comfortable) bed, we discovered that the fitted sheet did not fit the 16" mattress. The sheet kept popping off the corner anytime we moved. It was late so we laid towels on the areas where the sheet did not cover. We also discovered that the vinyl floors were VERY dirty as evidenced by the dirt on the bottom of our clean socks. After a wonderful night's sleep (bed so comfy) we addressed our issues with the sheet and floor with the manager (owner?) behind the front desk. She assured us that both items would be taken care of before our expected return that evening. Upon our return, the short sheet had been replaced by a fully fitting fitted sheet- and the bed nicely made. The floor was better, but still not clean and continued to leave dirt on our socks. An item of concern was the AC. It was not pulling moisture out of the room through cooling despite being set between 70 and 72 degrees. The room felt humid and our bath towels never got dry enough to call them "dry" after the first night. I could see potential for mold, although I saw no mold currently. The bathroom was tiny and an attempt to increase storage space was made with a metal 3 tier cart. The top tier was chipped and rusted around the inner circumference of the tray. A towel placed on it would have covered the rust and been a nice touch. The bathroom appeared clean and the shower looked recently remodeled. To the bathroom side of the bed, there was scuff marks on the wall that looked reminiscent of some sort of horseplay or a struggle taking place on the bed with feet/shoes kicking the wall. Overall, the room was decent for the price. We did not partake of the pool but it looked clean...

Upon arrival we were very impressed with the cute retro vibe of the place. Loved the color choices & could tell this older motel had been recently renovated. Checking in early was no problem and the staff was very friendly. Parking was very tight & the pool was much smaller than expected. Our room was cute, but alot smaller than we anticipated as well. The front door, fully closed still had daylight shining thru the top. The first thing we noticed was the couch cushions were very dirty. Everything else seemed clean enough, except the bathroom tiles were somewhat dingy. The small window AC was on full blast in the bedroom but didn't seem adequate to pump to the front bedroom with the pull-out couch, which we hoped was because it had just been turned on & needed time to cool...but we learned unfortunately that wasn't the case. (After one day of being out on the beach an entire day we came back to find a warm room & light on with "filter reset" - luckily the front desk lady who was mid manicure 💅 came in to save the day and spray off the filter which worked to reset the unit) The beds were made with sheets and a slightly thicker sheet as the "bedspread". No spare blankets anywhere to be found. And when we went to pull out the pull-out couch for the kids, we found crumbs & a strong vomit odor...plus no sheets or blankets to make the bed. When we went to the front office to request these things, we found it was closed. Didn't realize there wasn't someone on staff 24/7!!! The pool was in need of some major repairs. Overall the location to the beach wasn't a bad walk. But this motel is very cosmetic. It looks adorable on the surface. Has a cute retro vibe. But I wouldn't spend the money here again, I'd try...

This hotel room was absolutely perfect for our stay. It’s just enough for what you need for your beach trip. It’s exactly as pictured, and they’ve thought of everything. It’s very aesthetically pleasing as well. My 3 year old and I chose this place as our hotel for our last little getaway before her new sibling comes, and it was just perfect. There is a coffeemaker, keurig style in the room. There is no carpet, so that you don’t have to deal with sand. When you do manage to track sand in, because you will, they have a cute, little broom and dustpan set in each room. There is no bath tub, but they shower is tiled so that sand will easily wash off and down the drain. The beds are VERY comfortable. The room is VERY clean. When I walk out of the room there is a pool 20 ft from my door, and outside of the pool, there is an area to wash off the sand when we return from our beach run. When they say the beach is a 2 minute walk they aren’t lying. Go across the street at either of the crosswalks, and continue down the street to the beach boardwalk. The beach isn’t very busy for this section of the island either. Within minutes there’s a ton of shops and eateries. It was just perfect. I will never stay anywhere else on Tybee, and for the price, it was exactly what we needed and wanted and more. The added perk is Ms. Cynthia, checkin/checkout is a breeze. Anything you need, any questions you need to ask, she’s right there to answer, and she’s so friendly. This hotel made our stay just absolutely perfect. We even decided to add another day. If you’re undecided and on a budget, don’t take a risk,...