Blue Marlin Inn & Suites — Hotel in Virginia Beach

MAJOR DISAPPOINTMENT When we arrived we couldnt get the door opened so we had to have them replace pur our door nob. They (the owner who instantly stated that he wasnt as soon as we started to complain) were very rude and unprofessional. We got into the room and noticed that there was mold on the bathroom hair dryer, mold.on the shower curtain. Hair from previous guests on shower wall and inside the door. We walked down and told the so called owner who said he would take care of it and again did not. Upon waking up after staying the first night we awoke to find that my wife had has been bitten on her chin, arm, shoulder forearm and pointer finger by bed bugs. We immediately left for medical help. When we arrived back to the hotel we searched the room top to bottom and discovered bed bugs and many eggs along the fringes of the mattress and box springs . We took the bugs, pics and videos from our phones and put one in a cup to take to show the "owner" who suddenly wasnt the "owner" we again stated our problems from before that wasnt resolved as well as showed him my wifes bite marks and bugs in the cup and stated that we seeked medical care for my wife immediatly. We asked that we be reimbursed so we could leave and the guy became very rude and said there was nothing he could so about my wifes FAT FACE there was nothing he could do but have us fill out a paper (plain piece of printer paper) and he would turn it in on monday. Since we had planned this trip for the last 5 months we were optionless so we did not sleep on the beds we removed everything that was fabric or wood materiail out of the room, had to seemingly upset the workers for 2 sets of bed sheets and covers went to walgreens in front of the hotel and bought bed bug spray and treated the room. Our stuff went into trash bags and tied up. DO NOT STAY THERE. It is not worth it to stay at a place for a vacation when all you do there is have issues with the place. As soon as you pay your stuck because we started notifying everyone staying as they arrived to there rooms and they would turn around and go back to get a refund and were all told no as well. Everyone was notified there what we had gone through becaue some of the guests had little ones and I wanted to make sure there parents knew. One gentlemen in another room came to us the next day because we camped out on the patio and showed us welts from where he slept in his bed. DO NOT STAY THERE. DO NOT BRING YOUR BELONGINGS INTO ROOM UNLESS YOU WANT TO BRING BED BUGS HOME WITH YOU. There also isnt any free breakfast LIE and the pics of the rooms are deceiving. I had stayed at the Blue Marlin 10 yrs ago and was told that they were closed down so to my suprise I seen that they were now opened. I didnt put it togther till it was too late. Why would a beach front hotel be closed down..... Bed bugs seeious...

2.5 stars if I could give that. Average. This is the cheapest motel I could find on Labor Day Weekend that was walkable to the beach. Let’s start there. We paid $250/night after all the fees and taxes, but the nicer hotels were going for $500/700 a night, so it is what it is.

The good stuff: the location is amazing. Literally a 3 min walk to beach access and a million bars and restaurants right nearby. The staff is kind when they are there. There’s private parking included in the cost of the room which, on a holiday weekend was a HUGE boon. There were no bugs in the rooms and it is the end of August so that’s actually a notable thing for it being the cheapest motel. Clean bedsheets, no bedbugs. That’s important and not a given.

The bad: If you want a room that has been deep cleaned, that is not what you get. They definitely wiped it down with a lysol wipe and a mop and changed the linens, but this is not a room that is regularly scrubbed or anything. No cigarette butts or band-aids so it’s not nearly the worst place I have stayed in the last year, but it is decidedly not great. Hair in the bathtub and toilet, grime build up in corners, etc. The room smelled of cigarette smoke, especially when the AC was on. I’m not actually sure if this is a “no-smoking” motel but there was for sure a sign in the room that said no smoking? Irrelevant because it had fallen down under the sink. Anyway, smelled bad because I am not a smoker but if you smoke it’s probably fine. It’s byob. Bring your own blanket. The “comforter” on the bed was absolutely a curtain. 0 warmth and it kept falling off the bed because it’s a curtain and designed to not have any cling to anything. The staff is occasionally absent during open hours. We only needed stuff like once they were MIA. The sign on the office door said open and nobody came when I rang the bell. We ended up just going elsewhere. Also the walls are paper thin. There was a kid having a bad morning in the room next to us and we got to hear every step of the tantrum to nap process.

Overall, this is not a nice place. You get what you pay for. But it is convenient and like, clean-ish. Clean enough to sleep and shower without feeling dirty, which...

Booked the room last minute to attend an event in the area. I had 2 others with me. Upon arriving to the room, the obnoxiously potent smell of industrial cleaning chemicals took over the entire room. There was no key available for my room at the time I checked in, i was instructed to return to the front desk in 10 mins. Minutes after getting settled in the room, an employee who reeked of alcohol came knocking on the door and began peeking his head into the room after we answered. He tells us he is there to repair the door handle and asks us to move to the next room over and to grab the key from the front desk. As I return to the front desk, the woman (and owner im assuming?) became confrontational out of nowhere and said shes been watching me and my guests on surveillance since we arrived and said if my guests stay the night, she was going to charge me $40 since the booking charge only allowed 2 people apparently. I dismissed the rude gesture and returned to my room only to find my guests complaining about mold in the bathroom, no towels, and the same retched smell from the last room. After 20 minutes in the room, we open the curtain to find the drunk employee from earlier and another man staring into our window and then both quickly walking off after opening the door to confront them. That was it, I no longer felt comfortable staying there. We all pack our things and pack the car up, as im returning to the front desk to recieve a refund, I notice the two men from the window situation standing by our car watching my guests as they packed our things. I inform the woman at the desk I dont feel safe and the treatment by her and the staff were terrible and she responds with "yeah whatever"...she tells me she cannot refund me the room I had purchased 15 mins ago. Never come here, they watch your every movement on camera and send their openly drunk employees...