Kayla S.
Yelp
I had this hotel on my mind for a long time because the photos on the website looked so inviting. We went there finally for a two night stay for my birthday. At first, from the outside, it looked so interesting - an old motel turned into a hip, groovy place. Service is great, the staff is great, but the motel itself (yes it should be called a motel) is shabby as heck. SORRY! Not going here again.
The things that were the worst about the room were the beds and the smell. The beds are not comfortable - the mattress begins to sink during the night and you slide into the middle of it. The headboard is made of wood which is fine but it's not made right, it's too flimsy and way too short. There are not enough pillows to get comfy and the small lumpy ones you do have keep sliding down. My neck was constantly cramping while trying to watch TV or write in my journal (you know, vacation thinking time stuff).
The bathroom smells bad because the floor is not finished. It's this manufactured pressed material you put on the floor as the layer before the actual floor. There is no way this stuff is sanitary. It gives off a weird smell that really gets worse when you take a shower because the tiny steamy room makes the floor all damp and even more stinky. That smell makes its way into the entire room. That smell was making me feel sick and gross the whole time. Even writing about it now makes me feel BLAH.
The place is noisy. I felt like we had traveled back in time to the 40s or something and were living in an apartment building on Staten Island. I heard people walking, stomping, slamming doors and doing "other stuff" each night. Seeing six packs of complimentary ear plugs on the night stands when you enter your motel room the first time is pretty telling of what you got yourself into. That basically says, "Do not unpack."
A big attraction for the motel to me was the minimal vibe you can see in the deceptive website photos. It turns out the vibe is simply a white room with reclaimed wood bolted to walls to make shelves and cubbies. But still there is no where to put your stuff. Myself, husband and son had clothes and other items piling up in different corners on the dirty floors. It was becoming messy and hard to relax with no dressers or tables to use to organize things. We didn't even have that much stuff, this room was just impossible to keep tidy.
Another thing I wanted to love was at least the pool. It's heated and that's where the amazing part stops. It's pretty small and busy most of the time, so it's hard to find time to relax. The website makes you think that you'll be able to access a world of zen, at times, but there are no zen times. The pool had a greasy sticky brown residue around the water line which was gross and you could see other brown stains on the walls under the water.
The sauna was also used a lot and hard to get into without feeling pressure that someone else is waiting. Add 2 or 3 more saunas at this place and it would be much better. The sauna was really cool looking still as far as the design of it.
Pickled Fish was yummy, that was a highlight.
The only reason I am sharing this is because if you want to stay somewhere comfy for your birthday, this is not it. The rooms were overpriced. We spent 300 per night plus MORE because we got a simple charcuterie board delivered to our room each morning and two cans of beer when we first checked in. This place needs a lot more work, additions to the rooms, and to be deep cleaned.
I wanted to love this place, but I couldn't. If you need to relax, if you really have been needing it for a while, you cannot relax here.
