I really wanted to like this place, because I really wanted a place where we could stay with my two kids (ages 6 and 10) right on the ocean and have a relaxing week off. But it turned out to be one of the most unpleasant experiences I've ever had in a hotel, so much so that we cut our week long visit short and changed hotels after just one night.
In a nutshell:
Pros -- neighborhood (if you like this kind of area), proximity to beach, front desk staff, Internet service, free parking, dog friendly, pleasant courtyard
Cons -- rooms, rooms, rooms
First the good. The hotel is right across the street from a nice stretch of beach and one block from the pier, which is fun to walk down. I took a walk down the pier at 10 pm one night and there must have been 300 people fishing at night. It was a very sociable atmosphere.
The front desk staff at the Ocean Beach Hotel were all very friendly, really great people. Internet service was fast and reliable once I figured out which network to connect to and got the password. The courtyard is pleasant, and I met some nice people and dogs there the one evening we were there. There's an outdoor shower in the courtyard for when you come back from the beach.
The hotel is on the main strip in Ocean Beach, which is a lively bustling area full of bars, restaurants, beach shops, tattoo parlors, and the like. If you like a sort of low-budget vibrant hippie / counter-culture atmosphere with people cruising the bars at midnight you will like this area a lot. If you're looking for something quieter or more upscale you'll hate it.
Unfortunately, the actual accommodations were horrible.
The rooms are tiny and the bathrooms are postage-stamp sized. Both the room and the bath were very run down. The web site claims that the rooms have all been renovated. If this is renovated, I hate to think what it was like before. Our room had dirty walls with cracks in the walls and woodwork, peeling paint over the tiles in the bath, battered furniture, etc. There was also a musty, mildew smell throughout the room. It's what I would have expected, and would have found acceptable, for an inexpensive beach front motel. But for the price Ocean Beach Hotel charges you should expect much better.
We booked multiple rooms because we were meeting family members there. Their room was even worse than ours, so it wasn't just a fluke.
In addition to the poor condition of the rooms, the walls are so thin you can hear everything around you, and make no mistake this is a party hotel. We had one of the most unpleasant nights I've ever had anywhere, as we were kept awake until 4:30 am by multiple loud parties, all of which we could hear through our walls as clearly as if they were in the same room with us. Every knock on a door, every bang and thump and loud drunken conversation (and there were a LOT of loud drunken conversations, if you can call them that) ... it's as if the neighborhood bars had just relocated to the rooms on the other side of the very thin walls. We were so tired after one night here that we lost the entire next day of our vacation recovering from the lack of sleep.
It's really a shame. If the Ocean Beach were properly renovated it could be a gem. But in its current condition I would only stay there if I got a very good deal on the price, and if I were a 20-something looking to party until the wee hours. If that's you, you may love the Ocean Beach hotel. If not, I advise looking elsewhere.
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