Cal Mar Hotel Suites by the Ocean

 

2

9

Taylor N.

Riverside, CA

11/26/2008

Awesome location! Just a few blocks from 3rd Street Promenade, the beach, the Pier and the park. You can't beat it.

I looked at many hotel rooms for $2-$300 and booked this place for $150 for my friends visit. We had a full suite with kitchen, 2 beds and a nice living room. Very clean and comfortable.

The guy who checked us in was so nice. He gaves us parking next to the office since we had some valuables in the car. He helped my friend bring her suitcase upstairs (prob not in his job description but he offered).

For two girls in a new place, it felt safe to be a short walk from everything worth doing.

I would happily stay here again, compared to the prices of the other hotels and considering the location it can't be beat. (I put pricey for the range, I think it is fairly priced for what they offer and the location, it is just a pricey area in general).

• Add owner comment
• Bookmark
• Send to a Friend
• Link to This Review

 

0

1

Jennifer W.

El Cerrito, CA

9/10/2009

I thought this place was great, having gone there three years in a row for spring break with my young kids.  Last spring we were staying there and had a really bad experience.

At bathtime I turned on the wall heater in the tiny bathroom (the heater is located at about knee height for adults, right next to the tub) and as my 7-year-old son got out of the bath he brushed against it and started screaming. I saw stuff coming off his butt and realized it was his skin, peeling off in big strips, burned off after a heartbeat of contact. (The heating element had a metal protecter grate over it and that's what burned the hell out of him.)

We were out of towners and I wasn't sure what to do, so I called his pediatrician at home (while he screamed) and she sent us to the ER. He had a bad second degree burn and we had to put burn cream on and change the bandage twice a day for ten days.   Needless to say, it pretty much screwed up our vacation (no swimming, no beach, lots of crying during bandage changes).  The burn oozed and bled and shed more skin for days and days. Ugh.

I explained what happened to the hotel manager, and he said he'd have the heater checked -- after which he assured me that it was functioning correctly.  I have a hard time believing that the grate is supposed to burn the hell out of you, having had similar heaters in the past.  The manager (and owner) did not offer to cover our medical costs ($300 after insurance) or reduce our rate for the room. They did not say that they would put up a warning sign next to the heater or do anything about it to protect other kids.

I'm not litigious but I'm pretty pissed at the lack of acknowledgement that the heater is a big safety hazard. I just hope a toddler doesn't brush their face against that thing, or fall back against it.  Six months later, my son still has a scar in the shape of the grill across his butt, and I don't think it's going away any time soon.

• Add owner comment
• Bookmark
• Send to a Friend
• Link to This Review

Elite '09

323

274

Ken N.

Venice, CA

2/11/2007

I think this place is quite a find.  

First off, the location:  California and 2nd, two blocks away from Palisades Park, and just a few blocks away from the Promenade.  Nice.  From the outside, it's got some of the funky patina of a formerly nice Santa Monica apartment building gone to seed since the 1960s, but in actuality, inside, the hotel "rooms" are quite nice:  Very clean, very spacious, most of them get good light.  The rooms are like full apartments, with a full kitchen, full bath, and most of them sleep three or more, with queen-sized pull-out couches in the living rooms.  

Free wireless Internet access, and mostly new TVs and stereo systems make this the kind of place you can stay for a while.  Some of the rooms have hard wood floors, some of the rooms have the original tile and fixtures in the kitchens and bathrooms - which can be quaint or not, depending on how you look at it.  

My sister stayed there this weekend, and I have more family coming in next week.  It's not cheap, but very reasonable for the neighborhood, and I think the full kitchen is a nice touch - you can cook your own food and save on eating out all the time.  That's got to be worth something, huh?  Anyway, for those of you who get disoriented by staying in lookalike hotels/motels, this place might actually feel like home...maybe not as nice as YOUR home, but then again, it's a lot nicer than MANY places I've lived over the years...

• Add owner comment
• Bookmark
• Send to a Friend
• Link to This Review