This hotel is shabby and not in the "shiek" sort of way! Didn't want to get in bed and have to use the 'blanket' - yuk! The people in charge are very rude to guests and do not make you feel welcome! The only positive is its location right on beach, but it is not like you have great views from these rooms! Take my advice and find another hotel. There are lots on the beach to pick from!

I am a mom with two children and we have stayed at this hotel every summer for several years. As they say in real estate, it is all location, location, location. This hotel is RIGHT on the beach and the views are incredible. You can send the kids (older kids of course) out to play and swing on the large swingset on the beach only steps away. There are fantastic restaurants within a quick walk and it is an easy drive to the dunes for ATV riding. There is always parking available. They offer a very basic continental breakfast of pastries and drinks.

The managers/owners are friendly people as long as you obey the rules and don't cause any "problems" whatsoever. They tell interesting stories about the history of the area. Be aware however that they are extremely strict. No visitors after 9:00 p.m., period, not even just to use the restroom. They watch you like a hawk. At 9:05 one night they came out to meet us as we were walking back to our room to make sure we knew my mother, who had driven down to visit us for the day, could not enter our room to rest for a few minutes before her 3-hour drive home (she is 70+ years old). They told us we should have put her on the rental agreement when we booked the room (there are 4 allowed and there were only 3 of us). We asked if we could put her on now, and they said no, it's too late. We said our goodbyes and gave our hugs outside on the street, since they wouldn't allow her in the room even for a moment.

On the other hand, it's somewhat nice to know they are keeping a watch on the premises. It is a small L-shaped hotel with the managers living and working at the crook of the L. They can see every single door from just outside the lobby. You could leave your room unlocked all day and not worry about anything being stolen, and your car in the parking lot is perfectly safe. They will not allow visitors to park in their lot, but they did allow us to leave our car there a couple of extra hours on the day we checked out, so that we could play on the beach one last time before we left. (TIP: If you're expecting a visitor, go out at night and move your car onto the street. It is packed during the day but there is plenty of parking at night. Then your visitor can call you the next day when they get there, you can go out and move your car back to the lot and they can take your parking spot.)

The rooms are small and the beds are extremely uncomfortable. But everything works fine and they have a small refrigerator under the sink, which is great to have breakfast in the morning if you want to hit the beach without having to go somewhere for breakfast first. We have never had trouble with the furnace or anything else. The floor is a bit dirty (difficult to keep clean with people in and out from the beach all day) but I've never noticed anthing else being dirty. The rooms have always been cleaned in a timely manner.

In my opinion the worst thing about this motel is the noise. If you are on the bottom floor, you will hear every single step and movement of the people above you. If you are on the top, you will receive constant complaints from the people under you that you are making too much noise. One night we were sitting at the table playing a board game, and the people under us were violently pounding on their ceiling (our floor) telling us to be quiet. A few minutes later we got a call from the manager that they had received a complaint about all the noise we were making. We were barely moving in our chairs! The manager speculated that perhaps they were hearing noise from the establishment next door and just thought it was us. In any event, if you want to be able to sleep at all, bring earplugs.

One last note is that although all rooms are non-smoking, smoking is allowed everywhere else on the property. There are chairs right outside the rooms, and people sit in them constantly smoking. There are vents in the front of the rooms for fresh air, but remember to close them when you're gone because your room can fill up with cigarette smoke if a smoker is sitting nearby. Also on the top floors there are very narrow balconies, and there is a chance you will have to walk through a cloud of cigarette smoke to get to your room. Allowing smoking and not allowing pets are two big drawbacks to this motel.

We will continue to go back to this motel because the kids love it. Being able to walk out your door and within seconds be on the beach and in the ocean is incredible. There is also a hose near the BBQ pits to wash the sand off yourself and off your wetsuit before you go back into your room -- very convenient. (By the way you can easily rent wetsuits at several nearby shops.) For these reasons alone I would recommend this motel, and will continue to go back myself. But, just be aware of the drawbacks as well.

Our room was tiny, too small for two adults and two children. The only window that would open was in the bathroom and the building next door looked directly down onto our toilet. Our heater in our room would not shut off so my husband had to shut the gas off to it so we didn't cook all night. Our room was very warm, made it very hard to sleep. There were small ventilation windows but they were along the floor and the screens were so clogged with dirt the air couldn't flow through, besides the fact that the couch covered one of them anyway. The second night (we stayed the second night ONLY because we had already paid) They did provide us with a fan that was old and I don't think it had ever been washed but it did help. Overall, the room was unclean and way too small. They would not give us the password to the internet when we called the office from the motel phone, so we had to walk down to the office to get it.... but it didn't really matter anyway because the only place we could get a signal was outside of our room. I would not let my kids sit on the couch because it was so dirty as was the carpet and everything else in the room..... location is the only thing this place has going for it!

The managers of this hotel are extremely untrusting! After they broke down the rules to us, we felt like we were being staked out. We tried to convince ourselves they are just friendly people, but they do not appreciate younger people (younger than 50) staying at this hotel. We were rudely kicked out of our hotel room at 3am (we however were not informed there was a curfew at this hotel) for our friend coming up to use the restroom. We were even informed by the Pismo police that they are infamous for this kind of behavior. The rooms are very small (pretty much just fits the bed in there) but perfect beach location and good price(for a day rental since we didn't even get to sleep in there). If you're asleep by 7pm, this is right up your alley. If you like to enjoy the beach life, I'd find another hotel.