Monterey Plaza Hotel & Spa

We arrived here late Wednesday night expecting to get the room we paid for, which is what most people expect when they travel. Instead we were booked into a partial ocean view after paying for a a full ocean view room with balcony. There is a big price difference. I will just tell you, they jack up the rates here because it is Monterey car week. This hotel is at best a 3 star hotel. We paid around $800 something a night for this disaster. We knew we were overpaying because of car week, but what we did not expect to deal with was being given the wrong room category. We are actually here for Monterey car week. My son is a photographer. This was a gift to him or I would leave now. What a nightmare this has turned into. I am not going to go into full details here because I would run out of room. It was late when we arrived, and we were insanely tired after flying all day from Florida and then driving from San Jose. Next day we explain the situation. They obviously have given our room away. A manager explains to my husband we will give you some money back, so sorry, this is not the room you booked, and you can move rooms after returning from dinner. I am thinking the whole time, okay, we are finally going to be in our ocean view upgraded room with balcony that we actually paid for to begin with. No, that’s not what happened. We arrived back here around 10 something last night only to find out NO ONE could figure out how to make a new key for our “upgraded” room. We had to wait for someone to show up to figure that out. Finally around 11 something we pack up our entire room, move up one floor to a “downgraded room” with no balcony, and wake up to a screaming child this morning. Still listening to the screaming child. Also, no room service yesterday. Had to call twice for towels while we were getting ready for dinner. We had already called to tell them no one came to make up our room today, we are going to the spa, and can someone do that while we are gone. Nothing. Room not made up. No towels even after calling again. Twice. Ran out of toilet paper, etc. I cannot even describe how upset I am to take time out of a vacation to write this. First off, a well run hotel would have given us an automatic upgrade after having to deal with this disaster of a poorly run hotel, free drinks, dinner, something. And apologize profusely. If we could check out, I would. Never returning. If you are used to staying in Marriott level hotels, Four Seasons, Ritz Carlton or anything similar, you will be extremely disappointed. DO NOT stay here. Super dated hotel, no craft cocktail list at the lobby bar, watered down drinks, inefficient staff, room service stops at 9:30, etc. I could go on and on. I am baffled at the nice reviews. Maybe someone received the room they paid for here. Hopefully the person in ours.

This is a beautiful hotel with amazing staff. We visit a few times a year and are always thrilled with the service, cleanliness and overall experience. It’s walking distance to everything on canary row and we love that we can park our car and not need it for the duration of our trip. There is a small beach right below the hotel that we always visit and Tidal Coffee is conveniently located in the courtyard between two of the buildings. We often grab coffee and pastries and just enjoy a slow morning overlooking the Bay.

Wonderful relaxing stay with a beautiful view and first class service. I stayed with a friend for a giri's get away. We had an amazing ocean front room; the view was incredible! The room service was quick and the food amazing. The massages at the spa were a perfect end to our mini vacay. Every staff member treated us like royalty. I would highly recommend the Monterey Plaza Hotel!

Hotel is very nice! I would DEFINITELY stay again. The stay is AMAZING! The location is great as it’s in walking distance to little shops!

I arrived at the hotel at 10 pm, after having called them earlier in the day to notify them of a late arrival. When I arrived, I was told there would be NO HOT WATER in my room until 9:00 am the next morning. I had been golfing that day, was covered in sweat and sunscreen. The next day, attending a conference with same sweat, sunscreen and greasy hair due to NO HOT WATER. Imagine renting a car with NO TIRES. Same idea! Contacted MATHEW BARTLE, the property manager who did not even. have the courtesy to respond to my email. I received a partial refund. UNACCEPTABLE FOR A $700 dollar room and one that has four star TripAdvisor rating and Forbes rating! Completely unacceptable!