I have just checked in at an alternative hotel a few miles down the road after meeting with real disappointment at the Sylvia Beach Hotel this evening. I have been planning this holiday for very carefully and I quote from my original email to the hotel from May requesting a stay in the Tolkien Room.

"I am ... from England ...I'm also a passionate Ringer and it would be wonderful to stay in that particular room. I can be flexible a night either direction if that assists! I am so excited just looking at the picture.."

This email, which I think made it perfectly clear that I was interested in one specific room and that I could be flexible if needs be, was followed by two telephone calls - one to book the room and one to confirm the booking at the end of May. Today I arrived to be told the room was double booked and that I had lost out. I was offered the Austen room, a more expensive rate for the same price as the Tolkien, but this misses the point entirely.

I checked the contact number they had for me on their file and it was completely correct, yet no attempt appears to have been made to contact me. The lady on the desk showed me the card and the empty space where attempts at contact are usually recorded. I can only assume that they did not wish to pay overseas rates, or suspected I would cancel if I could not have the room I was hoping to stay in. I, on the other hand, could have changed my plans at any point up to and including today to arrive the following night. I was not even given the courtesy of trying to make this possible.

The lady on the front desk told me she was new and that she had no idea why no one had tried to contact me. I was very upset indeed. I accept that setting your heart on a particular room may seem ridiculous but this is a *theme* hotel. My trip has been based around my interests, from books to music to television shows and the cavalier attitude shown by whoever made the decision in this case is disgusting. From the original email and the booking card it is clear I have traveled a long way and my disappointment is huge.

That they imagined for one second that someone who had so specifically requested the Tolkien would want to stay in the *Austen* room just bewilders me.

To sum up: Do not trust the booking system of this hotel.

The road goes ever on...

Yes the rooms are small. Yes the hotel is old, Yes there is no television, vcr, dvd or radio to entertain you. Yes the breakfast (included) in the morning is terrific. Yes the people staying there are interesting and quite often repeaters. Yes there is no elevator and most rooms are a flight or two up. And, Yes there are two cats that would love to meet you.

What you get is a peaceful stay right on the beach. A place to read, contemplate and provide your own emtertainment. The library overlooks the ocean and is a no cellphone zone.

The hotel is a treasure,

We loved this hotel so much we decided to book early for this summer. We have the newly furnished Virginia Woolf (sp) room on the first floor. We look forward to the cats again and walking on the beach in the morning, having a lovely dinner with complete strangers, and meeting even more people the next morning at breakfast. The dinner was very well priced for what you get...we got the 6pm seating at the Table of Contents.

We loved the fact we did not have to leave the hotel and hunt for a decent place to eat...we are going back again this july/august for the 6pm seating. for those travels on a tight budget...ask about the women and mens dorm rooms...affordable at 40 a night. you still get full access to the property even if you sleep in the dorms. we spent time in the library and my boyfriend proudly fell fast asleep on the sofa on the second floor...slept like a baby with an ocean breeze coming in from the north side of the hotel...

please please be polite and do not do not not bring your laptop computer....click click click of the keyboard was enough to make me tell her to leave the library...and leave the hotel since clearly she did not get the memo about the library being a techno free zone...the entire hotel for that matter is...no radio's, no tv's, no dvd's, no phones,...peace and quiet....see it is not for everyone...if you need excitment and the party life this is not the place for you!!!

if you expect a four star hotel you will be disappointed... you will not get the fancy soaps and creams like other chain hotels...this is simply not done at the SBH...if you want it bring it yourself. there is a frig on the third floor in the game room where jigsaw puzzles are set up...so you can bring outside food in...we plan to do that this summer...but mainly we plan on just sitting down in a nice comfy overstuffed chair putting our legs up, pulling the window up and letting the breeze in and reading until we fall asleep...

laid back....yes...
fancy...no
old...yes but with old forgotten charm that makes you want to go back to a less frantic time in our lives when cell phones were only images in sci fi movies and not reality...and pasted to our ears...literally i guess that is what they are...these days...

call me crazy but finding a few days of peace and quiet in such a crazy and busy world seems like the best fit to me...

I fell in love with the Sylvia when I saw their website, but was scared by the abundant negative reviews I found elsewhere. I said to myself "I will regret NOT staying here far more than I could ever regret staying for a night."

Give it a shot. The place is certainly unique. I don't know what people expect from a 98 year old bed and breakfast, but our room, and all other parts of the hotel that we saw, were clean and tidy. YES, you have to walk up stairs, YES it's old, but we enjoyed the heck out of our night. The breakfast was wonderful (easily a $15+ a plate meal at other restaurants), but I would call ahead if you have dietary concerns (specifically if you are diabetic). While waiting to check in, I heard one of the owners bend over backwards for a lady with dietary restrictions. The ladies who worked the hotel were extremely welcoming, the "inn keeper" though is a curt older gentleman. He seems to be the one people have issues with; everyone else, from dish washers, to the chef, to the receptionist, to the owner is as friendly as can be.

How you feel about the Sylvia is going to be a point of view issue. If you expect a cookie-cutter hotel experience, stay at the Shilo. Every room will look the same, you will be cattle at the front desk. If you want a night like no other, a story to write home about, and to spend a night in a hotel with PERSONALITY, stay at the Sylvia. Trust me guys, staying here is worth the "risk."

While exploring the "historic" Nye Beach, we came upon a possible explanation for negative reviews dating a year back or so. It seems that there has been a large push to update the Nye Beach area in the last 18 months, we didn't witness any of the "peeling paint" or reconstruction that some people did.

(If you're looking for a room with THE best ocean view on the central Oregon coast, ask for a "ocean front" room. The hotel's idea of "ocean view" in some rooms seems to be "If you stand by the sink, you can see the ocean..." but even that is beautiful.)