I booked this room as a "name Your Own Price" through Priceline.com for $120 per night. I thought that was quite a deal for a place that normally goes for $169 a night. Wow, was I wrong.
The first thing I noticed was that the hallways had framed posters of well-known paintings. Thus, the "Masterpiece" in the name. It was kind of cheesy, but I didn't mind it. When I got to my room, I noticed that it was very warm. I immediately found the thermostat and began to adjust the temperature. To my dismay, the room only had heat, not air conditioning. I checked with the office (WHICH WAS AIR CONDITIONED) and was told that only a few suites had air conditioning, since it was not really needed on the Central Coast of California, due to the cool breezes. While that may be true if you always keep the windows open, that is not true at a motel room, which you leave throughout the day. The office staff was nice enough to loan me a fan for the room, which helped cool the room to a comfortable temperature by the time I was ready to go to sleep. However, it would have been nice if the room was already cool or if it had AC.
While waiting for the room to cool, I decided to take a swim. After all, this is California. I found what appeared to be a VERY SMALL pool but turned out to be a large whirlpool. If you want a hot soak, you are in luck, but the motel does not have a swimming pool.
Many of the reviews here compliment the "clean" rooms. I did not find this amazing or special. I would expect any room that costs over $50 per night to be as clean as the rooms at this motel.
Some of the reviews cite the beds as very comfortable. Perhaps some rooms have great mattresses but room #105 had a mattress that was less than 12 inches thick. It may have been a great bed ten years ago but I would classify it as fair to poor at this time.
The breakfast bar was standard fair, featuring a "make your own waffles" machine. Based on the rave reviews, I expected scrabbled eggs and bacon, but was disappointed. They did have hard-boiled eggs, for people that like those.
The view from my room was of the parking lot. The opposite side of the motel might have a bay view, but I don't know. Of course, any view of Morro Bay is somewhat obstructed by the three chimneys of the power plant. It's hard to believe they put a power plant right next to the pretty bay.
All in all, I did not find this to be a "masterpiece". I guess if I usually stayed at Motel 6 or Red Roof Inns, or if I paid less than $70, I would have been impressed. However, since Priceline compares it to Holiday Inn Express and Hampton Inns, I was disappointed.
