My husband and I decided to take our daughters on a spur-of-the-moment shore trip and felt incredibly lucky to find a vacancy at the Oceanview Motel three days before the trip (8/4/12 to 8/6/12). That feeling lasted until we entered the lobby to check in, only to be greeted by a strong stench of mildew, mold, and wet cat. My two-year-old daughter immediately wrinkled her nose and asked, "Mommy, are there animals here? I smell something." That pretty much set the tone.
Look, I don't ask for much. I can do shabby. So I didn't mind the cigarette holes and slashes in the sofa that had upholstery sticking out of it. The old, mismatched, and rickety furnishings didn't bother me. The thin, linty towels with holes in the corners? Eh, I'll live. The nonfunctional alarm clock and telephone? Well, we have cell phones anyway. But any room costing over $200 a night should be CLEAN and AIR-CONDITIONED. Instead, what we got was slimy floors, crumbs in the kitchen, a sticky tabletop, a long, curly HAIR (not our own, obviously) on the bedside table, and a general air of mustiness. I just cannot emphasize the sliminess of the kitchen and bathroom floors enough. I'm pretty sure that what passed for housecleaning at that place was a dirty rag passed once over the surfaces.
And then the air-conditioning situation was interesting. The air conditioner was a gigantic metal box hat stuck out of the wall. I wouldn't even call it an air conditioner, it really felt more like a fan blowing mildly cool air. It did absolutely nothing to cool the room down and once the sun went down it was much cooler outside than it was inside. I would have liked to open the window in the bedroom, at least, but it was painted shut so we couldn't. We asked for a different room and we were told, "It's a systemwide issue, everyone is complaining" and "We've got some fans but they are being used in other rooms now, if anyone brings one back we'll bring it up to you." Needless to say we didn't get a fan. Couple that with the state of the mattresses and it made for some pretty miserable nights.
Finally, let's talk about the pool. I know it's a public pool in a motel so it's not going to be pristine. But it shouldn't be gross. In one corner of the kiddy area of the pool was a scuz of scum, cigarettes, and other detritus. It was disgusting. My toddler just stopped and stared, and didn't need to be told twice not to go anywhere near that part of the pool. The general area didn't appear regularly hosed done, and there were damp dirty napkins and food wrappers blowing around.
So, in sum, this motel is the pits. The kids had fun and all, but the grown-ups would have much more preferred to have been somewhere else. My recommendation - GO ELSEWHERE. We've stayed at Fleur de Lis and Coronado before and were happy.