Desert Palm Inn Seaside Park

I think people expect too much from these Jersey Shore hotels. You want a place with frette linen, go to Manhattan. We stayed four days at the Desert Palm Inn and had a good time. The room was pretty small but it had everything we needed, including a king sized bed, refrigerator and microwave. The room looked like it had been recently painted and the bathroom fixtures appeared new. Thankfully the AC worked well, too. The pool was warm and clean, and there were barbecue grills you could use. The beach is across the street; Sawmill a couple of blocks away. What's not to like?

Passing through the area, we just needed a place to stay for a night. Hotels along our route were charging $200, but we found this place for around $50. After getting checked in by the surly manager, we found our room doing double duty as a storage area, with bins and cleaning supplies between the beds. We got an upgrade to another room, which was clean enough but showed its age. Being the off season, there weren’t many other guests, but those we encountered were definitely interesting characters.

I've stayed at many subpar motels (this is not an "inn") and have a good sense of humor in dealing with the different crapinesses of these so called establishments. If management, owners, staff, are decently friendly, no worries. But the guy behind the desk at this place was SCAREY. We asked for an extra key card at check in and he said "NO!" The sign at the pool says "Ask permission to use pool". We asked and he said "NO!". Maybe he was using tough love, and saving us from urinary tract infection. My teen son locked his key in the room and my other son with the other key card wasn't here; I asked if we could be let into the room, and got yelled at before he would let us into the room. He's like a really mean uncle or landlord. I would wait until he wasn't around before I would get ice. Good location. Wouldn't stay again.

I am 68 years old and have stayed at many, many hotels. I honestly think this was the worst. Absolutely filthy room, trash, bugs, ants on sheets, TV was only a screen size 22” high in air and only had one channel. Window unit A/C was loud and quit working at 2 AM on an 80 degree night. Floor was covered with sand and sheets obviously hadn’t been changed. Blood stain on floor and cigarette burns in comforter. Falling down ancient Venetian blinds at windows, which couldn’t be closed to keep out early morning light. We put blankets over them The bathroom was filthy and so small you could barely sit on the toilet. Shower was tiny snd dirty. The one bed blocked the only closet (not that we would’ve used it.) The brochure says continental breakfast included. We couldn’t imagine where this would be, as there was no restaurant and the office was tiny with the owners cot where I guess he slept! We went down in morning after barely sleeping and asked about the advertised continental breakfast. Manager yelled “no continental breakfast” as we approached the door. He did add a quiet “sorry.” Dilapidated “Tiki Bar” at a corner of the parking lot, obviously never used for a long time. We should’ve left when the check in guy asked which room we want, take our pick—-not typical for a hot summer day across the street from the ocean. Also when we saw the can of Raid ant and roach killer on the front desk! On a hot summer day, we were one of two cars in the parking lot! The pool was nice and the location was excellent, but those are the only positives. Brochure says “recently renovated.” Can’t imagine what that means! This place truly should not be allowed to be in business. Cannot even give it a 1.

First let me start off by saying I have been staying at Seaside my whole life. So I was not expecting the Hamptons or anything. Pros 1. Room was ready before 2PM Cons 1. Room was GROSS 2. It was raining into the room through the top of the door but we were on the middle floor...guess water from upstairs walk way 3. No continental breakfast which was part of the booking 4. Screens all had holes in them 5. beds were dirty 6. Broken glass all over the parking lot 7. the bathroom garbage was not empty (DISGUSTING) 8. There were used towels in a ball on the shelf However, I think what bothered me the most was how the feedback was handled. I was very nice as I know businesses are struggling to find help. I didn't ask for money back or anything. I just said "hey I want to give you a heads up that the trash wasn't taken out or towels prior to checking in" HE WALKED AWAY!!!! Not one single word....SMIRKED and walked away!! Not "hey we are short-staffed and I'm really sorry" NEVER EVER AGAIN- We would stay in our car before staying here. If the room was $25 a night I wouldnt stay again.

The desert palm in was disgusting. My rooms window was broken when I arrived. WAY OVERPRICED. The owner called me a f***ing a**hole and was screaming at 12 o’clock at night waking up his guests. NEVER GO TO THIS PLACE. IF I COULD RATE IT NEGATIVE STARS I WOULD.