Review of Coral House 2*

Soooo, the Coral House, first, the owners Rich and Rosa are wonderful. They will do anything to make your stay great! Uncle Mike is nice also. He can’t do much as he is connected to an oxygen tank but will help you just the same. Second, this is a 5-star location! 3 blocks from Margaritaville center, 1 block from the beach, and 2 blocks to the water taxi that can take you to Ft Lauderdale for a fun day. Ok, so why am I giving the Coral House 2-stars? So we arrived late and I expected something different, better. Uncle Mike welcomed us when I called him to let him know we arrived. It’s a family owned business so they don’t man the checkin desk beyond 5 typically. He gave us our key (a regular key, not electronic). We went upstairs and the hall smelled musty. Then we entered the room. Ugh, it smelled musty and kind of like cigarettes. It had a small bedroom with full size bed and when I opened the sleeper bed (old metal rusted type) it had no sheets, pillows, or blankets! Also the mattress was stained, kind of gross. But Uncle Mike set us up, he gave me the key to the linin closet (he can’t climb steps) and I made the bed. There is an AC unit in the bedroom but none in the kitchen. I tried to setup the foldout bed in the bedroom but there is just not enough space! I have barely enough space in the kitchen area set up finally. But the kitchen area was warm. I had to put the AC at 68 just to get the kitchen area cool enough to be comfortable for my kid. Lucky for me, I LOVE a loud AC unit and I love the room being cold! We had a routine to put the AC at 68 when we got back from the beach so his area would be cool enough when it came time to sleep. The room was clean and the bed was comfortable. Only two crappie pillows provided but we had brought our own pillows so no harm, no foul. The room was on a corner, street side, generally quiet after 10pm. PARKING: ugh, they provided a parking pass to park on the street at any metered parking spot. We arrived late and got a spot easy. During the week, after 6pm, you can always find a spot (July). But if you went out and came back around 4 or 5 you might have to drive around for a hour or two to get parked. This only happened once to us in 6 nights. But parking is a pain. Lastly security. The main door is supposed to be secured when the staff leaves but when we came in after they left, door was always open. And I didn’t think I should shut it. That means that any bad guy could walk right into the hotel (2nd floor anyway) and do harm. I noticed that one day someone entered my room. I know this because I only locked the bottom door knob but when we returned the top deadbolt was also secured. I thought maybe maid service, but nothing done to the room, nothing missing. Speaking of maid service, none existent. I had to ask for towels, sheets, and to tidy up. I had to ask, probably would not have happened without. Like I said, ask and they are happy to Ablidge. TV, basic cable, it says HD but screen quality looks like SD at best. Got sports and news but poor quality signal and mostly SD channels. Didn’t watch a lot of TV since location was awesome and we were out most of the day. So if you’re a single guy and on a budget this place is a 5-star hotel. Plus the location, AWESOME! If you’re a family, it’s simply to small, unless you’re also on a tight budget, in which case it’s Awesome! If you can afford good accommodations like me, then you will be be disappointed for sure, less the awesome location! In the end, we sucked it up, made due, and had a blast. The smell went away as the room cooled. But I really would have liked more room to walk around and have my kid in the same room. Make sure you ask them for whatever!