Sanctuary Beach Resort, Marina

They now have a new restaurant named Kula and it is fabulous! Probably the best place we ate all week, even in Monterey. Also terrific bike trails if you can take the hills.

I called the resort to make a reservation on May 26, 2011 to spend a weekend with my mom in Monterey from August 4-6, 2011 in lieu of spending Mother's Day with her. I don't really remember the conversation I had with the reservation agent in detail but she offered me some sort of upgrade. After we hung up, the agent sent me an email confirmation with the upgraded room name (a partial view junior suite) and the price I agreed to pay. The email also said "guaranteed" on it. And, yes, I still have the email. I called the hotel several days before my arrival to make sure that I had a room with a double bed. I asked this question because my mom is elderly and she also came down with a cold. They said that they did not have rooms with double beds but the room class I reserved had a pullout couch so we would have no problem sleeping separately. The reservation agent did not tell me that they actually considered my reservation to be an upgrade and that giving me the room listed on the email confirmation was under their discretion. If I knew it was discretionary, I would have cancelled my reservation (which at that point in time I could have done without penalty.) When I got to hotel, unbeknownst to me, the woman at the desk checked me into a room below the grade I reserved. I didn't know this of course until I got to the room and it was not the grade they confirmed for me earlier. I was really surprised and upset, especially since my mom wasn't feeling well and wanted to lie down. So I immediately called the General Manager, Reggie. Reggie said that he couldn't give me the room promised on the email because none of those rooms were available. He said my upgrade was a verbal promise and he would what he could. He then came over himself to the room and presumably was going to tell me that he just couldn't find me a room until I showed him the written proof in the form of the email they sent me. In other words, I proved to him that this wasn't a verbal promise - I had the room name in writing. Amazingly, after he saw the email I saved, there just happened to be two suites available. And, yes, after a while of this back and forth, we were moved to the room originally promised. We also had some other issues wtih a TV not working during our entire stay etc. Just overall unprofessional service.

Beds were horrible, especially pulls outs, room were very clean and very quiet, nice scenery from the room price Restaurant at hotel was excellent

July 4th, 2010, I had set up an anniversary celebration here. I prepaid for the room. I was told that I was assigned room #720 and that this was a beautiful partial ocean view room upstairs as I requested per their website. The night before they called me to upgrade us to a full ocean view deluxe room, and I asked if it was ok to come tomorrow and check it out since I am from out of town. They agreed. When I got there they said, "Happy Anniversary." "We are sorry that we do not have room #720 available, nor do we have your upgrade available, nor do we have a partial ocean view deluxe room available upstairs, please go check out room #618. I did and no ocean view at all. I as a business person, and who holds and MBA understands marketing very well and this is nothing more that a marketing ploy to get you there and then let you know how sorry they are because they cannot fullfill your expectations that they created. They did give me a full refund, even though I was not there to get a refund, I was there to celebrate our anniversary and I explicitly made that clear the weeks ahead that I wanted every thing to go off right. I have travelled the world and I understand how glitches happen sometimes, but to call me to upgrade me to something that your own fellow employee claims was already sold out 2 days prior is knowingly misleading. I would fully adivise anybody who is travelling to the Monterrey, Seaside, Marina area in California and wants a suite with plenty of amenities such as a full breakfast and happy hour with an ocean view to check out Embassy Suites in Seaside, California, at least they are no hype, and their word is their bond. When I called last minute to get a room to make up for this mess, they assigned me to a room with an ocean view. When I got there they took care of us and their word was their bond. Thank you Embassy Suites and to you The Sancturary Beach Hotel, I wish you good luck in your future endeavors, but viral marketing supported by social networking is alerting people everyday to bad business practices. I intend to continue to blogg this onto other strategic sights such as Conde Nest, The Traveler, Fodors, Trip Advisor, Facebook, Twitter, and Frommer’s websites. Again, thank you for your time. Paul D. Sutters, MBA Business Consultant

My husband and I won a free 2 night stay at this resort. We got an ocean view suite which included our room and another room. We were blown away the moment we drove up to the resort. It was absolutely beautiful. Our room was spectacular. The view was to die for. We barely left the room. We just sat outside on the patio with an amazing 160 degree view of the ocean and took it all in. The service was exceptional and we are hoping to make it back in May to celebrate our anniversary. It's well worth every penny!

Overall the experience was great. Beautiful veiws, nice ammenities. The only downside was taking a golf cart up to the room. It would have been much more convienent to park the car in front of the room. And they gave our golf cart away while we were off property for dinner. Apparently they do not have enough for everyone. They did get us a new one but it took about 30 mins. The room was clean and cozy and free turndown service was a nice touch. Room also had a patio with partial ocean and dune views.

We stayed at the Marina Dunes Resort while taking a drive up the Pacific Coast Highway just a few weeks ago. Since we took a week to take the drive, we stayed at 7 different hotels. This was one of our favorites. The rooms are small but beautiful and adequite, there was a fireplace in the room, lovely decoration and a HUGE bathroon. Ours was right on the ocean and the walk on the beach was great! They give you a golf cart to use to get around which is fun and kind of different. The pool is HUGE! And so is the hot tub! The pool looks olympic sized and the hot tub is larger than most hotel pools. The water in both was great. We had the pool mostly to ourselves and WE ARE OLDER people, so I don't think too many young families stay here. It might be that families don't stay because it IS very expensive. There are not many places to eat in the area and we did not try the on grounds restaurant. If you want the peaceful, serenity of nature, this is a wonderful place. The help is VERY kind, accomodating, and pleasant. My ONLY complaint was the pillows. They are feather and when you put your head on them, they are only about 1/16" thick. It is like not having a pillow. I would abosolutely stay here again, unless I was on a tight budget. I loved this place.

This place was great. I mistook it for 300 for two nights ... haha, but thinking back, 300 a night is definitely understandable. It was right on the beach! I think it's mostly older people which was great since we had the HUGE pool to ourselves! My own golfcart and really, really soft robes. It was perfect. I loved it :)

The location can't be beat if you're looking for a really quiet and secluded place for R&R. For easy access to the beach and great views, be sure to select an ocean view deluxe room or suite. However, keep in mind that coastal fog is common and so you may not have much of a view from your room until later in the day. In addition, the beach can be a bit chilly even in July. Our ocean deluxe room was clean, but looked a little worn (chips, scratches, and cracks) and didn't have the amenities of other $200/night hotels. One big plus - the bathroom was surprisingly roomy. A.J. Spurs is the one restaurant on the property and it's only open in the late afternoon/evening. However, there are a handful of fast food restaurants, a Starbucks, and grocery store a few minutes away at the intersection of Reservation and Del Monte. For more dining options, the towns of Seaside and Monterey are only 5 to 10 minutes away. We didn't use any of the hotel services but the staff was always friendly and helpful.

We had an excellent 2 night stay at the Marina Dunes. Our Jr. Suite was clean and had a nice view, and a comfortable bed. We appreciated being in a single story unit (2 rooms per unit). The gas fireplace was the only source of heat and worked well, although it did cycle on and off throughout the night. Our only disappointment was the on site restaurant--AJ Spurs. The food was mediocre at best; we would not recommend it other than for its convenience. On the other hand, we had an excellent dinner at Dishes Bistro, which was only a short drive away in town.