Monterey Inn, Wilmington

I stayed here for 6 months back when they first started doing renovations. I had a lot of good memories staying here. The area is a little desolated and not one of the safest looking places around. Ran into a lot of drug addicts in the immediate area, but for the most part they were good people once you got to know them, if you wanted to get to know them. The staff was just as nice as they can be (hi Graham and Veronica). The price was resonable, for a month stay I spent 500 dollars with my own shower, sink, toilet, and kitchen. The experience was priceless. I met a nice young lady from France when I was there and me and her had a good time together so I say that the trip was well worth it. I would come back if I didn't already know people who lived in the Los Angeles area.

A catastrophic turn of events Scarred for Eternity Jan 18, 2010 My partner and I were looking for an inexpensive hotel to stay at for a couple of nights. We thought we hit the jackpot when we found the Monterey Inn with a rate of only $29.99 a night. We were exhausted on the night of our check-in and couldnt wait to go to bed. When we arrived to the hotel, we were appalled by the grimy exterior of the hotel. It was in an industrial area that looked very sketchy. We were greeted by a friendly staff member who checked us in. As I was waiting for him to fill out the paperwork, I looked around the office and saw a long list of people to not rent rooms to posted on the wall. It made me feel as though I was watching America's Most Wanted. The staff member not only gave us a key, but also a roll of toilet paper because apparently, they had run out when they "cleaned" the room. The lobby seemed pretty okay (felt like I was in an antique museum) but as we went up the stairs, which were lopsided and made me feel very unsafe in the case of an earthquake, we realized what we were in for. We walked to the end of a hallway and opened our rickety door. We were met with a very unpleasant stench that reeked of 10,000 putrid corpses. On top of that, it was freezing and the heater the size of a shoebox was broken. The furniture in the room appeared to be 70 years old and as stiff as wood. The king-size bed did not look comfortable whatsoever and we were afraid to even sit on it for fear of bed bugs or other critters. We were very cautious to not touch anything in the room, but luckily we slept in our own sleeping bags, cringing whenever accidentally touching even the slightest piece of comforter. We had some trouble finding the bathroom, as it appeared to be a closet at first (it was very small) and although we really needed to shower, we opted not to for fear of contracting an exotic fungi. Sleeping in the bed, we felt itchy all over, which I doubt was my imagination alone. As we attempted to sleep, we suddenly heard loud shouting, almost as if we were in the same room with these people arguing. At that point, we honestly feared for our safety. That was the last straw, although we had planned to originally stay for two nights, we researched on our handy iPhones other hotels where we could stay at the following night. The affordable price of the Monterey Inn was not worth our safety. We soon fell asleep, eager to wake up the next morning and flee. The only silver lining to our horrible experience was the wide selection of pornographic channels, which kept our minds off of things by providing countless laughs. The following night we stayed a different hotel, albeit a bit more expensive, it offered everything that the Monterey Inn failed to do so...most importantly, we felt safe and comfortable there.

roaches in room blood in room 2 cable channels it is a hostel - not a hotel

I can see that a lot of people found out about this place and are opting to stay this time i came with friends and the general area improved ok just to let you know that night we came i had reservations, my friends didn't so i figured that the place was small, and we all could find accommendations. anyway i was almost wrong they had to call the main reservations to confirm my reservation, and said that they had a lot of bookings but would of course squeeze me in, meaning my friends what was so cool is that they remembered me, it felt cozy, They redid the lobby had a 1800's style fireplace in the lobby and redid the front door to the 1900's style fully wroght iron, a $5,000 minimum redo, in itself, so it was good to see where our money was going, and they gave me the coolest room number 30 something it was one of the few rooms with carpeting and looked totally like a hotel room with two beautiful deco chairs, and amoir, desk etc, and large kitchen with 1800 cabinents refrigerator and stove, and microwave, i had a beautiful large bathroom with tub, and antiques like a bed and breakfast and i was talking did you redo all the rooms like this they said no the upper units are bigger, and better..... it just depends you have a several day reservation.... i said last time i came it was nice simple same bed size nice simple room, small bathroom, shower but this room had the works as far as i was concerned. anyway that night we went down to the ocean which was 3 block walk and saw what they said fishes jumping on the lake, it was quite and cool, great deal, my friend loved my unit it turned out management sqoozed them in it was fully booked, for the next three nites we stayed we where able to go to disney, costing almost 100 for entry, and then i found out they offered tours of the city for approx under 400 i was able to get a deal for me and my friends to see beaches hollywood universal studios china town beverly hills it was great....... we lucked out...... i saved close to at least 4-500 at the monterey inn easy as i said before they are great it's small they haven't iron out all of the quirks but they will. anyway they where appreciative and happy i returned and told me that they are always trying to change for the better.

again i came back it was even better the people remembered me ,It was very affordable, my goodness i couldn't believe thought it was going to be bad, but it was great, the streets are clean, safe, it looks safe because theirs nobody out hardly at all the staff is ok though old, we brought a group of peoplle and it was cheap, the cheapest and we ended up staying a week and seeing all of los angeles the rooms where all different we rented out 7 for about 250 a week which they gave us a great break

I liked it i had a lot of fun, The outside is very plain, the interior of the rooms are nice some are 5 star, mines was at least 4 stars..... They are cleaned i've seen the staff routinely cleaning after departure of people. This place books up really fast, real fast they book from the internet and a magzine travel guide, so people come in walk in most are turned away without reservations or calling though internet guess get first option.... my room was tropical had carpeting large throw back to the 1940's to big arm chairs amoire, desk, standard tv... ceiling fans elaborate. 1800 style kitchen, microwave, stove, refrigerator... my bathroom was super large, chandelier with bathtub and mock hardwood floors, it was nice real nice. I peaked into the room across the hall it was large kind of french decor well the bed was larger room then mines no carpet on the floor, air conditioner, oh, this one had a shower.... the kitchen was super nice floor to ceiling mahogany cabinents, lots of counter space.... i asked if this was the same price $29.99-35.99 they said yes Then i went into another unit next door and it had a shiny marble like floor looked super clean and contemporary large long 6foot black couch, and a queen size bed with high black contemporary headboard. different kitchen shaker coffee table, and shaker desk, and i was surprised because these rooms where more boutique like..... so i looked on the next room was nice large different floor plan open with kitchen * and eating area, on the floor below i notice that the rooms where plain not as sumpous, had fullsize beds, separate small kitchen, but all where nice. I love the fact that there was a laundry onsite and the price with everything being close, The place was very clean they clean all of the time..... I spoke with one of the owners she said that the staff is put on a probationary period and on their shift they must make sure all rentals are rental ready. but that they are only open 9am-12 front desk, and they basically will not except patrons past 10 or 11 unless a reservation is acquired.... They love a quite place..... My goodness their where sooo many nice people. But they get people from all over los angeles........ as well as all over the world. had a great stay...... the neighborhood was older but no homeless people, and no matter what time of day or nite a lot of ladies like myself where there and management where older women, and they walk all the time. the one lady is very petite and she walks all the time i notice no ones on the street at around 6:30 on and hardly no one on the streets except for a mile or so down the road and thats where the grocery store is, well it's really closer but you get the idea. I saw police officers next door...... plain jane building though.... exterior everybody was nice. the staff was nice, most where older, this is not funny but the one lady is sooo country but nice and shes ill.... and works sooo hard, very friendly extremely friendly very positive.

I stayed a whole week, it was cheap nice, great sleep quite, close to the port of los angeles which is industrial, i went to the queen mary, was able to go to the beaches,los angeles, in 15 minutes... about the rooms we had a fullsize bed very clean room, but older, with our own kitchen refrigerator, stove..... great discovery...... its a hostel but like a hotel everything is private, a lot of internationals, business travelers i met people from germany, austrailia, france, china we all had fun. mind you the hotel is very quite, oh, i asked why the bad reviews the owner stated sometimes people come in with 3 or more people and try and stay in the rooms, and they have to turn them away...... And they get mad because of the cancellation policy like they said a lady came from las vegas with a family of six or seven and wanted to stay in one room they said that the rooms only have fullsize beds, big problem, plus she came at 1 am in the morning inwhich management had kindly waited up, only to see a troupe of people. slow claudette and older manager but super sweet couldn't believe it, they had to pay a cancellation fee because we couldn't accommendate their stay she said, within a week we had a bad review, and was expecting it because the lady was super mean and hard and unreal, although the review wasn't valid, they said we are still generally booked to capacity. and she said that unless your a world traveler, national, international 99% like the place it's the 1% that are crude and rude. she said as i saw that they have businessmen, corporate people, conventioneers, cruiseship patrons, airline staff, i can't remember all she said.... but i understood. Its right next door to the port authority police, fbi , and they say homeland security. its desolate, in a industrial location. Staff is nice, veronica is from some island heavy accent, claudette is zany and reality she's slow and the slow check in they say is true with her, but douglass is and actor and good one he's in the play ragtime in los angeles, i think that maybe all of the people i met, i saved sooo much money met great people who where going to conventions, or touring around. oh, cecelia & candy they are beautiful but you will hardly see them..... OOOOH, my jack is super cool he's knowledgable about the area history etc.... great guy. I saved money , did my business stayed in a very clean place clean sheets, nice spread, good room .... very quite..... oh, some of the rooms have ac now, some don't but your next to the ocean so it wouldn't seem like such a big deal with the ocean air, although its industrial the air seems better then los angeles. by the way the place was so clean you could see your reflection in the floor as you go to the lobby. and note that they clean it every day, rooms are clean on check out, Its more like self serve but what do you expect for $29.99 - $35.99 or the cheapest deals at $250.00 -350 a week stay. oh, someone said that there where homeless people around i didn't see one and we walked between from the port which is cool late at night because the management said that fishes jump on the water on a full moon...... and i walked down to anahiem and no site of crazy homeless people plus we had some european people with us and no body was threaten or scared. so i decided to talk to management about this they said that because los angeles is a tourism place and warm, She the beautiful manager said that they don't suffer homeless.high crime because they don't have high residences around they are isolated, And after september 11th the police are really strong in the area.. the sidewalks are large open you can see most of the store shops they have and internet cafe called haleys down the street, great food, great food all around. fantastic store santa 2nds i was very happy with my stay at the monterey inn anyway i wrote this i came i saw i conquered

Arrived at about midnight (we indicated this them in advance) and reception was totally unaware that we had a reservation (though they were friendly). It then took 45 minutes to get a room. The room we got was not clean. The bathroom had not been cleaned. The sheet (there was no top sheet) was suspect, and the pillow covers did not look clean enough to sleep on. Luckily, we had sleeping bags, which we used, and we covered the pillows with their towels, which seemed clean. Judging from the other reviews, I think that the rooms are usually clean, but if I'm paying for a room, I at least expect the bathroom to be clean. The hotel definetly has a lot of character (I have to admit, I took a lot of pictures of the place) and you can't beat the price, but I wouldnt walk these streets alone at night if i was a woman (not the most welcome part of town), and I would insist that he room be clean before staying again.

The exterior is ok, the area is industrial, but its close to everything, freeway, 3 blocks from the docks, ocean, and approx like the advertisments states 5-15 minutes from the beaches in both directions, didn't like one of the office ladies she was slow, but nice, they love travelers, if you want to save money and to have a simple nice place to stay, this is it.... It's like a hostel , but totally private and better in some ways then a hotel, etc... etc....