Balboa Inn, On The Beach At Newport

In all fairness, i stayed in May, and am making this review in August. There was some renovating going on, and that did not factor into the stars.

After doing some exploring, It looks like there are 2 sides to Balboa Inn. The "resort" side, which appears to be the better side. And the hotel side, which can get sketch.

It was difficult to find parking. The options are a public pay lot, or valet with them. Valet will cost you anywhere from $45 to $95. Red flag there. I have never heard such varying prices for valet. I understand they may have to charge more for an oversized vehicle, but they wouldn't give a straight price until parking your car. I have a big feeling the price was based more on whatever they felt like charging.

So the front desk had two friendly, very young men working it. We asked for an upgrade even though we did not see our room, as we were told we had a full sized bed. The upgrade had no set price, just "hey it will cost you in the realm of $200". They did "upgrade" us without charging us.

If our room was considered an upgrade and renovated, I can't even fathom what the other room looked like. After reading reviews, it appears our room truly was an upgrade. The view they said we would have in our upgraded room was rooftops, but hey, they didn't claim what kind of view, they just said we would have a "view".

The room did look nice upon first impression, then you start to notice things. The bed was NOT comfortable. I highly doubt they had changed the bedsheets from the last occupant. Floors were slightly sticky, electric fireplace was just for show and did not work, and the fridge was warm. To get to our room, we either went through the one elevator that felt like it would break any minute, or use the very steep and narrow stairs. The whole place just felt shabby.

Despite the shabbiness, the grounds are actually quaint. With some work, you can see potential. I know it's an old building, i believe it was built in 1920. Everything certainly reflects that age. Some parts felt like they were once military barracks.

Continental breakfast is small, but they did have bananas which made me happy. It's exactly what I was looking for.

For the price and experience, I would say go elsewhere. But I must admit, the location is conveniently close to the beach and is walking distance to some restaurants/bars. So I can see the appeal for those who continue to return to this location. Perhaps most of them stay on the resort side. Who knows?

Hope your stay was better than ours if you read this far.

I had family members who called to book a room for a family event in the area and they didn’t bother booking because the customer service was rude. Another classic example of business trying to do business without customer service.

A note to the owners... fire your employees and hire only people who don’t think customers are a burden to their hospitality jobs.