I am surprised that I have to write a less-than-flattering review of this place. I was so psyched when we made our reservation. I had been looking forward to it.
Being that it was July 4th and expected to be in the high nineties, normally we'd prefer to stay somewhere with a pool - but since we'd sussed out where the community pools were in the area, we decided it didn't matter if the place we stayed didn't have one. Besides, we'd be arriving late at night on the 4th, and leaving well before noon on the 5th, anyway.
The motel's smaller rooms were already booked, so we booked a triple online - the last type of room available - with 3 king beds, and at a higher price.
I was glad to support a mom-and-pop, non-chain hotel, and from the photos online, the place looked suitably Joshua-Tree-funky: colorful, to say the least.
We'd been in Big Bear until 10pm that night, and there's little-to-no cell reception there. Reception returned as we were leaving Big Bear for the desert; I was about to call the motel to let them know we were on our way, when my husband got a text from them. I didn't bother to read the text, we were too busy finding our way out of Big Bear anyway - so I just called the hotel back. The owner answered, and he said he was turning in for the night, but that he'd leave our key for us for our room. I said fine, and all seemed well when I picked up the key.
But when we entered the room, we realized we'd been downgraded to a single king bed. The owner didn't mention on the phone that the room had changed. I thought it was just a random error - I didn't mind, as long as they adjusted our rate to reflect that.
But that's not what happened.
The next morning, when I went to the office to correct the paperwork, the owner loudly argued with me that he'd notified me via text (the one I didn't read while we were lost in Big Bear) that he'd swapped us for the smaller room since my husband and I were "just two people." AND he insisted he wouldn't correct our rate to reflect that. He insisted on charging us for the triple instead of the single he gave us! I reminded him that our reservation was a contract, that our being "two people" was irrelevant. (What happened to our triple?)
I again reminded him that our reservation was a contract, that we reserved the larger room because his motel was listed online as already booked up at the lower rates/ smaller rooms - and that he couldn't just swap us for the cheaper room and still charge us the higher rate/ triple room.
He continued to argue (loudly interrupting me and talking over me), so I just left the office. I figured I'd straighten it out via Priceline, the service I'd booked it through - when we got home.
About 30 minutes later, the owner texted my husband (that's the only number I'd given him) - asking us to "leave peacefully", since he'd decided to refund us $1 more than the difference for the downgrade. We were packing up to check out anyway to get on the road - so no problem.
Pluses:
at similar prices, the room itself was cleaner than the local Motel 6, and was a seriously non-smoking room, which we liked. The TV was a big flat screen. It was also nice to have a mini-kitchen situation: mini-fridge, microwave and coffeemaker, with coffee.
Basics: The air conditioner was less than 100%, so the air wasn't crisply cold - but it was adequate. Also, the curtains were too long, and hung over the AC, so we had to jerry-rig them out of the way of the cold air.
Minuses: a weird, tripping step in the bathroom (followed by a downhill slope) made the bathroom an interesting experience. Back in the main room, the TV mount was coming off the wall - one of two bolts was missing. We were careful not to move it.
I would have second thoughts about reserving there again - I've never had a room swapped out from under me, not to mention: followed by the owner's very unprofessional argument (?!), refusing to refund the difference for his sudden, capricious downgrade. It surprised and shocked me, and put a serious nick in an otherwise really fun holiday weekend.
Since then, I found a review over on Trip Advisor, posted by a man who had a similar experience - his reservation also got pulled out from under him and given to someone else. Be forewarned. read more