LOVELY setting...we stayed for 2 nights in the largest cottage - Number 26. 2 bedrooms, a kitchen, a nice size living room with a fireplace and 1 bathroom. PROS: Beautiful surroundings and a nice walk to the Carmel Mission. Hammocks for sitting in the forest area. Quiet location a PLUS...Location was great as its minutes to downtown Carmel and close to Carmel Valley too. CONS: The place is old I'll tell you that much - so in colder months (like October when we went), the heater will go on and off ALLnight long because the cold air comes in through the front door and all through the windows. Noisy indeed...The service was a bit slow as the glass coffee pot was cracked on the spout and it took 45 minutes and 3 calls to the front desk to get a new one. NO breakfast served, even a small continental breakfast would have been nice. Only 1 order your breakfast restaraunt in town and 2 small ones in Carmel with lines out the door. Who wants to cook on vacation - NOT me. I would be willing to pay a bit more for an updating cottage - photos of Carmel would be a nice touch.

My husband suprised me with a trip to Carmel for my Birthday. He made the arrangements. So I didn't want to complain. We arrived at the time we arranged. The problem began at the check in. We were given the wrong room that was reserved for us. We did not figure this out until we checked out (earlier than reserved). Before we got into the room, we were given the wrong keys. So that began the bad service. I am a foregiving person but this is the start of many problems. Our room was dirty and we had many moths and flies to get out of the room. The bathroom had mold in the tile. Oh, did I mention that my husband is allergic to dogs. This is a dog hotel and there was a dog show that weekend. We finally settled in and went to sleep. At 1:30 am we get 3 hang up phone calls. Then at about 2:00am a large group of people scurry into the room across from us.(In the books that was supposed to be our room) We fall back asleep. But, I was scratching myself all night long.

Next day come mid-day my husband gets an allergic reaction we deal with it. We return from our day out, to discover that we have been locked out of our room. We go back into the office and the woman asks my husband for his ID and credit card for security. She gives us the wrong key again. My husband started to be annoyed at this point. She said I gave you the right key and he then got upset. It turns out that they had us under a different room # than was given to us and nobody had noted this in their computer or post it, as they should have. Between the two desk attendents that helped us neither one of them handled the situation in a customer service friendly sort of way. Really ,all we needed was an apology or an explanation for this constant mix up with the room key.

Finally, we should have left but there were no rooms availible elsewhere and we did look. The second night we did not sleep as we felt like things were crawling on us. Come morning, I look at the bedding and it was dreadful. I don't think they have bought a new mattress since they opened the hotel in the 50"s. There were stains and dirt. Underneath the bed was filthy. The vacume doesn't fit there, I guess. We ran out of there and found another place to stay. The second place was clean and impecable and we slept like babies.. We have stayed there before.

The following week we discover we had bed bugs in our home.
I should have taken pictures. But we did not think of it.
With the filth and the all night itching I can only conclude that we got them from this hotel. Awful, awful awful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After reading the reviews of this Inn on this board I decided to take a chance. I called the property to make a reservation and specified that I wanted a remodeled cottage. I was assured that the Walter Colton cottage was newly remodeled...and offered the cottage at a discount from $300/night to $200/night. For someone traveling with two dogs this sounded like a great deal.

Imagine my disappointment when I opened the front door. I don't think anything had been upgraded to this cottage since 1960. The first thing to greet us was the horrible smell...dank, musty, mildewy. And then we saw the terribly stained carpet. The rest of the unit was as much of a disaster. The floors were uneven, the cabinetry slap-dashed put together, the bathroom dark and dreary. The unit was very stuffy. There was no a/c and no ceiling fans. You could only open two windows because they were the only ones with screens.

I voiced my disappointment at the front desk and they offered to move us to the Best Western across the street. Heck, if I wanted to stay in a hotel I would have started out there. We were offered an additional $50 off. We last one night before we were so grossed out we moved....across the street to the Best Western.

This was such a disappointment. The grounds were so pretty, lots of gardens and water features. A shame the cottage was in such disrepair.

Overall, the Carmel River Inn was great for traveling w/ our dog.
It may be too rustic for some (the motel main building looked ugly), but when you've got a pooch, you can't expect finery. Also, its on the road outside of Carmel proper - not a picturesque or convenient location. But a good value.

The cottages (where we stayed) allow dogs. Our pooch was super excited (maybe a downside too) as there were lots of birds and wildlife outside. The grounds are very nice and vast - lots of places to explore w/ the dog. We saw families BBQing - seemed like a good family place too.

Carmel itself is pretty shi-shi (sp.), not really our taste, but the off-leash beach was great for Mafalda - she could goof off in the surf for hours.