Sanctuary Beach Resort (Monterey, CA)

1   Not Recommended
November 11, 2014 by EXPERT

 Map | 1 Review | 0% Recommended
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Sanctuary Beach Resort
 Map | 1 Review | 0% Recommended

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Liked:
Location
Service
Food
Amenities
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Though most people have not heard of this property, it bills itself as a luxury hotel "in a class of its own", and is a member of Luxe Hotels "Elite Collection". Unfortunately, our experience was so far less than acceptable, you should go running away if anyone suggests you stay there.

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Sanctuary Beach Resort (Monterey, CA)

Overview

Sanctuary Beach Resort is a self-proclaimed luxury hotel located on a marine preserve beach at Marina, CA - about 7 miles north of downtown Monterey, CA. It is located adjacent to Marina State Beach and consists of about 60 hotel rooms and Wyndham (!) branded timeshares. There is nothing (except the beach) within walking distance, so a car is necessary.

Booking and Pre-Arrival

A friend handled all the arrangements, so I have no comment on this aspect of the experience. I believe the room rate was around $375 per night.

Design

The Hotel consists of a main reception building, a restaurant building, and numerous "bungalows", each containing either 2 or 4 rooms. No building is more than 2 stories tall. There is a single pool and hot tub in the center of the bungalow area. There are both beachfront and non-beachfront bungalows, and as far as I know the only 2 room categories are "Deluxe" and "Jr. Suite". Due to the marine preserve, no cars are allowed near the bungalows. Once you park in the main lot, you are given your own personal golf cart to wheel about the property.

Arrival

Cars pull in the porte cochere of the reception building and walk inside to the front desk. There is no valet service. The lobby is sufficiently large for the size of property, though it is cramped with unnecessary desks, couches, and miscellaneous clutter. The check-in process was extremely informal (in a bad Comfort-Inn kind of way). At one point we were given a stern admonition against racing our golf carts (my wife and I were traveling with another couple). I couldpossiblyforgive the tone if we were college kids on spring break, but we're all professionals in our 30's! I was starting to wonder what kind of property we were at...

Beachfront Jr. Suite

We were driven up to our bungalows via golf cart and told the bellman was going to show us the "features" of our room. The only feature pointed out was our fireplace, controlled by a thermostat. Our bags were dropped right inside the front door, not placed on the luggage rack in the closet. That's it...buh-bye. The FF&E of the room was decidedly 3-star. Carpet was rough underfoot and furniture, though comfortable, was lacking in a particular style...it's as if there was no thought put into the interior design. The bathroom was long and narrow, and was covered in the least expensive Home-Depot style white ceramic tile available. Plumbing fixtures were old and outdated; hot water took at least 45 seconds to start flowing. There was a separate tub and shower, but the tub was a pre-fab plastic deal from Home Depot. Lighting was decent in bed and in the bathroom, but overall poor around the rest of the room. The bed itself was comfortable. That's about all I can say about it...not bad, not exceptional...just comfortable. Towels ran the gamut from quasi-luxury quality to rough-as-sandpaper with a tinge of dirt leftover from the last washing. Toiletries were scarce - only 1 bar of soap, one shampoo, one conditioner, and one body lotion were to be shared amongst a double vanity, a shower, and a tub. Bar soap was coconut-lime verbena from Bath & Body Works and the other products were the tiniest bottles of L'Occitaine I have ever seen. They look like they could be part of Barbie's house set. In addition to the sliding door that opened to the balcony, there were 2 operable windows. Unfortunately, neither of them had screens so we could not leave them open at night (security issues aside). At my wife's request we did leave the sliding door open at night so we could hear the ocean, but I was concerned about security. The locking shutters in front of the sliding doors at Hualalai are a fantastic idea that would have translated very well to this property. On the positive side, there was a very nice and functional wet-bar complete with a Keurig pod-coffee machine and complimentary green tea, black tea, regular, and decaf coffee pods. There was a very limited selection of dry snacks and a laughable amount of drinks in the fridge (like, 1 beer, 1 wine, etc...). Each room is provided one complimentary 375ml bottle of a local red wine, which was both a nice touch and delicious. There are 2 smallish flat screen TV's in the Jr Suites, and 1 in the Deluxe rooms. There seemed to be a lot of channels, but no TV/channel guide was provided. I don't believe there was HD service. In-room wireless internet was complimentary. The in-room safe was literally on the floor of the closet, and you had to climb down on your hands and knees to access it. I don't know what they were thinking. To add to the mess, it turns out our safe wasn't working. We had no way of securing valuables...Putting Service to the Test Our travel companions were 2 bungalows over and had the unfortunate experience having some unruly guests be loud and obnoxious on the beach outside their room at 1am. The front desk closes at 11pm, but there is supposed to be a security guard on-duty overnight. They attempted to call the night line for a good half-hour, but no one ever answered. They did not think of calling the police. The next morning they complained to the front desk. Though an apology was given, there was no explanation of what happened to the night guard, nor was there an offer to comp or discount anything. On the first day of our stay, our travel companion's room key card all of a sudden stopped opening their door. They had to go to the front desk to request a new key. Apparently only certain people are either authorized to or capable of making room keys, so that person had to be tracked down and there was quite an ordeal over this. On the last day of our stay, our room key card stopped working. We went through the same process of only 1 person being able to make the key cards.

In-Room Dining

Well, sort-of. There is no in-room dining, per se. Just a $10 continental breakfast that can be delivered to your room in the morning. No other meals available.

Kula Island Grill

This venue is only open for dinner from 5pm - 9pm. We tried to walk in at 9:30 to order dessert to-go, and we were turned away. As such, we did not eat here. There are no other dining facilities on-site.

Gym

There is no on-site gym.

Pool and Hot Tub

There is a large trapezoid shaped pool in the center of the property. It is simple, with a concrete deck and nothing ornate or special about it. A hole in the ground with water, if you will. The hot tub is next to it.

Spa

Interestingly, there is a spa onsite. Given the rest of our experience we were not inclined to try it. The prices were unreasonable given the overall service and hard product levels of the rest of the property.

Check-Out

Our travel companions processed check-out for both of our suites, and they once again complained about the loud beach crowd and lack of hotel personnel. No offer to speak to a manager was given, even after my friend asked for the GM's card. Otherwise, the room charges seemed to be billed appropriately.

Overall

Other Luxe properties seem to have at least a reasonably good reputation on FT from what I've seen, so this was a real let down. I have stayed in plenty of 2 and 3 star properties in my life and certainly don't feel "above" them even though I choose to stay in nicer places now. But, if you're going to bill something as a luxury property and have it be part of the Luxe Elite Collection, please make sure it's a bit nicer than the Best Western down the road. Or, drop the Luxe designation, cut the rates in half, and sell it for what it is. Unfortunately, this way of doing business seems to be the rule, not the exception along the Central Coast of California. There are 2 fine boutique properties in the vicinity of Monterey - Bernardus Lodge and L'Auberge, neither with water views. If you must stay on the water in the Central Coast, looks like you're still limited to Post Ranch Inn and the Pebble Beach properties.

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