Casa Munras, A Larkspur Hotel

Stayed 2-nights here during a weekend trip to Monterey. Opinions of the hotel are fairly mixed, but overall I did not think it was great value.

On the plus side, the hotel is in a fairly decent location. It's not within walking distance of Cannery Row, but it is in a fairly central location, with easy access to Highway 1. The "free" amenities in the hotel lobby are also quite decent. Every morning there is a fresh assortment of pastries and every evening there is a fine selection of tea available. There was also a basket of free, local organic apples which were quite good.

Despite these advantages, the hotel was a bit lacking in its most fundamental feature: the rooms. The walls were paper thin, and you could hear everyone moving around and talking in nearby rooms. The room itself was also quite tiny, much smaller than even a budget motel chain place. Granted, the furniture and amenities were of decent quality, but it was hard to escape the fact that it seemed like we were staying in a small box with poor lighting.

Other aspects of the room were a bit out of place, which seemed to reflect poor planning. For instance, the TV was to the left of the bed, so it was impossible to lie in bed and watch TV without lying on your side. The DVD player was also broken. A repair person brought us a replacement promptly, but we found it more than a little bit odd that he was delayed by the fact that he was repairing another DVD player in another room with the exact same problem. The lighting of the room was also quite poor, with only a small, shuttered window, some lamps by the bed, and a small, weak ceiling light incongruously placed in the corner of the room.

Parking was also a problem. All the spots near our room were usually taken, even at off hours of the day. Often we had to park in an empty spot on a remote side of the hotel, then walk a few hundred feet to our room. Again, seemed like poor planning not to have as many parking spots as rooms...

Our stay was still enjoyable, and I've certainly stayed in far far worse places, but for the price I would have expected much more out of a "boutique" hotel.