The Sea Gull is a shabby, rundown, dirty and unpleasant hotel. My wife and I had our choice of two rooms, and chose the one that did not have footprints on the bathroom mirror. Everything in the room was old, torn, and cheap. It is simply impossible to make an ancient carpet, chair, or kitchenette appear clean. Finding animal poop in the hallway one morning did not improve our impression of the hotel’s cleanliness. In the end, it was not the shabby and worn out nature of the hotel that made this the most miserable hotel experience of my life. The hotel manager was responsible for that.
I have never been treated so rudely and disrespectfully as a costumer by any business, anywhere. After the first night, I told the manager that my wife had been bothered by a mattress spring poking her and that she had been awakened by bugs crawling on her. She got angry at me for this. She threatened to kick me out of the hotel, more or less called me a troublemaker, and spoke to me very rudely. I was polite and calm, since we had our dogs and I had been unable to find any other place to stay. She later got angry at me again. The motel only accepts American Express or cash, and I do not have an AmEx card. No cash deposit or payment was requested at check-in, and I was never told to pay anytime before check-out. But after I told her of the bugs and mattress, she demanded payment or deposit. I offered a deposit (I literally had cash in hand when offering), but she got angrier and yelled at me for not having paid up front. She did not care that I had never been asked for money. Even worse, she is dishonest. She quoted me one price on the phone when I made the reservation, then tried to charge me a higher price no fewer than four separate times. Also, she charges a $75 cleaning fee to anyone who brings dogs into the hotel. She lowered this to $50 for me, but later tried to charge $75. When I reminded her of the lower price, she looked at me and said, “I knew you were going to say that.” This was when I knew that she was trying to get more money out of me, and not just forgetful.