I booked a night at the Comfort Inn (Monterey Airport) recently for fun and when I had an appointment in the area. I'm very familiar with Monterey and know that hotels there can be expensive; since I don't need the tourist trappings--rather just a pleasant place to put my head and a fun meal at one of my old standards--I thought I'd give the Comfort Inn a try.

I have to say that the setting--if you choose your building number carefully as the hotel is close to the highway--is very good. I thought I had found the perfect Monterey getaway...The Comfort Inn is a great choice for an overnighter or slightly longer stay, but the rather plain and out-dated rooms didn't give me much to be enthusiastic about. However, my room was clean and the rooms with balconies make all the difference. The trouble is getting one.

When reserving, I requested a room with a balcony. Plenty of availability I was told and should not be a problem. As it turned out I felt very sick the day of arrival--all day I looked forward to my balcony room since I realized I would need to say in for dinner. So I was terribly disappointed to arrive and find that I that the room was very dark (between 3:00 and 4:00 PM!) with no balcony, no screens on the windows, a large radio playing outside, and no one around. A take-out dinner on your balcony in the woods is one thing, dining alone in a dark room without a table when you're not feeling well is another. So I called Hanna at the front desk to discuss my concerns, but she insisted that no balcony rooms were available though to my eye the hotel did not look busy that afternoon or even later in the evening. I had walked around quite a bit to find the source of the blaring radio (By the way, I presumed that if the hotel was crowded the radio issue would not have occurred.)

These things happen; I understand that last minute changes occur at hotels and that requests cannot be guaranteed. Yet I wasn't pleased at all.
I spoke the next morning with Pat (the manager?) about the matter. I had spoken with him before and he was very pleasant and apologetic--he suggested that next time I must simply insist that I don't want to be bumped from a balcony room after a request has been made.

I took his advise last week when I called to reserve a room.
Again, I got Hanna who took my info and request--yes, lots of rooms available, several balconies. When I pressed the matter of not being "bumped" suddenly there were no balcony rooms! When I asked when Pat would be in so that I might speak with him, I was curtly told there were no rooms for the two evenings I had mentioned! Neither evening, I asked? No. I said goodbye and decided then and there that I would not return to this hotel due to inconsistency, the whims of the front desk staff, and the chance that I would again be stuck in a dark, dull room.

Nonetheless, this a decent bet if you need to catch a flight or if you're not particular about your room. A car is needed, but the location is very central with good highway access. Try to stay in building #100 or #200 and away from the highway. Several second floor rooms have balconies, some rooms have fireplaces. I perused the breakfast offerings; with my food problems I wasn't able to enjoy any of the dishes (which didn't look terribly enjoyable anyway.) However, the prices here are among the lowest in the area for a decent hotel.

Good luck with your requests!

This property is in a very quiet area near the 101. It is just minutes from the Monterey tourist area, 17 Mile Drive and Carmel. Much better to stay here than on one of the busy streets that are crowded and noisy. The property is older, but very clean. Ask for one of the rooms in the 300 building with a fireplace. They are quite large with a balcony, have a dressing area with an extra sink and a flat screen TV. Great value for the price. We had planned on staying here 1 night while we checked out the area for a better place to stay. Decided to stay here the whole time we were in the Monterey area.

We stayed here for one night on a family road trip of California with our 2.5 year old. This is an older property and has no AC but has openable windows. The room was large, but tired looking. The cost was very reasonable but is located right next to the airport and nowhere near anything nice in Monterey. We were just pit stopping here so it was fine. Front desk staff was polite. Parking conveniently by the room which is accessed from outdoors. (Theres no contiguous buuilding, but a series of buildings containing separately accessed units.) Clean and cheap for budget travellers but in retrospect it was maybe a little too budget a choice for us. I like more of a balance between budget and location/amenity. Another point - more of a nuisance really - we booked a king bed unit on expedia and the hotel later refused the reservation because of the third person (our baby!) and forced us to rebook a two queen room. The queen room was actually cheaper. The whole thing just seemed odd. We didn't even use the second bed (we prefer our toddler sleep with us in strange places). Expedia very kindly gave us a travel voucher (in a nice amount) for our trouble. There was a continental breakfast included but we didn't partake. There was no pool or other amenities to speak of. We wouldn't stay there again as it was a bit too old and remote for our travel preferences, but it was clean, quiet and cheap for Monterey. There are tons of moderate budget choices more in the thick of things in this town though. We drove around afterwards and saw many options.
I struggled with how to rate this hotel because I did not especially enjoy it but on the other hand the room was clean and cheap and nothing was misrepresented. I think it might be perfectly adequate for a very budget conscious traveller who uses the room to sleep in and little else.

After a long and tiring drive from from Big Sur we were fortunate enough to spot this clean and quiet looking comfort Inn while waiting at a light and decided to stay a night and avoid the hectic bussle of the waterfront ... and then go check out the hotels we had our eye on the next morning by the light of day. Thank God we did .... we got a wonderful room with a fireplace and the price was unbelievable. We were so comfortable that we decided to just stay. In fact it was so convenient and quiet a location for exploring Monterey that we kept trekking to the office ( wonderful staff ) and extending for just one more night. lol I ended up doing that four times ! we ended up staying five nights and were truly sorry when we had to leave. It's almost adjacent to Tarpy's Roadhouse ... a terrific dining experience amongst the many in Monterey. It's taken me months to remember to come back and write this review but it's the least I could do. Don't miss this gem. Aloha ! : )