My father and I decided to drive down to the keys for a few nights with no set agenda. When we arrived in marathon, we did a search if hotels in the area and decided to check out crystal bay. When we arrived we were greeted by Amy, who in the end, saw to it that we were satisfied and taken care of throughout our entire stay!
If you are looking for a generic, run of the mill experience, just stick with the larger chains <---yawn!
On the other hand, if you are looking for a hotel with true charm and unique characteristics, run by a staff that know all the great spots and deals, this is for you!!
Be sure to ask Amy or Marsha about the history of the property, it is incredibly interesting! Sure, like some of the past reviews, it could some updating here and there but it is apparent that the staff is doing as much as they can with the resources they have.
I can't stress enough how friendly and sweet the staff is! Amy and her family are just awesome, and Marsha was a really cool person! It feels less like we simply checked out of crystal bay and more like we just left our new friends in marathon! Sheesh, I just really didn't want to leave....
The moment we get back to Ohio I will continue to rave about crystal bay to all of my friends and family, as I plan to come back as soon as possible!

Ok, I really try to give people benefit of the doubt & I realize that you can't always please everyone....but this place seems to be very content with the condition of their resort.

Our rooms were just dirty....ceiling had big stains of roof leaking...possible mold??? floors not swept, fridge handle was almost black...like never wiped off...just common cleaning duties that everyone does. They were really nice & did refund my money back & told me that if we couldn't find anything else we could come back there. We did find a great place!

We did love the location of this place & they have alot of great amenities that if they were to bring up to date & regularly maintain.....they could really have a gold mine. It's a shame to see them.... OK with just getting by. This place has so much potiental!

The hotel was cozy, a little rustic but pretty much exactly what I was looking for! A tranquil piece of property with a pool and tennis court, and of course fishing!!! The dock is very unique and as I was informed by the knowledgeable staff, that we wont see marinas like this anymore. It was great that I was able to watch the sun set from the Gulf side! The pool was clean and heated, the tennis courts were beautiful and tucked away in a beautiful garden of exotics. Amy and her husband told us of many great fishing spots and even gave us spots on GPS for diving! That was awesome! We came here virgins to the water and hoping we could find something, coming home with our limit on fish the first day was a great surprise! Their knowledge about outsmarting the fish made me think like a fish!!! We also outsmarted some fish off the dock, snapper during the day, and shark in the evening! Had a nice grill out at the partial tiki bar. The bar is not operating, but still very fun to hang around - grillin and chillin! Marsha the office manager was very knowledgeable of local restaurants, and knew exactly where we should go to wow the kids! I never seen two girls work so hard to please so many people! The weekend we went was busy but still very tranquil and enjoyable! I will definitely return! I actually can not wait to go back! I read some of the previous comments, and I have to say. I was at no time uncomfortable, I had a clean room, clean linens, a nice patio- salt, sand, warmth! I was gracious for the price they gave me and thought in comparison to some other older hotels in Marathon - this was just perfect! Thank you Marsha and Amy -U ROCK!!!

I stayed here last week with my husband and we had such a nice time. The staff (Marsha) was so friendly and helped us with everything we needed. The property was much bigger than we expected and the view was beautiful! Contrary to what others have said our room was very clean and it even had a kitchenette, which made things easy for us. We watched the sunset over the gulf and the entire weekend was extremely relaxing.

I usually don't post reviews but I saw the negative feedback and I felt like I had to share my experience because we really had a great time. Perhaps the owners heard the complaints from the past and corrected the issues, because we certainly didn't have any. This hotel isn't a big resort. It is a quiet, cottage-style getaway for a very good price. If that is what you are looking for I would recommend it. We plan on coming back.