This review is too parts. First, a celebration of what WAS, and is no more. And a fair warning to anyone who once loved this place and I am advising you right now: under new and incompetent management. The Esterlee is kinda funky, the kitchens are Seventy-ish, but it is situated beautifully and in the quieter, lower part of LIncoln City. Before the NM (New Management) the help did help. You were cared for with real care, and you felt like part of the family. I would spend a week, sometimes more, usually around Oregon's fabled King Tides. You could say that my fondness for this place and the fact that I'm a travel writer meant two things: they could count on me for about three grand plus a year, steady, with likely more to come, and that I would encourage lots of others to come here. No more. Stay away. Here's why: any hotel/motel owner knows that if your cohort loves a particular room, they want to be able to rent it. I have a love for a particular room, and learned fast that it was a favorite of many others as well. So I got int he habit of calling in and asking for that room well in advance. Any reasonable owner understands that you give the customer what they are willing to pay premium for, as this room's commanding view of the coast is worth the extra. Not any more. I called EsterLee yesterday to check on that reservation and was told by the "I Just Work Here" employee that the ownership will take your money but move your butt where and when they choose, no matter what you might want. What? I am not sure where these new owners came from. I worked for Disney World, one place on earth where you learn about customer service. If you are going to up the rates (they did) without improving the grounds (they haven't) then expect loyal customers to accept being told that no matter what, they can't have their favorite room, well, honey, that's how you tank a business. I have already contacted those people I had advised to stay here and shooed them elsewhere. I am actively researching my options. What's so intriguing about this idiocy is that any operator who buys a beloved, long-standing business like this is also buying the rights to relationships with its long-standing customers. We long-standing loyal customers have our favorite rooms, and in order to continue staying in them, we were willing to tolerate a mild uptick in costs. But you don't then tell said longstanding loyal customers that they can't be guaranteed their favorite rooms. That's. Just. Stupid. I wish Esther and Lee the best, they did a lovely job. The new owners are going to do an equally lovely job of tanking their income from those of us who loved the place despite the funky old kitchens. We loved the family feel which is gone, and is now replaced by rapacious money-first customer-last owners. Very sad to see this happen. However, we have lots of options. And I will be recommending them shortly.…