With summer quickly arriving and families preparing themselves for beach vacations, hotels are also preparing themselves for the influx of guests — hiking their prices during peak travel dates and even hiking up individual room prices. Going to the beach can be a great vacation for you and your family. And you may also be looking forward to waking up to a view of the beach that you paid an extra $200 for.
While booking your perfect vacation, you may have made the mistake of booking an ocean-view room. Different hotels can have different meanings as to what they consider to be an ocean-view. You may just luck out and actually have a room facing the ocean. When booking with certain hotels, you need to be careful as to what they consider ocean-view. You could be paying extra for a glimpse of blue miles away in the distance. You may need to change your expectations when reading that hotels have ocean-views. It won’t always mean a panoramic view of the deep blue but instead a sliver of the ocean while leaning over your balcony.
If you want to ensure you are getting to see the ocean from your room there are a couple of things you can do.
An Oceanfront room faces the ocean. If a hotel has both oceanfront and ocean-view listed, you will get a much better view with the oceanfront. You will be able to look right onto the water from your patio or balcony if you book the oceanfront room. Make sure you are paying attention to the language the sites are using as well. You will want to stay away from the “partial” view rooms because you will end up paying more than the other rooms though you are not getting what you want.
If you can’t tell what type of view will come with the room you are interested in, call the front desk of your hotel. The concierge should be able to tell you what room you would need to book to have the view you want. Calling the front desk could also help you find room specials you didn’t know about online. Though you may be staying in an overpriced room, you can get a free breakfast to make up for it.
Since we are in the digital age, you can find tons of information on travel review sites. Guests love to post about their experiences, so you can expect to get unfiltered reviews. You won’t get the hotel’s perfect pictures of rooms leading out to the shore. You will actually be able to get a look inside what your trip could turn into. Review sites such as Yelp and TripAdvisor are great resources where customers review their stays.
Don’t get swindled by paying extra on a room due to its labeling. Make sure you have all the information before you book your room. You could be disappointed when you arrive at a hotel miles away from the beach staring into the neighboring hotels’ rooms who were also promised ocean-view.