Hotel Villa Portofino

This was in a former life a motel called something like "Scarry" -- whatever, Antonio's Pizza has a couple of their old signs. Most of the rooms, especially on the ground floor, are about as basic as you can get -- a small room with a sliding glass door where you wonder just how easy is it for someone to break into this room?! And moving about the room, which is small, is a tight squeeze == so yes, cozy and romantic in that "just married, we have each other" kind of way. Everything about the room itself is kind of basic.

But what is not basic -- what really can't be bought in this day and age of computers who answer the telephone and tell you to "press 1" for English and "press 2" if you want automated tech support -- are the people who run this place and those surprising "little extras" that are real, and not some computer generated robot.

The staff here makes this place one of those "I have to go back here" places that you, sadly, don't find much of these days. There are real people sitting behind reception, who really like their customers, and really care if you have a legitimate complaint and really try to fix it if you do. Like our problem with flushing the toilet. Now I know how to fix a toilet, which I do when the chain falls off the hook or something easy, but eventually you get tired of having to take the lid off the back of the toilet and do this, so you talk to reception, And they have this handyman who must work there 24/7 who fixes little stuff like this and is so very nice -- just as nice as the receptionist. And it's this personal service, and this kind of care that elevates this basic motel room onto a whole different level. That changes your opinion of "basic" to "quirky" and everyone likes "quirky", right?

Also, they have these other little extras that are just so nice -- like beach chairs and beach towels that they let you take, and morning continental breakfast with really good coffee as part of the cost. And ice water in the lobby infused with lemon and cucumber -- what a wickedly delightful combination!

In short (and having stayed at nearly every hotel in Avalon), its these little things that so endeared me to this little place (and, by the way, it's in a remarkably perfect spot on Crescent St.), that I will give up the grander hotels I've stayed at in Avalon in future for another opportunity to stay here and interact with the truly wonderful people who run this place.