Blue Heron Motel

The ONLY good thing is its location on the oceanfront. From the minute we arrived, it was awful! I had a printed confirmation for an efficiency on the ground floor, but the manager would not honor it!!!! My husband and I are in our 70's and had to climb up to the 2nd floor. Then the room was nasty....thank goodness I didn't find any bed bugs! But look at pics. The WORST thing was the construction in the rooms right above us!!! Drilling, hammering, and other construction noise until 7 p.m. At least it did not start until 9 a.m. on Sunday, and we left ASAP. Unless you are taking a pet, that would be the only reason to stay in such a dump!!!!

This isn’t a fancy motel but it’s clean and comfortable with a great view. All the rooms have balconies. Discounted rates are available if you book through booking.com. The building is older and not much to look at but you can’t beat the location.

We have been staying at the Blue Heron for more than 30 years and always had a great experience. The Good - The location is a 10; you just can't do any better. But, that alone is not enough when there are so many other problems (see below). New King bed, Adirondack high chairs on balcony are a nice addition. fridge worked really well, lots of hot water for showers, outdoor pools are clean and inviting (I didn't look at the indoor pool), plenty of towels usually available if you trek down to the office. The Bad - Queen top sheet on King bed just does not cover 2 average size people. Bathroom faucet broken - water comes out scalding hot or cold only. Kitchen supplies are sorely lacking - 1 cereal spoon, 2 big serving spoons, 1 drinking glass, 1 wine glass. Our camping gear is lots better than what we had at BH! 1 small furry frying pan, 1 furry boiling pot which we used for everything, no paper towels. Housekeeping only on request and guest has to be present during cleaning - not the way I want to spend my vacation. The dresser is huge and if open, prevents passage of another person by the bed. Management doesn't seem to understand what guests need or expect. They never once asked how our stay was going or if we needed anything. The Ugly - Kitchen supplies were filthy. We had to wash everything including silverware, silverware organizer, and dish drainer tray before we could use anything. Two dining room chairs - one's seat has broken down (like sitting on the rim of a bucket), neither fit under the table. One other chair seemed to be an office chair with rollers. Terrible reservation system - I wrote, emailed, and texted and never got a response. Finally was able to book through booking.com. Very frustrating. Unsecured wifi network. This place does not recycle even though they say they do. In closing, the prices have more than doubled since the new owners took over. We don't expect perfection but as repeat customers many times over, we hate to see our beloved Blue Heron so run down, especially when the room rates have gone up so drastically.

After reading good reviews, we booked. As it was the final Sunday of the July 4 weekend, we paid a premium price, $ 320 for a room. $ 320 on peak season, I understand. We chose here because of the kitchen and location as weeks on the road eating at restaurants saw us missing good nutrition for the kids. 1. Kitchen stove had 4 burners, only 1 worked. 2. Ok, it's a beach hotel and pretty old. The room floor was filthy. Our feet were black after a few minutes of walking on it. 4. Toilet was wobbly, not fully repaired correctly. 3. Our 2 kids needed a shower/bath. We had no water, the entire hotel had no water. No information from the staff on check in. Our kids had a 40 minute bath - only drops at a time from the faucet into a kitchen pot. No choice, at that point it was too late in the evening to get my little ones to another place but for $ 320 a night.... Management said sorry, Home Depot was closed and I'd have to wait, wtf. I'm sure there's a 24 hour plumber on OBX, easy to google. Water came back around 11 pm, bigger trickle and ice cold. In the morning, I complained about it all. The office staff said sorry and offered a 20% refund back by via Expedia. None arrived after 3 weeks. I emailed the hotel, asked for the refund. the "Manager" reply was again it would be done via Expedia. Expedia was informed of the stay, refund and emails from the hotel. Blue Heron refused even after in person assurance and email. We stayed in 36 hotels on our US holiday, some good but all with honest management. We don't complain much but in this case, Blue Heron might be a good place but our experience was less than the value of the room for sure. I was patient. I emailed politely. Expedia sympathized and apologized even offering me a $ 40 credit because the management was dishonest. Now time to post, not with bad intent but to inform.

The staff and location was awesome!!!! We were given the honeymoon sweet at a discount and the staff was excellent and more than accommodating. We had a gorgeous private beach, private access, and a small kitchenette. We truly loved our stay and would stay again. Krishna was the nicest and was always checking on us and seeing if we were good!