We very much enjoyed the Portofino. It's something in-between a small hotel and a B&B. We had a Firenze room with a big Jacuzzi. There was plenty of light from the skylight even without a window. The room was cozy and had a nice decor, as did the common areas and lobby, like an Italian villa of sorts. The other guests were friendly, and the concierge/clerks were great! Friendly, helpful and fun. Saul, Sal and Keith are to be commended. Nice place right on the beach, well maybe 30 yards away. Re Nato, next door was a good Italian restaurant, but they need a maitre d' to coordinate some service difficulties. Stop at Newport Beach for sun, surf, Balboa Island, the Crab Cooker, and stay at the Portofino.

What a great location and very quaint bed and breakfast hotel. The product was very clean and the people were really nice and helpful. I stayed for the entire weekend and had everything at my fingertips. The overall experience was more than I expected and I would recommend this quite and cozy spot to anyone.

My husband and I were looking forward to a romantic weekend in Newport Beach. We booked the Portofino Beach Hotel at the last minute. They had one room left, described as Queen bed with in room Jacuzzi. The fee was $200. When we got there, late at night after sailing and dining, we saw that the room had NO WINDOWS at all, only a wall of glass bricks through which some daylight came in. There was a set of Levolor blinds to shield some of that light, but they were broken. Management couldn't fix them, so they hung a blanket. That was ugly, but workable. The jacuzzi in the next room also made our room completely vibrate for 45 minutes and we couldn't get to sleep at all. What wasn't even remotely acceptable was that there was no individual climate control and everything was controlled by a central unit somewhere in the hotel! So no windows and no individual climate control. Instead, we had to lie directly under a vent which was blowing ice cold air with the help of a very noisy fan. We asked to get the air turned down but it apparently didn't work. Management didn't care, was super rude and eventually I had to go downstairs to the lobby, ask for pillows and a blanket and sleep on the couch in the lobby. That was the only place available away from the A/C and the noisy fan. I ended up getting no sleep anyway because there was a sanitation truck going back and forth outside the hotel's big picture window, making even more noise and flashing huge lights. My husband had taken sleeping pills, but he still woke up from the freezing temperature and the noisy fan at 5am. When we complained, management threatened to call the police if we didn't pay. After much deliberation, they then gave a $50 discount on the room. I wrote a letter to the owner, and he never responded. But AAA did and they are looking into the situation. I then found out that AAA rates the ''Portofino Beach Hotel" as a BED AND BREAKFAST. The hotel is practicing some very misleading marketing by calling itself ''a boutique hotel." LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS is more like it!

With all of the antiques and Victorian flourishes, the hotel reminds me of the kind of hotel you'd stay in along the Jersey shore. The room was small but clean and very cute. I thought the bed was really firm and comfortable; my husband hated it and didn't sleep at all. The skylights in the room give off a ton of light to make up for the lack of windows. Since the hotel is literally right in the middle of the Newport Beach Boardwalk area, traffic is kind of a nightmare. Definitely not the place to go for peace and quiet, but a great alternative if you want to party in Newport. I felt like I was right in the middle of Mission Beach in San Diego. The parking lot is convenient if you have a reasonably-sized car; not the place for a suburban or a Hummer2. The concierge there is wonderful -- he'll get you anything you need. I'd avoid the restaurant ReNato, though. Service was lousy.