We stayed here during the Pismo Beach Clam Festival. I wanted to treat my pregnant daughter to a get-away-weekend and choose the Lighthouse because they had a spa and were directly on the ocean. The ocean view was wonderful, however, you cannot directly access the beach from this hotel. You have to go down two hotels and walk through their property to access the beach. This is unacceptable, because no where in their advertising do they let you know this, and I felt a bit ripped off, when I could have stayed at the other hotel for less money and had direct beach access. I also feel it is rude to use someone else's property when you have not paid for the privilege. We never accessed the beach from this location, and ended up going into town to access the beach.

The spa had limited offerings and no explanation of what the actual service entailed. We ended up not using any of the spa services as their offerings didn't appeal to us. Instead we spent our money on getting our palms read in town, it really was fun and the woman was good.

The room was nice, however, the carpet needed to be spot cleaned. It was nice to have a refrigerator, and microwave, but there were no kitchen utensils. It would have been nice to have a few complimentary paper plates, bowls, plastic silverware, and napkins.

I agree with previous visitors that you can hear people above you and it can be annoying, however, I asked the people below us if they could hear us, and they said no. So maybe, it is only if you are on the second floor that it appears that a heard of elephants are above you.

The breakfast was very continental, and did not offer anything that was above and beyond. We got our tea and a bagel early in the morning, and went looking for somewhere else to have breakfast.

The pool is quite small, and while we were there it seemed to be over ran by kids, there were teams of what appeared to be basketball players, etc. staying at the same time.

The Clam Festival was fun, as long as you understood that you were going to a hometown festival, and not Disneyland. They had a pancake breakfast, aparade, a craft fair, a surf competition, and a clam chowder cook-off with everyone being able to taste and vote for $3. Also had a taste of Pismo with food and wine for $40, but we did not participate in it.

This hotel is truly one of the nicest we have stayed at in the area and we travel once a month to the Central Coast. Hospitality is key and everyone was pleasant and accommodating. The view is spectacular, we had a very large 2 bedroom king suite. I loved the free wireless internet connection. We looked at the ocean front king suite and it was breath taking. We will stay in the ocean front on our next visit.

The rooms are decorated in a bright nautical theme. The furnishings are real and not the standard hotel furnishings. The paint and trim is custom and the wall hangings are unique. This is not a standard run of the mill hotel it is all custom, warm and inviting. The beds were comfortable and I like that the comforter covers that are taken off and cleaned. The tile work is really nice and bright in the bathrooms. I liked the sink area being outside of the toilet and shower. The sink counter tops are granite. The soaps and hand cream are from the Bath & Body Works.

The breakfast is your standard continental breakfast with breads, pastries, cereal, yogurt, fruits, coffee and tea. Again a really lovely bright nautical theme.

The only thing I wish they had was air conditioning. The rooms get stuffy and it takes a while to cool them down.

I highly recommend this hotel.

My family and I stayed here in August for 5 days as part of a holiday in California. We booked a two bedroom suite which although was perfectly presented, very spacious and nicely decorated with a modern nautical theme, our overall impression was at $ 340 a night this proved to be an expensive and a little disappointing part of our visit. Good points :

* spacious two bedroom family suite, clean, upper class
* breakfast was OK, but room a bit small which means you have to sit outside which can be cold.
* Close to San Luis Obispo which is an attractive, walkable town with some heritage. Great restaurants & bars.

Bad points

* very intrusive neighbour noise from floor above. Not their fault but being a wooden building you can track every pace across the floor - beware if your neighbours are early risers, so will you !

* Don't visit Pismo if you want to see sun morning to night in the summer. the fog decends the night before and doesn't lift unti 2pm in August. No other report says this but this is a big disappointment if you want a beach holiday - for this you need to go south. Check out temperatures before you book and take a sweater, hence no aircon in the rooms.

The Lighthouse Suites are high-end for Pismo beach which is a neat town, but not fancy. The hotel is not super luxury, but we got an ocean view room and it was well worth the price we paid and had all the amenities we wanted. Compared to our stay in various other towns and locations along the coast, this one was one of the best values and we had a good time.

The room had a little porch looking out over a spectacular bluff down to the beach. The only drawback to our room was that, being a suite, the living room part had the view of the ocean; the bedroom had a view of the parking lot. Not a big deal, but we had to have the curtains drawn most of the time. Otherwise it was large, comfortable and had all the little things that make a hotel stay nice. We were with our kids, and both evenings of our stay we enjoyed the patio where they have various games like badminton, a big chess board, a little putting green and a few other things. It sounds silly, but the kids loved it, and it was a pleasant way to spend a little time.

The staff was exceptional. They gave a great restaurant recommendation (Rosa's) and they were just generally nice and helpful (more so than most of the other hotels we stayed at, even some super-fancy ones).

Pool was nice and had a hot tub. The breakfast buffet was horrendous -- not a single nutritious option. Come on guys, you drive past miles of vineyards -- how about a few grapes or some fruit that is not mushy and horrible. But that's the only bad thing I have to say.

We went down to the beach, which was great fun. The surf is great, and the beach was pleasant (not like the LA beaches, which are gross). It's a bit of a walk to get down to the beach; we should have driven.

This is a great place to stay.