It was great to find an oceanfront hotel like this one for a weekend of good weather on the Outer Banks. The room was affordable and I enjoyed the sound of the ocean right outside my bedroom. I would recommend the hotel it was pretty close to restaurants and shops.

The Quality Inn John Yancey was our hotel choice during a weekend trip to the Outer Banks.
A previous review of this hotel in TripAdvisor had a management response stating the hotel has undergone a complete renovation in the winter of 2008. The renovation was currently in progress as we arrived, and upon checking in, we were greeted by a sign stating the main hotel was under renovation, once we entered the building, we noticed the lobby was included in that renovation schedule since the floor tiles were removed and the cement floor was being prepared for new tiles. Considering we were visiting the OBX in the off-season, we were not surprised to see some renovation and repair work going on, our only concern was whether or not it would be distracting and disturbing, but during our stay, we were not interrupted at all, and since we stayed in the North Seas tower, we did not witness any renovating or even see the work crew.
The front desk clerk was pleasant and welcoming, and we had no issues with checking in and receiving our keys.
We were assigned to an oceanfront room on the 3rd floor of the North Seas tower, and upon entering the tower there was a slight smoky smell as if all the rooms on the first floor were smoking rooms. We took the elevator to the third floor and when we got to our room we noticed the room wasn't an ocean front, more like an ocean view, since windows faced north, not east, and when looking out the window you saw the beach house next door, you had to lean over the balcony to see the ocean.
The room and bathroom were clean, and it appeared that while the room may not have been renovated, it did have some fresh paint on some areas of the walls, and the carpet on the floor was clean and unstained.
We only have a couple issues about the room, the first was the wifi access. the hotel has wifi access for quests, and for most of our stay, we had no issues with it, but on our last day, we were not able to connect at all, using 2 different laptops. Since we were going to be checking out that day, we decided not to worry about it.
The second issue with the room, which is no fault of the hotel, was the pillows were too soft for us. They felt like down pillows, and while some guests may find them comfortable, they were not supportive enough for myself or my fiance. Since we were only staying a couple nights, we just folded them in half and made do with what we had. If we were going to stay a week or so, we would have contacted the front desk to inquire about more firmer pillows.
As a final note, the minor issues we had would not sway us from considering the Quality Inn John Yancey in the future.

I booked this hotel off of Travelation.

My fiance and I were visiting OBX for a wedding event, and therefore booked a "Oceanfront" hotel room with balcony for two nights at QIJY.

The room is nice, a great king bed. The room is clean and they have a microwave, fridge, coffee pot, a little sink, and some cups and plates to utilize.

My main issues with this hotel is "Oceanfront" room is NOT oceanfront. You can SEE the ocean from our balcony, however it is not a full oceanfront room.

My other issue is that the pillows are NOT that comfortable. They are very squishy and not all that firm.

Other than that I did enjoy our stay, however I will take note that when they say "oceanfront" it is not necessarily oceanfront.

We had read a few good reviews for this hotel and were very unpleasantly surprised when we arrived. The room's walls were cinder block which wasn't a huge problem other than it seemed to attract spiders. The slider door did not have a screen so since there were no windows and you wanted fresh air the whole door had to be opened. That in itself was a chore since it didn't slide without pulling and tugging with both arms. Once open, of course the bugs flew in and there were plenty. The water pipe in the bathroom sprung a leak in the middle of the nite. We had to change rooms at midnite since we couldn't use the bathroom and thought due to the inconvenience we would get a better location, wrong. When checking out we expected a refund for that one nite, wrong. We asked for something for our trouble and was begrudgingly given $20 off our price.
I wrote to the hotel itself and Choice Hotels International and thru their headquarters was finally given a coupon, for use in their hotels, for one nite stay. I would have preferred a credit on our card but I was done reliving that experience.
Avoid this hotel if you want a leisurely and trouble free vacation spot with a staff that has your interest at heart. BTW upon our leaving they still had not fixed the bathroom...I inquired.