Things Change, and Not Always for the Better
It's been 10 years since my first review of IATS, and I'm sad to say this was likely to be our last visit, after having had almost 15 years of great memories of many good times there.
What was a cozy, comfortable beachfront atmosphere has turned into what appears to be a modern, "efficiency" approach to lodging.
The carpets are gone, as is the comfortable furniture. The floors are new and quite nice, but the bare floors are unappealing for walking around comfortably without shoes and seem cold, and the absence of the carpets has made the whole place much noisier; noise from neighbors above and to the sides were much more intrusive than in the past.
They've opted for heavy furniture, more appropriate to an outside patio, in the form of a small table, two small wood and metal chairs, not conducive to lounging around in the room, and no desk.
Since we go to Seaside primarily to walk on the beach and then have dinner, we spend a lot of time in the room, and this is no longer a good place for that.
The room was very clean, and there is plenty of hot water to support a long shower or tub soak, also they’ve upgraded to Keurig coffee machines which are very good for "room" coffee in the morning.
There was a continuous, low-frequency "buzzing" noise going on, like a refrigerator with a loud compressor, but it was a building-wide vibration, not as loud in the office as it is in the room we had, at night it was very intrusive.
The paper products were the cheapest, flimsy, and scratchy that you can imagine, bad enough to start a protest in a county jail. One of my pet peeves, admittedly, but I would carry my own TP and facial tissue if I returned.
Avenue U used to be one of our favorite “secret” spots, with the IATS as our base camp. The Osprey, almost next door, is still serving great breakfasts, and although the Avenue U Pub has changed hands and is now Billy Mac's, I would recommend both highly. The quality and relaxed, friendly atmosphere are still there in both businesses.
The remodel/upgrade during COVID has probably been difficult and slow, and I'm not sure what kind of overall vibe they're going for, but I suspect "get 'em in, get 'em out" and "efficiency" at the expense of what was there before. It is very much a work in progress with the rear set stairs still being blocked off.
The new mattresses are on platforms which probably makes changing the beds easier, but sitting on the edge they have a tendency to slide off the platforms. The bedding was very clean and new, as were the towels.
There is no air circulation in the rooms, stuffy at night unless you leave the slider open, and then you get noise from the wind banging the clasp on the flag pole rope across the street at the Tides. Speaking of the Tides, since the ice machine at IATS is broken, I had to walk to the other end of the Tides for ice.
My wife said the staff woke her up before 6:00 AM arguing about something and then bumping a garbage can/cart down the stairs.
I pride myself on honest reviews, and I usually only write good ones for the places I like and would recommend, but I have to say that my 2012 review is no longer relevant to this location. All things must pass.
A real shame.
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