Sunset Beach Resort

We paid $780.00 for two nights, expecting a quick, enjoyable weekend. It felt like four-star pricing for a ½-star hotel. The resort called two days before arrival and offered an early check-in and late check-out if I paid in full, so I did. At check-in I waited 30 minutes, then realized everyone was checking in early. The computer showed only that I’d paid, not the changed times. When I asked about the late check-out, the attendant just said, “Huh”. We were ready to leave anyway. The room had a broken toilet seat, a sink that wouldn’t drain, and a filthy floor that looked like it hadn’t been mopped in weeks. The bathroom smelled, had visible mildew, and lacked a soap holder or anywhere to put things in the shower. The shower head was a fixed straight pipe, with no adjustment. The ironing board had no cover, just bare metal. There were no ice buckets or machines for guests. If you asked, they gave you a small bag from the room behind the front desk, assuming staff weren’t too busy talking. I was told I could get trash bags at the desk, but they wouldn’t bring them to the room. There was no shuttle, despite it being advertised in the handout at arrival and on the website. That was a major reason we chose the place. Before coming, I’d called to ask if the room coffee pot was full-size, since I’d bring mine otherwise. I was told it was, so we left ours at home, only to find a single-cup brewer. That may not matter to most people, but it mattered to us. The front desk staff were the rudest I’ve ever encountered and seemed to have no idea what they were doing. The apparent desk manager, whose name was *******, was the worst. She seemed to treat any issue as the guest’s fault, not just mine but everyone I saw her deal with. For example, the lobby coffee cup lids didn’t fit. When I pointed that out, she said, “I know”. I hope an older person trying to put a lid on doesn’t spill hot coffee on themselves and get burned, though I’m not sure she’d care. Never, ever stay here. The attached campground may be better, but the bar is low.

Cape Charles itself is lovely, but my first visit there was soured by this awful “resort”. We paid 520 dollars with tax for two nights in what felt like a low-budget motel, not a hotel. There’s no room cleaning. When I asked, the desk said they’d exchange towels if we left them outside. We did, then waited three hours after the beach with no new towels. I went to the desk, where the housekeeper argued she had “just got there”. That didn’t change the fact I’d already been waiting three hours. There was sand in the bed, which I had to wipe away to try to sleep. The bathroom had holes in the walls that looked like bullet holes, cheap paint, and the photos I’ve included show how bad it was. The pillowcases were stained and the towels old and ratty. The hotel pool had debris floating in it and couldn’t be used during peak season. The housekeeping cart was left abandoned outside our room for 1.5 days. I took a photo in the morning and another when we returned that night, and it was still there. There were no phones in the room for calling the desk. The receipt I included was from someone who had stayed in our room for 5 days and paid the same amount I paid for 2. I have to wonder whether the room was cleaned between guests. Maybe check the drawers next time. The beach access was useful, and there was a small “resort” pool serving the 500 people there over the holiday weekend, plus a nice restaurant nearby. We mostly used the beach and drove to Cape Charles for everything else. They should market this as a campground and RV park, then remodel or tear down the hotel. Unless you’re camping or have an RV, avoid it and stay in one of the lovely Cape Charles hotels. I rushed home to shower and decontaminate after the stay. Disgusting.

The only good things were the friendly staff, and my family enjoyed the golf carts, pool, and beach. The restaurant food was overpriced and nasty. There was also a strict 10 o’clock quiet time that got annoying. My stay was before the upgrades, and it was a real disappointment. The room grossed me out: the bathroom was dirty, there was a ball of hair in the shower and hair across the floors, paint peeling off the walls, mold in the shower, rusty appliances, and stains on the bed sheets. The hotel charged my debit card twice for reasons I never learned. I was refunded later, but not right away, which was a big inconvenience. I’d suggest a cabin, but I’d never stay in the hotel again. They need to put money into the rooms and hire housekeepers who know how to clean.

The inflatable jump pad and resort pool were the only bright spots for us. The rest of the stay was pretty bad. They call this a hotel, but it’s a motel. The motel pool stayed closed our entire visit, with no warning or explanation. Food was another letdown. We had to drive off-site for the rest of our meals because Happy Jacks cafe was either closed or only serving ice cream, and Jackspot was a walk-up counter with very overpriced bar food. Our room seemed clean at first, but there was mold on the curtains near the AC unit and across the shower curtain. The shower tile paint was peeling and exposed the old tile underneath. The toilet was the public restroom kind where you flush with your foot. Something with the water heater wasn’t working: during all our showers over 3 days, the water swung from scalding hot to cold drinking-water temperature. The shower head wasn’t installed right, so water sprayed into a corner. You had to stand against the wall there to get wet, and it couldn’t be adjusted. When I asked about housekeeping, they said they should have told us at check-in there’s no cleaning service for overnight stays. They hadn’t, and then said it was in our paperwork. Our trash cans were overflowing by the time we left, and the stairs and walkways outside the motel had a lot of trash too. The campground looked really nice, and I wish we’d stayed there instead.