Moulton Hotel

If your main goal is to sleep near the beach and enjoy a good people watching spot, The Moulton Hotel is well worth the savings, even with its small bathroom. We paid $1000 in season for three nights in an ocean front room with two queen beds and the biggest beach facing porch available. The hotel itself is probably the least expensive place to stay at Hampton Beach, and its ocean front rooms cost about half what others on the strip charge. The location is perfect, right across the street from the beach. It’s dated, and it may not be a 5 star hotel, but the staff are great. They offered several times to help carry our luggage upstairs, something you don’t see often at lower cost hotels. I’d recommend booking directly with the hotel instead of through an online service. They’ll work with you 100% to get what you want or need.

The rooms were clean, the view was amazing, and the manager was so sweet and helpful. We were there for the Smuttynose half marathon, and she let us check out a little late. They even had complimentary cereal, bagels, mini cinnamon rolls, assorted pastries, coffee, and water. This isn’t The Ritz, it’s a charming beach hotel with wonderful caretakers. Don’t listen to the snobs. We loved it and will be back. Thank you, Moulton Hotel!

The room was filthy and tiny, even though we were on the top floor with a larger balcony. The bathroom was so cramped that at 5'1" I couldn’t sit on the toilet without my knees hitting the door. The sheets and comforter were stained, and the pillows smelled like old sweat and Febreze. I bought cheap pillows at Walmart because I didn’t want new ones from there after seeing those. There was mold and mildew all over the shower and faucet, and the leaking toilet had made the tile floor peel up. The toilet leaked badly enough that the floor was lifting. The air conditioner’s filter and outer cover had at least an inch of dust, so I cleaned it myself before turning it on. The balcony slider wouldn’t shut fully, and bugs flew around the room. The microwave didn’t work, and the fridge was dirty, with cracked, rusty shelves. There were cobwebs throughout the room and bathroom, dirty carpeting, and food and popcorn left under the bed by previous renters. The outlet behind the bed had no cover and was very loose, a serious fire hazard. The walls were peeling and bubbling from layers of paint and moisture. There was only one accessible outlet for four people, so we had to buy an extension cord at Walmart to charge phones, speakers, earbuds, and everything else. Parking was awful, and some spaces required us to hand over our keys in case the car needed moving. They claim there’s infinite hot water, but we had to run it for about ten minutes before it got hot, then it went cold after 4-7 minutes. The bathroom is only comfortable for kids. If you’re bigger, don’t bother trying to stay here, you won’t fit. For what they charge, they could easily renovate in the off season, but they haven’t. We last stayed 19 years ago, and everything is exactly the same. It used to be our go-to, which makes it sad to say this place is gross, gross, gross. Homeless people live better. I wish I could post pictures on Google so everyone could see.

We chose The Moulton Hotel for its boardwalk location and off street parking, but the building was outdated and the lot only suited small vehicles. We spent two nights there. The staff were friendly, though a bit too involved as we passed through the lobby. Unfortunately, the room had bedbugs. I saw black marks on the curtains and then flicked a bug off myself. I wish I’d known more about checking beds for bedbugs, as it might have saved us doctor visits and prescription medication. Two of us had severe skin reactions. I called to alert the hotel, but they were dismissive, said I must have picked them up somewhere else, claimed they’d never had evidence of this at the hotel, and then hung up. After looking further, I found multiple reports about the hotel on the BBB of NH and the NH Department of Justice's Consumer Protection and Antitrust Bureau, dating back to 2012. I wouldn’t recommend staying here.