Magnuson Hotel & Marina

Awful. Absolutely awful. Unless you like hookers… There seems to be a lot of them hanging around here.

So I should preface this by saying that we literally got the last available room at this hotel (possibly in the entire state of Florida, or so it seemed!) after searching for a place to lay our heads for about two hours. Alas, there was no room at the inn every single time we stopped at a hotel or searched online. It was after midnight and we had traveled all day, so the thought of having to spend another minute in the car, particularly having to sleep in it, was not at all appealing. As a matter of fact, we were at the point where we would’ve happily accepted a vacancy at The Bates Motel. That’s how desperate we were. So I don’t want to sound unappreciative at all, yet if I’m doing an accurate review, I have to be completely honest and say these accommodations wouldn’t be my destination of choice under «normal» circumstances. For the positive, the lady who took our call and reserved our room also checked us in and was super helpful and friendly. The room was clean enough but super old and in need of repair. The air conditioner was loud, the shower dripped constantly, the tub had that old, rust-​stained look. The furnishings were outdated and there was a slight musty smell. We didn’t use the pool but it looked nice enough from what we saw. We took advantage of the free breakfast – quite basic with all highly processed, carbohydrate-​filled choices. It’s served in the bar which held a pretty loud crowd the night before. The linens on the table must have been there since the previous night because our table had maraschino cherry stems laying on it, which were nowhere to be found on the bread-​y breakfast buffet. Something about that really grossed me out – I guess because I know how gross drunk people can get and it just felt… dirty. All in all, us getting a room was truly a blessing so I don’t say any of this to complain, but wanted to share things that I would want to know when reading hotel reviews.

Rooms on the upgraded section were $ 20 were nicely furnished. VERY LOUD music in the lounge until atleast 1AM! We were in room 114 and it still was very loud and bothersome. Plus since it’s non smoking… Which is good… Folks pull chairs outside their rooms and smoke and visit… til way past midnight! I would not recommend it unless you bring everyone in your party a set of earplugs

I was looking for a pet friendly hotel, as I had to do business in the area. I hate to leave my baby at home. I was informed by locals that it was very, very recently changed from a Holiday Inn. Honestly, I didn’t care, I just wanted a room for one night.
As we entered from Hwy 19, one could see the canal that comes right up to the hotel. The pool was full of families and giggling children. I’m fine with that, actually I developed a terrible headache and just wanted to get to our room. The hotel was on a strip, lined with stores, grocers, fast food, auto parts, etc.
We signed in and were charged extra for the dog. It seemed like a nice enough hotel and all I wanted to do was lay down. We got to our room, which was clean, nothing to complain about. I laid down a few minutes and my husband went out to the car and came back in distraught. According to him there was a shady group of people smoking outside the room and he had to pass through a cloud of smoke to get into the room. This group kept trying to approach him, but he quickly came back to our room. Honestly, I didn’t smell the smoke, nor did I get up to check it out, as my headache was not letting go.
There were several lamps in the room, but no way of turning them on. The on/​off switch at the door was a call for maid service according to my husband. I couldn’t investigate, I kept my head on the pillow and turned on the light in the bathroom and the ones over the night table. It was a mystery for the rest of our stay over night.
The door to our room needed to be roughly pulled and kicked open, making entry very loud. Every time we opened our door, it sounded like someone was breaking in. Although we were fortunate our neighbors were verbally quiet at night, they must have had the same door trouble, throughout my sleep I could hear slamming of the doors all night, along with the highway traffic sounds of the road we were on. Our room was near the back of the hotel, almost their furthest from the road. I also heard sounds of people jiggling at our entry door knob throughout my night’s sleep.
HOWEVER, at 3:50 AM, I awoke to the sounds of garbage trucks and slamming metal, which went on for over 5 minutes. The sounds must have echoed, as it sounded like it were right outside our door. My dog woke and began to protectively bark I could not return to sleep.
This hotel is listed on
, which is where I found it. They did accommodate my dog. The room was clean, the price was reasonable. But I would not stay at this hotel again.