Commander-by-the-Sea-Motel

Second time around and we still love it. Plenty of families here and the place is spotless! Nice quiet place right on the beach and they take care of the place. What more can you ask for? We”ll be back next year!

What can I say… I kind of love this place. As other reviewers mention this is a family run motel, and they put a LOT of love in to making sure your stay is as nice as it can possibly be. Although I’ve stayed in nicer physical accommodations (it’s a motel, after all), I can’t say that I have ever, ever experienced the level of customer service and attention we got here.
ROOM: Decent. There is a small bedroom with two beds in our case, a very small bathroom, and a separate sitting area with microwave, fridge, TV, and pull out couch. Since the only time we spent in the room was to briefly unwind /​sleep, this fit the bill. While the couch was a bit… lived in, the room was otherwise clean, maybe even cleaner than some of the major chains I’ve stayed in, and acceptable. We stayed on the 3^rd floor streetside, and because there are no elevators getting to the room was a reach, but they made up for it with service.
AMENITIES: This is a no-​frills place, so don’t expect a ton of amenities. That said, again, they do the best they have with what they’ve got.
1 — If you want coffee, you can get it for free at the front desk area each morning. What I noted was that everyone seemed to know each other, like families who are otherwise strangers planning to be at the Commander each year same time… during coffee hour, there are throngs of adults milling about socializing with one another, and it was kind of awesome :)
2 — Tiny oceanside, outdoor pool — While the pool is small, it does have a rather cool «baby gate» area, where your small one can wade around in a gated off 1-​foot depth area. Easy for you to watch them, they have fun, you can have fun, nice touch. Add to that the husband /​co-​owner who regularly swings by to pitch quarters in the pool for kids to dive for, and it’s a homey, fun, love-​this-​place time.
3 — Ice Machine — It’s worth a mention that there’s only one machine, it’s downstairs by the front office, and it requires a quarter to get ice. That said, for guests, see the quarter pitch I mentioned above, and it doesn’t seem so bad anymore.
3 — A small-​ish arcade — run down 80’s style games (like Pac-​Man??) which cost 25 cents or more to play. An expensive way to waste a few hours during bad weather, and through my adult eyes seemed pretty dismal.
4 — Ocean Views — seriously, for families looking for a quieter spot to spent at a white sand, calmer part of the shore, this is it for sure. There is a beach path that takes you right to the water right on property. like 100 yards and you are there, baby… We couldn’t get over the calmness of this particular shoreline, and the sand is among the softest we’ve experienced. Don’t know what they’re doing here to merit this kind of shore, but I hope they keep doing it.
5 — WIFI — The hotel offers free wifi, but be warned. It is spotty, and slow like molasses… don’t count on it for anything critical.
VALUE: Really nice. I can’t think of another ocean front accommodation you can get for around $ 100 /​night, nor do I think I want to. Hands down, I will take stellar service and meager accommodations over 5-​star rooms and stuffiness. I hope we get back around this way next year — I left wishing we were a part of their annual family :)

Love the service here. Very friendly and attentive staff. The rooms are clean, the prices are fair and the location is great.

We really enjoyed our trip to WW this August and were happy to stay at CBTS. I was specifically looking for an on the beach motel with a first floor room for my Pops who has some mobility issues.
Denise reserved a room on the first floor for us and the rate was $ 190/​night which is on par with the rest of the beach front motels during peak season. As a matter of fact, it was probably a good $ 30 less than some of the other beach front/​beach block motels.
The room was small – the exact floor plan and size of Sand Dune which also has great prices, but is not on the beach and the owners not quite as friendly.
Although small, it had what we needed. Sofa bed, table and chairs, kitchenette, and two queen/​fullish beds in the back.
When we checked in, we were given a lot of info about where to eat, where to shop, what to do. Gave us a tour of the ice machine and Denise plopped a quarter in for us so that the first bucket was on the house ;) Really, .25 for a bucket of ice isn’t going to break anyone and although annoying, when you’re at the beach you usually have a few quarters laying around from being on the boardwalk the night before.
Also. if you have kids and go swimming, the folks will come out to the pool when they notice more than 3 or 4 kids are there and throw quarters in for the kids to catch. My kids netted a few bucks and guess what? Bucket of ice PAID FOR BROTHA! CHA CHING!!! And the folks who threw the quarters in; I can see where people get a creepy vibe, but I didn’t feel l ike they were threatening at all. There were usually at least two guys hanging out by the pool area assisting with cleaning and encouraging you to clean sand off prior to entering the pool, but that’s their job. Can’t always be women, I suppose.
But back to the room. It is your typical 1960’s type Wildwood room but it was insanely clean and the bathroom looked like it had been recently redone a’la Bath Fitters. I had no problem with the room. Lots of these places; you expect to see some degree of mildew on the ceiling tiles or whatever – none of that here.
There was free wifi which was nice. Nice sun deck that a lot of people took advantage of at night to watch and listen to the ocean. Each table had a napkin/​utensil caddy to use up on the sun deck. BBQ’s although we didn’t use them looked really clean and we observed them being cleaned almost daily.
We were able to park right in front of the room in this weird 6 spot area in front of the hotel.
Although the hotel was fully booked, it was quiet and clean. As with most places at the shore, family oriented. Several Québécois families.
The only thing I didn’t like was that the pool was not situated in front of the hotel facing the rooms, but off to the side. When we stayed at Sand Dune the last couple of years we requested a first floor room and it was always very nice to be able to pop in from the pool to the room very quickly. So we had to walk a few feet, no big deal.
Overall, we’d certainly stay there again. For some people being on the Crest is a little far to drive to the boards, but part of what I love about WW is driving around at dusk and looking at all of the neighborhoods and people watching and such. I loved the drive. And, if you want to go into Cape May, it’s a short drive to the bridge.

Family friendly, clean, quiet, excellent location. The Commander has been our family’s annual shore vacation for many years. We’ve tried other places, but have always come back «home» to the Commander.

For our family vacation this year, we were looking for a place just like last year in St. Pete (see my review of Sea Dawn Motel, Madeira Beach) — family-​friendly motel on the beach with two rooms and a kitchen. We were not disappointed, and in some ways we were happier here than in St. Pete.
The room was clean and comfortable, and the kitchen was perfectly functionable for a week’s stay. The communal grills on the patio were a definite plus, as was being steps from the beach, with a heated pool to make up for the days when the ocean is too chilly.
Because the place was otherwise so good, and we would likely stay here again, I’ll pick some very minor nits.
One, the manager’s father/​uncle/​father-​in-​law (I forget which) sort of hung out all day, and gave off a slightly creepy vibe whenever he came near us and our 3.5-year-old daughter. He was nice, but my wife is sensitive about people trying to force a conversation with a toddler who can be shy.
Two, they had complimentary coffee outside the office each morning (you have to go down and get it), and they only had powdered creamer. No coffee maker in the room, so you can have their mediocre stuff, or try to find a coffee shop in town.
Three, the pool was supposed to be open until 7pm each night, and our last night there, jonesing for one last swim, they closed it at 6.30 and treated it with some chemicals that prevented our swimming there that night, and they were pretty unapologetic about it.

I really want to ditto everything that Denise said about this place. This family run and owned place does their best to make you feel at home. The rooms were clean and comfortable with no added extras. The price was really nice. No frills, but clean and friendly– my kind of a place!
Oh, and very nice pool!

This was my 1^st time going to Wildwood Crest. Commander-​by-​the-​Sea-​Motel is very family oriented placed. There was ping-​pong table, grills, pool. We even had a barbeque… it’s really close to the beach… just a step away from the entrance. The staff was very friendly. The waters at the Crest was pretty calm. We stayed in the one bedroom with living room/​mini-​refrig. It was decent. Next time we’re going to get the one with the kitchen or the ocean view!