BytheSea Inn

Not the most modern hotel, but what do you expect from the oldest house in Half Moon Bay. Te owner is a great character telling us her history an showing us the history room of the hotels and the town. Rooms are fine. Included breakfast was great. Convenient location for the airport if you don’t want to stay in San Francisco.

Love this shabby chic B&B which we stumbled on by chance; it has such character. Whilst it’s a little frayed round the edges, the plumbing “clunky”, and the cast iron bath has seen better days, it’s all perfectly functionable, clean and welcoming. The receptionist was excellent, and couldn’t have been more helpful. The complimentary wine and cheese at 17:00 was a huge hit, and provided a fun start to the evening as we met fellow guests. Breakfast was amongst the best we have had. Half the price of places nearby, and twice the fun; we wouldn’t hesitate to return.

I really enjoyed the owner. She brought humor and friendliness to all. She obviously loves people. Great breakfast. Loved the claw foot tub with jets. Also loads of interesting shops all around. They have a history room about old Half Moon Bay.

It is an historically old bldg, so do not expect high tech or even good repair to a very old bldg (circa 1859). No one has given it a charming decor or anything but random decorations and artwork. The breakfast was adequate and our price for a handicap room made this a good fit for the two of us. It is an OLD but not especially loved or taken care of place. The cleanliness is questionable. Our bed was fine. Staff were efficient and pleasant, but not esp. welcoming or informative.

Our room was huge. Like HUGE! The room was twice as big as we needed it to be and it made the furnishings seem inadequate... the mattress and pillows were good enough, and the room was clean, but I feel like a little free breakfast would have been great. Our stay was good enough, but completely lacking in aesthetics or charm.

First star for the good price, $119 a night, was a special deal though, as in the lobby was posted at $155. Second star was for the very friendly staff. Thank you. Beyond that... the advertised fireplace didn't work. The door to the room barely worked, required numerous attempts where I thought I might actually break the door. Staff was friendly, but said either didn't know it, or knew of it for months. Unmarked hot/cold water. Not just our room. Maybe... label it... easy fix and a nice touch. Furniture was incredibly cheap and in various stages of disrepair. Sofa torn with interior studying coming out. Bed mattress was perhaps the worst or next to worse I ever had during my many years travelling. Basically box spring with maybe two inches of padding. Loud too. Draps throughout, I could see at one time might have been nice, but perhaps twenty years ago. Much of the wallpaper was peeling. I can see that perhaps many years ago this was nice, but besides the fresh paint, that appeared to be all that was kept up. The room was clean though, so thank you house keepers! I was thinking a third star from them, but that would have brought it to three, which is average... and in my experience, that was not.

The Zaballa house consists of an old wooden building plus newer motel-style rooms in the new wooden building built around the old. There is a lot of free parking space. I had one of the newer rooms, which was quite big. It had a couch, big queensize bed, coffee machine, shower, fridge. No airco, but a good fan. What I liked was some old furniture, and the tv was hidden in an old closet, which I liked, because I never watch tv and I don't like to see a big screen in the room. The breakfast was served in the main house from 8 am; it was excellent with at least 8 types of fresh fruit (raspberries, blueberries, bananas, melon, etc) and yoghurt, toast, bagels, fresh orange juice. The staff was friendly and helpful in explaining how to get to the airport. What I did not like was the wifi, which was very weak in the room, and even very slow in the main building. For me the wifi was important to check in for my flight and to contact home. Note that the Half Moon Bay beach is very beautiful, but NOT suited for swimming, as the waves and currents are dangerous. I would really recommend this hotel as a good place just before or after a flight from or to San Francisco Airport, which is about 30 minutes away (take 1 hour time in the morning, with the traffic jams).

After reading previous reviews of this B&B I was concerned about staying here but took a chance anyway. We loved this place! We stayed two nights in two rooms. #2 in the main house—slight issue with one of the door locks, but other door lock worked fine. 2nd room was on top outside floor—room is described as a place Bogie and Bacall would like—huge room with a balcony. Room was perfect. Breakfast was awesome, lots of fruits and yogurt, oatmeal, and a breakfast quiche. We would definitely stay here again!

When we arrived at the front desk with our friends visiting from The Netherlands the woman behind the counter had a chip on her shoulder from the get go... She offered no welcome or information about what was offered. We went upstairs to our “deluxe rooms” to find rather poorly decorated and not particularly inviting rooms. The website said they have showers in all rooms- telephones and a tv- none of these were in our room. The bathroom had a very deep jetted tub and a hand held shower head that could only used if you were sitting or squatting in the tub. The bathroom and bedroom windows has no screens and were cracked and held together with blue painters tape... the sink enamel was worn down to the iron and was stained badly. We went to check out our Dutch friends room. Another difficult tub to get into! No phone no tv. We kind of chuckled about it and headed downstairs to ask the inn keeper for a little ice for my water bottle. She said that her new staff had neglected to make the ice so she had to and it wasn’t ready yet! She suggested that we go to the grocery store down a few blocks and get a bag of ice- I said I had no place to keep a bag of ice. Her response was “ I guess you’ll just have to suck it up until the ice freezes! What the heck!!! She was a odd duck for sure- As we left to go have dinner she reminded us that she was leaving soon and don’t forget to take your room key to get back in the front door or we’d have to scratch on the door like cats to wake who ever was staying there. Never saw anyone until the morning. The odd lady was gone and a nicer young women was there. The breakfast good- but won’t be going back☹️

Kind of a basic hotel but so awesome that you can bring your pet. The pet room is HUGE with tile floors and a really fantastic balcony. It has a great location! Right in the middle of downtown and about a 25 minute walk (a lovely walk) to the beach. Would stay again with my dog!