Hotel review: Hyundae Resort and Spa

It's one of the saddest hotels I've stayed in.

My family stayed at the Hyundae Resort and Spa in Desert Hot Springs for one night in January 2016, and it was a rather depressing place to be.

The thing is, this hotel looks like at one time it may have been a fun and enjoyable place to stay. But the owners have neglected it to such an extent that today it's just a sad shell of its former self. 

Entrance to Hyundae Resort and Spa

First, calling this place a "resort" or a "spa" is stretching both terms beyond plausibility. This is a three-story hotel that has a hundred or so rooms arrayed around a central pool and two hot tubs. There's a ping pong table and a billiards table. That's it. There's not even a place to eat. That's a resort? A spa? 

Arriving at the hotel, the first thing you'll notice is the faux rock motif that features fake boulders outside and a cave-like setting inside. At one time, I suppose, this might have been fun, but today it just looks old and weird.

The desk clerk barely cracked a smile as we checked in. The elevator only intermittently ran -- the doors might close, or they might not. We asked for additional pillows and the clerk told us that -- in a hotel of over hundred rooms -- they had only one extra pillow.  Loud music from pool area blared into our room when we first checked in, but the clerk turned it down when I asked

There were some positives. The hot tub we used was, indeed, hot. Our sheets were clean. The shower provide hot water. That's about it.

The room had cracks and gaps on the walls and ceiling. Wind whistled through an opening at the window's edge. One of the two sinks required you to slam the handle hard to one side to get any water. There were just two bath towels in a room for four people. The blankets were thin. 

 The TV, while seemingly new-ish, somehow cut off the bottom inch of the picture. 

Throughout the hotel were signs of better times. A closed restaurant and tavern had a sign that it had been shut down by the county. The reason: "Never permitted." 

------------

(Please support this blog by clicking on an ad.)