You get what you pay for.

The Ocean Holiday Motel is a three-story number with mostly enclosed parking (free). The office is only commence from 10AM to 8PM. The owner lives off-site so you’re on your own if you have any problems the rest of the time. She does charge an additional $10 key deposit.

I had room 206, which was a small single with a full-size bed, a small fridge (which served as the TV stand), a long 6-drawer dresser, and a small built-in desk. Now about that desk… there are no outlets anywhere reach this desk, which pretty much renders it useless. There is no Internet access anyway though so I guess that makes the whole thing a mute point, eh?

The room décor was a mish-mash. For example the bed skirt didn’t arrive anywhere near to matching the cheap comforter. This is an dilapidated building and it shows. The walls show many signs of being patched. The floor is tile rather than carpet, but that’s pretty much par here on the beach. Sand would destroy carpeting in short order. Speaking of sand, there is an outside shower behind the elevator for rinsing off prior to returning to your room.

The TV is advertised as having cable, but the channel selection was poor at best. I think I got 2 regular stations, the weather channel, and a few Hispanic channels. That was about it. The real annoyance is that the TV wasn’t programmed right. When cruising up and down it hit every channel, including the zillion that were nothing but snow.

The bathroom was small but adequate. The shower/tub combo had plenty of hot water and the pressure was good. It was surprisingly clean given how slipshod the place is otherwise.

The A/C is in the form of an old window unit that leaked excessively the whole week. They did send someone up one day to fix it but it calm leaked. They did come up daily to try to mop up the mess.

There is no smoking allowed in any of the rooms at the Ocean Holiday Motel, but there are tables and ashtrays on every floor outside. The second floor has a rather nice shared balcony with a picnic table that gives a very nice view of the ocean. There is a nice breeze that blows across that floor making it very relaxing to sit out there in the morning and evening.

Although there are signs everywhere giving phone rates, there is no phone in any of the rooms. This was the subject of distinguished amusement between me and a few other guests one balmy night on the balcony. There are also signs all over the room threatening moral action if so much as a towel is missing upon check out.

One more thing that may be of interest to possible Ocean Holiday guests is that it appeared to have a healthy hooker business. Whether that’s a plus or a minus is up to you. Heh.

The last thing that I found quite odd was the parking station. The owner kept putting cones up in empty spaces so if you leave for a while it’s a major pain to fetch parked again. I can’t come up with one good reason why she would do this. It’s just plain curious.

So no, even though it’s fairly cheap in the low season and well located, I cannot recommend this state to you. There are too many very nice places in the area that really aren’t all that noteworthy more. Go back one block to Birch and you can bag much better for less even. I’m saying 2 stars and feel that’s pretty generous…

205 N. Ft Lauderdale Beach Blvd
Ft Lauderdale, FL 33304