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I am exploring a variety of potential beach vacations. The goal is an oceanfront room.
Defining terms:
Oceanfront - faces the ocean. Best views of the water.
Oceanview - beach and water can be seen from the room but may be on the side of the building, or view may be severely limited looking between 2 buildings in front of you, etc.
Does any hotel booking service list oceanfront as an amenity or use it as a search term? I don't care if it is Hotels.com, Expedia, Priceline, Orbitz, Travelocity, Kayak... Absolutely nothing lists Oceanfront or view as an amenity or search.
So for those of you astute at getting front and center oceanfront view hotel rooms, how do you search for them? I am not trying to extract your secret 5 star hotel that charges $8/night. I just want to be able to find available oceanfront hotel rooms without having to dig layers deep into the reservation process to find them.
Example: I go to book a room at a hotel with "Oceanfront" in the title. After selecting the days, I click to see the available rooms, then pick a room, and then -- AND ONLY THEN -- does the room say "city view" or "pool view" or "street side view". Even Oceanview is not what I want, as that often leaves just a sliver, or you are looking parallel down the beach, rather than out to sea.
Does anybody have a method to be able to get these hotel search engines to show me just the oceanfront rooms available at a given beach. Say I want to go to Virginia beach, and ALL I WANT is a list of the available oceanfront rooms with that front and center view, even if it is only on the first floor.
Is this just impossible? Do I have to dig down to the "reserve room" level of every individual hotel on the beach before it tells me if a room is oceanfront or "city view"?
Any help appreciated. I really have exhaused other means trying to figure this out. Nothing on youtube. Eveything there is about price or is a review. GOOGLE search comes up empty. Nothing on the various hotel search engines themselves.
I am begging for help here. Does anybody have a trick or hack for finding just the oceanfront rooms, or at least using a hotel search engine to list just their oceanfront rooms?
I mean, if the hard way is the only way, then it is what it is. In 2021, you would think there would be some method to find oceanfront rooms without having to step down 4 clicks to the "reserve room" level before you know.
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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I think the OP is "Shopping" for an opportunistic 'find' which they currently are not aware of WHICH hotel they may find preferred.
This is a problem with a conventional online search, as the search usually leads to to CHEAP, then you find out the nice rooms are already taken or considerably more expensive.
You have to dig through the 'recommendations' on specific places you find.
Search such sites as Travel Advisor for what others considered nice. (objectively ?)
Get referrals...
If oceanfront is your desire, then you can drill down for specific regions, then properties you may prefer (rocky, noisy, stormy - vs sand, peaceful, quiet) tropical vs mtns / cliffs, regional sights and activites...
Ironically, most of our great places on the coast were NOT hotels. And we just 'happened' upon them. Most are free (Guest homes). Often we are on our own in a hosts seaside 'spare' home. (as in last week)
Find which hotels are on the beach where you are going & then call the desks & ask them for an oceanfront view room.
^^^This, a bit expanded.
Use Google map. Find hotels that are located close to beach, if they are high rise, they don't need to be directly on the beach. Click on them to get to their website. Look at the pictures of the room. If everything looks promising - call the front desk and inquiry further.
E.g. on the Goggle map type on search: Corpus Christi hotels - as you can see, all hotels are listed, incl. ratings and prices.
Click on the map layers - switch to satellite, then add street view layer. That way you can see if they are high rise and actually facing the water, or low rise, where the view is obstructed by other buildings or hwy.
I always book directly with the hotel. I'm very particular about hotel rooms and most good hotels will have their rooms listed according to the views: Oceanfront, Oceanview, Garden View.
You can also call the hotel directly and speak with their manager to specify what you want. Your confirmation should list the room you've reserved. I never use sites like Expedia or Orbitz because I want to be sure of what I'm getting.
Most of the time when I use a travel site like Expedia or Orbitz, the room categories show what is oceanfront vs oceanview because they are different prices. Provide a specific example of one where you pick the room then find out if it is oceanfront or not.
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