This was a last minute booking and we should have stayed some place else but... Our stay was for 3 nights and our room was on the second floor over looking the "clothes optional" deck. Hey we are in Key West after all, but if you have issues with this do not stay in room 24 or 25. The rate was $199.00 per night and that is very reasonable by Key West standards. You get what you pay for. The rooms are very, very small, the beds are hard as stones unless you are planning to drink your way through the day you won't mind this. There are NO frills here folks the room are bare of anything. There is no room for you toiletries AT ALL. It is clean but don't look too close. There is no water presure to speak of by the way, so be patient. This property was built in 1891 or 1905 I'm not quite sure, the only thing I know is that is has not been painted at all since then. So don't look for beauty here. IT NEEDS FIXING UP alot of it. They don't know what TLC stands for. Also if you plan to walk anywhere be sure to wear comfortable shoes because this property is very farway from both sides of the island. Duval is 2 blocks but everything else is 10 blocks away. There are positives here: the staff is around but I never saw them so guess they are nice, the pool is very, very nice do bring bug repelent if you decided to stay after dusk, the continental breakfast is good and the coffee is great. Like I said there other places to stay. The mistake we made was booking late during a fishing tournament no less, but if you are palning to go to Key West book early and try not to book by just looking at the picture the hotel provides they are deceiving. It is after all Key West but you hotel stay is part of your vacation too.

After a lot of research, we booked the Chelsea House for our week long Key West vacation. We based our decision on other reviews and price. It didn't work out...the check-in process was easy and the staff was very friendly. Our room, however, was too, too, too, too small. There was barely enough room to walk around the queen size bed. There was NOWHERE to put our suitcases. The bathroom was fine, with the exception of the terrible water pressure...I think it was the shower head. The complimentary breakfast was decent, and the pool area was okay...a little too shady for me. I like that the hotel is pet friendly and enjoyed socialzing with some of the pooches who were there on vacation. We checked out the next day...my fiance couldn't take how small the room was. The staff was courteous and helpful in suggesting other hotels to stay at. They didn't penalize us for checking out early. They suggested the newly renovated Albury Court, which is owned by the same investor. We went to check AC out and loved it. Overall, we weren't impressed with the cleanliness of the town of KW. We're not rushing to go back there...

We stayed at the Chelsea last year. Thought I would contribute about our stay. We were given the room directly in the front of the house ... off the porch. Seems to me it used to be a dining room?!? turned hotel room. Very basic accomodations, little run down and no frills. Bed a little old and creeky, hard. Nothing fancy or new about the rooms. The toughest thing about this room location was that you hear everything on the street. The traffic and people being loud walking past at all hours of the night (and lets not forget the roosters at 5am). The small grounds were nice and pool was nice and refreshing.

Nontheless, we made the best of it. We love Key West and had a great time despite. We weren't in the room very much but there is much to say for a 'quiet' good nights sleep.

You can walk to the corner and rent bikes to get everywhere you need to go. It's really fun to just bike through the neighborhoods and look at the houses. Just beautiful. Everything is within bike riding distance. We biked to the public beach, Truman Annex - Fort Taylor (I think) - you pay a dollar to get in and there are beaches to lay out. Not too many people here. The sand is very rocky though ... but it could of been due to the hurricane Key West was recovering from. We also went parasailing at the pier area. Good time.

The front desk attendant at The Chelsea recommended having breakfast at Blue Heaven on Thomas Ave. I absolutely loved this restaurant. I would eat bkst, lunch and dinner here. THANK YOU for this suggestion. Delish!! Homemade bread, fresh squeezed oj and an eggs bene with key lime hollandaise. WOW. Enjoy a drink at the outside bar while you wait!!

Anyways, probably would not stay here again. I think I would pay more money for something a little nicer -- but just my opinion.

I have read a lot of the reviews posted on this site and I wanted to tell about our experience. We found the staff to be very nice and helpful, too. We were shown our room before the purchase (we did not have reservations and we had our dog) and I was surprised at the size and cleanliness of the suite, considering it was an older building in the compound. We stayed in the upstairs of the building fronting Elizabeth St. The only drawback was, it was on a one-way street. We had one-fourth of the building! It was a large king suite with a full kitchen, large sitting area and large bathroom, with a covered porch all to ourselves. We were able to park next to our building, pool, and continental breakfast.
We had to leave after 3 nights because of a wedding and all rooms had been reserved. So we moved to the Comfort Inn for 2 more nights. What a difference!! The room did not begin to compare with Chelsea House! It was A LOT higher and was your standard hotel room--two double beds, small bath, etc. And to top it all off: when we got home from Duval Street we were laying in bed watching tv and we got a knock at the door. Before my husband could get his shorts on, the door flew open and in walked a man with a spray bottle? Our dog sat up on the bed and barked at him and out he went, slamming the door behind him. My husband went out, but the guy had just disappeared. It was so strange, that I called the front desk and they knew nothing about it. (and acted like it was no big deal!) It was 8pm at night--it had been dark for an hour and a half! It felt like he was there to rifle through our room, thinking we would still be out enjoying the nightlife! In contrast, the whole time we stayed at Chelsea House, we felt totally safe and had a homey feeling, as compared to Comfort Inn, with it's bad location, higher price, and questionable staff. We will stay here again and we recommend it to our friends or anyone else looking for Key West charm and location, location, location!