We booked this motel through the Key West Chamber of Commerce on entering the area. We booked for two nights but having stayed one night and getting absolutely no sleep due to other motel guests, the air conditioning fan and the roosters, we left. The guy at the Chamber of Commerce, who we guess was on some commission for the booking really hyped the place up, which made us really disappointed on seeing the apartment, which was basic to say the least. Had to ask for hairdryer and iron, which in fairness we were given, but the bed was awful and the shower room the size of a cupboard. We couldn't wait to leave even though the management was very pleasant and immediately gave us our money back for the night we did not stay. We also saw other better available accommodation when we looked around the next day.

We stayed two nights at the El Patio and found it to be an old but quaint property in a quiet part of town. It's not bad if you know what you are getting.

During check-in and check-out, the front desk was very friendly and helpful, and made some very nice recommendations for activities and restaurants.

The sun deck was nice (though it was too cold with too little sun to partake), and the courtyard garden is very small but very nicely kept.

The room was non-descript and relatively large, with a dresser/mirror, which was nice. Found some dust bunnies and a gum wrapper next to the night stand, but otherwise it was clean enough. Likewise, the linens were clean, and the beds were sufficient, though not particularly comfy. The bathroom was very small, with a small standup shower.

It's important to note that our room didn't seem to have actual windowpanes, only wooden shutters. Now, I could be wrong, but I do know that it was freezing in Florida when we were there, and the chill seemed to come right in. I couldn't figure out a way to seal it out. We just had to grab all of the blankets in the room and hope for the best. Also, because there is no seal on the windows, all outside noises (including crowing roosters) sounded like they were right in our room. Fortunately, the neighborhood is very quiet, so there wasn't much beyond the roosters (and the occasional motel guest) to disturb us in the mornings.

Being in a quiet neighborhood was also good for parking. We never had trouble finding a close parking spot, even late at night. That was very nice.

The service was minimal. The only amenity in the bathroom was a bar of soap - fortunately, my wife brought shampoo I could use, as I always just plan on using hotel shampoo. We also woke up late our first day (around 10:30 a.m.), and that apparently caused us to miss housekeeping, as they never cleaned our room or brought fresh towels. Given that the management only provides two bath towels for the room (and small ones at that), this would have been a big problem had we not hung our towels out to dry. Having a couple more bath towels available in the room would have been nice.

I was able to make a wireless internet connection to an adjacent property. It wasn't the best connection, but it worked. Apparently, the motel is also working to install wireless networking, but it wasn't up and running as of my visit.

The motel is definitely a small hike away from most of the action (almost a 1/2-mile from the south end of Duval Street, then another mile down to Mallory Square area), so I'd recommend renting bikes, which you can do right at the motel. We loved riding our bikes around Key West!

Our only real complaint was the price - $180 a night for an older property with spartan accommodations and little to no service was a bit much, even for Key West during high season. Next time we may start trying to find accommodations earlier, as we saw many other properties while we were visiting that were in that price range but that offered a few more creature comforts.

After a 5 hour drive, walked in to find only the expensive rooms left. We had a two room queen size with TV, fridge, a/c, wifi and on suite.

Fridge didn't work and smelt bad as a result, bathroom was functional, but the mixing on the shower was a bit of an art to get the right temperature.

No hair drier or coffee machine, the former annoying the Mrs, the latter annoying me.

The largest issue we had was that the maids didn't lock the door after cleaning, whilst we had stowed the valuables safely anyway, we would have expected the door to have been at least locked after cleaning as we had left it.


The pool is open the same as the office hours, from 9AM till 9PM.

We didn't try the pool, whilst it is small, I think the surrounds it is in would make it a pleasant place to cool off. The sun terrace is fairly large, but with not much of a view further than about 1 street mostly due to the surrounding palms and buildings.

The center courtyard has a garden feature which was very nice and smelt great.

The positives are the location, it is well situated for access to most areas and the owner was good enough to point out where items of interest could be found and where not to stray on an evening when walking.

The negatives, well that would be the value for money of the room, features as noted above for the price (200/night) it was well below par.

Overall not all bad, but unfortunately not all great.

As noted in one of the other reviews, we were also woken by the cockerels in the morning - but that wasn't a problem for us - I think you will struggle to escape this in the old town section of KW.

My husband and I have stayed at this motel for the last 7 years. Yes, it is an older motel and I would me much happier if the bathroom was larger, but for the money, it's great. The pool may be small but the flowers and foliage surrounding it are beautiful.It is about a 3 mile walk to Mallory square, but we figure that helps us to walk off all the extra calories consumed while vacationing! Staff is wonderful and we will continue to stay there !