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Inside the Portola Hotel & Spa in Monterey

Where: 2 Portola Plaza [map], Monterey, CA, United States, 93940

Yesterday, we showed you what has to be the cutest key card, and today we'll show you what it opens. We recently stayed the night in Monterey and shacked up at the Portola Hotel & Spa.

We took a chance and booked the hotel through Hotwire and scored a night for $151 ($177.58 with taxes and fees). Rooms typically start at $229 a night. Was the hotel as cute as its sea otter keycard mascot? Find out after the jump.

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Hotel Key Cards / Monterey Hotels / → All Tags

The Key Card at The Portola Hotel and Spa Will Melt Your Heart

Where: 2 Portola Plaza [map], Monterey, CA, United States, 93940

We got a hotel key card that's so cute, we want to keep it in our wallet and bust it out and show people as if it were a photo of our kid. The Portola Hotel & Spa in Monterey features a cuddly looking sea otter peeking his furry head out of the water on its key card.

You could mistake the front of the plastic card as a ticket to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, but the back of it has the hotel's name and info. Unfortunately, the adorable card doesn't double as a pass to get you into the aquarium, the big thing to see in this coastal city.

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Hotel Renovations / Monterey Hotels / Inns / → All Tags

Spindrift Inn No Longer Spendthrift

Where: 652 Cannery Row [map], Monterey, CA, United States, 93940

Monterey is not exactly known for its budget accommodations, however seedy Cannery Row’s past might have been. So it seems that the Spindrift Inn has decided to conform, renovating its rooms in what it calls “European elegance.”

From what we can tell, that means the Inn’s 45 rooms have gotten hardwood floors, over-stuffed feather bedding, little sitting areas, marble bathrooms with nickel fittings, and traditional furnishings (except for the flatscreen TV’s, or course) decorated in green and red tones.

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HotelChatter Reader Deals :: The Inns of Monterey Starting at $139 a Night

Orchard Hotels Announces New Monterey Sister Hotels
$139 a night

The Orchard Hotels in San Francisco include the original Orchard Hotel on Bush Street and it's green LEED-certified sister, the Orchard Garden Hotel.

And now the two hotels have announced deals for their sister hotels in nearby Monterery, Calif. Orchard Hotels is offering special introductory rates from Sunday through Friday until October 31st at the following Inns of Monterey.

· Hotel Pacific: $189 for a junior suite with a complimentary bottle of wine.

· Monterey Bay Inn: $219 for a harbor view room with a complimentary bottle of wine.

· Spindrift Inn: $199 for Cannery Row View and $269 for a full Ocean View.

· Victorian Inn: $139 introductory rate (mention promotional code "Orchard.")

Orchard Hotels is also offering guests the chance to win a two-night stay at the Spindrift Inn which includes deluxe accommodations and breakfast. Go here to book rooms.

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Have a hotel deal you think we should consider?  Or have a destination and date where you want us to check for hotel rooms and rates for you?  No guarantees on either, but you can try your luck by hitting us here: tips@hotelchatter.com. Please include "For Reader Deals" in the subject heading.

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Keeping Your Sheets Dirty to Save the Earth

Where: 350 Calle Principal [map], Monterey, CA, United States, 93940

A fight has broken out over hotels saving water by not changing the sheets unless a guest requests new sheets.

Felix Salmon responded to another blogger's gripe that if paying $200 plus a night at the Marriott in Monterey, Calif. then clean sheets should be automatic.

Instead the environmentally-conscious hotel asks that you place a card on the bed when you want new sheets, otherwise they will not be changed.

Felix says:

Obviously, if sheets are dirty, they should be cleaned. If a guest requests new sheets, he should get them. And new guests get new sheets, always. But I see no reason for a hotel guest to expect a level of wastefulness and environmental unfriendliness which would be outright shocking to most Europeans.

Essentially saying, suck it up dude.

The comments below Felix's quote are also chock-ful of people's water-saving opinions and experiences at hotels.

Image via Technicolorcavalry/Flickr

Related Stories:
· Changing Hotel Sheets [Felix Salmon]
· Marriott Monterey Linen Change Card [This is Broken]
· Monterey Marriott reviews [TripAdvisor]

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And in this corner...Pebble Beach

"Million Dollar Baby" Oscar winner Clint Eastwood thanked the people of Monterey County in his award acceptance speech but some of the people there are pretty pissed at him.

Old Man Eastwood is part owner of the Pebble Beach Co. which is looking to level 17,000 Monterey pine trees for another golf course, expand hotel facilities and construct employee housing near the world-famous Pebble Beach links.

Eleven of the guestrooms will be built on the new golf course and the rest will be tacked on to the existing hotels, Lodge at Pebble Beach and Inn at Spanish Bay.

Pebble Beach Co.'s development plans have pissed off area environmentalists including the Sierra Club who plans on submitting 3,500 member signatures rejecting the proposal. At the heart of their issues is the destruction of the rare Monterey pine trees within the 5,300-acre Del Monte Forest.

The proposal, which passed on a previous ballot measure with strict environmental restrictions, has taken nearly four years to reach the Monterey County Board of Supervisors who will make a decision Mar. 15 on whether or not it will be implemented.

For now, Eastwood has been quiet on the issue but we are sure he is thinking "fake left, hit right."

Related Stories:
·   Peninsula Environmentalists [HOPE]