Smoker’s Paradise - stay away from this place The location is good, you could walk to beach. That’s the only plus. The studio room is too small. All the rooms have “no-smoking” sign, and you will find everyone smoking right in front of their room… every single room. Smokers paradise… but for us, all the passive smoking made my family sick. I’ll never book this hotel ever again.

Great location, but that's about it. Where do I begin? This place was a huge disappointment. I'll say the positive is the location - right on the beach in a less busy area. This was a last minute booking so we got two of the two bed units vs. a condo. The shower and toilet area is tiny, dingy, and dirty. The wall looks to have water damage and is crumpled and wavy. The rooms have zero storage space - three tiny drawers in the TV stand, and a dirty closet with a few hangers. You'll be living out of your suitcases. Grungy, tiny, rough towels although they said they're being replaced. Upon arriving, there was no toilet paper stocked. The closet had the previous persons dirty socks left in it. The floors will turn your feet black. Yes it's beach front so sand tracks in, but those floors look like they haven't seen a mop since 1962. The floor under the beds was beyond filthy. The TV only comes with a universal remote and you can't hook up a gaming system to it. They also give you a list of available channels, but you get less than 1/2 of those. One of the lights didn't work, and a switch on the wall didn't either. The front door had a large hole with plaster filling it, looked like someone had rammed something through it. Ocean view is completely inaccurate. First floor and our view was someone's car in the parking lot. Accurate description would be ocean facing. There is one washer and dryer for the entire building. The women who clean stand around the area chain smoking. Also, people who aren't staying at Sea Shells come use it. One lady drove up and asked when we'd be done and then left. Multiple people were smoking out in the pool area or parking lot during our stay. And I don't mean tobacco. I don't personally care, but take it elsewhere. A supposedly family friendly spot is not the place for it. As for other guests... many of them were nice people. However there were a fair amount of inconsiderate and obnoxious people. One family hogged the pool deck one evening and left a ton of garbage and litter to be cleaned up the next morning. Another family left all their toys, clothing, and garbage the next night. Their teenage boys were left unsupervised and they threw chairs into the pool and also harassed some of the other guests. The pool is old and the water levels are much higher than stated. The shallow end is probably 4' which is 6" higher than what's posted - too deep for younger children. The deck around the pool has warped spots where water collects into puddles, which is a slipping hazard. It appears that there are people who live at Sea Shells vs. as a vacation rental, perhaps one of them sells not so legal merchandise. Someone drove into the parking lot one day and asked my husband if he had any to purchase. Mind you the parking lot is very small and hard to get in and out of, no one would be pulling in without a reason. We went to borrow an umbrella for the beach one day and Pat, the manager, acted like we were a huge inconvenience. We will be coming back to Daytona but will not stay at Sea Shells again. It has a lot of potential as an old school beach spot, but it is in desperate need of updating + improved cleaning practices. Would be of benefit if they enforced some standard of behavior for guests as well. There's virtually no employee presence on site so people do whatever they want.

right on the beach for the right price The location is just a few hotels from the hard rock. It is literally on the beach and I walked barefoot from my room to the beach every day. The complaints about parking are way over blown. Was never an issue, was full one or two days but not to the point we couldn't find a place to park. The staff was friendly and helpful. They kept us up to date on the rocket launches that were going on. Is it the hard rock? No. But it is 1/4th the price. My only complaint is that the pictures show a gas grill and they only have a charcoal grill. Nobody want to mess with that on vacation.