The La Playa hotel in Carmel is absolutely beautiful. It was built in the style of a Mediterranean villa back in 1904 as a wedding gift for a member of the Ghiradelli chocolate family.
We rented a cottage for one night that was actually just down the block from the main hotel property. The cottage was cute, but I felt that it was very expensive for what it actually was. There was one bedroom with a queen-sized bed and a small and funky bathroom with a slanted roof. The latch on the bathroom door was broken and was apparently "fixed" with some kind of hardware. It was hardly fixed, and for $335 per night, I felt they could have had more high-quality furnishings.
Additionally, the small TV in our cottage could only be viewed by sitting on the window seat -- not from the couch (sleeper sofa) where I slept, nor from the chairs in the living room. A bit odd in my opinion.
The grounds of the hotel are beautiful though! The gardens were blooming with all kinds of colors, and the Terrace Grill restaurant has a lovely view of the grounds below, including the sparkling pool.
We ate brunch at the restaurant, which I thought was also a bit strange. On Sunday, they have a breakfast buffet that appears like a regular buffet with fresh fruit, pastries, a waffle station, and an omelet station. However, we soon realized you have to pay $13.50 for the buffet, which is just fruit and pastries, or, if you order anything else on the breakfast menu (a full breakfast), then the buffet is only $1 more or something. But if I ordered a whole breakfast, I probably don't need the buffet. Also, if you wanted the waffle and omelet, that was an extra $5 or something. Overall, I thought the pastries and fruit were delicious, but the way they set up the payment for the buffet wasn't planned out very well and seemed, well, stupid.
If I were stay here again, I'd try to request an ocean-view room inside the hotel. The cottages are cute but they are fairly small and really close together.