The Pacific Motel: A Place Worth Stopping For
Updated: Aug 23
The owners of The Pacific Motel believe the future of Cayucos lies not in reinventing it, but in carefully preserving what’s already there.
By Lily Dougherty
They say that the people make the place and the people of Cayucos, California are a true testament to that. What was once seen as just a halfway point between Los Angeles and San Francisco has itself become the destination. Cayucos’s success in recent years is due in large to caring and progressive locals such as the owners of The Pacific Motel, Marisa and Ryan Fortini.
Located on Ocean Ave. just off of Highway 1, the Pacific Motel is simultaneously a beacon of progress and a reminder of what has long been in place. The Fortinis emphasize preservation in their approach to development in the area, and by focusing on boutique hospitality, this is very much what they have achieved. The Pacific, previously the Dolphin Inn, has only undergone cosmetic changes. The layout and original footprint of the motel has remained intact, as well as a few items left by the previous owners: a set of brass dolphins now tucked into the Property’s Salty Tiger Bar, and charmingly, as guests drive up to the motel, a horse shoe can be seen nailed into a palm tree, a subtle homage to the life the space lived before them.
Ask the Fortinis whether Cayucos has changed and the answer comes quickly: yes, and for the better. “It definitely is busier, and Cayucos is definitely on the map, where people used to just pass by on the highway,” Marisa says. What was once a blink-and-you-miss-it stop on the way up or down the coast has become a destination in its own right, and they credit a handful of forces for that change. The pandemic pushed people to seek out quieter places and gave remote workers the freedom to do it. Social media made what was a beach town that flew under the radar now impossible to keep secret. Local institutions such as Hidden Kitchen started drawing people in who would drive up specifically for a meal. And the reopening of Highway 1 turned Cayucos back into what it’s naturally been: a perfect midway stop for travelers moving along the coast.
The San Luis Obispo airport’s growing list of direct flights has widened the pool of visitors even further, and international travelers, particularly Europeans chasing the classic San Francisco-to-Big Sur-to-Los Angeles road trip, have become a bigger presence over the last five years. Local tourism boards like Visit SLO CAL have played their part too, landing Cayucos and the surrounding area in campaigns in major airport terminals.
The Fortinis note that the shift in their clientele has been just as notable as the increase in numbers. “It's also brought a more educated client...a more sophisticated traveler,” Ryan explains—someone “a little more discerning, a little bit more experiential, a little bit more affluent” than the visitors Cayucos used to see. That’s also a guest who eats at the local restaurants, shops at the local stores, and stays at the local boutique motel rather than renting an Airbnb and stocking up at a big-box store out of town. As Ryan puts it, these are independently owned businesses that “can’t survive just on the local community, the population is too small.” It’s the difference between a visitor and a participant, and it’s precisely the kind of guest an independently owned, tourist-dependent town like Cayucos relies on to keep its small businesses thriving.
The Fortinis are long time central coast natives, who met, fittingly, in a lab class at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and have grown a family in the area. “I asked her to come over and study,” Ryan recalls. “And she never left.” Ryan went on to study landscape architecture and Marisa found her way through merchandising and product development into interior design. Neither had a background in hospitality. When the opportunity to take over the old Dolphin Inn came up, just before the pandemic hit, they were still working their other jobs—Ryan in landscaping, Marisa in design. They’d considered other towns along the coast first, but kept returning to the idea that nobody was doing a true boutique motel experience here yet, and that they had the skill sets to build one.
What they didn’t have was any experience running a motel. “We’re not in hospitality,” Ryan admits. “We had no clue...we were forced to learn, and we’re still learning.” But the curation itself: the design, the atmosphere, the full guest experience came naturally, drawing on everything the two of them already did professionally. It’s a partnership they describe as kind of an ongoing creative project. They bicker over details, push each other, and land somewhere neither of them would have arrived at alone. “Our end result ends up becoming this hyper creation of both of us.” Marisa says.
When asked what shaped their vision for the property, the Fortinis are quick to say it wasn’t about copying any single place. Stays at other small, owner-driven, independent motels and inns with their own strong sense of place showed them less what to build but rather more how a space could make a guest feel. The guest experience itself is what mattered to them most: the communal gathering spaces, the overall vibe, and the moments where a stay becomes more than a room for the night.
The Pacific doesn’t have a pool or bar in the traditional sense—the ocean across the street often serves as both. But it does have a firepit, a ping-pong table, a coffee bar and snowcone truck, and a small bar area that double as informal meeting grounds for guests and locals alike. Locals are welcome to come use the Wi-Fi, grab a coffee, or just sit by the fire without ever booking a room, and the motel intentionally sends its guests out to eat at Cayucos’s local restaurants rather than serving breakfast itself. It’s a small piece of a larger ecosystem the Fortinis have tried to build and it’s one where the motel’s success is tied directly to the town’s.
The Fortinis call the overall philosophy behind it the “halo effect.” Ryan explains, “You want that first interaction to be super authentic, organic, and beautiful in all ways, to where that person walking in feels automatically connected to the space.” That warmth, he says, creates “a cognitive imprint in the back of their mind.” He notes it’s the kind of hospitality that no amount of automation or self-check-in kiosk can replicate. It’s the importance of a genuine human connection. Every staff member at the Pacific—nearly all of them women, by Ryan's count, save for himself—is trained to carry that same energy, because the Fortinis can’t personally be present for every check-in, every late-night noise complaint, every small hiccup. What they can do is build a team that genuinely loves being there, and let that feeling move outward to the guests.
Down to the awnings above each room, a lobby filled with local goods, beach towels loaned for guests, custom-designed wallpaper, and an outdoor shower, each detail has been carefully selected by the Fortinis. But despite being the most aesthetically pleasing stay in the area, their vision shows up in small but lasting ways. A longtime guest calling just to check in on the Fortinis years after his last stay, or a family returning summer after summer because they know the people who work there. For Marisa and Ryan, that's the real measure of success. “We want people to remember who they really are, and remember that they can reconnect to self again,” Ryan says. They strive for a guest who leaves feeling like they found something real for a day or two, and wants to come back for more.
For all its progress, the Pacific’s guiding principle is preservation, not disruption. “That is my motto for this town: preserving, and taking what exists, and remodeling it, so it's not falling apart,” Marisa says. The Fortinis are protective of Cayucos’s identity as a town without much government infrastructure. There is no city council, just a handful of civic groups and a land conservancy that keeps large-scale development at bay. That absence of corporate interest is something they actively want to protect, which is part of why they held onto a piece of property down the street rather than selling it to a developer. “Someone could have mowed that down and built condominiums or something,” they say. “We don’t need that.”
Their approach to giving back is without frills. They’d rather donate to the elementary school. Support neighboring independent businesses, and keep the profits and the culture of the town in local hands. It is all about making sure Cayucos keeps its charm as it grows: taking what’s already there, restoring it carefully, and making sure the character survives the process.
The Pacific isn’t where the road ends for the Fortinis—they are expanding their vision a little further down the street. Named for the two palms located at the entrance, the Fortinis are remodeling the Cayucos Motel into a sister property of their own: The Two Palms Motel, opening September 4th, 2026.
Aesthetically, Two Palms will share the Pacific’s DNA, but with its own personality. “It's similar, but different,” Marisa says. “It has its own personality.” At just seven rooms, it’s considerably smaller, and its downtown energy puts it closer to the action than the Pacific’s perch up the hill. Due to the location, Marisa says, “I think people will book there first, and we'll be sold out. It’s just a different scene.”
Two Palms will also be an adults-only property, giving the Fortinis two distinct offerings under one philosophy. Families and larger groups can book the Pacific, while guests looking for a quieter and more intimate stay can head to Two Palms. The new property’s layout will allow for something the Pacific’s tighter footprint can't accommodate. Real event space, including room for weddings of 50 to 70 guests, shared-table dinners, and food trucks pulled up along a beachside gathering area are a few features of the new property.
As with the Pacific, the name itself is a nod to something bigger than its owners. This is a detail the Fortinis point to as proof that their properties aren’t really about them at all. They’re about the town, the staff, the locals, and the guests who keep coming back.
The part about keeping the brass dolphins and the horse shoe in the palm tree really got me. I looked up War of Genesis: Idle Loot Wiki after reading this and ended up down a rabbit hole about the area.