SANDUSKY, Ohio – Sandusky is home to two of the biggest, best-known hotels in Ohio, Hotel Breakers on the Cedar Point beach and Kalahari Resort, with a massive waterpark just south of town. The small lakefront city is also home to a growing collection of smaller, unique properties that may appeal to a wider variety of travelers, from families to couples to urban pioneers. The new properties include a sleek downtown hotel, renovated roadside motel, two RV parks and a houseboat village.
Read more: A Sandusky summer: Exploring downtown’s resurgence in one of Ohio’s best small towns Hotel Kilbourne , with nine rooms in a historic building on West Water Street, opened in 2016 and proved there is interest in downtown lodging. Fast forward to June 2024, when Sandusky natives Jen and Ed Torres opened the 10-room 419 Boutique Hotel on downtown’s E. Market Street.
“The area has been booming lately,” said Ed Torres, a carpenter by trade, who did much of the renovation on the hotel himself. “There aren’t enough short-term rentals or small hotels in downtown Sandusky.” So the Torresses bought the former Buckeye Cable building – it’s across the street from their house – and turned it into a small hotel.
Each of the 10 overnight rooms, all on the second floor, has a kitchen and sleeps four. Torres plans to add a four-bedroom penthouse suite, with views of Lake Erie, next year. He’s also hoping to add a restaurant on the first floor.
The hotel is renting through Air.