The Montera

Caitlin

The Montera was honestly way better than I was expecting for any sort of assisted living. I was very impressed with the facility and the happiness of the people that were living there. The residents liked the food that they were being given, the activities, the accommodations in general, and how it was managed overall. I got a really good impression from them. The staff was great, super accommodating, and very good with follow-up as well. The rooms vary in size, but I thought they were worth the price. I thought some of the rooms were on the smaller side, but for somebody like my mom, who probably doesn't need much space since she has mobility issues, it wasn't a concern for us. I didn't try the food other than the complimentary cookies that they gave us, which were amazing. I asked some of the residents about the food, and they had nothing but great things to say about it. I toured their common space, where they had computers set up. They mentioned that they sometimes do a little bit of wine tasting. They showed their gym activities. They also had a pool with a handicapped-accessible entry.

Provider Response

Crystal

We went to The Montera. It's a very nice facility. It's been upgraded recently. It has a beautiful koi pond area for people to sit and watch the fish. The people are very nice. It's laid out nicely. I think everything was pretty good. The staff were very kind. They showed us around. We talked about lots of different things. They're very knowledgeable, too. They had a very large theater. They had an exercise room. The koi pond was beautiful; that was comforting to see. It was very clean. It was open. There were lots of places to walk outdoors that were safe.

Provider Response

David

I toured The Montera. It was very good. I'm definitely considering that if it comes down to that. The rooms were really good. They looked good. The one I happened to be in was just being redone, but it looked like just what we were looking for. We went through the dining area and stuff. It was quite nice. Everybody was quite friendly. The overall condition of the facility was really good. It looked excellent. They had a TV room and a library sort of thing, and that's really all we need. My wife would like to have an indoor pool. They have a pool, but it's outdoors.

Jeffrey

The employees at The Montera were very cheerful and seemed very professional. They had people who were outside under the umbrellas and on the patios, that were talking to each other. One apartment seemed nice. It was fairly large yet it was arranged well where they would be convenient for somebody who can't be mobilized real easily. They've got multiple dining areas. It goes from a full upscale restaurant service down to a snack bar thing and they were both nice. You can order what you want. We received a whole month's worth of activities, which includes going shopping and exercise classes. The staff was very, very good, too. The facilities were very nice. They continually upgrade and do all that.

Terri

I've visited The Montera, it was nice but not my favorite. The rooms didn't have appliances. Overall, the facility was fine, but the staff was very nice. They had nice rooms and a beautiful garden. The staff who took me around for the tour was very nice. They have all kinds of activities going on. The room had a little kitchenette with a little refrigerator, a sink, and a countertop.

Janice

We had a great experience touring The Montera. They explained what they do, and we liked that place. It was well-kept and clean, the staff was very friendly to us, and it fulfilled everything that would be ideal for my friend to live there. The rooms were good. The dining area looked wonderful though we didn't try their food. It looked like they had enough that my friend would be interested in and get involved in. The staff that gave the tour knew her job. She knew exactly what we were looking for and what we should expect in that facility. The facility itself was excellent. It had plenty of parking for visitors. It was pretty secure for the patients or residents.

Provider Response

Rick

The Montera community is wonderful and the people are great. But the rooms were awful, they were just so small and they didn't have any kitchens. One of them had a little dorm room refrigerator on the floor, it was like going into a hotel and I don't want my father in a hotel room for the rest of his life. It was a very nice place, the rooms were just awful, and they were one of the most expensive places. It was inconvenient to get around. The staff showed us a room that was on the third floor. You'd have to go down the long hall to get to the elevator, then you have to go down another long hall to get to the restaurant, and then if you want to go like to the bar, you have to go to another building and then you have to go up a flight. They also have an outside pool. They were accommodating and welcoming, and the place was nice, it's just not what we needed.

PB

My parents are at The Montera, it's assisted living and they also have memory care. My parents are really happy there and it's a great place. I have no complaints. They might get the wrong thing for dinner or something, but the services are great and the people are great so they're very comfortable there. I'd give it 10 out of 10, it's wonderful, clean, and the employees are wonderful. I have had one of their Angus hamburgers before. We're not allowed to go into the restaurant when they were closed for COVID, but they're back in the restaurants now. The food was very, very good. That was one of the positive things. They have different types of activities like painting or drawing or something. I think dollar for dollar, it's right in there with the others with some being more and some being less. They're in the same room together.

Dottie

We toured The Montera and that's very nice, but I feel my dad would get lost in there because it's more independent. It was excellent. I really, really liked it. If my dad was a little bit more mobile and independent, it would have been excellent. They had an excellent chef. They gave us some cookies on the way out and I'm like, "Oh my gosh, she could sell these on the market," which was excellent. They were great. The assisted were full apartments, pretty much, and that's why I'm like, "No, my dad wouldn't be able to care for a place like that on his own." There are long walkways and stuff, and I could see him kind of getting disoriented. He needs a smaller community, definitely, at this stage in his life. It was similar to another community, but the pricing was so much better at Montera, and you still get the great quality of care. It's a more luxury living with the chef and menus. It was really, really super nice. It's too bad we didn't know of this place when Dad was more up and about. It would have been nice for him. The theater is huge. It's really spacey and you could have different activities. They showed me all the different places. I actually saw the grounds for the fitness center, and someone was working with a gentleman on physical therapy. It was just beautiful. It's just that it's sprawling. It's great for people that are independent, but not for people that need assistance. It's a little bit too much.

Julieann

The Montera was a beautiful community. The people there were happy. The place was clean, bright, and cheery. When you walk into it, it's welcoming. I liked it the best among all the places I looked at. The staff was great. They were very friendly and very accommodating. They even had very delightful cookies at the front desk. Their rooms were all in good shape. They were the priciest, but you get what you pay for (as compared to some of the other facilities that were kind of crappy, rundown, and were a lot cheaper). They also have activities, a gym where they have a trainer that comes on site to help, a restaurant, and a koi pond (where you can feed the fish). It was a great facility.

Gertude

The Montera was a combination of memory care and senior living. It was very nice, but it's part of a huge corporation. The owners have like 20 of these facilities all over California, so it didn't feel as personalized as the others. The building itself was very nice, but it seemed crowded together and they crammed an awful lot into a fairly small space. Everything was there. It was compact. The staff was very knowledgeable, very nice, very young, and attractive. I looked at the menu and that seemed very impressive, like high-end choices. The facility looked very clean and orderly. There was a lot of staff around, but nobody seemed very close like they were communicating with each other, laughing, or anything like that. It was more businesslike just doing their jobs. There was a group of ladies sitting around a table and one lady was beating up maybe a bunch of eggs or something yellow and they were all watching her. I don't know exactly what it was they were going to do. I saw some paintings on the wall that some had done earlier, like a little cactus or something, so they did some painting.

Chung

I toured The Montera for my friend. I liked the friendliness and the general upkeep of the facility, but the rooms are small and not very well kept. They have a pond like a fishpond.

Provider Response

Rick

I visited The Montera, and I would say that the people there were just fantastic. The rooms were pretty small though, and they don't have regular size refrigerators. They have a dining room that was nice and a good movie room. The staff was very, very polite and very knowledgeable. You just had a good feeling about the place when you walked in. They had a game room, a theater room, and a book room. They had an outside swimming pool, but it was very good. They also had an arts and crafts room, which was very nice. They had a courtyard with tables and chairs. It looks like they offer barbecue once in a while because they had a big barbecue.

Dan

I toured The Montera, and the person who toured us, Rita, was fantastic. She answered all my questions and gave us a very good walk through in the facility. She was always available. If I had any additional calls, I could always reach out to her. The residents said their food was very delicious and very filling. They give you a lot of it, so you definitely don't go hungry there. The place was very, very clean, and had a very professional staff. The whole facility had been redone, so it was very nice for my parents.

Cathleen

The Montera was a beautiful facility that had lots of activities and areas for the Dementia and Alzheimer's residents to live a comfortable and normal life with assistance. Mandy was the one who toured us and she was amazing. She was so friendly, knowledgeable, caring, and very informative; just a really pleasant person to be around. The food was great, too, and the facility was spotless. There's an activity chart that has different ways for them to be able to do different activities: from arts, games, music, entertainment and ceramics. It was completely full scale.

Provider Response

Becky

My friend has stayed at The Montera, and it was wonderful. Our experience was very good. They had activities like bingos and movies. They play crosswords where they have everybody in an area, and they have music on. They pull out the words, and they were kind of dancing. I was very pleased with the Monterra. They are very organized and very clean. It was a great place. The staff was excellent. The facility is beautiful. There are three meals a day, and they are very good. The dining room was not opened all the way, so they would bring the meals to the rooms at times. The menu was very good too.

Provider Response

Jennifer

My dad has been living in The Montera. The memory care facility is very well equipped to take care of people who have Alzheimer's, but it is not the best environment for people who have Lewy body dementia, so they're two different things. My dad has Lewy body, and his girlfriend has Alzheimer's. I didn't get a lot of inside experience with them because of COVID. They were very cautious of trying to keep COVID at bay, but unfortunately, they didn't succeed in keeping it from spreading through, so they actually had a COVID outbreak last year. Overall, aside from the COVID part, they would be a four out of five as a memory care facility. The biggest issue that I have with them is communication from the family member's frame, especially when you can't go in to find what's going on, like if the dining room is open or closed. They are very good about having a two-week quarantine when a person moves in during the pandemic. They are also good about testing, so there is a test before they move in, and a test after they move in. They quarantine whenever they can. It is hard to do that with memory care, but because they are testing so carefully, they tend to keep it open so some people are able to eat in the dining room and do activities, because they are testing. The facility itself offers good activities. They have two outdoor spaces, they have a koi pond so they can watch the fish go around, which is very nice, and they have very nice grounds. The common spaces are in great shape because they have done a bunch of remodeling. My dad and his girlfriend have been living together. They have dual occupancy for two people who need it, which is very nice. The reason I gave the staff a five is because when my dad was with it, he would always say that the staff was caring, nice, and accommodating, so even though the facility isn't perfect for him, the staff members did their best to try. They have an any meal menu, and they have a variety of specials. My dad also enjoys the movement classes, and the activities that are there, so there is something they actually enjoy doing.

Provider Response

Linda

My step father is a resident of The Montera. They seem good, they seem to care. They have recently put a bunch of money into remodeling, which is beautiful now, but I feel like it's a lot of wasted money, because so many residents don't take advantage of it anyway. I think it's more for the show of the people coming in to look at the place. I think it's a lot of money for nothing. They do have party space. They have a barber beauty shop on site, a library, they do activities all the time, and they have transportation to go site seeing and to go to the store. They do crafts, they have church service, they have people that come in and sing, they play piano, they do cards and games, they do exercise, and I think they do dance. It's different every day, and I'm only there once in a while.

teachingthemasses

I gave one star because there is not a half or zero star. DO NOT entrust your loved ones to this facility, especially if they need memory care. My mom spent a total of 2 1/2 months there, Sept.-mid Nov. 2020 and in that short time fell numerous times, (laid on floor all night, sometimes in her own waste), went from fully ambulatory to wheelchair bound, swollen and distended in her mid-section, without so much as a call to any family members to inform us of her decline. This didn't happen over the course of a month, this happened within a week!! When we would get to visit (if there wasn't a COVID outbreak, which there had been) there were times when she had not been showered, was in her p.j.s (at 4:30 in afternoon) and generally unkempt. When we finally got to see pictures of her apartment it was a complete disaster inside. This was heartbreaking. There is no way to call the memory care floor directly, you always have to go through the front desk, they put you through to memory care where NO ONE EVER answers the phone. You then leave a message, asking for a call back and again , NO ONE ever calls you back. You meet with the managment team, ask them to communicate with you regading your mom's health and care, they promise to, and then, NEVER do. This was all for the low, low price of $7,500/mo., and the "non-refundable" $2,500 move-in fee. So, for the 2 1/2 months she was there my mom spent $17,000 dollars. Part of that fee was for the "extra care" they said she needed, but clearly did not recieve. Oh, and they lost one of her hearing aides, so there's another $1900, and my mom is currently down to one hearing aide. So, in just 2 months they managed to drain my 84 year old mom of just shy of $20,000. This place is nothing short of horrific. We had made several attempts to give them a chance to make ammends for lack of care and services and lost personal items, and still (wait for it...) NO COMMUNICATION OR RESPONSE. I wish I had read a few reviews or dug a little deeper before entrusting my loved one to this horrific situation. Their marketing manager sells you something that the Montera could never deliver.

Provider Response

Cheryl

I looked at The Montera. I thought it was really nice, it looked clean, very inviting, and the customer service was great. Mercedes, the director of sales is absolutely amazing. I was impressed with what they offered, from an exercise class, to arts and crafts, to church services, and bingo. The dining area looked nice and easily accessible.

Allan

My mother has moved into The Montera. We chose it because they allowed her to still have her small dog. I worked with one staff member and she was fantastic. She was really helpful in facilitating everything. Of course, I can't get into the facility, so I haven't interacted with any of the other staff. My mother has already commented that the food is better than her last facility. I get reports on whether she just really kinda plays with her food, if she finishes her meals, if she eats part of it or whatever, and she has been eating better since she moved there. They have an activity schedule, but of course it's been modified because of COVID. My mother lives in memory care, so after a quarantine period and two successive negative COVID-19 tests, then she can mingle with the other population because it's contraindicated to keep them separated in memory care. She is not scheduled to do that. She has to do a one week quarantine and a negative test after leaving her old facility and then she has to do a one-week quarantine and a negative test, so she is not scheduled actually to join the community just yet. I've interacted with that one staff member a lot, but then I've interacted with other people either on the phone and when dropping stuff off for my mother, and so far, everybody there has just been really kind and really patient.

KL

The Montera has been recently renovated. It's modernized and lovely. Their apartments are more than satisfactory. They are large and well kept. They have a very nice restaurant, too. The place is well located, warm, inviting and upgrading.

D.C.

We thought the Montera was very nice. The people seemed to enjoy it there, but there was no garage for cars. They showed us the 1-bedroom, with a kitchen, but it was small, and it was not up to the standard that we've seen before. The staff was very nice.

Provider Response

Mark

My mother is at The Montera. The care is very good and she really likes it. They bring her food when she doesn't feel like being wheelchaired down to the dining room. All the people are very friendly. It seems like a very nice place. The staff is very good.The food is very good, and Mom raves about it. They're renovating some of the facility. It has waterfalls, nice trees, the grounds are very nice, and the rooms are well kept. They have a lot of activities. You get more for your money than many other places.

Provider Response

Maryjane

The Montera is very nice, very well kept, and a very safe place to put your loved one. My friend is doing real well out there, and she likes it. It's very clean. The nursing staff and the CNAs are very well apprised of each one of the resident's needs. They're very good with working with all the residents in the memory care unit. The food looked very good. The facilities are very nice and have all been remodeled.

Nancy

The Montera was in the process of updating their facility. I wasn't comfortable with it. They've got a lot of trees, but it's kind of like a cave. I asked if they have aerobics, and they said no, but they have a swimming pool. I want my mom to do physical therapy or ride a bike and their idea of exercise was putting two chairs facing each other and do a push-pull thing. The rooms had a kitchenette with a small refrigerator under the counter. I didn't like it because my mom is 82 with a cane and has some stability issues, and she had to bend over to get something out. In the bathrooms, they had one little bar to hold on to and nothing across the way for her to get into. They need to work on their services for seniors. I would never put my mom in that facility. The hallways and the common areas had to be updated. The staff was very nice, very professional, and very informative.

Provider Response

Donna

I visited the Montera. It was very nice, very pretty, and well-kept. It was really clean, including the offices and reception areas and the offices they have around it. The dining room was very nice, it was very stately, they have big rooms, nice, but closed off to everything. The food was good. They have a number of things to do, including tourism, going out, and stuff like that. I think they have recreation rooms, but I didn't see anybody around them. It's a nice place. They're in the middle of construction, and they just got new owners. The girl that took us around was new, she had a bunch of things going on, she got pulled away all the time, so it was like we did not have a full tour with her. She apologized, but to me that was the owners’ fault.

Connie

The Montera would have been a wonderful facility, but Dad needed more care than what they offered. They were very upfront about that, the manager was very good at explaining things, and he was very nice. It was very bright, very cheerful, and had nice music going. It looked like they had a lot of activities set up.

Fishinggirl

My Mother has been here for over 5 years. The fact she is still there says something but a lot of that is because of location to my sister and I. As my mothers needs have increased I just want to warn that you have to stay on top of staff and "be the squeeckie wheel". We pay for helper to come in with my mom M-F so she is always changed and dry then but the last several weekends I have gone it to find my mother soaked because no one has checked on her all day. After going ballistic after this happening several weekends in a row it seems to have improved. Staff turn over is a problem and I do believe they want to do a good job but something gets lost in communication. Lastest issue is bill. We have asked numerous times that it be mailed to my sister who pays moms bills now since she can no longer manage that. Seems like a simple enough request and yet it's still in my moms mailbox each month. That last act is what actually prompted me to write a review. It just can't be that hard to do the job we pay for. As I said, staff is very nice, facility is very clean, food is good, activities wonderful, if they could connect all the dots and consistently do what is asked, paid for and expected it would be great. I want to repeat, I completely believe they want to do a good job but you have to stay on top of them and really getting mad and finally yelling at them seems to be the only way to drive point home and get things changed.

Diane

The Montera is in the process of updating their facility, so there's quite a bit if construction going on. What they are building, and what they're remodeling, is really nice. In the long run, it's going to be great. They don't have a separate building for assisted living, and you pay for the services that you need. Their rooms are typical, rectangular, studio-type apartments. The rooms were farther away from the dining rooms than I would have liked.