TV Restaurants

Is Cape Hatteras Motel Still Open? Hotel Impossible Update (Buxton, NC)

Open verified

As of September 2026, Cape Hatteras Motel is open — confirmed via the restaurant's current website/social account, accessed July 2026.

Primary source
Yelp ·
Secondary source
Tripadvisor ·

Last verified

What the source shows: Yelp's July 2026 listing and Tripadvisor's 2026 review page show the motel still operating despite the motel's own site trailing a year behind the current date.

  • Season / episode Season 8, Episode 8
  • Original air date
  • Address 46556 North Carolina Hwy 12, Buxton, NC 27920

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What happened after Hotel Impossible?

Hotel Impossible's Season 8 episode Outer Banks-Ruptcy, which aired 2017-10-02, featured Cape Hatteras Motel on North Carolina's Outer Banks. Google Places lists the address as 46556 North Carolina Hwy 12 in Buxton, the small village nearest Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, rather than Cape Hatteras itself, which refers to the broader cape and national seashore area. The motel's own website, capehatterasmotel.com, returned an HTTP 200 response on 2026-09-09, but the latest year appearing in its visible page text was 2025, one year behind the current date, with no copyright line displayed. A Yelp page last updated in July 2026, carrying 36 reviews and 55 photos, and a Tripadvisor page updated in 2026, both continue to list the 37-room, beachfront motel as an active, bookable property. Booking.com's current listing shows 417 verified reviews with a 7.3-of-10 average score, and describes the property as open year-round with a seasonal outdoor pool and hot tub. Reviews collected on these sites in 2026 describe the property's oceanfront location and staff favorably while some guests noted the building's age. No source reviewed here reported a change in ownership, a renovation, or a closure since the episode aired. Although the motel's own site trails the current year by a full calendar year, the Yelp and Tripadvisor pages, both carrying 2026 dates, show the property continuing to operate at the same Buxton address roughly nine years after Hotel Impossible documented the motel's financial troubles there.

Featured on Hotel Impossible

Season / episode
Season 8, Episode 8
Original air date
Episode title
Outer Banks-Ruptcy
What was featured
Financial trouble at a Cape Hatteras-area beachfront motel
Role
Featured restaurant
Name on the broadcast
Cape Hatteras Motel

Frequently asked questions

Is Cape Hatteras Motel still open in 2026?

As of September 2026, Cape Hatteras Motel is open — confirmed via the restaurant's current website/social account, accessed July 2026.

What happened to Cape Hatteras Motel after Hotel Impossible?

Hotel Impossible's Season 8 episode Outer Banks-Ruptcy, which aired 2017-10-02, featured Cape Hatteras Motel on North Carolina's Outer Banks. As of September 2026, Cape Hatteras Motel is open — confirmed via the restaurant's current website/social account, accessed July 2026.

Where is Cape Hatteras Motel located?

46556 North Carolina Hwy 12, Buxton, NC 27920. That is the address on the record as of September 7, 2026.

What season and episode of Hotel Impossible featured Cape Hatteras Motel?

Season 8, Episode 8 of Hotel Impossible, first aired October 2, 2017. The episode is titled “Outer Banks-Ruptcy”.

What do reviews say since Hotel Impossible?

A Yelp page last updated in July 2026, carrying 36 reviews and 55 photos, and a Tripadvisor page updated in 2026, both continue to list the 37-room, beachfront motel as an active, bookable property. We summarise what dated sources report; we do not publish our own rating.

Every status on this site carries a confidence label and a date, and names the source it rests on. Read the Editorial & Corrections Policy for what each label means and how quickly we act on corrections. The questions above are generated from this record's own published fields — we never publish a question we cannot answer from the data.

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Visit info

Address
46556 North Carolina Hwy 12, Buxton, NC 27920
Venue type
hotel
Official website
capehatterasmotel.com

Businesses change fast. Always confirm directly with the restaurant — call ahead, or check its own current website or social media — before making plans around anything on this page.

Sources

  • Yelp — https://www.yelp.com/biz/cape-hatteras-motel-buxton
  • Tripadvisor — https://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g48993-d208388-Reviews-Cape_Hatteras_Motel-Buxton_Hatteras_Island_Outer_Banks_North_Carolina.html
  • booking.com — https://www.booking.com/hotel/us/cape-hatteras-motel.html
  • capehatterasmotel.com — https://www.capehatterasmotel.com/

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