This hotel was chosen by someone else. We needed one near to Imperial Beach, and the one we had stayed at before was no longer there. After this was mentioned to me I checked, as always, on Trip Advisor and I was not happy. But, to be fair, the place isn't as bad as some of these reviews make it sound. It was clean, and quiet, and the breakfast wasn't great but was certainly more than some slices of stale bread or whatever a previous review said...it was comparable to other continental affairs in chain motels - hot and cold cereals, toast, English muffins, Danish pastry, juices and tea and coffee, maybe fruit (I don't recall as I don't take the fruit). Although it was too chilly to use the pool it looked well-kept and clean. The landscaping, what there is of it, was neat, trim and attractive - flowers, palms, manicured lawn.
The negatives can be summed up as such:
- Neighbourhood isn't great. Not really down, but a little dicey looking here and there. It wasn't enough to scare me, however...I didn't intend to go wandering.
-Service is spotty. I needed a phone book for a local number and there was no book in the room, so I went downstairs and asked. I was told the book might be by the t.v., not the phone; the desk clerk told me he didn't have one (as he flipped through something that looked an awful lot like one to prove that to me). Why he didn't just offer to look the number up for me (online or whatever he does) was beyond me. When I returned later and told him no, there was no phone book by the t.v. or anywhere, he offered to have a book sent up to the room. I told him I was going out then and needed the number before I left, so there was no use in sending a book up. If there were books available, why didn't he just give me one the first time? I ended up looking up the number in a weatherworn book hanging from one of the last remaining pay phones on the planet in front of a 7-11 on Palm Avenue...the next day, however, when I went down in need of something, it was the owner at the desk. What a difference. He was almost military in his yes-ma'am-immediately! demeanor. If he'd been on when I needed the phone number, I wouldn't have been squinting and fighting the sea breeze with the book.
- Weird Microwave Setup. The room had a fridge and microwave, both very clean. However, the microwave was not plugged in and in no way would reach the outlet from its perch on the t.v. We had to actually move the microwave at least five feet and crawl to get the thing plugged in.
There was some graffiti on the bathroom wall which it was obvious they had tried to remove and traces of it remained. Otherwise the room was quite clean.
For the price paid, this was not a bad deal. I give the negatives in detail so that you can
see they aren't that bad.
hotel reviews