My fiancee and I were given a 2 day stay at this hotel as part of a Del Mar Hot Air Balloon Ride package, which was won for us in a raffle. We had no idea where the hotel was located, but we were hoping it would be near the Downtown area, where we visit often. At first we were disappointed to find that it was quite a distance from Downtown and that it was not the easiest drive to get between the two. However, we kept an open mind and proceeded on.
On arriving at the hotel, we found that it was $20 per night for parking, which we felt was a bit high for the area, but being that street parking was not allowed all night, we had no other option. We opted to park in a back parking lot which was located between our room and the bay. Unfortunately, the parking lot was completely full due to a wedding reception, which was taking place. We drove back around to the front of the hotel and were told that we could park anywhere in the lot which was in front of us, provided we had our hanging window permit in a visible place. We ended up parking by the tower. We had a lot of stuff, so we hoped that the trek to our room (across the hotel in Bay II) would not be too bad. It wasn't a bad walk at all. We only had to cross through the pool area and we were there.
The room was located directly next to the pool area. Which they shopped to us as if it was some fantastic thing. Right away, I knew there would be problems. I rarely ever stay anywhere, where a poolside room isn't unbearably loud with screaming children and disco music. This pool was no exception. The young man at the front desk had told us that the hotel was sold out, so I held little hope for us being moved elsewhere and resigned to an earsplitting weekend of children playing. Once inside the room, we closed the door and hoped that the noise wouldn't be too audible. Although the noise was greatly reduced, it was still uncomfortably loud AND we could see that the room was in a main thoroughfare and we knew we would see folks passing by ourside of our window all night and day for the duration of the weekend. It was such a lovely weekend, that the thought of staying inside with doors closed and curtains drawn, just seemed like a dismal prospect.
The room itself wasn't bad at all. It looked quite a bit outdated, but it was clean and everything seemed to be in working order. There was a couch with a large ottoman, nice firm double bed, coffee maker, mini fridge, toilet with sink seperate from a second sink/closet area, flat screen TV, working heat/cooling. We had no real complaints about the room other than the unfortunate location next to the pool.
We were tired and desperately in need of a nap, but within a few minutes of struggling to tune out the screaming children at play, my fiancee finally gave up and decided to try to get us into a different room. We were once again told that the hotel was sold out, but that they were going to try to help us out. We were also informed that starting within the hour, they hotel would be hosting a poolside movie, which was for children. I was ready to pack up and leave, but thankfully they managed to find us a room on the backside of the hotel. We were told that these rooms had their own porch with chairs and table and that they overlooked "the bay", but that we would also be looking at the parking lot. We decided to go for it. And I am so glad we did! The room was a slightly different layout than the poolside room, but nearly the same. The same outdated decor, but still in good shape. We had a large sliding glass door which led to the front "porch" area, which although it had our own set of patio table and chairs, was shared with all the other rooms along that side of the building. Each guests' little patio area was separated by a small wooden wall, which was more than sufficient for us. Again, we did have people walking in front of our room all night (I am assuming they were walking along the shared patio area to their own rooms) - it would have been polite if they would have walked along the asphalt of the parking/fire lane instead, but we were so thrilled to be away from the pool that it just wasn't a big deal to us at that point. Also, we would find random drink glasses and other trash on our table and sitting on the 2-3 steps that led from the parking area up onto our deck. Those glasses were there from the minute we checked in, until ...God knows how long they actually sat there. We noticed that more an more appeared along the deck in front of our room as well as in front of other rooms, as the weekend progressed. They were never picked up by the cleaning crew and in some cases, we had to move them over ourselves to get up the stairs without running the risk of kicking them over and breaking them. I had meant to phone the front desk about it, but never had the chance and I had continued to assume that the cleaning crew would pick them up "next time" - they never did.
We had a great time on the Hot Air Balloon and shopping Downtown. We had gone to the front desk and the concierge to ask for directions from the hotel to the Downtown area and we found the employees to be very kind and doing their best to be helpful. We didn't find their directions to be as clear as they could have been and they didn't warn us about the long lines of traffic in getting past Sea World to get to the hotel, but they were much more accurate in their walking directions which they gave us to get to the Mission Bay boardwalk. We had a nice walk there and back (although there wasn't much to see once we got there - we did find a nice pub where we could watch the soccer finals).
Upon leaving, we were told that the hotel would waive 1 night of our parking fare. We still aren't sure why they offered that to us, but we are really glad they did. It reversed any ill feelings we had towards the hotel, which we really didn't find to be TOO bad in the first place. In short, we did not feel that this hotel lived up to the standards of the majority of other Hyatts where we have stayed, but it certainly wasn't a bad time. I may have felt differently, if they had not moved us to a new room, but they did, so we walked away with respectable memories of this hotel. I would put this in the 4 star catagory. It was great, but it wasn't awful either. For what you get, I feel that it is overpriced, however my stay was paid for as a gift, so I find it difficult to complain once I consider this. The staff was very kind and they tried to be helpful. The cleaning crew took care of the rooms very efficiently (but not areas outside of the rooms), the rooms were a bit outdated, but everything was clean. I probably would not return to this hotel, unless they were offering a great special deal (or if somebody else was paying). It wasn't horrible, but nothing spectacular. There's so many other hotels in the area, that I would probably just pass this by next time. However, I would recommend it for families traveling with children. The kids seem to LOVE the place! ;)
hotel reviews