I had a relatively decent experience at this particular Hilton. I booked several months in advance for a King Terrace Loft Suite in the 5th avenue section, yet when I arrived, the hotel staff placed me in a downgraded King deluxe guest room (essentially with a bed, a TV, a bathroom, and a little chair in the corner).
I called the front desk to figure out what happened, and the young lady stated that I was, in fact, staying in a King suite. I had to explain to her that this room was indeed NOT a suite and not the King Terrace Loft Suite that I specifically booked and paid for. Well, this was 11pm at this time, and of course, there was no King Terrace Loft Suite available in the hotel. However, the staff did anticipate that some guests would check out and "free up" one of those rooms tomorrow - that my "chances were very good" that I'd get transferred the following day.
I'm a reasonable guy, but I had a tired wife an 18 month-old child. We slept in this small room and were transferred to the suite that we actually booked the following day. Overall, it seemed like the staff was doing this begrudgingly, and that I was getting some special favor despite me showing them a printout of my reservation stating what I had booked. There was a very helpful young lady the following day at the desk who apologized for the mishap and gave us a voucher for a free breakfast at the New Leaf (delicious).
The King Terrace Loft Suite was a beautiful, spacious room with contemporary colors and a splendid bed. The view was not great - it overlooked the Hard Rock Hotel across the street that was being built & had pretty noise construction.. not the fault of the Hilton. The bathroom was gorgeous with plentiful, high quality toiletries, a jacuzzi tub, and a large glass shower.
However, the next day, my laptop's CPU had this weird meltdown - frying the internal circuitry while it was plugged into the hotel's outlet. I have no idea if this was related to the outlets there, but Apple's repair department said they'd only seen this particular crash about 2-3 times before. I would've chalked this up as a coincidence without laying any blame on the Hilton.. but on the same day, my plug-in clock/ambient noise maker froze and would not turn back on - never happened before or since. A few hours later, we smelled a terrible burning coming from the bathroom, only to find one of the wall lamps smoking. The hotel staff sent up a repairman a few hours later to take care of it. I really didn't think the room was safe from an electrical standpoint.. imagine that?
Location is very centrally located - parking deck right down the sidewalk which was inexpensive and next to Petco Park. There is no need to pay the exorbitant valet fees, which are approaching $40/night. The gorgeous convention center is literally 1 block away.. overall, this is a pretty nice hotel in a fabulous city. The stay, however, could've been better - but for the most part, it was enjoyable.
My advice to hotel management would be to explain to the front desk workers about the definition of a suite, and to never change a guest's previously booked room unless it's an upgrade. These types of things are enough to make me think twice in my future trips to San Diego about whether to spend them at this particular Hilton. I'm plus/minus on the experience - would've been wonderful except for a number of mild to moderate annoyances.
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