Embassy Suites by Hilton Santa Ana Orange County Airport — Attraction in Santa Ana

Here is the letter I wrote the hotel...To Whom It May Concern,||I am writing regarding my recent stay at the Embassy Suites in Santa Ana, California, from July 17–21, 2025 (Room 332). My trip was unexpected and personal — I flew in to be with my mother, who was hospitalized nearby, while also trying to keep up with work responsibilities. I travel frequently, both personally and professionally, and I’ve stayed at countless properties across various brands and price points. Unfortunately, this was the worst hotel experience I have ever had — not just because of the numerous issues listed below, but because of the lack of any meaningful response from staff and management during my stay.||Though I understand operations can be challenging — I’ve personally overseen large hospitality teams — what distinguishes a struggling venue from a failing one is responsiveness and care. This location is sorely lacking in both.||Major Issues||Parking Gate Malfunction||The front parking gate did not function for the majority of our stay. Dozens of guests were unable to enter or exit, resulting in long wait times. Many of us were forced to walk inside, get new key cards, and still find ourselves stuck. It became clear the issue was ongoing and known to staff, yet no solution was provided. Only after a young guest (approximately 13 years old) told me about a hidden, always-open back gate did I learn of a workaround — which staff never mentioned, even after multiple requests. Instructions on how to use the key card were irrelevant; the gate simply did not work. This was extremely frustrating, especially when I was trying to get to and from the hospital. We all know you hold the key card down flat instead of putting it in for at least 5 seconds — it only worked once the entire time I was there. I told other guests about the secret gate and they were very thankful.||Thermostat & Room Temperature||When we first entered our hotel room, it felt like a walk-in refrigerator — truly freezing, more like a restaurant cooler than a hotel suite. I was already overwhelmed, trying to get to the hospital to see my mother, who is dealing with a serious medical condition, while also juggling work calls. In the rush, I didn’t notice the small printed note posted above the thermostat (photo attached). Assuming the chill was just due to the A/C being set too low, I hit the “up” button on the thermostat to adjust the temperature before heading out. On top of everything, I then got stuck trying to exit the hotel — the broken parking gate caused a 20-minute delay (another major issue I'll detail elsewhere). By the time I returned to the hotel later that evening — physically and emotionally exhausted — the room was still uncomfortably cold, around 60 degrees at 9 p.m. There were no extra blankets in the room, and I was too tired to troubleshoot anything. That’s when I finally saw the note above the thermostat, which explained the HVAC setup: a two-pipe system that only allows either heat or air conditioning, depending on the outside temperature. If it’s between 55–70 degrees outside, the system provides neither. The sign also mentioned that space heaters are available upon request — something that was never communicated during check-in or in any helpful way.||Space Heaters + Blankets: We immediately called down to request a space heater and blankets. We were told someone would bring them up, but no one ever did. I ended up staying awake most of the night, freezing. I didn’t want to turn on the TV and disturb my boyfriend, so I tried to stream something on my phone, but the Wi-Fi wasn’t working either. I just sat there listening to music and trying to stay warm. Eventually, my boyfriend went downstairs himself to ask again for the items. He was able to get a space heater and some blankets. The heater, however, was old and outdated — the kind with an exposed heating element. You can read the warning label on the top - this unit is straight out of the 90s as well. We didn’t feel safe using it. We opted to turn off the A/C completely, and with the extra blankets, I was finally able to rest a little. Still, the room temperature continued to fluctuate and remained uncomfortable. This entire situation could have been avoided with better communication and basic follow-through from staff. When a hotel has such a rigid HVAC system, it should be clearly explained at check-in, and guests should be proactively offered alternatives like blankets or heaters — not left to fend for themselves late at night, after already long and stressful days.||Toilet Malfunction and Cleanliness||The toilet in our room flushed at random and required us to fill the tank manually multiple times and troubleshoot ourselves. Despite repeated requests, no one ever came to fix it. Additionally, the toilet had visible mold inside (photo attached) and appeared uncleaned from the start.||Mold in Shower||There was visible mold at the top of the shower (photo attached) — I believe that's what that is. While I understand humidity is a challenge in bathrooms, this added to the feeling of neglect and disrepair.||Broken Safe||The in-room safe was unusable. We went to use the safe, and there was a single battery inside the unit, along with one loose battery in the door. The battery compartment had no cover. The unit requires four batteries, so I couldn’t even attempt to insert them properly or test if the safe would work. (See photo.)||Elevator Issues: The front elevators don’t work properly, so if you stay here, walk to the back elevators instead. Oddly, there are no UP or DOWN arrows on the outside of the elevator, so when it finally arrives, you have to ask the people inside whether it’s going up or down. Everyone spends a lot of time in the elevator sharing stories about the hotel’s condition. I waited about seven minutes for the front elevator, and it still wouldn’t stop on the third floor, no matter how many times I pressed the button. It ended up taking me 11 minutes just to get to my room.||Front Desk Service||The front desk was perpetually overwhelmed. Long lines were constant, calls often resulted in a busy signal (something else I haven’t heard since the 1990s), and most staff seemed disengaged. That said, Aaron and another associate with a short name beginning with "L" were friendly and helpful — they stood out amid an otherwise frustrating experience.||Additional Issues||No "Do Not Disturb" sign – There was no Do Not Disturb sign on our room. We asked for one but it never came. Housekeeping came by every five minutes and knocked on our door further disturbing us. We asked for a sign so they would stop coming. We eventually received one and informed housekeeping that we didn’t need service — just fresh towels. Oddly, they still came in, took the "Do Not Disturb" sign, didn’t clean the room, and didn’t leave anything fresh. The only reason we knew they had been there was because the hanging sign was missing from the inside, and the blankets had been folded. For some reason, they take the Do Not Disturb signs. My guess is that they don't want to have to wait to clean your room — which they don't really do.||Room 332 key card system doesn’t work – After fumbling with it, we realized you have to pull the handle up twice instead of down to get it to work.||Ice machine signage – The signage doesn’t actually lead to the ice machine, so it turns into an unnecessary scavenger hunt.||The room is extremely outdated – There are asbestos-filled “cottage cheese” ceilings, and whoever did the painting didn’t even bother to tape off properly — there’s paint everywhere (see photo). Also, there’s no table lamp in the room, which is just strange.||TV and tech – The room only offers basic cable. There are no modern features like Netflix, streaming access, or up-to-date technology.||Wi-Fi – The Wi-Fi is terrible and very spotty throughout the stay.||Grab-and-go issue – This is minor, but worth mentioning: they sell cereal at the grab-and-go, but they don’t sell milk. I’m in food service and, based on what I saw at the hotel, would never eat food from that restaurant. I was going to grab a quick bowl of cereal, but since there was no milk and the line at the front desk (as always) was 10 guests deep, I gave up.||||Most Concerning of All: Lack of Response||The most frustrating part of this experience was not the broken facilities or outdated decor — it was the lack of care. I responded to your in-stay survey, asked for help multiple times, and received nothing but quick responses that didn't make me feel better or solve anything. I even got a call from someone named Ryan from Hilton corporate today, and as I calmly began to explain that the true issue was the lack of response, he hung up. I assumed it was accidental — but I never received a callback. I think my tone may have been slightly frustrated but definitely not the level that I was feeling inside. ||In Summary||This experience was unacceptable. I’ve stayed and enjoyed experiences in everything from boutique hotels to La Quintas, Courtyards, Air bnbs and 5-star properties — and this was hands-down the worst. I don’t typically write complaint letters, and I never threaten reviews. I usually wait to see how a business responds. Sadly, there has been no meaningful response at all.||The Embassy Suites Irvine is a wonderful hotel — clean, professional, and welcoming. I chose your location because my options were limited when my mom was hospitalized. I’m disappointed to say this stay has made me question whether I’ll ever book a Hilton...

The rooms are disgustingly dirty, and when you take off your shoes, you can feel how dirty the carpets are. The bed had crumbs on it when we were supposed to obviously sleep on clean fresh beds the first room that we went into had black mold growing on the outside of the air vent, black mold, I know it’s a good price but it’s not worth your money. I know they REVOLVE around the hot breakfast but it’s literally omelettes. You can go and pay for a bigger omelette then what they’re giving you and add what you like to it .

After seeing the rest of the hotel, I wouldn’t even want anything from their bar, knowing that they have mold on the air vents what do they have in those bottles and how often do they get them clean and thoroughly along with all their mixes. As far as the customer service, I believe her name is Francesca for room service in the evening are and Adam the only two highlights, their respectful, and they have good manners.

Everybody else is super crappy at the front desk. I wouldn’t waste my time I’ve been here for five days because my room I wasn’t gonna be able to get my refund and I was OK with that. I booked it. I have to live with my decision, but I would never stay here again super humid any clothing you have will fill damp from how humid it is. The floor is disgusting. My son walked around in our room for a while without shoes. His feet were black. I had to wash wash his feet and tell him to leave his shoes on so he wouldn’t bring it onto the bed.

As far as all of the reviews, the owner has seen of the negativity about this hotel. Maybe he should actually do something about it.

From the first night that we were here, I had gotten a disabled room. I had to be moved from the disabled room because of the air event having the black mold on it.

Then I was moved to another room where it smelt super musty and the toilet ended up getting some blocked that was backing up into the shower. They sent a technician up to fix it. He told me that he didn’t have enough time to fix it that he had a bigger job in the pool that he needed to deal with so he wasn’t gonna be able to do it and he was gonna put my room out of service.

Still a stinky musty smell luckily it was my last night

I find it completely remarkable that some of the phones in the room do not work so if you need extra towels, extra blankets, some toilet paper some tissues you are not gonna get it. If you call from certain rooms you will probably have to go get what you need and you’ll probably find the phone not ringing because the volumes turned off and all the, front desk staff are in the back room on Thursday evening, the young lady that was tending to the front desk was in the back with the door shut making out with the freaking ice cream cone. The phone was ringing with no volume on because I went to go get front desk. with an exception of Adam and Francesca the evening housekeeping again they where great

I would definitely recommend not staying here until they make some changes

Oh, and parking is $22-26 a day. In case you missed that when you were booking.

Oh, and here’s a bonus for you. I heard some of the staff talking on the elevator and one of them said that they have to keep reminding and double checking in the rooms to make sure that some of the girl for house keeping are changing bedsheets and making sure they are clean.

I can believe this because one of the beds in our second room had crumbs on it when we pulled down the sheets and the blanket

But yeah don’t waste your money here major changes need to be made and ASAP. That hotel has major problems and issues but with the correct staff they could be much more especially with that front desk

And again thank you to Adam and Francesca the evening housekeeping you guys where the only nice and kind people there at the Embassy...

I've been waiting patiently for this hotel (and Hilton!) to contact my husband regarding our recent stay. Hilton (Embassy Suites Santa Ana) has yet to respond or reply to our emails regarding a refund!! Not only are they at fault though, as Hilton itself pitched the issue to the hotel that they know if not funtioning correctly expecting them to the right thing... I don't think so.

This hotel should pay the consumer to stay there!! We had booked 2 rooms for a 2 night stay for a family of 7. On our initial check in, we were sent to our 2 rooms that clearly were not ready or cleaned!! GROSS!!! My children were grossed out. So I send dad down to find out why they would send us to dirty rooms. My husband spoke with a gentleman at the front desk who proceeded to ask my husband who checked us in?? My husband pointed out the individual who checked us in and was given an apology for the error and was told that the rooms showed that they were not ready and gave us 2 other rooms.

Oh how I wish this would have been the end of my story, but then my kids wanted to shower, and that's when we discovered that we only had 2 bath towels for a family of 4. It was the same situation for our other room as well. When we called to ask for more towels, we were told someone would bring them to us. This did not happen. I went downstairs and asked personally for towels, I was given 4 HAND towels and told that I would get towels at noon the next day! Do you know how hard it is to dry your whole body with a hand towel???

As the evening continued I started noticing the room was warm. I called downstairs and was told that the air conditioning repairman had gone home for the night and that we should open our window!!! While it was great weather in Cali, I'm not sure if they are aware that they sit by a busy freeway. There was no chance of getting to sleep with that noise all night, racing cars and such. We were upset and did express our frustration to the front desk. We were offered a 50% discount off of our 2 rooms for night one. Of note, this was NOT honored either! C'mon.

Day 2 my towels did finally arrive but not at noon as promised. Maybe they had to wait for guests to leave rooms to get towels from other rooms cleaned. Later that evening upon returning from the event that brought us to this hotel, we walked into the lobby to see water pouring down from the ceiling onto the front desk. I was personally worried about electrocution. We made it to our room and could not wait to leave the next morning. On check out day we were stopped at the lobby elevator and told to watch our step, as we looked ahead the lobby was flooded and water was pouring out of the ceiling over the front desk lobby. We were told to drop our room keys in the box as the computers were down due to the leak and flooding of the front desk. It was very slippery and very dangerous. I do not recommend this hotel to anyone regardless of the discounted price! I feel bad for the employees who are left making excuses for a rundown boo boo hotel.

Other issues of note: -Hilton keyless entry option, which was HIGHLY promoted, did not work as promoted -hotel pool was inoperable, though front desk sweared it was... but while it was covered in slime? -Rooms look like they are from 1980, get the green rugs out as they are filthy

Just to reiterate, we are not only holding Embassy Suites accountable but Hilton as well. It is not appropriate to pitch your customer to the hotel and have them wait 7 days for a response that was supposed to happen in 2-3 as noted in the email response. And we really love using Embassy Suites when we travel in the state we live, but I'm not sure anymore about that either. Thanks for listening, glad someone is!

NICE TO SEE THAT YOU RESPOND BUT NOBODY HAS CALLED ME ONE WEEK LATER!!! DONT LIE TO ME...