Holiday Inn Tijuana Zona Rio by IHG — Hotel in Baja California

Before anything else, be aware that this is a Holiday Inn and not a Holiday Inn Express, and that IHG is a global brand and not some two-bit motel chain. In this light, we have a level that needs to be met.

In this stay, there is an extreme lack of attention to detail so much so that the hotel did not feel at all like a top brand, but like a small-time mom-and-pop.

Two of the cabinets do not close properly, and would gradually roll open. See attached picture of one such cabinet. The alarm clock had some LCD lines busted, and hence, time can't be gauged correctly, and will need to be analyzed a bit. The alarm clock! These things don't break all of the sudden. The only apparently reason is that this has been busted for a while and the management just doesn't care enough to do the right thing. Stingy much?

The gym only had two treadmills, and one was busted. In my first go, I was able to use the good treadmill. In my return to workout the next day, I couldn't go on, since someone went ahead of me. Oh, and there is another equipment - a stair climber. And guess what? That's busted too. As with the alarm clock, these things don't break all of the sudden. This problem at the gym has been going on for a while, and the management is just simply such losers to care. Too tight to have the gym equipment repaired???

This proves management doesn't care to provide good customer service, whether the issue is big or small.

An important data point of the lack of care hotel is their lack of Basic English. I don't expect them all to be fluent, but the basics need to be taught! The US is their neighbor, for Pete’s sake! Was this hotel expecting and hoping that nobody from the US visit Mexico? I don't speak other languages fluently, but I certainly do my best to learn to say basic words when I travel. I asked what the food was for the buffet in the morning, and nobody could understand me, even the night front desk agent! The morning agents speak acceptable English. I suppose they expect me to speak to the morning agents only? This is a global brand! Training in Basic English is expected to be given.

Final case in point, there was a power outage in the city on the night of my stay. That is not something you can fault the hotel. What gets to you is the lack of care and initiative that management had. No one bothered to ask how we were. I assume that was how everyone was treated as well. For crying out loud! There are only 127 rooms here! How long would it take to go to each room to explain that everything is under control! Can you imagine being in Mexico in a dark hotel! It's the stuff the paranoids dread! We called after 20 minutes of waiting and they claimed they had no idea what happened but they promised 10 minutes for the power to return. How can they make promises of a time frame when nobody knows what the outage was about? Forty minutes later, and still nothing. After such an extended period in the darkness, I had to ask if there was any lamp or light source they could at least provide. Once again, a promise was made to bring something up. You can guess what happened next. Nothing. Why make promises that you know you can't keep? If the hotel couldn't foresee a power outage to buy a sufficient generator, why would they promise that they had a lamp/light source at all? The power eventually came back, but no apologies at all throughout the event, nor after.

Before I conclude, I need to point something out: I am sure you are reading this because you are looking for a place to stay. If you have read the reviews before this, or even after this, you will note that this property apparently responds to a lot of the reviews, with many of the replies coming from the GM, a certain Enrique Colmenares. As you know now, there are a lot of negative reviews. The replies from the property apologize profusely and promise to improve the service or the stay. Being hopelessly positive in life, I had hoped that the replies were put to good use and that the property would improve. So, I went ahead and booked, and made a grave mistake.

YOU, my friend, are reading this right now and are at the point where you have not decided yet. Alas, you are just like me, an IHG loyalists, always hoping for the best, but, in this case, I highly dissuade you from proceeding with staying here. Nothing has changed. I can see you now writing your own review after your dismal stay.

There are other global chains in the area. You will be...

NOTE - THIS WAS A 7 DAY MEDICAL TRIP, NO LEISURE.

I ATTEMPTED TO CALL HOLIDAY INN TO CONFIRM ROOM

TYPE & LATE ARRIVAL - BUT UNABLE TO CALL INT’NL PH#

FROM USA … but IHG RESERVATIONS CONFIRMED IT

WHY WOULDN’T A NATIONAL HOTEL CHAIN HAVE 800#

1st, I didn’t get the room I booked/paid for per site/app - 1 King

& sofa bed in separate area for 3 women (myself, my daughter

& new friend) … Rivera sends us 3 to a room with 1 King bed!

Next he sends us to a room with 2 Full beds … I returned

downstairs and show him my reservation for 1 K / 1 sofa bed

Rivera looks at my confirmation on my phone, looks at me but

says nothing – I repeat that’s the room I want … again nothing

He call someone, gives me the phone and that person says no

sofa beds … now I realize Rivera didn’t speak English!

Hotel on super busy and loud corner, NO sleep!

3rd move to another room after I complained about street

noise; I noted NO mini frig & microwave as shown on site

3rd room still noisy from traffic AND early hotel construction

Realized street noise was more prominent due to windows

inability to close fully due to inaccurate/crooked installation

No carpet in the rooms, therefore guest overhead constantly

dragged chairs / furniture around or children’s toys

My 3rd guest/new friend only stayed 1 nite and checked out

with Rivera, BUT he never removed her … I paid extra for her

Although it was a lil cool, the pool was closed & hot tub empty

No ice machines worked on 3 floors, got ice at Bar downstairs

3rd nite lotta banging noise, I called front desk to ask about it -

‘she’ said no English and hung up; I thought we got

disconnected and call back 2x, now She’ won’t pick up

I finally meet Yonathan in the lobby – I’m not sure of his role or

title, but he spoke perfect English and was able to clear a few

things up for me … incl no sofa beds, no mini frig or m’wave,

very few staff bilingual and offered to translate my issues

MEANWHILE, I HAD BEEN CALLING IHG RESERVATIONS

DAILY complaining because I couldn’t get thru to the staff nor

get any peaceful rest after my surgery

IHG Reservations also experienced the language barrier and

several assumed disconnects, but they were hangups. This

was reported to upper management.

Mgr Arcadia S. approached me at day 5 when returning

from an app’t - to apologize for my inconvenience, offer 5K

points (not enough for 1 nite), lie to me about not being

charged for 3rd guest - till I showed her my confirmation …

I will say the rooms were always clean, other hotel &

restaurant staff were as kind and polite as possible, even with

the language barrier

SO - UNLESS U ARE BILINGUAL, NOT SPENDING MUCH TIME IN THE ROOM AND ON TRUE VACATION … THIS IS NOT...

I’m super disappointed with Holiday Inn even though I have an HGI membership with Holiday. We always reserve their hotel especially this one when we go to TJ for more than one day. I the reason reserved this hotel was because my daughter had some doctor's appointments on Thursday morning so I reserved for 4 nights and We checked on Wednesday night. Thursday we got up early to get ready and we left the hotel at around 7:45 am because my daughter had an appointment at 8 am. While we were gone someone entered our room and stole my daughter's Apple Watch. We never leave our valuable possessions, but my daughter was so nervous about her appointment that she forgot she left it behind. My daughter didn’t remember she left her watch until she came back from the clinic on Friday because she had to stay one night at the clinic. She checked her backpack and realized that the watch was missing so she checked the last location on her phone and it showed that it was in the hotel. She looked around and she moved things around the bed, she moved the bed, and also checked under the beds and still didn’t find it, so we called the receptionist to make a report for a missing watch we explained to them that the last location that shows that the watch was last seen was at the hotel and it’s not in the room. Also, she never takes her watch off unless too charged it or because she has to take a shower other than that, she always has it on, so they said they were going to investigate and would call you back shortly, but we never received a call every and when we would call they again to see if there was an update they will still say the same thing we will investigate and call you soon. On our last day when we were checking out, we told the receptionist helping us check out what had happened and he said that he's coworkers mentioned it to him and they talked to the room attendant because she was the only one who entered the room. She said that she didn't see anything or took anything. I told him that it didn't make sense that the last location my watch showed at 8:24 am was at the hotel then it either dead or someone turned off. He said we would be on the lookout so leave our phone number. I am just putting a review because I was giving them a chance to call me but they still haven't and when I call them they still say...