Rio Suites — Hotel in Baja California

In my opinion, I wish I could rate it 2.5 stars. Location, friendly staff, and free parking are great. But it’s unclean, run-down, and overpriced. |||I’ll start with the positive:||-The staff are very nice and accommodating, lovely people. My Spanish is so-so, but some of them spoke a little bit of English and we got by. *on a side note, the locals are much more appreciative that you at least try to learn Spanish for your visits. Americans can often be rude and expect everyone to speak English perfectly regardless of their background, length of stay, etc., and I multiple people here have commented that they experience rude Americans who expect Mexicans to all speak English. I have had a couple of rude comments from locals who don’t seem to love having visitors, but overall, my kind-of fluent (trying to get better) Spanish has been complimented and the locals have stated their appreciation that I am trying. Culturally, Mexicans are much kinder, in my experience so far. ||-The parking is free, and there is always a parking attendant outside. It’s a small, outdoor tandem lot on the street. The attendant asked if I wanted my car washed, I opted in because he “had a guy,” and he scheduled it for me! This gentleman cleaned my car inside and out for $6!!! I paid him $30, because I pay that amount to have my car cleaned in California and it isn’t ever that good. That was a wonderful surprise. ||-The location is nice, fairly safe (by Tijuana standards-I’m from the USA), and walking distance to Calimax grocery store, Mercado Hidalgo (love this market), 7-11, restaurants, museums, etc. It’s typically easy to find a taxi. ||-There is a suite option with a full kitchen (minus toaster and oven). Being plant-based in TJ makes finding food options difficult, so I appreciated this and it was the main reason why I booked this hotel stay. ||||Things I didn’t like and why I won’t re-book here:||-I’m a solo female traveler and the entry door to my room did not have a lock on the inside, or a latch. It is a keypad entry, and the code is printed in huge letters and read out loud in front of anyone present when you check-in. I have no idea if they change these between guests, the paper looks like it has been copied many times. *AND THERE IS NO INSIDE LATCH TO LOCK THE ROOM. If anyone knows the code, they can come in at any point. I took every chair in the room and made a giant pile in front of the door-I have severe PTSD, so I didn’t sleep well. The fact that this is a thing, is incredibly unsafe. * I looked for a phone in the room to call the front desk and inquire about this, but there is no telephone in the room (solo female traveler with no way to lock her door and no telephone and poor cell phone service-yikes). When I walked down and asked about it to the front desk attendant, they immediately requested their staff member to show me how to use it. He went up with me, said; “no, no tiene [no, it doesn’t have it].” he told the front desk attendant the same thing and she very matter-of-factly said; “it doesn’t have one. It’s safe, don’t worry.” They didn’t have another room for me to move to. ||-The safe doesn’t work in my room. I asked the front desk attendant how to use the safe, she did not know and she told me to ask the staff in the morning. They did not know either. It was locked. Typically, hotel safes are open and there are instructions to create a code but I did not have access to the safe for my entire stay. ||-One minor thing that bothered me more than it should have, given everything else, was that there were no information pamphlets or instructions anywhere in the room. There was no card or tag to put on the door to ask for housekeeping or to request do not disturb, no branded notepad or welcome sign or anything.||-They do not clean your room unless you request it. I typically do not like having housekeeping while I stay at a hotel, so this did not bother me. I clean things myself and prefer privacy. However, on my third day I came back and someone had been in my room and changed the sheets and put up new towels. I didn’t like that, actually. Especially, because I didn’t have the opportunity to leave them a tip, since I didn’t know they were going to be there, and I prefer to make sure that the hardest working people know that they are appreciated. ||-The hotel isn’t worth the asking price, in my opinion. I moved to a different hotel after 5 days, and only stayed because I pre-payed and didn’t leave the room much. I took all valuables with me when I did. I’m not sure whether that was the safer option or not, but it worked out thank goodness.||-It’s a little run-down: the clock on the wall doesn’t work and has mystery splatters and dust, the dishes don’t match, there is a water dispenser on the fridge that doesn’t work, all of the knives in the knife block are missing, lots of peeling paint and stains and they use foam soap dispensers with regular thick soap (annoying to use), holes in the walls, broken towel rack, missing hand towel rack (it broke off and they didn’t repair it). They leave you a giant 5-gallon jug of water that has been used and is half-empty under the counter but there isn’t a dispenser and I have no idea who used the rest of it… The shades are hung in a way that light is allowed in on either side and at some angles you would be very visible to people outside or in other buildings at night, I used the furniture to keep it closed so I could have more privacy. There are three different colored light bulbs on a light fixture over the bar which adds to the idea that they don’t really care that much. And the mattress is thin and you can feel all of the springs and parts of the frame, it isn’t comfortable. ||-Cleanliness is a major issue. The amount of other people‘s hair and crumbs that are between furniture and on furniture… all of the chairs have fabric, and the lighter fabric shows a lot of staining and dirt. The pillows are stained and only covered with one light pillowcase, it really grossed me out. In my opinion, when there are hard-working staff and these issues exist-It’s a management/ownership problem. I have seen the staff working very hard. ||-The hotel has poor insulation so you can hear everything outside in the hallways and on the street. You can see light shining all around the frame of the front door.||-There was a whirring sound from the fridge constantly, and a very high-pitched ringing that was constant. This added to the noise pollution from the hallways and outside. The area is on a side street, thank goodness, so the outside noise pollution isn’t as bad as the Main Street. ||If this hotel was priced at half of what they’re asking, it might be worth this day… Simply because the location is great and it’s nice to have a kitchen and a parking space… But I will definitely not be booking here again and I would not...

Wow, first I'd like to say major props to the staff. Everybody, from the front desk, to the maids, and to last but not least, the very friendly informative security guards! It was a pleasure, they were so nice I bought them ice cold drinks! The cleanliness was a 10/10. The air was clean and fresh, with a nice top notch a/c unit. Everything was brand new top of the line! The beds were amazing. And the Television was an LG!!! With casting available, so your phone could hook up to it and stream anything. The television alone was worth the stay haha. They provide Netflix, Prime Video, YouTube and many more options. Great location, I felt safe walking late at night to 7 eleven about 2 blocks away. Very convenient location. Next to an amazing restaraunts with amazing recipes, and amazing chefs that put their live into making you a meal, that honestly should cost way more than what they were charging. I'll always come back to this hotel. Nice and quiet at night, no inappropriate loud noises or disturbances from neighboring rooms. I love Mexico, and Rio Suites will always be my #1 hotel for every trip. Great rates 👍👌 Thanks guys youre the best! P.S they even reward you after...

I wanted to like this place. It had great reviews. But I can't recommend staying here. Management made no effort to warn me that (in June 2020) an addition is being built onto the building. We are talking a crane raising steel girders and all the banging and noise that comes with a construction site. Inexcusable. At night when the construction stops, the noise doesn't unfortunately. No staff seemed to care how late some guests blared music and tv. Even the quiet guests made noise you could hear because the walls are so thin.

There are a few positives: The Zone Rio location is good. I was able to rent a large two bedroom apartment for about the same price as a single hotel room. It has off street parking which is necessary in this neighborhood. But it is valet parking so there's always the hassle of leaving your key. The staff were friendly in general.

But noise wasn't the only problem. The place wasn't cleaned very well. The sheets are stained and torn in places. They should have been replaced long ago.

I...