Cape Rey Carlsbad Beach, a Hilton Resort and Spa — Hotel in Carlsbad

This is a long but I believe a fair review of our experience during quarantine. We visited this hotel at the end of July through August 2nd. The hotel was following COVID-19 measures (everyone was required to wear a mask outside of their room/pool area and hand sanitizer was available at most main entrances) and our room was not ready as they had yet to complete a thorough inspection once the room was cleaned. Each room has a "Clean room" seal upon entering for the first time.

Upon entering the room, it was very neat and clean, but the coffee area was somewhat dusty as if it had been untouched for quite a while. We were not told there would be no room service or maid service, but we were not surprised when our room wasn't cleaned with the state having quarantine measures in place. However, since the rooms were not being cleaned during guests stays, people were leaving their trash outside their doors. I witnessed on more than one occasion, the hotel cleaning staff pass by the trash/dishes without picking up the mess. During our 3 day stay, the trash remained the whole time.

We upgraded to a 1st floor ocean view due to the lanai. Our view was obstructed by over grown foliage. The ocean view is marred by a large busy street between you and the ocean. There are also plenty of RVs at the beach that further block the view. I suggest you get a 2nd or 3rd floor ocean view or pool view as the first floor view is not worth the upgrade.

The hotel location can be noisy at times. While in your room it is mostly quiet, outside one side of the hotel has traffic noise from a busy street, and the back of the hotel has a passenger train that passes by several times a day.

The pool, at least during the weekend, gets packed and if you are not in line at 10:30 am, you are likely to have to be wait listed for a few hours until people leave for the day. There is no pool service but the Chandler's restaurant does provide to go cocktails and has a limited take out menu for Breakfast and Lunch, and the restaurant has sit down service after 5 pm. On Friday evening, we waited over an hour for a table, but once seated, we received exceptional service from our sever Brock.

The hotel itself charges a plethora of fees ranging from your standard tax for the room to an occupancy tax, resort fee, parking fee, and a voluntary state fee (which was not a voluntary option to pay). We stood for 2 nights and attempted to use a $500 Hilton gift card (which covered a little more than half of our stay) that my husband received for his birthday, but we were originally told that the hotel (which is a Hilton property) does not accept the American Express gift card that was purchased directly from Hilton. Upon requesting for the receptionist to double check, she made a call and verified that the gift card was a valid form of payment and just charged the rest of the stay to the card we had on file.

I had no problem with the hotel itself, the rooms were standard and comfortable and most of the staff was friendly and helpful. There are state mandated measures in place to ensure safety, but I feel if these measures are in place then the hotel should limit the amount of rooms it allows for reservation so people are not having to wait long times to access the only pool or the only restaurant on site. I also believe that the term "ocean view" should be changed to a partial ocean view since the view can be obstructed in certain areas. While I think this is a well managed hotel and I enjoyed my stay there considering the limitations that was forced upon by the government, I think that I was able to enjoy everything the hotel had to offer and do not see me going back...

I had a terrible experience at my stay here, involving very unprofessional employees.

Let me start from the beginning:

My boyfriend and I came here to spend some quality time for our anniversary and his birthday. While checking in, we were asked if we’d like to opt in or out of cleaning services, and we decided we wanted to opt out.

The next day comes around and my boyfriend and I were getting ready to leave for the beach. For his birthday, which was a few days prior to our trip, I bought him a hawaiian beaded bracelet and for security and safety reasons, my boyfriend decided not to take it to the beach with him, but to place it carefully on our room’s TV counter (rather than the safe since we had opted out of cleaning services) before he began spraying SPF. When we came back from the beach, we noticed the bracelet was gone and also noticed our room was cleaned by a hotel staff. This was made very obvious (& later confirmed by Supervisor checking the cleaning log) because we had IN-N-OUT the night before and our takeout bag wasn’t there. Of course we were upset but this was the last night of our trip, we came back late, and had dinner reservations to get ready for so we decided we’d worry about the bracelet as we checked out tomorrow at 12PM.

The next day as we were packing, we looked relentlessly and every crevice of our room and unfortunately didn’t find the bracelet. We went to front desk and told them the situation while also checking out. Cleaning supervisor comes out, we repeat the situation to her, so she goes and checks our room, also unable to find the bracelet. She then tells us there’s practically nothing she can do but her manager and the worker who cleaned our room would be there tomorrow, past our check out day, and that the manager will call us.

Our interaction with the manager, Rene was extremely unprofessional. First, he was never the one to call us, my boyfriend called 2 times until Rene finally decided to call back. Second, he accused us of lying, which we aren’t nor do we have the time for, while saying multiple lies himself like he heard we left the hotel and came back to report the bracelet missing (lie) and then mocked us by saying if it were him in this situation, he would’ve reported it the day it went missing and things could’ve potentially been different (also lie). The timing of which we report something doesn’t change the hotel’s policy, which is the reason they claimed to be so helpless. We didn’t want to ruin our stay and we didn’t think we’d have dealt with such negativity and unprofessionalism. We were certain we’d find the bracelet with the help of professional staff but unfortunately that wasn’t the case. He also accused us lying about opting out of cleaning services when he never checked with his own front desk employee; clearly the woman helping us clicked the wrong button and opted us in even though we made it very clear we wanted to be opted out.

All in all, my boyfriend’s bracelet is still lost and stolen and not one person from this company/team tried to offer us a solution even as simple as checking their lost and found. I’m extremely disappointed with my stay and the situation we were put in that could have simply been avoided had the staff been more diligent with their customers and had opted us out, and if the staff were apologetic and helpful in finding the bracelet that I had JUST purchased for my partner. Not to mention being accused of liars rather than offering an apology for their...

To start, I am very picky and very rarely give Excellent reviews for hotels, especially since Covid. Sorry to make this to long. I usually do not make it past the first paragraph when reading reviews. But there are so many good details I would like to share, if you are interested read on. Otherwise, bottom line, this is a well managed hotel. The employees are ALL so nice, and helpful, and accommodating, which is a reflection of management. Nice work!

Now for a few details. Weather was crazy, I ask to extend my stay because I was fearful of driving in bad weather, then I ask to leave a day early because the weather changed, I had a small window to get on the road. All the people I talked with were so nice and helpful. Room service was easy, and not expensive, my room was a ways from the restaurant and the room delivery was extremally helpful. And it was all done cheerfully. Never once did I feel like an inconvenience, as in other hotels I have stayed at last year. Cleanliness, wow, this is the cleanest hotel I have stayed at, ever. (even the Ritz Carlton). The housekeeper even stopped by, with out my need to request, to see if I needed a refresh. It was just nice. If I did not want to be disturbed, I left my door sign out and no one bother me. When my room was refreshed, she changed all the towels, emptied all the trash, refilled coffee. And it all seem to be done cheerfully, you can tell she took pride in the hotel. Well maintained, everything worked. The room had everything, and well placed. It had a microwave, refrigerator and the Krieg coffee pot (I bring my own pods) . It had a luggage rack, large closet and a nice desk. All lights were easy to find out how to turn on and place in perfect spots. I usually need rearrange rooms to work for me and some of my health equipment. I did not need to do any this time. And it was spacious. The photography pictures were beautiful. The ones in my room were of South Carlsbad beach. I was sad that I could not make it physically to the beach, because of the crazy weather. But I looked up from the desk and the picture of the stairs down to the beach took my breath away. I felt like I was there. Everywhere I looked there were the beautiful pictures. Definitely an exclusive for this hotel. Finally the price was reasonable for my oceanfront room, with a full view. I was going to stay in Huntington, but decided Carlsbad, because it was more central to some activities I was doing. Cape Rey was fifteen hundred less than where I was going to stay, and I think the room, the view and definitely the service was much better.

One tiny con, which I believe was not in the hotels control. I miss the old days when room service meals were served on nice trays with real dishes and silverware. Not just in a box. The food I received tasted so good :), the fruit bowl and vegies were amazing. I am just not a fan of eating out of a box. Maybe I will ask for a plate on the side next time :).

Otherwise, perfect stay. I wish I could have stayed a bit longer. Thank you for giving me a well needed rest...