Home2 Suites by Hilton Carlsbad — Hotel in Carlsbad

On the surface, this is a standard Home2 suites and looks ok. Stayed here 2 times, with a couple of nights in between. On our first stay, we had a couple of issues though.

First of all, the doors from the hallway to the rooms do not fully close, there is about a 3/4" gap underneath. So you'll hear every noise made by other guests in the hallway and at night, light will shine through under your door. We ended up putting a towel there each night, but I do wonder how such a huge gap can be up to fire code..

Also, the pillows have a foul smell, some more than others. On our first stay, we ended up sharing a single pillow because of this. On the second stay, all three pillows where ok, but you could still notice the same faint foul smell, so I guess it's something they do with them in this property.

Finally, at breakfast, we noticed that this property uses paper plates, plastic utensils and wraps every slice of bread or bagel in cling film. Home2 suites, as a brand, advertises it's eco-friendly nature and prohibits the use of paper plates. Breakfast should be served on real china with metal utensils according to brand standards. AFAIK, wrapping each slice of bread is also prohibited by brand standards.

So I did mention this to the front desk at checkout on our first stay. The lady acted very surprised and told us that yes, breakfast should have real china and paper should not be there. She apologized and said this was not normal.

However, when we got back a couple of days later, nothing had changed. So I was blatently lied to the first time around, which I do not appreciate. This time, I mentioned the issue during breakfast. The lady present at the front desk now was the GM herself, miss Salian.

Her first response was that they did have real china and metal utensils in the back and in the rooms. Sure, fine, but brand standards are not about /having/ something, it's about actually using it and i tried telling her that. She then proceeded to bring us a couple of china plates and some utensils "so that we would we be satisfied". She even came around to show us some dishes to "prove" that they did posess real plates.

When I tried to explain to her that this is not what I meant - it's not about us being satisfied or bringing a single guest a real plate, but it's about actually living up to your eco friendly promise - any time, for every guest, she just didn't listen and kept repeating the same thing over and over.

She seemed completely unwilling to listen or understand my point and got loud and very rude. First she blamed it on staff shortages and even told me to get her some extra staff, in a pretty rude manner. She kept talking and would not be interrupted.

Listening does not seem to be one of her qualities. As far as I am concerned, definitely not manager material and completely unable to handle any sort of criticism.

If you run a franchise, there's standards that you need to comply to so that a customer gets the same experience, wherever he is. If a property ignores those standards and a customer notices that, deal with it, listen to what a customer has to say and do something with it. Do not make up excuses, pretend that it's a one off when you know it's not, or worse, start blaming your customer for actually caring.

As far as not having enough staff to do dishes during breakfast hours, you could simply get some extra plates and utensils and make sure you have enough for an entire breakfast session. And not wrapping each slice of bread in cling film should free up some time as well.

Reading through other reviews, I noticed that I am not the first person that made this exact observation about the GM. Rude, ignorant, unwilling to listen to criticism and a complete lack of empathy. Her way, or the highway. I am convinced that this property could be great, but based on my observations, probably with not with this lady running the place.

Edit: a few minutes after posting this review, room service walked into our room that had a do not disturb sign on it, while i was in the bathroom. Completely...

This place will take advantage of you if you're not careful, so beware. Was quoted an estimated price of 306 + tax for 2 night stay. Checked my charges on my CC after arriving home today to find that these people charged my card for 708.62!! Trying to gaslight me into believing that I was fully aware and agreed to the ridiculous almost comical price of 306 a night!. SERIOUSLY? The most expensive room they even offer is 211 on a weekend! Basically charging me over double the rate and when confronted,blaming it on spring break as if Carlsbad is some kind of hot spot spring break destination and talking to me as if I should have just considered myself lucky to have gotten to stay there at all with all of the "vacationers" in town. Capitol One takes customer service very seriously and has policies in place to insure we won't be out this money but you have to wonder how many others they do this to and get away with it? Just be aware. And check your statements UPDATE: In the interest of integrity as well as evidence for my cc company, I just randomly called and inquired about reservations for this upcoming weekend, requesting the exact same days as we did initially, checking in Sat evening, checking out Monday. And what do you know?... the lovely person on staff quoted my rate would be 178.72 per night! Imagine that? Far cry from 306 + tax for the same room...and spring break is still in full swing...go figure

You didn't do my family any favors by grossly over charging us for what amounted to a bed to sleep in at your sub-par unimpressive motel. Your less than honest business practices are only matched by your complete lack of customer service skills. And we will sleep in our car before we ever return to your establishment, so save the patronizing for the next...

This hotel has all of the details that so many other hotels seem to overlook! The room has a decent sized kitchenette with dishes included, lots of counter space to lay out luggage, a bonus table that rolls under the counter, lots of plugs that are easy to reach, a closet that doubles as a changing room. It's also super clean!

And my favorite part...they have an outdoor courtyard! The courtyard has a large gas fireplace, tables to sit and play games at, BBQ grills, and a corn hole game. GENIUS!! The biggest challenge for me has always been what to do with my kids that are needing to get their wiggles out after a long drive, and we don't want them to make commotion inside the hotel room. The courtyard was especially appreciated on our trip this week because it gave us an outdoor place to chat and hang out with friends also staying at the hotel, so that we could avoid spreading any potential Covid germs indoors.

The breakfast...I think will be good when Covid germs aren't a concern. I could see that there is a set up for a whole variety of food for a buffet. That wasn't an option due to germ concerns this time, but we did get a little box with prepackaged food in it.

Overall, we were impressed with all of the little things that put this hotel a step higher above the average hotel. We would definitely...