L'Auberge Del Mar — Hotel in Del Mar

I arrived at the hotel for check-in at 4 p.m. On Saturday September 24th, approximately 1 hour after the 3 p.m. Check in time.

I was "asked" if an ADA room was ok, because it didn't have a shower door. Having been in an ADA room perviously I knew that not only would it not have a shower door, but it would not have a bathtub, which isn't a big deal to most, but I enjoy taking a relaxing bath when I am on vacation. I asked for a regular room, and I was told there weren't any available, but I could pay to upgrade????

Wouldn't one assume that a 4+ star hotel would offer every guest a room with a bathtub? Begrudgingly I accepted the room as I was already tired. The room itself was clean, but it was facing the sun in the late afternoon heat, and it was an unseasonably warm day for early fall (more typical of mid summer). The AC was not on, and the room was roasting hot. I put the AC on and the room never actually got to a comfortable temperature until long after the sun went down.

The next morning I made my way down to where they were serving breakfast outside on a beautiful day. There were 2 4 tops available, but I was told that they were reserved for parties of 4, but I could order and "eat in my room" or from the bar. I sat at the bar, ate me meal and left. Another thing that was troublesome was that I left the hotel at 2 am to give a friend a ride, returned at 3 am to the hotel and waited 10 minutes for a valet to take my vehicle (which is a long time... felt like 20 minutes) This is not the experience I expected at all from this property and I was thoroughly disappointed from the time I arrived until the time I left as well as the mid point of my stay.

This property and the level of service has diminished precipitously since my last visit 18 months ago. Not only will I never stay at this property again, I will no longer attend their Del Mar opening day at the Races Party, which I have attended for the last 4 years. This year was a lackluster experience at best, and left me feeling price gouged. The $225 cover charge didn't include drinks, which were also extremely expensive given the slow service by bartenders that clearly had no experience in serving large crowds. For the cost of myself and my 4 guests, I could have had a better experience in Las Vegas, with a DJ that is famous, not a wedding DJ playing a mix from a CD containing EDM versions of top 40 hits. I write a lot of Yelp reviews. You have to really disappoint on all levels to get 1 star, but you don't get what you pay for. This is the opposite of the experience I had recently at the Monarch Bay Resort, which...

The Villas at Del Mar are by far the best deal you can find for accommodations in Del Mar. A one bedroom condo, with a kitchenette, full size fridge, pull out sofa bed, nice bathroom, and a balcony with a table and seating for 6 looking out to the sea PLUS access to the L'Auberge Hotel facilities is what you get at a price lower than almost anyplace else in town. When we stayed it was half the cost of a single room at L'Auberge with more space and similar amenities. Wonderful sunset views from your balcony can't be beat.||||The villas are a short but steep walk down to the beach. and a short, but steep walk up to the main plaza area of Del Mar where there are ample shops and restaurants. It is also a short drive to Vons to stock up your kitchen if you are there more than a couple of days. ||||Access to L'Auberge Hotel pool/jacuzzi, and gym are a great bonus to the villas. The pool is heated and a great temperature for kids and adults. The jacuzzi is clean and hot. Additionally, you can borrow beach equipment from the hotel, including chairs and boogie boards.||||The only problem we encountered was that the wifi did not work at anytime during our stay of several days. We spoke with the general manage and with tech support but nothing seemed to get things fixed. Unfortunately, it seemed the onus was on us to work it through with remote tech support, something I was not willing to spend time on during my vacation.||||Each villa has one assigned parking spot. Generally this works out but we did run into an issue with someone parking in other people's spots. Each car has a pass with their villa number so it can be sorted out pretty easily.||||It is also important to note that the villas DO NOT HAVE AC. This was not a problem in the spring with the sea breeze but could be a problem on hot days in the summer. They do have heat throughout and a gas fire place in the living room for colder months. ||||Finally, the villas are right next to the train tracks so there is some noise from passing trains but that is true of every location in Del Mar that is anywhere near the beach as the train runs along the coastline. Most of the time the only sound is that of the crashing waves.||||Overall, I would choose the villas for my next family...

The first full day of our stay started with the power going out around 4am, and it remained out for the majority of the whole day. Other nearby establishments had power, but the resort stayed down all day. At one point, it seemed they may have attempted to run a generator for their kitchen because there was a flicker of power for a few seconds, followed by it going back out and smoke filling the hallways. Pretty concerned no fire alarms went off, because the smoke in the hallway was thick enough to not see down halls, and to choke on. I have medication that requires refrigeration, so it wasn't great for the power to be out all day with no backup. We also couldn't get anything done online because it caused the wifi to drop, as well. Their way of lighting the building during the outage included small rave glowsticks and mini flashlights on the ground. No backup emergency evacuation technology in place.

Food options were scarce if you're looking for plant based. My breakfast was home fries and a slice of watermelon, and 3 other meals were sad tacos with a number of ingredients removed.

Elevators were down during our stay, even beyond the power outage.

Our flight got delayed leaving, so we asked about a late checkout. They explained it would be an additional $360 to stay for a portion of the day, despite the room not having reservations following ours. When I asked if there was anything they could do since our first full day was wiped, they said the best they could do was charge us $200.

No one expects even the simplest of hotels to be without a power backup, let alone a resort. Luckily all the surrounding buildings had their stuff in order, and so we were able to get food from across the street.

The staff were great as individuals, and did their best to scramble in order to try and find ways to help, but there's little anyone can do if the backbone of the business is lackluster. They have signs posted about fees including gratuity already added, and it blames the raise of minimum wage. What a cheesey, tacky, classless thing to do. Pay your folks their worth, and don't dump it on guests to do for you.

Other resorts in the area are wonderful, check 'em out before looking...