Aqua Soleil Hotel & Mineral Water Spa — Hotel in Desert Hot Springs

Fantastic - as long as you go in eyes open. The hotel runs a small four unit guest house about two miles away called Chez Soleil. My wife and I booked one of these units for a working holiday to get out of LA for a few days, and we brought our toddler. Check in was at the main hotel and very easy. The unit was in a building that looks like it used to be condos. When we pulled up it looked like it was under construction, the units were being renovated. Inside we found a brand new 1 bedroom apartment, minimallly designed but very comfortably put together with a fully outfitted kitchen bigger than the one in our Hollywood apartment (including full sized appliances, dishwasher, microwave, blender, lots of cutlery and plates, even a bit of coffee.) Gated patio just for the unit, cold A/C (huge unit in the living area and smaller unit in the bedroom), really really nice view of the mountains and Palm Srings and the sunset, huge TV with Netflix and Hulu, and king size comfortable bed. Wifi is fast enough, bit spotty at times, my computer clocked between two and 20 MBs but mainly towards the 20mbs range.

We heard the unit next to us being renovated but at a reasonable hour and not for long hours. We mentioned it to the hotel staff and they had the hammering postponed until our departure even though it didn't bother us too much, thoughtful.

The unit is new so has the issues you would expect, like minimal furniture (a desk or couple living room side tables, and some patio furniture including an umbrella are needed); and some of the edges wearing off as the build quality gets tested by real life use (I.e. a few of the bedroom blinds fell off, the toilet seat came undone, easily put back in place though).

We liked that the building is in a residential area on the edge of Desert Hot Springs, as it gave us a chance to see how folks are living here but also nicer night time views than what we would have had at the hotel proper, while only a seven minutes drive to groceries and restaurants.

We had full access to the hotel amenities and staff, and made use of the pool and hot tub, both were excellent. The front.desk staff found a floaty thing for our toddler also, which was appreciated. really nice folks working there and the other guests at the pool were friendly.

Safety: with a small kid, I appreciated the gated patio area for the unit and the fact that the rest of the yard around the unit was fenced and locked up with only one entryway. The building is on the edge of town so I had been a concerned about coyotes but didn't see a one, and even if they had been around they would not have been able to get near our kid. It is also up the street from a sketchy liquor store that had panhandlers but we didn't see anyone walking around our property and it was nice to have a place to get cold drinks and ice ten seconds away. First aid kit and fire extinguisher are a nice touch. The apartment is not child proof but once we moved the kitchen and bathroom chemicals and wedged the door to the hot water heater shut it was OK, with supervision. The A/C buttons are perfectly placed for a small child. to mess with, ours kept hitting the fuse or switching it to heater, but such is life with a toddler.

Considering the very low price, if you are the sort of traveler thay likes comfort and flexibility, but can deal with reality or normally use Airbnb when you travel, the units at Chez Soleil are a seriously good deal and great for a long or short term stay to chill out and explore the desert - Coachella and the airtram to San Jacinta are right here, Joshua tree is a reasonable drive as is Palm Springs. If you are expecting a Marriott Club time-share this isn't for you.

Pros: Full amenities, lots of space, desert sunrises and sunsets, great views, great customer service, value for what you pay is excellent.

Cons: it's a work in progress, so things are still settling a bit; no shade in front at hottest part of day, not child proofed. Only cons really if you are not a...

Prior to booking, I phoned the hotels front desk and specifically asked if the pools were open 24 hours. The man at the front desk said, of course, they’re open 24/7, so I booked the room, trusting the employees of the hotel.

We arrived to the hotel to a rude and dismissive young lady at reception who handed us a list of unexpected and ridiculous rules for the hotel. You cannot smoke on any of the private outdoor balconies, you can only have water by the pool, you can’t play any sort of music, etc etc. There were so many rules that I skimmed the paper and signed the agreements for the room that was nonrefundable and paid for, since the only thing we really cared about was the 24 hour pool and we had received confirmation about that.

We waited to go into the pools until about 9:30 since there were no kids there anymore, and soaked for about 30 minutes, which was lovely. Until another employee came out and told us the pool closes at 10. I told her that I spoke to someone that morning and he said they were 24 hours, which is why I booked the room. She said “well they’re closed”. So we went back to the room and waited until the morning to speak to a manager, as we were confident that the management would come to a reasonable agreement with us.

In the morning we went downstairs and talked to the manager Paola. Keeping with the pattern of rude passive aggression, Paola refused to provide an adequate resolution to the issue. Offering us a 15% refund on the grounds that we had no complaints about the room. When I put it to her that the only reason we stayed here was for the pools, which are clearly worth much more to this hotel, and which we got false confirmation about, she passive aggressively told me to have a nice day. She did not care at all that we got false information about this hotel from one of their employees, she said she’d retrain them (she didn’t even ask who we spoke to so I’m not sure how that will work) did not apologize, and was honestly one of the most immature managers I’ve ever spoken to.

I would never stay here again, it is not nearly worth the price. Between the non working wifi, the rude staff, the pools curfew, and the ridiculous rules with barely any amenities, a Super8 would provide you a much better experience at a much more fair price. The rooms look much better in pictures, and you can definitely find a better hotel for a similar price in this area. If you do choose to stay at this overpriced and overrated hotel, be cautious when booking a room at Aqua Soleil. Clearly you cannot trust even what the employees say.

I hope the owner realizes that their staff, especially their managers, are ill equipped for the job and extremely rude...

Our room was not at all like the photos and the hotel seems to have some deferred maintenance issues. We also had one bad experience to share.

Common areas: The lobby seems to have been painted and redecorated somewhat recently, but you can still see chipped stucco in places. On the second floor, the walkway had places with obvious patches and other places that were chipped enough to see the wooden sub structure below.

Negative notes about the room: Our assigned room was not at all like the photos. It was devoid of artwork or any paint other than white. Far from being a cute mid-century vibe, it was a white box with a few pieces of cheap ikea-esque furniture.

Additionally, the front of my AC unit had partially fallen off and was askew. The front desk did send maintenance, who propped it back up, but it still was clearly not attached correctly. I'm not sure if that impacted operation. The unit had a taped-on sticker asking for it not to be set below 70°. At that set point the room felt quite warm. This may have been because there are no blackout curtains on the east-facing windows (Direct sun, shortly after sunrise). It may also have been that the unit seems to have been modified so that the fan will not remain on when you select "low" or "high." "Auto" seemed to be the only mode that worked. So when the AC is not on, you also do not get any air circulation.

Positive notes about the room: The shower was lovely. Although it had somewhat dated and incongruent tile work, it was clean, wide, and had a high enough shower head that we enjoyed that experience. Hot water was readily available and water pressure was high. The bed was a soft foam mattress, no lumpy spots. We slept well.

Bad experience: The battery in our door lock died and wouldn't register the door key. This resulted in being locked out at midnight after returning from a wedding. The night-shift front-desk clerk was responsive, apologetic, and had it fixed in about 40 minutes. However, we weren't offered a place to wait (e.g. an extra room) nor any sort of compensation from the hotel. Thankfully we had some friends also staying at the hotel who invited us into their room while we...