Hampton Inn Cardiff Beach Encinitas, CA — Hotel in Encinitas

My wife uses a wheelchair, so some of this review will be specific to an accessible room (specifically, room 132).

We've grown to like Hampton Inns in general because they have such a great breakfast and the rooms tend to be spacious and comfortable, and this was no exception. In this specific case, because our American Express card is linked to Hilton Honors, we were able to use our reward points to book the room (cost us 60,000 points for the night).

This was also the first time I had used the Hilton mobile app for Hampton Inn. I was able to use the app to not only book the room, but check in the night before, get a digital key, and check out. I used the digital key in the app to unlock the room door, and it was very fast and easy. There was also a floor plan of the hotel on the app so I could see where our room was located and could walk straight there. The only time I had any interaction with the front desk was to stop by during breakfast the next day to verify that check-out time was noon.

Pros: Room was comfortable and spacious, very easy to maneuver the wheelchair in. This particular room has a roll-in shower, and you get a nice, full strength stream of water (so many other hotels have water-saving devices where the stream is fairly weak). Also, the bathroom has a nightlight. At other hotels, I usually have to leave the bathroom light or entry-way light on so I can find my way to the bathroom in the middle of the night without bumping into anything, but the nightlight in the bathroom cast just enough light for me to see.

Air conditioning worked well. I was a little confused because there was a thermostat controller mounted on the wall that I couldn't get to power on. Turns out that you control the temperature and fan directly from the A/C unit that's mounted under the window. There's also a switch mounted on the wall that controls the window shade.

Nice full breakfast, with sausage, bacon, scrambled eggs, Belgian waffle machines, oatmeal, cereal, yogurt, fruit, different breads to make toast, and a juice machine. Staff was very mindful to keep all of the items stocked up. Tip: for crispier bacon, lay a napkin on a paper plate, put your bacon on it, then press another napkin on top of the bacon to soak up the grease.

Roomy desk that was big enough where I could set up my laptop plus a portable external monitor.

USB ports by the bed and desk for phone charging.

Noon check-out time. We could sleep in and take our time to pack.

Cons: Our room (room 132) didn't have any towel racks. The towels are folded nicely on a couple of shelves in the bathroom, and there's a hook next to the shower where the hair dryer hung from, but there were no towel racks to hang face cloths, hand towels, and bath towels once you used them. I looked at some of the pictures from other reviews, and it looks like in a regular, non-accessible room, there are racks mounted on the shower door. But since our roll-in shower had shower curtains instead of a shower door, there were no racks. They could easily mount a couple on the back wall between the shower and toilet. We ended up using the hand rails around the toilet to hang our towels.

Could use some more lighting by the dresser/TV. There is a small desk lamp on the desk, and two lights by the head of the bed, but the dresser area gets a little dark at night.

The bar in the closet is a little low, but maybe this is to make it easier to reach for someone in a wheelchair. If you have a long dress that needs hanging, your dress is probably going to touch the floor.

Seating area for breakfast is a little cramped and small. If you want to move a chair out of the way to make room for a wheelchair, difficult finding a place to put the chair temporarily. There are also some seats in the lobby.

Could use some more handicapped parking spaces. There are only four, and all were taken by the time we got there. But there seemed to be plenty of...

A terrible experience:

The room I was given (218) was dingy and tired. While it appeared to have been cleaned, all surfaces seemed generally grimy nonetheless. The view out the window was of someone's dirt yard and compost pile.

The wall-mounted A/C worked only with a low temperature setting and the fan blasting on high. It was so noisy I couldn't talk on the phone, nor hear the TV without turning it up to stadium volume. The "auto" setting on the A/C resulted in alternating cooling and then heating as soon as the thermostat setting was reached. Same with the "low" fan setting. The windows did not open. Nonetheless, I unplugged the offending A/C unit to get some peace and quiet. With the A/C wall unit unplugged, the lamps on the sides of the bed stopped working (this one was hard to understand). Also, within five minutes of unplugging the A/C unit, the room began to smell sour and moldy, so I plugged it back in.

There was a loud fan in the bathroom that came back on automatically no matter how many times I turned it off. It stayed on all night along with the thundering A/C unit. Fortunately, I had earplugs with me.

The free (unsecured network) internet did not work. I was forced to sign up for the Hilton Honors program to access this free internet. I did so, but the internet still did not work (numerous error messages).

I specifically booked a king room with a bathtub, but was given a room with only a shower.

I had an early morning meeting the morning of my departure, and had put my breakfast in the (empty) refrigerator provided in the room. The fridge froze my breakfast overnight, and I had to throw it out. I did not have time to try the hotel breakfast, not that Ireally wanted to.

Housekeeping knocked on my door at 8:30. Checkout time was 11, so I don't understand the intrusion.

Positives:

The reception staff was friendly and competent. The bed and bedding were nice, and clean.

I would not recommend this hotel to anyone. It was the worst hotel experience I can remember, and it...

As a Hilton Diamond member of over five years, I’ve come to associate Hilton hotels with pristine cleanliness and exceptional service. But my recent stay at the Hampton Inn by Hilton Cardiff-By-The-Sea, on July 20, 2023, was a shocking departure from those expectations.

Picture this: it’s early morning and, fresh from a shower, you’re eager to start the day. Instead, you are greeted by a cockroach scurrying on your room countertop, shattering the serenity of your morning. Not exactly the kind of surprise any guest should ever have to deal with.

With a racing heart and a lump in my throat, I managed to deal with the creature, a task that no hotel guest should ever have to undertake. I immediately alerted the front desk, expecting swift resolution and an apology at the very least. But what ensued only added insult to injury.

The staff member dispatched to my room seemed to consider this repugnant sight as routine, suggesting a room change nonchalantly without a hint of an apology or genuine concern. The room was left as is - the offending insect still in sight - a haunting reminder of the horrifying incident.

Hoping for at least a follow-up call from the management, I was met with stony silence. No acknowledgment, no apology - just a deafening lack of care and responsibility. Now, on July 22nd, my disappointment still lingers, deepened by the lack of response.

Hilton has been a staple in my travels for half a decade. This unsavory experience at the Hampton Inn Cardiff-By-The-Sea stands as an appalling outlier in an otherwise impressive portfolio. I regretfully share this experience as a stern warning to fellow travelers who, like me, expect and deserve far better.

Regrettably, this is one Hilton chapter I am eager to close. I will not be revisiting, and I urge fellow guests to consider my experience before booking their stay. This encounter serves as a glaring reminder that sometimes, places can profoundly disappoint our...