Heritage Inn La Mesa — Hotel in La Mesa

3 stars may be a stretch.. I was looking at a review for the Heritage Inn Seaworld nearby my place of work and noticed the awful reviews sounded strangely similar to my experience at this Heritage in in La Mesa last mo. My booking was through Expedia. Final sale, but a good price for a last minute deal. I booked a non-smoking room for 2 nights. The gentleman at the counter when I arrived was kind and helpful. We got our room keys and went upstairs to the room to change real quick- we brought along our 5 year old son and he wanted a quick dip in the hot tub before going to bed. I was impressed that the pool hours were until 10 pm. The room wasn't bad. Weird to me that there was no micowave and we had to turn on our mini-fridge but it worked. I noticed that the place had a lot of people hanging around off of the balconies (all men) that gave me the distinct feeling that they lived there and this was a place for drug activity. I covered up going to the pool as there were a couple of guys peering over the upper-floor railings down on the pool area.. One of them tried to call something down to me but I pretended not to hear.. The hot tub was NOT hot. It was barely warm enough to stay in. My boyfriend and I joked that we could take a hotter bath upstairs. WRONG. After a short dip in the outdoor bathtub we went to the room and felt a major need to wash off that "hot tub" water. Barely warm enough water coming out to shower. Very disappointing. We didn't sleep in since the highway was right there and w/ hospitals nearby as well, sirens and loud trucks braking woke us all up early. We were gone most of the next day. Didn't waste another evening trying out the hot tub. Pros: TV worked fine. Didn't see any bugs. No noticeable dirt or grime in the room. Good central location if you have a car to visit SD spots. Free parking. Cheap rates. Other Cons: Cigarette smell allover the property. Key cards worked only 1x, had to go to the office every single time we returned to the room to have keys re-coded. Sketchy entrance (you have to cross over a busy freeway offramp!). My last impression was during my check-out. When we left, I pulled up to the front leaving my boyfriend and child in the car. I thought I would be in and out of the office quickly. There were two women working behind the counter. One skinny white girl, and one older white woman. I should have taken their names but I was so taken aback by how they were speaking on the phone in front of guests I couldn't believe it. There were maybe 5 people in the tiny office lobby waiting to check in or out. The two behind the counter were yelling and cursing at(apparently?) an Expedia rep over some kind of miscommunication with booking payment. I myself am a property manager and have spent over half of my life working in customer service. Things can be challenging to say the least. These women, especially the younger one, was SO unprofessional to say the least. For at least 3 minutes I sat there uncomfortably listening to them yell, scream, and curse at the people on the 2 phones.And to eachother. The younger to the elder for the most part.. and to do this all in front of customers on top of it? I couldn't believe it. I've never come across someone so angry acting as customer service. F bombs. B word. Wow. Glad I didn't bring my son in. I almost laughed as I was asked when my turn FINALLY came up to the counter and was asked (thank God) by the older woman, "How was your stay with us?" I answered "Okay". I think I was worried that the other girl would jump over the counter and strangle me if I said anything more to set her off. If either of these women that work there read my review, please take my advice: ANGER MANAGEMENT. BUSINESS MANAGEMENT. CUSTOMER SERVICE. Learn them. In this kind of a business you need it. If you're literally losing it at work, in front of customers, you need to find another job in a VERY...

Got a room for 2 weeks here. Pretty decent rooms for the most part, and only one microwave for the WHOLE hotel. Rita from the front desk has been rude the ENTIRE 2 weeks. She’s mostly rude to the housekeepers, as I’ve noticed. But even with simple tasks, she holds onto the same negative attitude as if doing her job in customer service is the worst torture possible. So let me give y’all the run down:

I was told last night the toilet was draining slow but didn’t think nothing of it. This morning though, there was tissue just floating in the bowl so I went to flush it. Was about to handle my business but the water kept rising until it overflowed. It was coming fast so I put some of the towels down so the water wouldn’t come out the bathroom. Right after I called down to the front desk. First of all, when she picked up the phone she sighed and with clear attitude was like “yeeesss?” As if she was annoyed that the phone rang. So when I told her she gon get even more attitude and say “you shouldn’t have used our towels what you should’ve done was come down here to get these rags” girl bye. Cuz if this carpet had got wet she would’ve been putting me in a different room cuz my kids ain’t playing in toilet water, dry or not. So then I tell her like “I need a bathroom like I’ve had my tampon in all night and need to change it” she told me she wasn’t going to let me use another bathroom and I have to wait until 8. It’s 6 in the morning. I asked her “so you just want me to bleed on y’all bed?” She told me “I don’t know what to tell you that’s not my problem”. I told her I ain’t know what to tell her either and she hung up on me. I was gon let it go but she been being so rude and disrespectful and I’m sick of it. So since my overflowing tampon ain’t her problem, I’m bout to make it her problem. Spent too much money here for her to be acting...

Let's just say, everyone we saw appeared to be right out of prison, not judging, but it was disconcerting . Believe me, I can party with the best of them and understand and can relate to anyone, but I've got small children and was afraid for my life.

At 4 am, a violent fight took place directly outside our window. Swearing and lots of violent tones of voices made me expect gun shots at any moment. Sometime later, I awoke, only to discover that the crunchy bedspread I had carefully put nowhere near the bed had mysteriously found its way back onto the bed and covered me. I can only guess it had the ability to crawl on its own.

In the morning, there was a fabulously new looking athletic shoe on the top of our car, possibly hurled from one of the floors above during the night. I circled around the front of the vehicle to look for a body, but, hence, did not find one.

A drunken customer advised us that "the admittance clerk was on meth, most definitely" as he jumped nervously and twitched in line in front of us. All the customers were left to fend for themselves outside, waiting as the extra vigilant clerk with sunken eyes assisted them from behind bullet proof glass. Hmm, yes, while it was extremely lively, I would not suggest going there. Perhaps, if you are a student looking for a strange and memorable experience of grit and reality it could be a consideration, but it is unlikely.

In the morning, an audience of people staying in the hotel watched us as we loaded up our car for the long trip home. They leaned over the railings and tossed cigarette butts into the pool area below. I'm only sorry we did not have time to go swimming to provide more entertainment for them. A security police car circled the lot and two more were parked in the corner spaces, in close proximity to the sleeping transient who was oblivious to his...