Embassy Suites by Hilton Lompoc Central Coast — Hotel in Lompoc

This is a hotel I’ve been staying at for the past 20 years as I come to the area for business a great deal. What I love about the hotel is the courtyard and the mostly nice staff. However, with a new manager in the past few years, the focus seems to have completely shifted from at least paying lip service to treat their customers well to only caring about maximizing profits. Now all businesses want to maximize their profit margins that’s why it’s called a business. But in the hospitality industry most businesses will at least try to accommodate the individuals who support them. ||The hotel itself is old and run down. They did room upgrades a few years ago and the new mattresses they put in were nicer than the old lumpy ones and the new office furniture was pleasant. They did nothing to fix other issues though. Many of the rooms have drawers that will not stay closed, sinks that won’t drain unless you take them apart and fix them, plumbing that groans, rattles, and burps constantly, and mini refrigerators that have no remaining shelves and don’t keep food at a safe temperature (they don’t cool to more than tepid). ||I could still put up with having to repair items in my room as long as it was reasonably clean and I could get a good nights sleep so I could work the next day. Since the change in management, things aren’t improving. The maids are all very nice and very hard working, but like many hotels they seem to have limited time to clean rooms. My feet are filthy if I don’t wear shoes and I no longer enjoy trying to sit on the stained furniture. Well, not since I stuck to one of the chairs. Maybe a child had spilled something sticky and it wasn’t noticed. ||The front desk staff and the kitchen staff are really nice for the most part but it seems the management has tied their hands when it comes to keeping people happy. I have had only one desk person be horrible, and it seems every time I see her there is no one smiling. For example one early morning I had to leave to drive to the Santa Barbara airport. It was 3 am. I was attempting to check out but the wi-fi was down and I had to go to the front desk. The doors were locked and instead of letting me in she yelled through the door asking what I wanted. I said to check out. But she wouldn’t let me in the locked front entrance to do that. She asked me my room number and I shouted it to her (the only way she could hear) but she still didn’t grasp that I needed my receipt and still refused me entry. And there was the security guard standing there with her so I’m sure she wasn’t afraid to open the door and give customer service. I eventually gave up trying to yell through the door and threw my key at it and left. It irritated me because I know having to shout to make myself heard was waking up all the other folks sleeping soundly in the front rooms. ||On one of my latest trips a co-workers car was vandalized in the parking lot. It had a hole punched in the gas tank underneath and gas was all over the parking lot. He had no transportation until we were able to drive to Santa Barbara and get a replacement. ||We were also working over the latest holiday weekend and I came home to the bedroom ceiling down on the bed. The sheets were wet and it looked like there was not much but an old leak that finally dropped the ceiling down along with some stale icky water. There wanted me to move out. But they had no more rooms. I was trying to be nice and said I could stay with another coworker until the next day when they could fix it. Next day came and went. No fixes. No word from the hotel. That evening I called and they said someone would look at it tomorrow. The evening of the next day they finally fixed it and let me move back in. I was surprised when I got the bill. No adjustment for the inconvenience, no extra points in my account, no nothing! I did get an almost apology from one of the front desk folks, but nothing concrete. ||If you’re thinking of staying here just don’t. This property in any other area would not meet Hilton standards but because it’s a small town it’s tolerated. A nice breakfast staff and generally nice front desk don’t make up for the dangerous parking lots, the much needed small repairs, and the crappy treatment you get if you have an issue. Just run far and fast from...

This was definitely the worst hotel that we have ever stayed in.||We were driving around the coast of California and we happened to be near Lompoc and needed a place to stay. On Google, we saw Embassy Suites by Hilton Lompoc, listed as a 4-star hotel. We arrived. The check in area was very nice and fancy. But we were surprised that it looked very much like a cheap motel where the rooms and corridors are not contained inside one building. The pavement on the walkways are so messed up like it hasn't been fixed up in decades.||We went to the room and immediately the smell was really bad. One hundred percent this place is moldy. Inside the room, the entire design and layout is very old and old-fashioned. But then they try to add new "modern" amenities and it looks really stupid. A heavy chest, a giant TV, a table with four chairs, and the sofas are crammed in. And if you pull out the sofa-bed, there is absolutely no room to move around at all. The bedroom is so weird. The sink is in the bedroom but the bathroom door open right into the sink. See my pictures. We wanted to use the iron board and the iron kept leaking and messing up our clothes. The counter tops were stained.||Then we went over to breakfast, an hour before they close. It was total chaos, like a refugee camp. Massive massive crowds and not a single seat to sit in. Lots of tables were still dirty but people still sat down with kids etc. because there were no seats anywhere else. The buffet style food was all gone and nothing was being refilled. Everyone, just like us, would come in, be dazed, confused, and then reluctantly stand in line for the omelettes a cook was preparing fresh on a flat top grill. Why? Because everybody was in that line it was going out the door. There was no other food.||We got in the line, waited for about 45 minutes, were finally able to see the cook cooking and the "menu." We didn't want to eat any meat. We could have gotten just plain eggs but he was just using the same tongs and utensils and mixing up everything all together in one place so everyone would get bits of bacon and sausage with eggs cooked in bacon and sausage grease. He was really overwhelmed and completely alone. Not his fault. Management put him in this position and he was trying his absolute best. We actually got to the front of the line and after seeing what the food was like, we just left without getting any food at all. For over an hour, we never saw a single person working there besides the cook.||When we went to check out, the checkout line was ridiculously long but the one staff member who was there was on the phone. We waited and waited and waited. They were still on the phone. So we just left the card and left.||The room we were in looked like a renovation was attempted and it was not a work in progress. The room was "done." But everything that was done was just minor cosmetic superficial changes. And it is easy to fool with pictures. Almost all of the pictures that I see here are real and I recognize them from our stay, but they are taken with just the right kind of lighting at the right angle so pretty good marketing. I am posting my own pictures to show the things that I wrote about.||Not surprised at how the owners respond to all the positive feedback on Google and conveniently ignore the low ratings. We wanted to give them a fair chance so we actually submitted a complaint to Hilton corporate before posting this anywhere public. Hilton corporate forwarded the complaint to the owners. More than a week passed and the owners never replied back to Hilton nor to us. Hilton corporate itself was good to us about this. They responded back a week later and gave us some points but I wish they would really do something about this place. At the very least don't let them use "Hilton." This review is more for this specific location and the owners who have completely given up and clearly don't care. This review is also to warn the general public. Stay at your own peril. A truly...

This was definitely the worst hotel that we have ever stayed in.

We were driving around the coast of California and we happened to be near Lompoc and needed a place to stay. On Google, we saw Embassy Suites by Hilton Lompoc, listed as a 4-star hotel. We arrived. The check in area was very nice and fancy. But we were surprised that it looked very much like a cheap motel where the rooms and corridors are not contained inside one building. The pavement on the walkways are so messed up like it hasn't been fixed up in decades.

We went to the room and immediately the smell was really bad. One hundred percent this place is moldy. Inside the room, the entire design and layout is very old and old-fashioned. But then they try to add new "modern" amenities and it looks really stupid. A heavy chest, a giant TV, a table with four chairs, and the sofas are crammed in. And if you pull out the sofa-bed, there is absolutely no room to move around at all. The bedroom is so weird. The sink is in the bedroom but the bathroom door open right into the sink. See my pictures. We wanted to use the iron board and the iron kept leaking and messing up our clothes. The counter tops were stained.

Then we went over to breakfast, an hour before they close. It was total chaos, like a refugee camp. Massive massive crowds and not a single seat to sit in. Lots of tables were still dirty but people still sat down with kids etc. because there were no seats anywhere else. The buffet style food was all gone and nothing was being refilled. Everyone, just like us, would come in, be dazed, confused, and then reluctantly stand in line for the omelettes a cook was preparing fresh on a flat top grill. Why? Because everybody was in that line it was going out the door. There was no other food.

We got in the line, waited for about 45 minutes, were finally able to see the cook cooking and the "menu." We didn't want to eat any meat. We could have gotten just plain eggs but he was just using the same tongs and utensils and mixing up everything all together in one place so everyone would get bits of bacon and sausage with eggs cooked in bacon and sausage grease. He was really overwhelmed and completely alone. Not his fault. Management put him in this position and he was trying his absolute best. We actually got to the front of the line and after seeing what the food was like, we just left without getting any food at all. For over an hour, we never saw a single person working there besides the cook.

When we went to check out, the checkout line was ridiculously long but the one staff member who was there was on the phone. We waited and waited and waited. They were still on the phone. So we just left the card and left.

The room we were in looked like a renovation was attempted and it was not a work in progress. The room was "done." But everything that was done was just minor cosmetic superficial changes. And it is easy to fool with pictures. Almost all of the pictures that I see here are real and I recognize them from our stay, but they are taken with just the right kind of lighting at the right angle so pretty good marketing. I am posting my own pictures to show the things that I wrote about.

Not surprised at how the owners respond to all the positive feedback on Google and conveniently ignore the low ratings. We wanted to give them a fair chance so we actually submitted a complaint to Hilton corporate before posting this anywhere public. Hilton corporate forwarded the complaint to the owners. More than a week passed and the owners never replied back to Hilton nor to us. Hilton corporate itself was good to us about this. They responded back a week later and gave us some points but I wish they would really do something about this place. At the very least don't let them use "Hilton." This review is more for this specific location and the owners who have completely given up and clearly don't care. This review is also to warn the general public. Stay at your own peril. A truly...