Pacifica Beach Hotel — Hotel in Pacifica

'21/1 1st time review, however 3rd time customer in 4 years:

This is an older, original-era look/feel hotel, so lacks the 5 Star polish. But quaint enough, decent priced, show-up available, ocean view rooms that keep the rating from dipping to 3 Star.

I. Positive points

-- some (more expensive) rooms have vaulted ceilings, sit-in private porches, clear ocean view across highway--inc nicest view from hot tub.

-- from experiencing two separate 3rd floor rooms, they have adequate sound proofing from adjoining rooms' guest activity--no noise of other guests coming & going (doors or through walls).

-- rooms have: hot tubs (quick/hot fill, but not permitted to use jet function past 10p), small microwave, big (but loud) frig. w/ inset very small freezer, coffee maker w/ free coffee, full length ironing board & iron, wall mount hair dryer (though crowds bathroom sink's elbow space), extra blanket/pillow, free wi-fi.

-- 3p checkin; 11a ckout

-- 7a - 10a continental (hot buffet breakfast) included (but '20 COVID only allows brown-bag take out).

-- shower: great water pressure & heat.

-- floor-to-ceiling mirrored closet door (across from bathroom sink)

-- collapsible, portable luggage rack (stored in closet).

-- Ameninity--Pool: in the tower overlooking ocean, but COVID closed.

-- Amenity--Single, open-air guest computer

-- get 10% off at adjoining, nice Peruvian restaurant (show room card). [NOTE: 10/'20 trip open, but 12/'20 closed.]

II. Overall, while not a deal breaker in-&-of itself, these points could be an issue to some:

-- built on a hill, so steep incline walk to/from parking, lobby, adjoining restaurant, shopping, & beach across the highway.

-- nice front desk

-- no elevators (stair access only to all 4 stories).

-- while floor length, fixed window right on hotel's exerior, communal walkway & sitting deck does provide good ocean view; it comes at the price of 100% exchange privacy (inc hot tub) for that view.

-- at night, though can hear ocean, also get flood of light from parking lot on one side of room, and walkway other side.

-- small to large wear-n-tear (see pix)--both cosmetic and tired furniture.

-- skeleton staff in evening (so guest has to go down to get any room items versus items delivered to room.).

III. Below pertains to 2nd visit '20/10 & 3rd on '20/12 wherein got double occupancy, 3rd floor room with partial ocean view & semi-private, open air balconies both times. Some items below not necessarily an issue, but could be for some:

-- very small, 1 avg-sized person shower (tall, large persons expect challenges negotiating)

-- only "tub" is large, two person hot tub (with plenty of jets) located in common area of hotel room (next to bed). No "walk-in," rather quite high step in/out.

-- bathroom window child safety concern.

-- audible freeway noise does quelch bucolic ocean waves.

-- had to use own cell phone to look up hotel's number to reach front desk, as in-room phone allowed no call out ('20/10 stay).

-- clock-radio-alarm unit on night stand not plugged in ('20/10 stay)--even though have cell phone to reference, one's eye naturally attracts to clock on stand. Better if management simply remove unit if they don't want to hassle with keeping right time on clock.

-- lint buildup in hair dryer screen ('20/10 stay).

-- light over hot tub also auto turns on loud fan directly overhead--drowns out any possibility to hear ocean through two ocean-side, fixed-unopening windows.

-- in-room phone (Oct stay): only functional when the office called into the room the morning at checkout time. Had to use own cell phone when needed to call down to front desk for a light bulb and more coffee.

-- NO privacy clothing change entire room except in bathroom, and especially when drapes to beach-view open.

-- Missing nightstand light bulb

-- toilet: have to long-hold lever to fully flush, and pipes squeal...

Worst hotel experience I’ve ever had. Here's the list, from trivial to major.

• First impressions of the hotel room - “why are we paying $300 a night for a room with peeling wallpaper?” To say this place could use an update is an understatement. Or just a change in prices to reflect the current condition.

• The brown bag breakfast is a joke. It is a little yogurt and orange juice (both with questionable ingredients, a prepackaged muffin, and an apple. I understand changes have to be made for COVID, but I’ve stayed at several other hotels throughout the pandemic, and they have made innovative adaptations to keep a satisfying breakfast going.

• Wifi – also a joke, unless all you need to do is send an email. Free wifi isn’t much of a perk if you can’t actually do anything on it.

• The pool is a joke. Detecting a pattern here? Basically nothing about this hotel lived up to reasonable expectations. The building the pool is in has all glass walls, which is really cool. But the pool itself is like a glorified kiddie pool – tiny, so don’t expect to do any actual swimming. When we checked in, they told us that they had just reopened the pool after keeping it closed for the duration of the pandemic. It looked like it also hadn’t been cleaned for the duration of the pandemic – so many dead bugs!

• One of the big draws of this hotel was the in-room Jacuzzi tub. It looked nice, but the jets didn’t work, so pretty pointless.

• They told us that the tub jets couldn’t be used after 9 pm, which was really appealing, because it sounded like they took quiet hours seriously. Yeah, right. Around 11 pm, I became aware of some noise – a couple in the room right above me were having sex. Loudly. Like banging the headboard against the wall loud. They also had the TV turned up really loudly. We called the front desk, and the woman said that she’d be making rounds “in a little while” and would see if she heard anything. Ummmm… what? Any other hotel I’ve ever stayed at would have made a courtesy call to the room in question and asked them to keep it down. About half an hour later, the sex was over, but the TV was still blaring, so we called the front desk again. The woman at the desk said that she had walked over and didn’t hear anything. We said the noise was still there and she said she’d walk over again in a bit. We said to her, “maybe we should just leave?” and she said, “you do whatever you think you need to do, but just know that our cancellation policy is in effect, so you won’t get any money back.” Wow. So you would rather have the quiet people leave dissatisfied instead of just asking the loud people to be quiet?

• Last but not least, the “customer service”. Usually when you have a bad experience, the management wants to know about it and takes your feedback seriously. I called the hotel a few days after our stay to talk to a manager. I told her everything I listed above. I told her that some of these things on their own would not be a big deal – no hotel is perfect. But all of this (and mainly the noise and tub not working) added up to a really bad experience. Her response? “Well, we can’t do anything for you because you didn’t tell us about it at check-in.” Seriously? So feedback after the fact is moot to you? And as for the noise, she said that her front desk person had made notes that she had walked over and didn’t hear anything. Soooo… are you saying I’m lying? I don’t know what I was expecting, but you know, something as simple as a “I’m sorry you had a bad experience” can go a long way.

So, in summary, if you like going to a hotel and getting a good night’s sleep and feeling like you got good value for your money, then GO ANYWHERE BUT HERE. I’ve gotten better sleep and amenities at $60 a night motels. The Pacifica Beach Hotel is...

THIS WAS MY EMAIL TO THE MGR, TANIA- WHICH I NEVER GOT A RESPONSE FROM... Dear Tania, For the first time since January 9, 2012 my boyfriend and I haven't spent good quality time together. This weekend (7/13-15/12) was supposed to be a relaxing, reconnecting time for us. You see he was unfortunate to contract Necortizing Fasciitis in January. He spent 4 long weeks in the ICU in a induced coma at Good Sam Hospital in San Jose, and a total of 8 weeks in the hospital. We almost lost him twice, he's gone through 6 surgery's and numerous skin graphing. He had to re-learn all the basics that we all take for granted, like eating and walking. Still to this day he's is in Physical Therapy twice a week and walks with a limp. He has four children and I have two, and this was the weekend we had put aside for ourselves. When we checked in Friday everything was fine, we were excited to get away and enjoy ourselves. Saturday is when the shower started making a very loud noise, Brian was out buying some wine to take down to the beach. I got out of the shower and the hotel phone was ringing. It was a very pleasant women on the other end asking if the tub was running because it was shaking the hole building.. I laughed and said, "no that was the shower, the tub hasn't been ran today" she proceeded to tell me that she needed to get us out of that room and into another. I told her that was fine, just please give us the same amenities. She said no problem. When Brian came back from the store I told him we where moving rooms due to the, what I assumed broken shower. We packed our things and went down to the front desk and the lady proceeded to give us another room, we went over and checked it out and I noticed we didn't have a private balcony.I called the front desk and asked her if there was another available because I liked sleeping with the slider open? She told me that she would try to move people around to accommodate us and would let us know. We left for a few hours and while we were out we got a phone call telling Brian that our original room was repaired and for us to stop by the front desk when we got back and they will re-key our key. Later that night I was going to take a bath, I turned on the the tub and waited for the hot water to get warm, and I plugged the tub.. I went back probably dive min later to add some cold water and the hot water was barely luke warm! I was irritated and called the front desk. I told her i had a complaint about the hot water, the woman was someone different from earlier. She immediately had attitude and accused me of not knowingly how to use the hot and cold water! I asked her what her name was and she told me Molly. I told Molly that something needed to change, whether the room or the water. She told me there was nothing she could do since the maintenance man was gone for the night. I told her, " are you telling me we have to take cold showers ?" She told me, just don't take one until tomorrow... I told her this was ridiculous, and she needed to call whom ever she needed to. She said she would call me back in a few minutes. And she did.. She told me that the water heater was turned down and she was going to turn it up and to give it 15-20 min before showering. Brian waited a hour to shower, and let me tell you, he took a cold shower and the shower still made that crazy sound!! I was livid! Nothing was fixed, and we were just shuffled around! And thinking about it now makes me mad and very disappointed. Our close friends recommended your residence to us in high regards. I will never refer anyone to you, and I would have to do some considering to come back. We spent $378.32 for the most...