Abpópa Hillcrest — Hotel in San Diego

We had high hopes for the Apboba for our three night stay in San Diego. However, we were disappointed with pretty much the entire experience. I will say that the Hillcrest neighborhood appears to be a cool area, but there was a definite issue with folks smoking what appeared to be crack and lots of shouting and threatening passersby. Not that I don't expect this in a large city, but even in often chaotic places like San Francisco there has been some sort of security or staff to help guests feel safe. Not the case here, it was out the gate and into the fire (literally, there was a clearly mentally ill guy waving around a lighter set to high). If the rest of the stay had been okay, this would not have seemed as big a deal, but unfortunately that was not the case. The property is - and there’s no nice way to say this - dirty. Our room had a variety of stains on the walls and carpet and had an overall feeling of “eh,” when it came to keeping up the place. The pictures on Expedia make each room look unique and sort of European in design, but really it’s just a weird layout filled with way past-its-prime Ikea furniture. Here are a couple other unfortunate details:||||1) The parking is extremely limited. We paid for three nights worth and were only able to successfully park one of those three nights, which meant trying to find neighborhood parking at night (see the above crack-smoking comment). The first person from the hotel I spoke with kindly refunded the first night’s parking fee. The second time it happened, however, the hotel representative (different guy, I think) was surly and said the hotel policy clearly stated there was no guarantee of parking and was made it seem like he was doing me a favor by refunding the fee. This was not exactly the attitude I wanted to deal with on Thanksgiving night while I looked for street parking. ||2) The front courtyard is torn up, including large piles of dirt and various construction equipment about. Apparently they are building a wine bar, but it didn’t look like it was going particularly well. ||3) The little store, one of the hotel amenities we were excited about visiting, never opened, which although not a big deal was sort of disappointing, given that we needed a positive from our visit, and that little record store may very well have been it, had it opened. (The property promotes this store quite heavily as a unique feature, and it looked to be just that, through the window, at least.)||4) You enter and exit the building and rooms using codes, not keys, which I understand is the new, hip way of accessing a hotel. But honestly, it’s just sort of weird and kind of a pain. Call me old school, but I’d rather have a face-to-face conversation with someone rather than just show up and be greeted with a text of a code and make my way to my room. Lesson learned about staying at hip hotels. Check-out was a clipboard near the exit with a place to write one’s name and room number. I forgot to do that. ||5) Okay. The bathroom. Other reviews mentioned this and I should have paid more attention. The bathroom is absolutely not private in anyway whatsoever. The folding bathroom “door” is impossible to really describe, but I will try. It’s like half of a shutter door, poorly installed, and near impossible to open without exerting oneself. Once the door is open, there is the toilet (which, again with the hipness, has a small sink built into the top of it so you wash your hands with the water refilling the tank; neat idea but unpleasant to use). Once in the bathroom, one must work to get the door closed again for any kind of privacy, which is sorely lacking due to the folded nature of the door and the lack of ceiling. The whole thing reminded me of a bathroom on a boat, for some reason. We used the sink in what I suppose is the kitchen area to wash up and brush our teeth. It had a garbage disposal, which for some reason made me laugh.||||I do not enjoy writing negative reviews, and had the second gentleman I talked to regarding the parking been a bit less irritable, I probably wouldn’t be writing this review, but it just pushed me over the edge. Even given all of the above, there are some pluses. The hotel is unique, and the architecture is interesting in an industrial sort of way. Also, a pleasant hospitality worker kindly brought me some towels on the third day (granted, I had to ask as there is no daily cleaning here). The neighborhood, Hillcrest, is an LGBTQ hub with quirky restaurants, vintage clothing stores, bars and the like. On the second day of our stay, an aggressive and angry houseless guy accosted us on the street just outside the hotel, demanded to know our names, claimed his mother owned the Apboba, and said he would never let us stay there again. At the time I dismissed this as a guy in need of mental help, but given everything else, maybe he was telling the truth. Message received, yelling bearded guy,...

We had high hopes for the Apboba for our three night stay in San Diego. However, we were disappointed with pretty much the entire experience. I will say that the Hillcrest neighborhood appears to be a cool area, but there was a definite issue with folks smoking what appeared to be crack and lots of shouting and threatening passersby. Not that I don't expect this in a large city, but even in often chaotic places like San Francisco there has been some sort of security or staff to help guests feel safe. Not the case here, it was out the gate and into the fire (literally, there was a clearly mentally ill guy waving around a lighter set to high). If the rest of the stay had been okay, this would not have seemed as big a deal, but unfortunately that was not the case. The property is - and there’s no nice way to say this - dirty. Our room had a variety of stains on the walls and carpet and had an overall feeling of “eh,” when it came to keeping up the place. The pictures on Expedia make each room look unique and sort of European in design, but really it’s just a weird layout filled with way past-its-prime Ikea furniture. Here are a couple other unfortunate details:||||1) The parking is extremely limited. We paid for three nights worth and were only able to successfully park one of those three nights, which meant trying to find neighborhood parking at night (see the above crack-smoking comment). The first person from the hotel I spoke with kindly refunded the first night’s parking fee. The second time it happened, however, the hotel representative (different guy, I think) was surly and said the hotel policy clearly stated there was no guarantee of parking and was made it seem like he was doing me a favor by refunding the fee. This was not exactly the attitude I wanted to deal with on Thanksgiving night while I looked for street parking. ||2) The front courtyard is torn up, including large piles of dirt and various construction equipment about. Apparently they are building a wine bar, but it didn’t look like it was going particularly well. ||3) The little store, one of the hotel amenities we were excited about visiting, never opened, which although not a big deal was sort of disappointing, given that we needed a positive from our visit, and that little record store may very well have been it, had it opened. (The property promotes this store quite heavily as a unique feature, and it looked to be just that, through the window, at least.)||4) You enter and exit the building and rooms using codes, not keys, which I understand is the new, hip way of accessing a hotel. But honestly, it’s just sort of weird and kind of a pain. Call me old school, but I’d rather have a face-to-face conversation with someone rather than just show up and be greeted with a text of a code and make my way to my room. Lesson learned about staying at hip hotels. Check-out was a clipboard near the exit with a place to write one’s name and room number. I forgot to do that. ||5) Okay. The bathroom. Other reviews mentioned this and I should have paid more attention. The bathroom is absolutely not private in anyway whatsoever. The folding bathroom “door” is impossible to really describe, but I will try. It’s like half of a shutter door, poorly installed, and near impossible to open without exerting oneself. Once the door is open, there is the toilet (which, again with the hipness, has a small sink built into the top of it so you wash your hands with the water refilling the tank; neat idea but unpleasant to use). Once in the bathroom, one must work to get the door closed again for any kind of privacy, which is sorely lacking due to the folded nature of the door and the lack of ceiling. The whole thing reminded me of a bathroom on a boat, for some reason. We used the sink in what I suppose is the kitchen area to wash up and brush our teeth. It had a garbage disposal, which for some reason made me laugh.||||I do not enjoy writing negative reviews, and had the second gentleman I talked to regarding the parking been a bit less irritable, I probably wouldn’t be writing this review, but it just pushed me over the edge. Even given all of the above, there are some pluses. The hotel is unique, and the architecture is interesting in an industrial sort of way. Also, a pleasant hospitality worker kindly brought me some towels on the third day (granted, I had to ask as there is no daily cleaning here). The neighborhood, Hillcrest, is an LGBTQ hub with quirky restaurants, vintage clothing stores, bars and the like. On the second day of our stay, an aggressive and angry houseless guy accosted us on the street just outside the hotel, demanded to know our names, claimed his mother owned the Apboba, and said he would never let us stay there again. At the time I dismissed this as a guy in need of mental help, but given everything else, maybe he was telling the truth. Message received, yelling bearded guy,...

I want to be fair and objective about this place, because I want this review to be taken seriously.

Be sure to read the TripAdvisor and Yelp reviews as well; the Google reviews appear inflated are many are likely fake.

First, the positives: the location is near the nice Hillcrest neighborhood, which has a lot of restaurants, cafes etc. The outdoor patio, which is only available to certain units was pretty nice, and made for a relaxing lounge space. The hotel also facilitated me being able to sleep on a bed as opposed to a sidewalk, and that's a big plus. That's it for the positives.

I played a game with my brother and tried to have him guess the year this hotel was built. He initially guessed 1984, then, 1969. The hotel was in fact built in 2019. Calling it run down is an understatement.

The negatives: 1) irregular availability of front desk staff, 2) poor enforcement of parking area; our paid parking spot was blocked and unavailable so we had to get a spot in an outside lot, 3) we were provided enough body wash to clean one half of one human body, 4) mysterious stains on bedsheets (blood?) 5) absolutely deranged room layouts; our beds were lofted and enclosed in plywood enclosures that ensured both privacy and incredibly hot, stifling sleeping areas. When I say 'enclosure', I mean it; it's not for the claustrophobic and will leave you feeling like a frog living in some kid's shoebox. You will be sleeping with your face 3 feet from the ceiling and will not be able to stand up in the sleeping area. The space was so hot that I purchased a box fan to cool it overnight, as the AC is too far below to cool the space adequately; 6) exposed screws and rust in the bathroom, 7) slanted towel holder positioned directly above the toilet to ensure that all your towels will end up in the toilet with the slightest bump, 8) a shower curtain rod that fell on me while showering due to poor installation, 9) an AC unit that flooded the floor due to being incorrectly angled so that accumulated condensation leaked into the room instead of outside, 10) the room was clearly only cursorily cleaned before our arrival (bugs corpses on window sills, smudgy mirror, cobwebs, etc), 11) the bathroom door did not close all the way, so I hope you like eye contact, 12) no bathroom sink, so I shaved and brushed my teeth in the kitchen sink, 13) no hooks for hanging things, 14) no iron for ironing clothing, 15) the (doorless) closet is in the bathroom, just beside the toilet, so your clothing will be exposed to shower steam and other aerosolized particles, 16) the air conditioner is located below the kitchen table, so if you sit at the table while the AC is running, you're going to want to wear sweatpants or longjohns, 17) the bathroom ceiling is partially open and basically vents directly into the sleeping area of whoever is in the queen bed enclosure, which is perfect if you're trying to gas your travel companion to death.

I want to hug whatever architect designed this place, because they are clearly not doing okay. The layout is Kafkaesque and will certainly drive you completely mad if you spend too much time dwelling on it. I would like to only recommend this hotel to college students who are traveling on a budget and who are okay with a youth hostel experience, but I can't because it's too expensive to qualify for that category.

Honorable mention: the interior side of the bathroom door has a mirror attached to it so that you can look into your own eyes as you sit on the toilet and contemplate all of your poor life choices, including your decision to stay at the Abpopa Hillcrest Hotel.

Who built this place? How could a loving god let...