Holiday Inn Express & Suites San Diego Otay Mesa by IHG — Hotel in San Diego

I booked this hotel to catch an early morning flight from TIJ for my son’s spring break. I chose it only because it is close to CBX and our flight was really early. ||It was a Friday and we drove in the traffic all the way from Orange County. When we arrived, my autistic son was exhausted because of the long ride (yes, it took us almost 3 hours on the Friday before spring break from OC). When I was waiting for the front desk lady to get us checked in (she was talking over the phone and we had waited for more than 5 minutes while she was talking. there was no one ahead of us), my autistic son accidentally broke a chair in their lobby. The front desk lady said I need to pay for it and she told me her boss/manager said it would cost $700. I understand it might be a piece of furniture that they had customized ordered, but there was no way a good quality chair worth $700 would be so easily broken by just a push or pull of a 9 year old. I asked her to let me talk to her boss. So the boss called in and said he would find out how much it would cost to replace it. But before they could check us in, they wanted me to agree to authorize them to temporarily charge my credit card $500. And he promised he won’t charge me more than $500. When the he finds the actual cost, he would call me to confirm the exact amount. During this over 40 min wait, my AUTISTIC son melted down. This “boss” and the front desk were still trying to push me to pay for the damaged chair first before they could check us in. I did not want my autistic son to stay melted down and potentially go uncontrollable, so I agreed to have them temporarily put a $500 hold on my card so we can get to the room and have my son calm down. The “boss” left his phone number and “promised” me to get back to me about the exact cost of replacing that chair quite politely over then phone at that time. At least I felt he was polite then. ||So finally we got checked in. The hotel seemed to be newly renovated, however, they obviously did a poor cleaning work. There were trash right in front of our room door. And the hallway was not quite well maintained, although it looks quite new. ||Three days later, I found my credit card had a cleared transaction amount of $500, instead of a temporary hold / authorization. I called this boss and no one answered the phone. I called again a week later, he picked up the phone and said he was still trying to find out the amount of cost. When I asked why he had to charge my card instead of putting a temporary hold. He sort of threatened me and said when he finds out the cost it could be more than $500 (Remember he promised he would not charge me more than $500 on the day when the incident happened). And he would let me know once he finds out. ||Another week has passed and he never got back to me about the exact cost. I am extremely busy with an autistic boy as well as a full time job so I don’t really want to waste too much of my energy on this stupid matter. I would just treat any extra amount that I could have overpaid as a donation so they could improve their service or do a better cleaning work of the hotel. But I would like to share my horrible experience with this location and hopefully no one will have to encounter into this kind of situation. ||Overall, this hotel looks new. But don’t be fooled by the appearance and its low price. I can guess even without that incident, we would still not have a good experience because of their...

Hello Raquel,

I am writing you due to a recent stay at your Holiday in at 2296 Niels Bohr Court.

To say we were disappointed would be an understatement from every aspect.

First of all I contacted the front desk 4 times ranging from 7pm-9pm, 3 of them I was put on hold for at least 15 minutes each time being told she was with a customer and never getting picked up again so I would hang up and try about 20 minutes later, the 3rd one the phone was picked up and then hung up (could have been a simple mistake). I was simply just wanting to know if there was a shuttle service from the hotel to the CBX crossing. I eventually gave up and drove to the hotel. We arrived at about 10:30pm and there was no one at the front desk for a very long period of time. Someone finally came after I did many things trying to get someone's attention or acknowledgment.

I told the desk person that I had two rooms reserved and I wanted to check in, first I was told she could not find my reservation and that they were sold out and didn't have any rooms available. I asked what is the point of making a reservation if its not available when we arrive. She then called someone after a very length time of fumbling around with the computer (assuming it may have been you on the other line). She then mysteriously came up with two rooms after her conversation on the phone. I was told that the rooms were marked in the computer as being dirty but she said the person on the phone marked them that why for my reservation to assure they didn't get occupied. This took at least 45 minutes to get checked in and caused me to be very late to pick up my guests at the San Diego airport. What I was told at check-in made absolutely no sense until I went to my room after picking up my guests from the San Diego airport and entered to an industrial air blower that appeared to be drying the wet carpet. This was now well past midnight and we had to get up at 3am for another flight so I never said a word until I checked out. I have no idea what the other room looked like for my guests as I didn't want to deal with the shame if it was anything like my room.

What a disappointment with your hotel and lack of appropriate service.

Response from management after writing the above complaint direct to the manager.

Dear ???,

Thank you for choosing Holiday Inn Express and for taking the time to provide feedback about your experience at Holiday Inn Express SAN DIEGO OTAY MESA.

I would like to start by apologizing to you for not meeting your expectations. We strive to make each stay as pleasant and comfortable as possible, and we will use your comments to coach our team in order to provide a better experience in the future. Please know that your feedback is extremely valuable to us.

We use feedback, such as yours, to continuously make changes to our brand to improve the guest experience.

I hope you will give us a chance by staying with us again to show you that your unsatisfactory stay was an exception, let us know if you decide to book with us that way we can give you 25% discount for next reservation.

Again, thank you for sharing your comments, and if I can be of assistance to you, please contact me directly at 6197100900 We hope that you will give us the opportunity to serve you again...

My worst hotel experience ever in 24 years as a frequent business traveler. This hotel manager had the nerve to cancel a reservation we had made seven days ago because of a "Credit Card rejection" w/o sending a notification to us. When asked why I never got a notice upon my arrival after traveling more than 18 hours, the answer I got was that they tried charging the card 'today' three times w/o success. I am a IHG Rewards Club member (2911761816), as I've been for hotel brands for years. Upon starting my membership, just last September I reserved and spent 20 nights in the same hotel (paid for a direct report room, and my own) with charges against the same CORPORATE CARD that was "rejected"...a card that expires in 2022. I certainly expected more from a hotel in a situation like this. I expected, at least, an automatic e-mail....or even a phone call. Holiday Inn records have all my contact information as a IHG member. Holiday Inn being one of the preferred corporate hotel chains of my employer...well, not anymore my preferred hotel chain. I guess IHG does not have a system to support customers when this happens...assuming it was an electronic device issue as I just used the same card to pick-up my car @ National earlier this evening w/o issues. Or maybe, the person who canceled my reservation couldn't care less for a IHG Rewards Club member who just started to accumulate stays in a record pace last month. This isn't the worst part! I'm traveling w/a female direct report. She did have her reserved room waiting for her. Since I had to leave the hotel, she was to cancel as I'm the driver....but guess what? The front desk person tells us that she would had to charge the room due to late cancelation! SERIOUSLY? She offered her room so I would stay. I had coordinated a pick-up tomorrow to take us on business to MX at the hotel address....plus we checked on hotels nearby and there were no rooms available or those were excessively expensive and/or far; plus logistics for next day would get complicated. I had to spend the night in the same room as my co-worker. An extremely uncomfortable situation for the both of us. I got to "try" to sleep in a super uncomfortable sofa couch...that when opened...was dirty from a previous use. There were hair over the covers. Well...I'll save a copy of this message and will paste it on every IHG promotion I see in the web until I forget this embarrassing and uncomfortable experience. I had my co-worker cancel her reservation this morning and made our reservations to stay @ other hotel in San Diego for the rest of the trip. Never I had had a situation line this with a the other hotel brands I had memberships with....some for over two decades!

I'm fully willing to share this story...with my reservation details and pictures of the dirty couch (and towels holder in the bathroom) condition with anyone interested....from IHG or any other...