Holiday Inn Express San Diego-Sea World Area by IHG — Hotel in San Diego

Holiday express Sea world Area. The Parking Area is horrendous and terrible this hotel ! I been to multiple hotels this is the worst parking area, the space is insanely very small you could hardly park and get out your car, adding to injury the support column is not in the middle of the parking line, it take the space of the other side of parking space cause it unusable plus this old nasty male security guard is very unprofessional and rude. He asked me 3 times to move my car without giving correct and clear direction where to park just wagging his finger thus causing so much frustration and stress on my part. Other cars are not park properly they are taking the other side parking space. I’m driving a toyota Highlander. Other cars are occupying 2 parking space due to the stupid way they cramped the parking space and sacrificing customer discomfort and aggravation ! Other customers are also complaining the same issues. Never I will comeback in this place again and will not recommend. There are a lot of other hotels in hotel circles better than this location when I come back. The only good thing about this hotel the two front desk night staff able to help my issue resolved and Kudos to Jacky. I refused to moved my car after 3 different parking space I attempted as per the guard instructions to moved, then I was rudely told by the guard again, I must move my car again. I asked why but told I must move again so I decided enough is enough and spoke to the front desk about this terrible behavior of the guard who doesn’t understand the issue of this hotel specially the parking space. I was told by front staff the guard is the boss that make me frustrated and livid without listening my side. No common senses and customer service from this security. The security guard was so stubborn and rude even I explained to him multiple times that the two cars will not fit in a two car space since the parking space is terrible very small plus the support pillars of the foundation is occupying the parking space and it’s really very difficult to get in and out once you parked the two cars without hitting the other car and damage it. Even the front staff and house keepers acknowledged that their parking space is extremely very difficult. They have limited parking under the hotel parking garage and the from sidewalk side street parking, which it fills up very quick. The back parking space which is dim, not safe space and unsecured their alternative parking since this place is not owned by holiday express but the Gym beside the hotel, you can’t see your car if you park this area from your hotel. The hotel will not accept any responsibility if your car get damage or anything happen while you place your car to this area. The other issue the shower, hot water is not continuous if other room used the shower or water my shower lost hot water and the pressure is weak, the sink water is weak too. They use refillable Dove Product in the shower and sink dove soap nice brand. The bed if comfy and pillow but when I requested additional pillow they didn’t give me any. They only got one outlet power beside the bed but extras under the tv. Morning breakfast are good with different selections. I stayed for 4 days here. Don’t eat the burger patty cause it’s AWFUL ! the rest of the days was good the staff are attentive. The housekeepers didn’t vacuum my room since I still found noddles under the table. Don’t turn on the hitter warmer it blows chemicals plastic burning smells. My kids about to vomit and it’s terrible awesome the smell. The check out was smooth no issue and I reiterated to the front desk staff about my terrible experiences with the guard and terrible parking space in there facilities. I will not recommend this hotel from my Awful parking experienced, I rather look other hotel around this area. Why should I be stressed and upset if I can get better to awesome treatment from other hotels around this area plus it’s my vacation I should be relaxing and enjoying my R&R rather than getting upset...

this was absolutely the WORST experience i’ve ever had with a hotel in my life! as soon as my mom and i came in, we were not welcomed and were ignored until it was our turn to check in. then we were told we could not check in early because there was absolutely no rooms available because all of them were being cleaned, except the family in front of us were given a room with no issues?

we had made these reservations about a week ahead of time and were told that this family got a room because they had made their reservations “2 days before”. the staff member was speaking to this family in another language and my mom and i feel we were discriminated against perhaps because we were not of the same ethnicity as this family.

i was even denied to use the bathroom and told it would be a “10 minute wait” because it was being cleaned, but i passed the bathroom myself and saw it had already been cleaned and the floor was dry, as the cleaning lady’s cart was ALREADY OUTSIDE THE BATHROOM!

then when we came back for official check in time, we were told there were no rooms on the 3rd floor as we wanted because we were told kids & families mainly stay on the 2nd floor and we wanted a more calming experience. at this point my mom and i were already feeling totally unwelcomed by this hotel & staff and we were already not fans of the area this hotel is in…

we were told to wait for a manager to come and about 15 minutes later she arrives. we go up to talk to her and apologize that we are needing her assistance as she just arrived and already this “manager” has an attitude with us.

as soon as we mention not wanting to stay another night this staff member got visibly annoyed and tried to say that this hotel is “not in a bad area and it’s actually around a lot of things” which at this point we didn’t even care about that anymore we just wanted to leave, we never made any insulting comments about the hotel specifically and she had seemed to get defensive.

she had told us that she wouldn’t be able to apply our points for this one night stay because my mom’s last name was different on her IHG member’s account and we were told that she’d need to see “divorce papers” if we wanted to earn my points in case “the cops came looking for us”?

why would the cops be looking for us? that seemed racially motivated in itself as i am a biracial woman! i even tried to show her my ID as proof as my last name matches the name on the reservation and she completely ignored me…

it seemed she was attempting to cause an unnecessary issue for us & retaliate against the fact that we did not want to stay at this hotel! we had just been at the HIE hotel at LAX airport and had a wonderful experience. i even called the same person we were dealing with for that stay to ask if this is normal protocol and he said NO!

he assured me he saw that the names were different but it was a NONISSUE because we were able to provide the same phone number on her IHG account AND the confirmation number!

once i mentioned to the “manager” about the discriminatory behavior & treatment that we felt when we initially arrived she called me “disrespectful” and took her staff’s side immediately instead of investigating and taking this complaint seriously…

my mom and i are going to escalate this up as far as possible because the way we were treated by this hotel’s staff was absolutely unacceptable and totally inappropriate.

we later found out that the two people we were dealing with were just staff members and the lady Yasmin was NOT ACTUALLY THE MANAGER! we were never given the name of the first staff member, as her name tag was COVERED!

there seems to be an extreme bias and lack of customer service equality within this chain, when we called to complain we were initially told by the case complaint manager that she was going to “call the hotel to find out what really happened”… if you are looking to stay at this hotel, do so at your OWN RISK and expect the possibility of discrimination and lack of proper...

HONEST REVIEW: we had a wedding to go to here in San Diego and was in a little bit of a rush to book a hotel. when this hotel came up, i looked at the ratings and read the reviews, the reviews weren’t very good, most of them were dragging the place and then there were a few where they said they had a perfect stay. i didn’t know what to believe and i didn’t really have an option for another hotel because everything was booked. so we went through with it and here’s how it went.

LOCATION/AREA: the location is great! it’s right by Sea World and the beach, and many shops and restaurants right in the area, perfect location! however the area/neighborhood isn’t the best (behind the hotel and back for a couple miles is where it is the sketchiest; the front, not so much, looks like a town:), before this scares you, let me tell you that it’s a very nice hotel, however the area is pretty run down and a little bit sketchy. there is security guarding the hotel at nights which makes me feel better! i never had a sketchy encounter while staying, but security is always nice to have in case!

ROOMS: first of all, everything was VERY clean! from what i’ve seen online the rooms look very different, and it’s a good different! it looks all remodeled and models a mid-century style! the beds were very comfortable, bathrooms were great, and it was all very spacious! the blinds closed out all the light, the AC worked great! we always sleep with a fan whenever we stay and so we obviously brought a fan. we never heard anything in the night or were woken up from the hallways, and we were also right by the elevator… so either the fan blocked out all the noise or no noise was made:) overall such a comfortable and cozy hotel!

FOOD: first, i didn’t expect anything fancy or for the food to be that great… however it really wasn’t bad and they had a variety of foods: oatmeal, fruits, cereal, pancakes, eggs, sausage and WAY more! great breakfast for a family, there is also a dining area where you can eat your breakfast or you can take it up to your room, either one works.

PARKING: they have a parking garage that is free to park in; the parking is great if there are not that many cars in the garage, because it is very tight! we always had a spot, until we came back much later in the night where all the spots were filled, we parked in the parking lot of the hotel and the security was great and made sure we got in okay! there will always be free parking here but it definitely is a tighter park, not made for trucks or bigger vehicles (in the garage, parking lot would be completely fine for bigger vehicles.)

overall i give this a 4 star hotel! i think i got my moneys worth and it was a great stay! i recommend it to those that are going to Seaworld or the beach! very close! hope this helps! staff was also very helpful...