InterContinental San Diego by IHG — Hotel in San Diego

As a small disclaimer up front, I did not pay for my stay at the InterContinental as it was included as part of a vendor sponsored event.

With that out of the way, my actual experience from arriving, check-in, navigation to my room, room and amenities, service/staff, and check out was five stars by far.

I arrived to the hotel a little before 4pm via Uber from San Diego international airport. As the car pulled up, a staff member opened my door and retrieved my roller bag from the trunk of the Uber for me. As I walked into the lobby, I followed the signage that directed me to the third floor for the main check-in desk lobby. Beautiful glass elevators took me from the street level to the third floor.

There was no line so I was called up immediately. Provided my ID and a credit card for incidentals as well as a cell phone number in case they needed to contact me during my stay. I was handed my key card, a welcome sheet for the hotel and event I was attending, then given directions to the elevator bank and room location.

The elevators are room card controlled so only a guest staying can access the hotel room areas. Otherwise you are limited to publicly accessible floors like the meeting rooms, restaurants, and lobby areas.

Once I arrived at my room, the view was excellent. I had a city view room that also allowed me to see part of the bay area as well. I was on the 11th floor so I had a fantastic view only obstructed by the other hotels in the area nearby. Room wise, it was very clean, well appointed, modern, and set at a perfect temperature on my arrival. I received a text message from the front desk checking with me to ensure everything in my room was satisfactory and that if I needed anything, I would be able to text directly with the front desk. This was a nice touch and I appreciated having a direct line, via text, to talk to the desk without having to hop on the phone. I'm an older millennial but I still prefer text over phone calls whenever I can use it for quick conversation items.

Once I got settled, I went out and explored the city for awhile before my first scheduled event. The event was hosted on the sunset terrace near the pool area. Food provided by the hotel was amazing and the space to lounge and eat was perfect for the event. The combination of standing tables and seated lounge style with fire pit options was great. Once I was back in my room and trying to settle in, there were multiple available USB ports to plug in my equipment to charge. Both usb-a and usb-c. The usb-c did rapidly charge my phone so I would guess it's probably a 30W rated port at a minimum.

The following morning, I made my way to the gym for a quick session. The gym may be the best equipped gym at a hotel I have ever visited. It had every major weight based machine, treadmills, stair steppers, spin bikes (with recorded classes you could play on a video wall) weight bench, rowing machine, free weights, available free headphones to use on some of the equipment, it was top notch. At 6am, it was myself and two other guests only. It may get a bit more crowded later in the morning but both days I visited, I was basically alone. (A Thursday morning and a Friday morning)

My final morning, check out ran into a small technical glitch that prevented me from checking out via the in room system but the front desk was able to correct the problem and get my checked out with no issues. We then met in the hotel's meeting room area, with breakfast being catered by the hotel. There were several baked pastry options, several nicely arranged fruit options, scrambled eggs, tres leche French toast, and turkey sausage made available to us. The meeting room areas were large and fairly well insulated from each other but there was an event going on in the room across the hall from us that was playing some obnoxiously loud music and amplified voice that did bleed into our space. Not the hotels fault but shame on that event for not being considerate of other folks at the hotel.

Overall, I would absolutely recommend staying at the...

I don't know where to start. Here are the main points of this terrible stay I had.

Cleanliness Issue ( hair in the shower but looked like p-hair, air vent dirty on 2 of my rooms) - My room was Never cleaned after I was told they were sorry and were going to clean it. They said they cleaned the wrong room. The other room I had also was dirty from the vent. Thinking it was my room that was cleaned but was not.

No hospitality Over the phone at the front desk. - I called about connecting rooms or having them next to each other, but I didn't get any of that request honored. I asked about a month ago and also the date of my arrival. when I called in the morning I was being helped by a female agent and the phone dropped. I called back and another female didn't bother to ask for my name or Conf# to check for my request. Instead she said all I can do it put a note and it is subject to avavibility. I told her I already know that, I am calling to see if you are working on it because it should already have notes on there. so THEN she asked for my last name. Seemed like she just wanted to get off the phone already and not help me. She said we cant do connecting, so I asked her can you put them next to each other and change 1 room for 2 queen bed? she said no were SOLD OUT. I checked online with my IHG APP and that was a lie, they had many rooms for 2 queen beds. I told her that and she said I cant change your room type.

I asked to speak to a manager and they change it right away.

No Communication. - They didn't clean my room, front desk didn't tell housekeeping the right room to clean, didn't tell me things were not available.

Lack of Amenity's ( No slippers, no bath robes, no Luggage rack) Was told they ran out off all these things. After texting 2 times I have yet to receive it by the 3rd time they said they don't have these items.

Telephone not working in the room. They sent someone to fix it, but no one ever answered at any of my 3 rooms. I had to text them to get an answer. I had to have my guest text me to text them to request for items. the answer for them when I brought this up was " we were busy".

Wrong F&B Charges - I was checking out and wanted to make sure my bill was ok before I left and had time to do that. after checking my room I still had to remind the agent to add my Credit.

I also asked about a change I do not know about. and asked for an itemized bill for that and I noticed that was not my charge or any of my guests. The charge was done at 10am and I wasn't at the hotel at that time. The agent mentioned it was signed and my last name was added to the that bill slip!?!? I was now worried my personal information was given out. I was in a rush for my rental yacht at this point due to this issue taking longer than it should. I had to leave my guests to wait for the agent at the front desk to come back since he said he needs to go "check" and make sure it was not my party that did that charge. At this point I am rushing and and starting to be late. I didn't even have time to check if I left anything behind in my room. ( turns out it was not my charge they said it was the " past Guests" ) I don't understand how they don't check to see the last name of the reservation and compare to the bill and the Agent lying saying it was signed with my last name.

NO follow up- I had so many issue not one time was I followed up to see if my stay was better I had to be the one to go and ask for the manager or let them know things were not done.

after all thing it was hard to have them comp my parking and the manager said they would deposit points to my account for these issues BUT YET TO BE DONE, NOTHING WAS ADDED TO MY ACCOUNT.

Agent Marie if I remember correctly is the only thing I loved about my stay. She is extremely nice and shows...

Having traveled extensively and worked in the industry for many years, I approach hotel experiences through a bit of a different lens. I'm looking for cleanliness beyond reproach, heart to heart engagements by the Associates, an appropriate level, food and beverage experience, and the overall atmosphere, including location and accessibility to business or leisure activities. Intercontinental San Diego scores high on every category with some opportunity to improve from the food and beverage service delivery. The location of this hotel property is ideal for small or large groups, families with older children, couples on a weekend retreat, or history buffs who ought access to maritime related adventures. We arrived early, but we're accommodated with a check-in, partly because of my IHG rewards status. The greeting by Maria was exceptional. Her hospitality and genuine delight of engaging with guests created a 10 star welcome. Maria clearly picked up on my physical exhaustion from a poor hotel experience And lengthy road trip. She was like a magician appearing with standard accoutrements in an exceptionally elevated way: a warm hand towel and welcome refreshment magically appeared. With Maria, all things are possible. The Bellman, who assisted us with heavy bags did so with discretion and expertise, even hanging my daughter's jacket in the closet when we arrive to our room. The updated do not disturb and service request in the guest room were appreciated as was the cleanliness of the linens and bathroom. Housekeeping here does a fine job as does the maintenance department. How do you know that is that you don't notice at all. No signs of Deferred maintenance here. We celebrated a birthday in the Vistal restaurant which overlooks the bay and offers outdoor seating with fire pit. This was the only noticeable deficit in the food and beverage program: Services spotty and sometimes a bit inattentive. We had a very good server for that dinner - it is a shame that I have forgotten her name. I will update this review at a later time because she did provide exceptional service and attention to allergies at our table. Breakfast on our last day was below Intercontinental standards - we waited for quite a while to be seated despite having a scheduled 7 AM reservation. Once seated, we advise the server that we were in need of a quick turnaround because we were heading to the airport for our flight home. Antonio was polite, but seemed flustered. I believe he could benefit from having additional training in service delivery. Once it arrived, the food was lovely and very tasty. The shame was that we were not able to enjoy it because we waited so long to be able to order. It must be said that this deficit did not go unnoticed by the front desk team. Noah was very observant and upon checking out, he acknowledged that our restaurant experience fell short of Intercontinental hotel standards. He promptly complemented our meal, although I did not expect that. This puts the review in an awkward position because on one hand, I am trying to state and present actual experiences, but one must consider how a hotel correct deficient Services. All in all, the stay was superior and one of our favorite throughout our 10 day adventure. High praise goes to the General Manager and his team for delivering at or above luxury standard in service, cleanliness, and communication with the guest. I highly recommend the Intercontinental Hotel at Bayfront Court in San Diego, California for discreet, elevated service, location to the bayfront and restaurants, and workability. Self parking at $45 per day in a major city is very reasonable and the third-party who manages the parking garage did an...