Ocean Park Inn — Hotel in San Diego

I am sharing this review as a caution to others who may be considering booking this hotel for their vacation. I have stayed at this hotel before, over a decade ago and had a great experience back in 2013, that is why I decided to book this hotel for two nights on Booking.com. Knowing that the first floor rooms are noisy and right next to the walkway, I sent messages to the hotel in advance requesting that I have a second or third floor room. Never got a response from the hotel. Fine, I would make sure when I got there to see that they received my messages. I was going to San Diego for work, and then booked the hotel on Pacific Beach because I wanted to be close to the beach and had a good experience previously. I got to the hotel last week for my booking and when I arrived they told me I was on the first floor right in the middle of the noisiest spot on the walkway. I said I did not want that room and explained that I had messaged them previously about this. The person at the front desk explained that if I booked directly with the hotel I would have the option to choose which floor, but since I booked through Booking.com, they would only give me the crappiest room in the hotel. Not impressed, I said I would pay extra for another room that was more to my liking (ie. even if it wasn't a beachfront room on the second or third floor, I was willing to pay). No dice, she said there was nothing she could do, and I was stuck with the crappy room on the first floor. I asked if there was a possibility to get a refund of my $500+ USD per night, so I could book somewhere else. She said this was not possible, and they were still going to charge me. I had all of my luggage, so I just said give me the room and I will figure it out. I got keys to the room, and they did not work. I went back to the front desk and she was talking with someone who was asking about the parking, so I waited 10 minutes with my belongings in the hallway until she let me into the room. The room lock was still broken and the key cards didn't work. She said she would get someone to fix it and basically just left me in the room with my luggage. Meanwhile, I tried the TV and it didn't work (since I was basically captive in my room until they could fix the lock). I told the handyman and front desk and they said the he would fix this problem too...I asked the handyman if the manager was around and he said no, they are not around on weekends. The room was small, cramped, with some crappy wooden blinds that basically had no privacy from the walkway next to the hotel. At that point, I was reaching my limit with this hotel and the staff, so I walked out of the room and I told the lady at the front desk that I'm not happy with the room, and if they cannot do something about it I will walk down the street and find another hotel. She said there is "nothing she can do" so I walked outside, went up the street to Tower 23 (fantastic hotel) and booked two nights there instead. I came back to Ocean Park Inn and told the lady I want to get out of this hotel, and I am going to post a review about my experience. She said I could not get a refund, and I said you are not going to ruin my vacation. I got my stuff, and went up the street to the other hotel and had the best experience at Tower 23 instead. My word of warning to anyone who is looking to book Ocean Park Inn: The service has deteriorated at this hotel to the point that ownership does not give a crap about their guests and does absolutely nothing to make their stay pleasant. The main point of this review is to say that if you are paying over $500 USD per night for a room, you should be given some courtesy and respect, and also the room should not have a broken TV and a broken lock on the door if you want to charge that price for the CRAPPIEST ROOM IN THE HOTEL! I don't know if the ownership changed at Ocean Park Inn since 2013, but the level of service there has plummeted and I will never recommend them. I have stayed in many hotels around the globe - this will stand out as my #1 worst...

The entire staff was warm, welcoming and totally accommodating during our trip. We didn't want for anything and when we asked for towels or whatever...the staff was quick and prompt. THE HOTEL WAS EXCEPTIONALLY CLEAN. We didn't have black socks or feet while walking on the tile. The bathroom was also VERY clean. I didn't even wear shoes in the shower! Ha! The rug under the bed was also very clean, not a speck of dust anywhere. The housekeeping staff was on it too and we were very happy that they visited every day. The hotel provided goody bags for our kids at check-in which was a nice touch. Our kids were very happy to receive them. There's a Ralph's right across the street for odds and ends that you may have forgotten or to pack lunches for the beach. We stayed for 5 nights and the only thing we would have wished for was more breakfast variety without getting rid of the bacon every day! Who doesn't love bacon?! But either way, the food was good. Also, the microwaves could be included in our room for no additional charge. We did have milk that was not cold and yogurt that also went bad in the fridge. It was no where near cold enough to be considered a refrigerator, more like a cooler. We just kept everything on ice which was kind of a pain, but doable. Other than those couple of things, our stay was amazing and we will definitely be back! Don't worry about bringing soap, shampoo or lotion...their soaps and lotion smell absolutely AMAZING 😍 we wanted to take them all off the wall and bring them home with us! They don't skimp with cheap soaps. These are luxurious toiletries. The rooms were spacious, we didn't have any issues with club noise as other guests have reported. We stayed in room 218. It could have been because we stayed Monday-Friday but we slept very well. Every room has a patio, comfy beds that are actually queen sized, not full sized. It was in a perfect location with the beach entrance literally right in front of the hotel. The beach showers were also right next to the hotel which made it super easy to wash everything off and not track the whole beach inside our room. The umbrellas and chairs we rented from the hotel partner, for the beach were set up and taken down for us. They arrived clean and the owner was also very nice and accommodating. I couldn't have asked for a better stay. We were so happy and just cant say enough wonderful things about our stay. If you're on the fence, just stay...you won't be disappointed at all! We...

Be prepared to donate your hard-earned $$$ to this hotel as instructed by disrespectful, rude, unprofessional staff.

Worst possible customer care, and extremely rude staff, especially when you tell them the entire bag of souvenirs and Knick-knacks you bought from Old town city are taken by the housekeeping maid; that there’s no reason that particular bag, heavy with items wrapped, should have been thought as trash. Even if you had more than $50 worth of your items stolen, there’s not even an apology from them, leave alone trying to locate your stuff.

Makes you wonder whether the next item up for stealing would be the “$100 incidentals” that they put a hold on your card, the minute you check into the hotel.

If you are stranded with no Internet on your phone, and you call the hotel to get yourself a taxi, the hotel would create a thousand excuse that they can’t. They think their inconvenience is greater in having to call a taxi for you.

Be prepared to pay $3 each for 200 ml bottles of water which you think should be complementary in a $400+ per night hotel.

No electric kettle or microwave inside the room.

Housekeeping barely cleans but takes things away and the manager supports them. Talk about “honor among thieves”.

Homeless people and marijunana smokers all around the hotel, right below the balcony and sleeping in their lawn. Don’t bother telling the staff, all they have to do is be rude and sit pretty.

Loud music blaring from nightclubs all around, you can’t sleep until it’s 2 am. You can’t still when it’s 2 pm either as street musicians come blasting their off-key music right beside the hotel from 8 am, goes on till 3 pm.

The only pro of this hotel is the location. Breakfast is passably average. Color scheme and all that things that you should care about when you’ve got your stuff taken away by housekeeping and when you have a rude, unfriendly, disrespectful and unprofessional staff attending to you, is great.

The coffee sucks, pretty much like everything else.

Not coming back definitely to a hotel where your things will be taken from you and hotel staff things it’s customary. Stay off particularly if you’re not used to being treated differently because of the color of your skin.

This hotel should be off the market with this kind of terrible people running the hotel- a consistent problem even...