Rancho Bernardo Inn — Hotel in San Diego

We were originally in room 166 but we had the hardest time finding the room and we (embarrassingly) returned to the front desk multiple times for directions. I can't believe it but I actually did not get the name of the woman who helped us. She was SO nice and accommodating. It was my birthday and she felt badly for the mix-up so she upgraded our room to 744 in the Greens building. SO nice of her. I was super impressed. After the mix-up, we entered room 744 and had a look around. The room had a beautiful golf course view and the room itself was very nice aside from a few major details that should not be happening at a 4 diamond hotel.

DUSTY! The room was dusty all over. The fixtures, the lamps, the bedside tables, the TV stand

Bed was VERY hard, uncomfortable and my mom and I (shared the bed) both woke up on the morning with knots in our necks and we didn't sleep at all. Good thing we booked a massage. The therapists took extra time working on our necks.

shower had the previous guest's used razors, shampoo, conditioner and toothbrush in it (yuck!)

There was only 1 bath towel (which leads me to assume that maybe the bathroom was NOT cleaned at all since the towels weren't re-stocked and there was a previous guest's toiletries, razor and toothbrush left in the shower) We waited over an hour for new towels.

My Mom later told me she also ordered a cupcake and balloons for my birthday but they never arrived to our room.

Breakfast at Avant was good. We both had the American breakfast (I had no meat with mine) and we enjoyed it. The service was great and the coffee was yummy.

The spa was AMAZING with a few things that I thought could have been better and were certainly a turn off for the price we paid for a massage, lunch and to use the facility (easy fixes for staff)

Trash cans in the spa pool and jacuzzi area were all full to the point of spilling out

I had to clean the jacuzzi myself before getting in and I removed quite a bit of debris/bugs/trash

Lounge chairs in the spa jacuzzi were really dirty and I had to wipe it down before laying down

It had been raining and all of the towels were left outside and wet. They should have been replaced or at least covered

Our massages and our dinner at Avant were out of this world fantastic and for those two things alone, I would consider returning to the Inn. I do not think that I would stay overnight again considering everything. I do have to say that all the staff at the Inn from the bell boys to the restaurant staff were very very nice and friendly and super helpful.

My mom and I ordered the chef special for dinner which was a jumbo shrimp risotto. We enjoyed it very much. I got mine without shrimp but my mom said the shrimp was a bit spicy but very delicious and the risotto had lots of flavor and was bursting with vegetables like tomatoes and artichokes. We also ordered chips and guacamole. The guacamole was obviously from breakfast or made earlier in the day because it was a little watery and very cold and starting to turn brown. The chips were thick and delicious. We also ordered dessert. My mom got the bread pudding and I got the creme brulee. Both were AMAZINGLY DELICIOUS! Our server was great and very attentive. We enjoyed the restaurant very much. Update: I did answer a customer survey and a manager at the Inn reached out regarding my concerns. She offered a 1 night stay and I will update my review after my second stay. I'm hoping (because it really is a gorgeous property) that it was an unusual circumstance. Customer service is top...

Wouldn't recommend this place more cons than pros. We stayed here 4 expensive nights.

Rooms - we had a Santiago poolside room #153 unfortunately it was at the children's pool + above the industrial laundry facility. The dryers hummed all day and rattled our room. We were traveling with older children for sports tournaments so didn't spend a lot of time here, but the time we were here was pretty awful. Super loud inside our room in every direction. The leaf blowers started at 6am from golf course and hotel grounds. Then the pool speaker was literally next to our patio with music blasting at 10am all day until about 9pm. No pool service at the pool. Loads of people that weren't staying at the resort took over the bar area and even helped themselves to go behind the unmanned bar. The hot tub was often filled with 10 kids. The actual room was dated and items broken, worn down in bathroom. It was a nice size for 4 of us especially with the extra vanity area. The outside porch though wasn't cleaned so tons of leaves on the furniture and ground. Ironic since the leaf blowers seemed to be going for hours nearby.

Restaurant - we had a good experience dining at Veranda for 4 of our meals for our family of 4. We mainly ate here since very convenient. When we headed down for happy hour time on my birthday to get a quick drink and listen to the music outdoors while our older kids got ready for celebration dinner, we were turned away since not ordering a full dinner. Seemed pretty awful since plenty of open tables and literally would have been there about 15 min max and we dined here a bunch of times already!

Cafe - pretty good coffee, they are learning some of the new Starbucks drinks, so expect a long wait. Great pastries!

Pools - the family pool was dirty with food boxes lining the side of the pool, parties of people not staying here and no service.

The adult pool was quiet but no view and again no service!

The Spa Pool - the nicest of the pools and what you would expect from a nicer resort and despite saying on the website there are 3 pools onsite, if you pay to stay here overnight at $550+/night - you can't use it!! It's only for people that have spa appointments. So I could have spent $150-$300 and used this lovely pool. But I spent $2,500 for our room and was turned away, hmmm! Very bad business decision here. We walked down to this pool to get away from the chaos of the family pool and the woman quickly approached as we entered to tell us we couldn't stay despite a lot of open chairs and our willingness to eat/drink here as there was service at this pool.

So you can get room service to bring things to you but it will cost you 26% service charge and yet the spa pool doesn't have this charge. Again a bit backwards.

We got 2 drinks + chips and guacamole on our last day and it was $68 from room service delivered to the pool.

Parking - $37 to park and you literally can't find an open spot. Must be the loads of people coming in that arean't staying plus overflow from golf course. We circled around for 15-20 min every time we had to park and a few times gave up and parked in the neighborhood pretty far walk up the hill about 20 min walk. If you aren't staying you likely didn't pay to park here either since you aren't given a parking tag, it's just a charge on your hotel bill.

We wanted to stay in this area to be close to the sporting competitions however, we'll not stay here again. Rather drive and spend the money on a nicer experience overall with hotel staff that wanted...

RBI review

If you’re looking for a quick local getaway, keep looking….This resort is dated and way overpriced. For a 1 day stay, we spent over $1,000….The resort adds a lot of hidden fees. If these amounted to a better experience, I’d be all for it but it was lacking in all areas. Here’s the run down:

THE SPA: We booked 2 facials at a pricey $160 each. They claimed that all facials had to be 50 minutes due to Covid, however, the cleaning time should be embedded in the appointment schedule and should not come off the customer’s service time. This greatly impacts the customers experience.

PROS: ◦ the facial itself was great; good results ◦ Nice pool area

CONS: ◦ Additional fees included (presumably for cleaning, but this cost is already passed off to the customer by taking 10 minutes off the treatments) ◦ No robe service ◦ No welcome beverages ◦ Dated computers, kept freezing during check in ◦ Slow cabana service ◦ Additional fees for ordering food at the pool ($5 to deliver to your lounger + 25% service charge)

TOTAL COST—spa $397/ cabana—$191 for 2 bottles of wine, chips and guacamole

THE RESORT: The location is not desirable. You have to drive through several neighborhoods to get to the resort. The exterior appears somewhat dated, but the room is surprisingly updated and inviting.

PROS: ◦ the room is nice and open

CONS: ◦ The AC doesn’t work properly. A little warm. ◦ Many additional fees, not just taxes (service fees AND resort fees) ◦ Check in is at 4:00 p.m.—by the time we checked in, all of the restaurants were completely booked. No walk ins accepted. Would have been nice to know prior to arrival because we wanted to have a nice dinner but were turned away. For the price your paying, there should be tables set aside for guests or they should be told to make reservations prior to check in.

TOTAL COST—$240 accommodations/$16 for incidentals (Advil for the pounding headache that resulted from drinking cheap wine sold for top dollar)

THE RESTAURANTS/BAR: As mentioned, the restaurants were not able to accommodate us so we had to sit at the bar to order food. The menu wasn’t terrible. We ordered salmon entree, ribeye entree, 2 glasses of wine, 2 cocktails.

PROS: ◦ Ribeye steak was delicious

CONS: ◦ You’re paying a lot of money to stay at the resort but the restaurants can’t accommodate you for a nice sit down dinner ◦ Entrees do not include any vegetables aside from 3 mini roasted potatoes. So you get a protein and 3 mini roasted potatoes for about $50. ◦ Food portions are small (takes up about 1/4 of the plate) left feeling very hungry. I’ve been to restaurants such as Paon or Viggilucis that serve small portions but the flavor leaves you feeling very satisfied. Not the case here. They need John Taffer to come revamp their kitchen. ◦ Salmon did not come with the chimchurri sauce that was stated on the menu. No flavor. It was over-cooked, very dry and hard to get down. ◦ Poor wine selection and highly overpriced ◦ Entrees were overpriced for the quality of food. I also left feeling very hungry

TOTAL COST—$312 for dinner at the bar

TOTAL COST FOR ONE DAY AT RBI—$1,156–Do yourself a favor, book yourself a nice resort on the beach for this cost. Better yet, book a flight to Vegas and stay 3 days at a...