Sonesta ES Suites San Diego - Rancho Bernardo — Hotel in San Diego

My family and I stayed been living at the Staybridge Suites for 57 days, so I have a lot to say about it. Overall, this is a pretty nice place to stay for a week or so. In this review, I’ll layout my experiences with the front desk staff and housekeeping, the amenities of the rooms, the breakfast and happy hour, and the amenities open to all guests. The staff is friendly, the rooms are a good value, and the hotel is walking distance to many restaurants.

FRONT DESK STAFF. The people at the front desk are always pleasant and courteous to guests. They always have a smile and greet me when I come and go. Checking in was really easy. They made sure we had a crib ready to go in our suite. Because Staybridge is a short-term home for most guests, they accept mail and packages for guests. Staff takes good care of packages delivered to the hotel.

There are a few areas the front desk staff can improve. First, they need to make sure complaints from guests are acted upon. On several occasions, we had problems with plumbing in our room or in the laundry room, which were never relayed to the personnel who would actually fix the problems. The most frustrating time was the lack of response to issues with the washing machines, as describe in more detail below.

HOUSEKEEPING does a good job at keeping the rooms clean. Some days they don’t show up, but that is no big deal. They make the bed and replace used towels with clean ones on a daily basis. While it’s nice to always have fresh towels, this practice can’t be very good for the environment. I’d prefer they only replace towels placed on the floor, and let us reuse the ones we hang up to dry.

BREAKFAST. One of the best things about staying here is the free breakfast. There is usually all of the traditional continental breakfast stuff, such as eggs, waffles, melons, and coffee. The main protein choice varies daily, but is usually some sort of egg. Some of the egg dishes are gross, such as the scrambled eggs or the omelet with just American chees inside. However, the southwest style omelet they serve on Saturdays is great. The breakfast is manned by usually only one person, so it’s common to see the employee running around trying to keep up with the demand of the guests. The staff here is always helpful and friendly.

Staybridge holds a happy hour Tuesdays through Thursdays. The food is sufficient to make a full dinner. They offer pizza, hamburgers, chicken nachos, etc. Many guests get their money’s worth from the open beer tap. Guests can pour Karl Strauss Red Trolley or KS Summer Brew.

ROOMS. There are regular studio rooms, 1-bedroom suites, and 2 bedroom suites. We’ve tried both of the bedroom suites. If you have children, you really need 2 bedrooms. The 1 bedroom suite has a French door separating the living room and kitchen from the bedroom. However, you can open the door by pushing on it, and it does not offer any privacy. The 2-bedroom suites have real doors separating the rooms. Each room has an apartment-sized fridge, sink, dishwasher, and a stovetop. No ovens. They come with some utensils, pots, and cups. If you stay longer than 30 days, San Diego considers you a resident. At that point you get refunded all of your local hotel taxes paid for the prior 30 days ($20+/night).

LAUNDRY. There are free laundry machines on the first floor, but they are horribly dirty. There are 4 washers and 4 dryers. Using the machines will make your clothes dirtier, not cleaner. We had white socks come out pure black. We complained to the front desk on two occasions, but nothing was done. We needed to do some laundry, so we complained again. The front desk guy gave my wife some towels and soap, and said, “go for it.” Even after spending an hour scrubbing out the machines with cleaner and bleach, and running a rinse cycle, they still turned white clothes black.

The pool is clean and fun for the kids to play in. There is rarely anyone...

The best thing about this place is the nice Asian lady in the morning preparing breakfast. She was kind and happy to help. Everything else about this hotel was awful. I stayed 3 nights. My company paid for my room and put me on the 1st floor.

The first thing I noticed is when I came to lay down in the bed there were alot of stains on the bottom sheet . I asked if they could have them changed and she said, are you the one who called about the Cobb webs? I said no. But I was so tired from traveling after an hour of waiting I called again and they sent someone about 45 min after that. I had fallen asleep on the sketchy dirty looking sofa while waiting.

You can hear every footstep above you like it's an old house. Like someone's pounding their heels into the ceiling. It was constant and so loud. This wasn't from kids running at all. It was a heavy foot adult. The guest above me was asked two nights to try and be considerate after 10. But continued late the 3rd night again. The front desk asked me if I'd like some ear plugs. I couldn't move rooms because the hotel was supposedly booked. And I was here on work and couldn't pay for my own room elsewhere.

Even worse I had no hot water for 2 days! I had to take a cold shower after a long day at work. I had to keep calling the front desk to ask to be moved or to have it fixed. They said they can't turn it up anymore, because there are children here and can't have it burning them. That is understandable but it wasnt even warm at the hottest setting. They said let it run longer first. No change. They said the water had to come far from the boiler. None of my coworkers had this issue. Every excuse possible, but i just wanted to actually have it looked at. Until the front desk assistant finally came to my room and tested my water after 2 days of cold showers. It was room temperature at best. She said she'd have someone come look at it the following day. So I called at work around 4pm the next day to see if they looked at it. And the front desk attendant said oh ok I can have that looked into. I said this should have been addressed by now. You're just starting now to have it looked into? Do you have someone on site this late to look at it? She said all I know Is I was told it wasn't as hot as you would like. She brushed me off, acted like my complaint wasn't valid or important. I said no its not that it's not as hot as I'd like, it's not even warm! They eventually got it slightly warmer but never hot and the pressure is more like a sprinkle.

Not to mention the room key cards. They tell you don't put it near your phone or a magnet or a Bluetooth or it will deactivate it. I have never heard of a Bluetooth device deactivating my hotel room key. Sure enough, anywhere near any of those things and you'll have to walk back down and get your card reactivated. I saw about 5 other people doing the same thing at once when we got back from work. Obviously it's an outdated system to be so inconvenient.

The dishwasher by the way was full of all the dishes. Somewhat clean or ran through anyway. But there were lipstick and coffee stains on most of the glasses. Why should I have to get into my room and empty a dishwasher before I can use the dishes and to only find them still dirty. They should run them first and then put them away when they're done cleaning.

My coworker who stayed here said her kitchen was full of ants and had to have them come spray. They also don't clean until you check out so there is a lot of trash and towels out in the hall.

It's apparent the place is terribly outdated and neglected in...

This is one of my first public negative reviews I have ever written! Usually instead of writing negative reviews for a hotel, restaurant, shopping store or other companies I don’t like, I simply stay quiet and take my business elsewhere.

But unfortunately Mike Jones (Manager of The Sonesta ES Suites in Rancho Bernardo - San Diego, CA) has pushed the limit on his behavior that has now affected my livelihood as he canceled all of my reservations from today for the next 2 weeks due to his assumptions and discriminatory behavior.

Although so much of these challenges fall back on Mike’s leadership, I must genuinely acknowledge some of the team members at this location like Rachel, Arnold and CJ that always showed me great respect and kindness during my stays at there.

Long story short, my family recently faced some significant transitional challenges that led me to becoming a long term guest at this hotel for a few months since December 2024. Needless to say, I’ve spent thousands of dollars at this location which has now earned me the Platinum Travel Pass member level.

I kept using this location as it is the closest Extended Stay Hotel near my day job, but during my stays there, here are just a few of the challenges I faced while there:

My first room had ants in it from the kitchen to the bathroom Many of the kitchen utensils were stained and not properly cleaned I’ve taken many cold showers at night as the hot water in many of my rooms were inconsistent which could have affected my health as I work a second job during late nights as well One of their employees yelled at me in front of other guests in December over a minor policy clarification I asked for My last room (336) was a pet friendly room, which I had told Mike about in early January that I’m allergic to many pet hairs, but he never addressed that issue - Since my allergies persisted while using the AC, I called the front desk again last Friday and a team member kindly came and finally cleaned the AC unit weeks later - Mike’s repeated lack of urgency as a leader trickles down to some of his team members at times which could affect their guests’ wellbeing Although I was told that my rooms are supposed to be cleaned once a week, I seem to always be forgotten until I call the front desk again

Things worsen this past Saturday (2/22/2025) as the hotel was overbooked last minute and for the first time I couldn’t extend my room. At short notice they told me to pack-up my things and check out while I was stuck at work until 4pm.

Furthermore, by the time I got off work, without telling me (not even a phone call), they went through my room and packed up my belongings in random plastic bags and luggage carriers for me to pick up from their office.

Needless to say, as I packed my belongings into my car, I felt embarrassed and discriminated against as I have given Mike and his team much quality business and many courteous feedback while they tried to resolve some of the challenges I had faced above with them during my stays there.

I hope Sonesta’s leadership takes a more constructive, thoughtful, caring and humane approach to this matter than Mike did. The world needs more hospitality leaders that see people more than just convenient financial transactions.

Lastly, I hope this statement from your Company’s Website remains true “The human side of hospitality is the core of our culture. Our mission is to wow every guest, team member, partner, and community in which we operate by delivering quality, value, and amazing...