The Inn at Sunset Cliffs — Hotel in San Diego

TO ALL BRIDES AND GROOMS CONSIDERING THIS HOTEL AS A WEDDING VENUE, PLEASE READ THIS WARNING IN ITS ENTIRETY.

My fiancé and I just had the absolute worst experience of our lives with this hotel. Our wedding is in August at a different location and we booked bride and groom suites at this hotel for our wedding weekend. We inquired about room prices for our guests (~15 rooms) and having hors d’oeuvres on their lower patio the night before the wedding. We contacted Gina (the supposed wedding coordinator) for weeks without receiving a single response. We sent emails to 3 different email addresses. Multiple hotel concierges said they would personally ask her to call us back. Finally, after a couple weeks of no response, I was able to get a direct phone number to speak with her. I left several voicemails and texts. One day, she miraculously picked up.

When I spoke to her, she did not have any information on room rates nor pricing for the patio reservation. Apparently, she is not in charge of coordinating events outside of weddings and forwarded us to a different useless manager named Gavin. Obviously, after more than 5 attempts at reaching Gavin, we did not receive a single response. Gina lied and said he left us two phantom voicemails, none of which we received. I called Gina back repeatedly and spoke to her two times. Each time she apologized for the awful treatment we were receiving and said she would get back to us soon with the final answers. Days and days later, still no response.

Finally, after one month of trying to finalize reservations, Gina drops on us that it will cost $1000 per hour to reserve the lower patio for a minimum of 3 hours. Just to have finger foods catered and to sit on their patio couches (not even have tables set up), she wanted to charge us 3K! First of all, I do not understand why no one working at this poorly managed hotel couldn’t have relayed this information to us in the beginning. We had no idea this price would be dropped on us one month later. Secondly, Gina had the audacity to say, “Whether your wedding party decides to stay here or not, our hotel rooms will fill up. We cannot change the price of the patio because our other guests will want to use the patio also. This is a business.” Her tone was essentially, “We do not need you.” Instead of empathizing with me for royally screwing up communication for this entire transaction, she waited one whole month to tell me the cost. ABSOLUTE WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE ON THE PLANET. I asked several times to have the contact information of the hotel owner. She did not want to get the owner involved. She did not even want to give my information to the hotel owner so that he/she could contact us directly.

The following day, we had a conference call with Gavin and Gina where they basically said there’s nothing they can do to help lower the 3K rate, no discounts on guest hotel rooms for screwing us over, and again wasting our time. They refused to give us any contact information to the hotel owner. Instead, they insisted we send our complaint to the same email address that we originally sent our message to over a month ago. What a joke.

Brides and grooms: save yourselves the anxiety, stress, heartbreak, and high hopes of having your wedding dreams come true at this hotel. Do not consider booking your wedding here; it will be poorly managed. Do not consider booking a room block here because room blocks here do not exist. They will not response to your emails, voicemails, or texts. They will not do anything to help accommodate you and your wedding party, even if they royally screw up your reservation. Just don’t do it. You will regret...

Almost a Bait n Switch

The leading feature of this hotel is the deck which is literally "on the water". The first time I stayed here (booked over the phone) it was so peaceful, sitting on the deck, enjoying the ocean breeze and watching the waves and the birds. I booked again (over the phone) for July 4th weekend. Nobody bothered to tell me when booking that there would be a giant DJ'd party going on with loud music and a bunch of people who weren't staying at the hotel coming in to party at 10 bucks a head. I didn't complain then, but I wasn't happy about it. I booked a third time (booked in person) for my last weekend in OB, hoping for it might be more like the 1st time than the 2nd. It wasn't. This time nobody bothered to tell me that this leading feature, and the only one I really cared about, would be COMPLETELY UNAVAILABLE to me due to a WEDDING taking place. I wouldn't have booked at all. Nevermind that I booked there expecting to have time with my father who had come to join me to visit my mothers grave on their would-be 50th anniversary, now having to sit on the "upper deck" (it's quite warm up there due to glass that blocks the breeze) and watch some unknown peoples wedding.

There is clearly no schedule for the deck, and they are looking for ways to make even more money than the $350 a night I was paying by letting others use just the deck on a pay-per-use basis. (it was Yoga the next morning!) So if you think you are going to get some quiet time on the deck, maybe with a few other hotel residents, you probably aren't. And they aren't going to tell you when you book that this is the case.

We finally complained this 3rd time, asking for a 30-50 percent refund. They refunded $75 (21%). That just doesn't cut it. I wouldn't have even booked there if they had bothered to tell me the deck was unavailable during my stay.

Sure the flowers are nice. The rooms are modest, adequate, aging but not too bad. We pay the exorbitant rates for the deck (in particular, sunset on the deck) - which is ON the water due to the location. If that's not available, this is a $100 a...

I was not as pleased with Inn at Sunset Cliffs as I had hoped to be. First, the website boasts photos of both the upper deck (pool level) and a lower desk with chaise lounges. What isn't shared is that the lower deck basically fell into the ocean 2 years ago (this review April 2023) and the hotel is in a fight with the city to be able to rebuild it.

Also, I was certain I had booked the 2 bedroom suite WITH kitchen, but I was put into a 2 bedroom with mini fridge and microwave. The bathroom is tiny and the water pressure is horrible. We stayed 2 nights and while they did clean our room the first day, they did not replenish the coffee pouch we had used in the tiny 3 cup coffee maker.

I paid extra for the golf cart transport to and from the beach. It was out of service, so I had to get that removed from my bill.

When I booked the room I was sent a receipt and thought I had prepaid for the room. When I arrived, I was asked to put a card on file, which is fine. I assumed it was in case we damaged anything. What I didn't realize is that the card I had used originally to reserve, and which I thought was already charged, actually wasn't charged. The card I gave at the front desk is not the card I wanted to pay with, but it was charged before I realized what was going on.

Finally, the place is not smoker friendly. One must go out in front of the property near the entrance to the office and sit on uncomfortable wooden or stone benches, which in my opinion would deter non-smokers from wanting to walk through that area. I don't understand why a smoking area couldn't be set up in the back of the property where a guest could enjoy the view and where its windy enough that smoke wouldn't bother non-smokers.

The steps go to out front are steep, angled strangely and not very wide. I'm an older person with a bad back. The fear of falling was never more real.

The place next door seemed much nicer and about $100-$150 per night cheaper. I will book...