The Westgate Hotel — Hotel in San Diego

This hotel is a joke. An example of greed, laziness and ineptitude. Condé Cast must have been paid to feature Westgate on their list of "best" San Diego Hotels. What does 4 stars mean? An expectation of amenities and level of service. Westgate has some of the amenities: roof top pool, fitness center and spa. all of those features are in a separate building and seem to be managed separately. The Hotel is SO tired. The Condé Naste article highlights the design of the hotel, claiming that if the outside facade of the hotel seems unimpressive walking into the lobby will transport you to "Versailles". Okay well I'm not sure if the writer has been to Versailles but I'm pretty sure it doesn't have an overpowering odeur of old lady perfume with a bit of brotherel mixed in. The lobby is tacky and claustrophobic. The rest of the building is tired and neglected. 4stars? One elevator was glitching out, stopping on the 12th floor for the duration of our stay and spitting out people. After which the elevator would emit an alarm. This happened hundreds of times throughout our 5 nights, waking us up late at night. Our premium room was located 12 feet away from this elevator. The room itself, large with floor to ceiling windows and a city view, was otherwise tired, ancient mini fridge barely cooled its contents. Equally ancient furnishings mismatched, not in a good way, dented, in need of a coat of varnish. What the Condé Naste article called huge bathrooms were infact a carpeted room with a large vanity counter with one tiny sink and several empty drawers, some of which were sealed shut and a stuffy toilet and shower bath combo contained by a stiff sliding door. The shower pressure was low. The bath was tiny. The overflow drain had a permanant stain of oily black tarnish running down the ceramic. Though, it's the service here at Westgate that disapoints:1) We arrive hoping for an early check in. The front desk tells us that we have to wait about 30 minutes for the room which is totally reasonable. No problem. But he is OVERLY chatty and we are tire from a very early flight, AND he insists that we check our baggage, am awkward extra step involving a slow depressing bellhop, still okay though.2) We are recommended to the rooftop pool bar while we wait for our room. Sounds nice. We go there, entering through a separate adjacent spa building where we have to fill out 2 separate forms for the privilege of accessing the pool bar. Finally get to the bar and there is no bartender for about 10 minutes and no other service employees. A line formed.3) We waited for the privelige of paying $45 for two very poorly mixed drinks. The bar tender was a nice guy but incompetent.4 The last straw for me was check in. Things move slow at the Westgate. A line had formed on our return and the wait was long. We got to the desk a new guy started his shift and this is where things went wrong. Some people should not be working in service. These people are awkward, robotic, passive aggressive, unlikable. They create problems that never had to happen. It feels like they are telling you their rules rather than any attempt to make you feel welcome. He read us his rules, made us feel uncomfortable. He spoke to us like this was the first time we had ever stayed at a hotel. Made us feel condescended to and exasperated by his complete lack of tact. He sent us up to our room discouraged. Told us that our luggage. (Two small duffels and two jackets) would be sent up when they "had a chance" After heading up to our room and having a long shower it was necessary to call down and demand that our bags were sent up immediately so we could get dressed and move on with our day. The same man answered the phone and was defensive and unhelpful instantly.

This is not a hotel worthy of four stars. Management is absent and neglectful of their duties. Floor staff are incompetent. We are very disappointed and...

Okay, so we experienced a minor issue with 2 staff members. Nothing unforgivable; there was a lack of communication, a lack of follow-up, and a small issue with them blaming each other. It was a bit of a bummer since the rest of our stay was 5 stars all around. There was an issue with the water being out, which was annoying. Again, this is not a terrible thing. I had low expectations of getting refunds or anything. I really just wanted some communication with the staff there, but I guess that was asking too much. Well, until just a few minutes ago. Someone named Beatriz (spelling) reached out to me and validated my frustrations. She patiently acknowledged my complaints and, I feel, went above and beyond to correct the situation. I don't want to be specific, but she definitely exceeded my expectation and provided the customer service that I would expect from such a nice hotel.

Onto the hotel itself. I don't think I've ever edited a review, so if my old review doesn't remain I'll reiterate what I said before. Hotel: This place was awesome. Visually stunning interior. The outside of the hotel has a bit of a business feel (surrounded by large business buildings), but the actual guest entrance and "veranda" (dining patio area) somehow maintain the elegance of the hotel. The surrounding area felt very alive. They have a nice pool area on the roof of the 3rd floor and a decent/clean workout area. They also have some nice little seating areas if you want to grab a drink and lounge by the pool. The hotel is about a 5-minute walk from some awesome restaurants and bars. I would recommend "The Gaslamp Fish House" for some good seafood, and "Taste and Thirst" was a pretty cool little sports bar just a little further down the street (great happy hour, good food, our server "Eli" was really chill). However, there are a ton of places to go around here. Our main goal was to get a spot close to the Zoo, and The Westgate is an 8-10 minute drive. For us, it was the perfect location.

Dining: The food at the restaurant is very good. The only disappointment was the room service, but I think that might have been due to an issue of communication (this was the night that we had an issue with the staff - which again, was not terrible. It just wasn't what I prefer.). The happy hour itself is worth checking out, but they have a populated list of beautiful dishes. They also had live entertainment and outdoor heaters to combat that chilly coastal weather. If you'd prefer to eat inside they have a beautiful dining area. Every time we went we felt underdressed. The staff helped with this with their positive and professional demeanor. We ate inside 2 times for breakfast and the food was awesome. They also have a decent price range if you're looking for something a little more budget-friendly. Our last morning we splurged on some of the more expensive breakfast options, and we were not disappointed.

After talking to Beatriz and her resolving our few complaints, this is definitely our new "go-to" hotel. It just checks all the boxes for us. There is a parking charge and a resort fee, so that is something to be aware of. I think it's worth it though. Overall, I feel like we got way more than we expected from this hotel. We'll be looking forward to our...

Really bummed out with the experience my friends and I had here. Given with the reviews and photos online, we really fell in love but changed rather quickly when checking in. My friends an I booked our stay with the hotel months in advance for our friends birthday celebration. We booked 3 queen double rooms in total to accommodate all of us. 4 people in each room, a total of 12 people total. When arrived at 9 am to try to check in our bags, and waiting for my other parties to arrive, we requested an early check in for all 3 rooms. We were told they would be ready by 1 pm since we were the only people to request early check in that day, no biggie. I left all of our names of who will be staying in what room with the concierge so there was no confusion when the other parties arrived after 1pm to check in. We left our bags and took off for breakfast. When we arrived around 1, the rooms weren't ready yet, which was no problem, we waited about 20 mins. When we got to our rooms, the rooms were not all that great. It's rather a old hotel and didn't anticipate for it to feel so old looking. Also, we got 3 rooms with 2 double queen beds. I swear those beds were full beds. Super small. Anyways, the other party arrived around 2pm and when they went to the front desk, they were asked to write down who was staying in what room?? I already gave them that info when we arrived. They were then given keys to one room and said the other room wouldn't be ready till 4pm? Which was not what we were told in the beginning. So my other friends had to wait till 4pm for their room which was very inconvenient and annoying. We let it slide and just hung out by the pool till then. When the 3rd room was ready, the party went and settled into their room. Another couple that was with us that arrived later, went to concierge to check in and were given keys to a room. When they went up to the room, they walked in on our 2nd party that already had 4 people in there, they were given the wrong room keys and walked in on our friends room while they were changing. They went back downstairs and the concierge gave them keys to a 4th room with only one bed. At this point, we were already running late for our reservations and figured they gave us the extra room for the mix up. We then received a phone call the next morning about the 4th room and we were going to get charged because we only booked 3 rooms. We spoke with concierge and told them the whole mix up on their part, and they voided the charges for 1 night because it was a mistake on their part and the other couple ended up staying in the 4th room anyway and [paying for their 2nd night. The hotel also didn't have any room service, continental breakfast, or snack area. Which we should've done more research on that before booking. Overall, it was a really bad experience because concierge was very rude and not accommodating at all. The manager was helpful the next morning. But overall, would not stay here again and wouldn't recommend it. I feel because we were a large, young group, they were very discriminating, but we were very respectful and caused no troubles during our stay. Very disappointing...