The Inn at Rancho Santa Fe — Hotel in Solana Beach

I'm being kind by rating this Inn with a One!! The room was decorated very nicely, that is the only thing good that I can say about our stay. The room was not functional!!. It states on the internet complimentary breakfast. We stayed there for 10 days (a big mistake) and had two breakfasts, both at our expense. The hostess was rude, and insisted we had to have a reservation, I replied no as we were staying there. That upset her even more. We were seated at 10:00 AM and there were only two or three occupied tables. We booked our stay about a month in advance. No notice was given that they would close their restaurant two days after Christmas. There was no coffee station, nor did they offer a fruit basket or basket of pastries or cookies. We have traveled extensively, during holidays and throughout the year. We have never experienced an Inn or Hotel not supplying some sort of breakfast, nor had any closed their restaurant during the holiday season. This also reoccurred after NewYears without any notice. ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE! The closet was very small, for a ten day stay we had no place to place our clothes that were not on hangers. I requested a small bureau, it took two days to get a bureau. The shower was full of cob webs, which my husband washed away and cleaned. They have a pretty good size window in the shower, which was not sealed. We then discovered it can be easily pulled open from the outside as it was one of those crank windows, (the crank was longer there) and not sealed. My husband went outside and could pull the window open with no problem. Cold air was constantly coming in. We also brought this to the attention of management. Our next dilemma were the drapes. When we arrived they were open. We were not able to close them due to the fact they had the wrong hardware (curtain rod). We advised the front desk, the manager came and literally had to unhook the drapes in order get them closed. They remained closed our entire stay. Maintenance came the next day and agreed, nothing could be done. They need to order and install a new rod. The bathroom is huge, again not functional, nowhere to put your toiletries. A small vanity table would have been great. The toilet was in a separate room, there was no extra toilet paper, I had to go to the front dest to request that. A small table would have been nice, instead of keeping the extra toilet paper and kleenex on the floor. Our Christmas Eve dinner was a disaster!!! A fixed menu which is fine. I ordered a steak and requested medium. I received it rare and cold, service was very slow. The manager came by and apologized and claimed they were understaffed. IF THEY WERE UNDERSTAFFED, they should not have booked all the reservations they had for dinner. There was well over 100 people waiting for dinner. The bill was well over $400.00, my husband is old fashioned and we paid and walked out without eating our dinner. Christmas day another disaster, we thought we could at least get a breakfast. But the only thing you could get was a $400.00 buffet for two being served from 9:00AM to 5:00PM. There was no separate breakfast buffet or dinner buffet. Again, we were never advised of this. The food was sitting out there all day. If you wanted dinner you had to pay another $400.00. The buffet was not even worth $400.00 and this does not include drinks. This is appalling the way this was handled. There was no room service. If and when the kitchen was open (not sure that it ever was), you could order something and pick it up yourself, of course there was no menu in the room to advise you of what they had to offer. We did go to the Spa, which we can say was the only good thing about our stay. We would rate it as a TEN and hope the owner does not spoil this wonderful place!! All of the staff just marvelous. I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND anyone to stay at this INN. THIS WAS A COMPLETE APPALLING AND HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE Not even a 3 STAR...

As a frequent Starwood guest (lifetime Gold), I have to say that my experience at Inn at Rancho Santa Fe in San Diego has been the most terrible hotel experience that I've had (both for Starwood and outside of Starwood properties).

I will caveat that this review is written from the perspective of a Starwood member.

To start with, the Inn at Rancho Santa Fe is not even close to a Category 5 Starwood Hotel and should not be billed as such. Here were all the things wrong with the hotel:

It was very clear that because we paid in points (which translated to about $312 per night vs. their $175 rate during this time), the hotel didn't value us much as guests and even used the word 'downgraded' when they spoke to us about our reservation.

Our room barely fit a queen-sized bed, the heater was broken and loud, none of the tv channels worked outside of the Starwood channel. The bathroom was disgusting and felt like something you'd find in a motel.

To be clear, I don't always need the fanciest room, but I would never pay more than $100 for the room we were in. It was that bad. We didn't even want to be IN the room and spent as little time there as possible.

Hotel service was terrible.

Room switch: Due to booking issues, we had to do a room switch. Despite the hotel staff telling us multiple times they would keep us updated, I had to check in with them every time to get an updated stats.

When we finally made the switch, we were told to wait at our room for a vale who was coming immediately. After a 20 minutes wait, and no one showing, I decided to walk around the property to check out the new room itself. On my way back (about 40 minutes after I was told the valet would come), I saw a valet driving with my luggage. I waved him down to ask if he was taking it to my new room. He just nodded his head abruptly as if I was annoying him and drove off without a word. I would have expected a more polite response.

Unhelpful staff: The property isn't extremely stroller friendly which isn't a problem except for the fact that a) the staff didn't move out of the way to try and let the stroller through (they were too busy chatting in the restaurant)b) directed me the wrong way when trying to get to 'stroller friendly' paths (the layout of the resort is with different buildings, and c) when I was wandering around clearly looking lost, I was completely ignored until I asked for help.

I do need to caveat that the gentleman who took our room service order was great. We had an appointment so he was able to get the order to us in under 20 minutes.

Poor hotel service did not just apply to us. My sister who was also staying at the hotel (and who paid in cash vs. points so was treated to one of the biggest rooms in the hotel) had issues with getting a working refrigerator in her room. They had brought yogurt for their young kids and found that the refrigerator wasn't working. Although they were told multiple times by the front desk (starting in the early morning) that a new one would be brought, nothing was brought all day until her husband went to the front desk and basically yelled at them for not bringing the refrigerator. Of course, the food was ruined. Again, if this was a Category 2 or 3 hotel, it might not be as frustrating. My issue here is that the hotel is labeling itself as a Category 5 Starwood. The service doesn't warrant that at all.

All in all, I would never come back to this hotel and would highly recommend that guests look to stay at other hotels...

This is a 3.5 star review first off.|The grounds and location of the Inn are excellent. If you want a quiet place to relax and unwind this is the place. Many other guests were stay-cationing for this reason. |The service by some staff was excellent but it was not enough to make up for the lackluster service in so many areas. Restaurant service was (very) slow, staff was unorganized and seemed confused at all times. There were plenty of servers over the Memorial Holiday but they just weren't efficient. The food and drinks were excellent but I don't want to spend 1 1/2 hours over lunch unless that's my choice. Every service interval took forever. Getting water. Getting a menu. Ordering. Sitting waiting for drink refills etc. Room service was brisk and good however. House keeping was not up to par. Our toiletries had clearly been filled up with water. Our outside patio area was never touched. The covers for the chairs were filthy. Coffee items were not filled, we were missing a mug. I will state however that the room was very clean. Again some excellence and some not.|I (believe) we had been upgraded to a villa cottage which has a kitchen. Whether this was by accident or intention I do not know. It had a microwave, an oven and a mini-fridge. However there are no plates, silverware, dish towels, pans etc so about the only thing you could do was heat your coffee in the single mug. A spoon would've been nice since we didn't have stirrers. I don't expect than anyone staying at the Inn intends to cook a meal but the point was the missed opportunity. Our last boutique hotel had a cute little martini maker set, a wine cork and (branded) wine glasses. We used the kitchen at the Inn as our luggage rack. Overall the rooms are nicely updated but still feel a little dark and have that old-hotel musty smell. It's not egregious but its there. The bed was comfy. Our patio was huge and we enjoyed it. |Also, while plainly spelled out as a possibility in the description, our room had neither an indoor tub or outdoor fireplace. Both of which were why I booked the hotel to begin with. We had an indoor fireplace but who wants to sit inside in San Diego? Oh, and for that fireside ambience they will bring you a single firestarter log. Just one. Again- another small hotel gave us a stack of logs and (branded) matches that I still have to this day. Another opportunity to go the extra mile that the Inn missed. The room did have a fancy toilet which might appeal to someone.|The pool area, while small, was adequate. Chairs were comfy, service was good.|Be aware that there is ongoing construction behind the hotel (Garden Rooms). This was in May on 2025. The houses being built were almost ready to get exterior walls and roof so the noise would probably clear up mid-summer. It is caddy-corner and not directly behind so you don't lose a lot of privacy.|The spa didn't have any additional amenities aside from a private pool so we didn't use it. If there hadn't been space at the main pool that may have been tempting but I was hoping for steam showers, a relaxation lounge etc.|Overall we did mostly enjoy the stay. Being able to walk into town is nice. Sitting on our patio on the weekend when the construction wasn't going and listening to the birds was nice. The bar area has a nice ambience. It's nice to wander in and have a nice drink or lounge in the adjacent living area. It's a cute little place. I just wish there was more attention to detail and a step-up in some...