Winners Circle Resort — Hotel in Solana Beach

My elderly in-laws reserved this place months in advance. They asked for a pool view room. While they were driving down to the place, they live about 150 mi away, they lost their navigation. Some kind of malfunction with the GPS but they lost their directions. They knew they weren't too far away so they called. But nobody answered the phone. They called about 10 times and they didn't get there when they planned to be there because they were trying to find it and nobody at the resort was available to help.

When they got there they were told they could not have a pool view room. What they don't tell you is if you don't get a pool view room then you are facing the parking lot and that's your only window. Kind of like a motel. And the cars are parked right outside your only window. Kind of like a motel. The room was dark and humid.

As I mentioned before they are elderly and they asked if there was a valet or anybody who could help them with their luggage. The answer was no, they were on their own. Had they gotten a pool view room as they reserved, there would have been another entrance from the pool deck side. My mother-in-law is disabled and my 89-year old father-in-law has heart and back problems. He had to unload the car by himself and bring the luggage to the room. Although the cars are right outside the windows of the room, the entrance to the building is not nearly so convenient so he had to take the luggage down through the parking lot and then up a path to the building and then down the hallway to the room.

They requested if they could be moved to a pool view room as soon as one was available and they were told yes but because it was the weekend they said it might not be until Monday. They showed them a map of the hotel and showed the rooms that would be available on Monday and there were multiple.

Monday came around and they requested to be moved again and they were told no. No particular reason except they were expecting people to be coming in but they didn't even know who was coming. They told my mother-in-law that they never guaranteed that anyone can have a particular room so of course my in-laws were wondering well then that would imply that the people coming in on Monday aren't guaranteed a particular room so why can't Winners Circle move them to a pool view room now that there were rooms available?

The staff at the front desk over the weekend, Saturday and Sunday were very nice and kind but the horrible woman who wouldn't answer the phone on Friday was back there on Monday. All I can say is that she's a terrible person. We stayed over there with my in-laws on three different days so we have personal experience with the place.

The bed was comfortable and the place was reasonably clean. The staff at the front desk is a whole different matter. I don't think I've ever encountered such a rude person at a hotel or timeshare of the caliber that they claim to be.

If I were going there and they couldn't guarantee me a pool view room I wouldn't bother with that place. There's no restaurant associated with it, no vending machines, no water, no guarantees of anything and a woman from Hell who was working at the front desk on Friday and is back today which is Monday. If you need anything at all from customer service when she's there you can forget about it and she won't honor any room reservations pertinent to location.

I have not read all the Google reviews but on other sites I have heard other people mention a horrible experience with a woman at the front desk and it sounds exactly like her. I can't believe people buy timeshares there because I would never willingly go stay somewhere where she was working the front desk.

The fish market restaurant next door is great. A little pricey but very good.

I definitely recommend checking out the reviews, all of them. If you can get them to guarantee you a pool view room and you don't need any service while you're there, you'll probably have a great time. But the service that my in-laws received is unbelievable. My mother-in-law was in tears.

Live...

I booked a room here for a family member that was visiting for a big celebration. I chose the place because it's walking distance from my home and the photos looked very nice. Not because of it's proximity to the Del Mar Race track. We were surprised to walk into a lobby looking sparse with lots of plastic and tape up for renovation purposes. This was not the nice lobby from all the photos on the website. No big deal though, renovations happen. Walking to the front desk I notice a couple of people waiting on a couch and not looking too happy. I soon found out why. When I get to the desk a woman appears and asks what I needed. I told her we were there to check in and she tells me no that's wrong she has no more check ins for the night. When I tried to offer her my reservation details she became even more curt and told me it didn't matter because they had no more rooms available. It was pointed out that they were fully booked and that's why the other unhappy people were sitting in the lobby trying to find some place to stay. When I asked what they would do to help us find a place nearby to stay she said that we would need to call the booking company and she could tell them that we were entitled to a refund. When I told her that we would still need a room nearby though, she let us know that it was our fault for using a 3rd party website and not booking directly through their website. Ironically, I had tried to book through the official hotel website a month earlier, but it had redirected me to expedia.com. After telling her this she continue to tell me that it was my fault because I booked through the wrong website profile even though they had not closed out their availability with the 3rd party website. She was unwilling to help me find new accommodations or be helpful beyond confirming to the booking site that they were overbooked. Even though she explained that the hotel had not closed out their availability in the 3rd party websites for taking new bookings she was adamant that it was entirely my fault for "booking with the wrong profile." During our interaction a guest of the hotel came to the desk to ask for help with the fitness room door not opening for him. She was also certain he was doing something wrong as well. He explained to us that he and others had received the same spiel about the hotel being overbooked and it being everyone else's fault for using 3rd party booking sites. I don't know how he was able to get a room, he must have just been earlier in the day. All other rooms in the nearby area were either booked for the weekend or had become much more expensive than when I made my original booking. I did get my refund from the booking website, but the hotel staff was unfriendly and unwilling to help beyond providing confirmation that they had been overbooked. When we have friends visiting for summer races at the track or other events at the fairgrounds I will suggest they stay some place else. Its not an easy walk to the track or the fairgrounds from any of the hotels so you might as well stay somewhere with better customer service or other stuff that you can walk...

Pros: Room was clean and updated. |Cons: 1) The first time I walked in, there was a faint smell that reminded me of formaldehyde. I got used to it after a couple days, but it was not the most welcoming experience entering a hotel room 2) VERY sub-par service. On the second day, I called the front desk and asked that the shampoo and body gel containers be refilled, since they were near empty in one of the bathrooms. No one ever came to refill. I didn’t bother asking again and decided to use the hand bar soap provided in the bathroom instead. 3) Complimentary cleaning service is horrific. One is included for each one-week stay, and each additional cleaning costs $99. I scheduled a cleaning for noon today. We came back from our excursion at 1:30 pm, and the room was completely untouched. I called the front desk, and the person helping me said that there was no availability for the next 2 days, so if I wanted a cleaning, it would have to be now, which would us having to leave the unit again. We asked why it wasn’t cleaned yet, and she said she just got there and didn’t know why. We decided to have it done right away instead of wait until who knows when, so we left again for an hour because we were told the cleaning would take 40 minutes. Bed sheets and towels were changed, but the plate on the dining table was still there as well as the dirty dishes in the sink. First time on San Diego, but whenever we vacationed in Hawaii, the cleaning at the timeshare resort always included dishes being cleaned. And if $99 only includes getting clean sheets and towels, I have no idea why anyone would do pay that much. So I called the front desk again to find out if running the dishwasher was included. No one answered either time. 4) Bugs. I saw a few in the bathroom. Small, so not super concerning, but it is obviously a known issue since the cleaning cart that was in the hallway had bug spray. Maybe that’s why I smelled what I thought was formaldehyde?||While room itself was nice and mostly updated, I would not...