OK, but not up to the Hilton standard; avoid the restaurant
My wife and I just spent three nights at this hotel, over Memorial Day weekend, in order to attend a convention that is held annually in the hotel's meeting rooms. We also spent three nights over Memorial Day weekend last year in order to attend the same convention, so it was interesting to compare this year's experiences with last year's.
We arrived at the Hilton around 5 PM on Friday, May 28. Nearly every hotel employee that we encountered during our arrival greeted us warmly, and the reception that we received at the front desk was excellent. In fact, throughout our entire stay, we found the hotel staff to be friendly and exceptionally helpful. The staff service was the best part of our stay. During our check-in, we were given a parking pass to get in and out of the hotel's parking garage for free, and six coupons for buffet breakfast in the hotel's restaurant (both part of the convention registration package).
Our room was at the very west end of the 10th floor of the hotel, far away from any potential noise from the elevators, which was nice. Also, despite being on the freeway-facing side of the building, the room was quiet. The room was equipped with two double beds, a writing/computer desk, a large flat-screen TV, iron, ironing board, hair dryer, and a refrigerator. When I made the room reservation three months earlier in early February, I requested two additional foam pillows and one additional towel. The towel was there, but the foam pillows were not. Further, when I made the reservation, I declined the (very expensive) Internet service and opted to bring my own MiFi Internet hotspot device instead -- no problem picking up a cellphone signal and getting to the Internet. Accessible electric outlets were sparse in the room.
The room was quiet and comfortable, with just a few slight annoyances. The air conditioner was difficult to control, rendering the room either too hot or too cold, but not to the point severe discomfort. The switch on a lighted, circular mirror in the bathroom was impossible to turn, which rendered the mirror unusable. The drain in the bathroom sink emitted a loud glug-glug-glug at random times throughout the day and night, which initially startled us awake, but we learned to close the bathroom door at night to lessen the noise. Lastly, the hotel was conducting an advertising campaign for SeaWorld (I think it was SeaWorld), part of which consisted of projecting a spotlighted ad not only onto the freeway-facing side of the building, but also into the rooms of the occupants of the freeway-facing rooms. Closing the drapes fixed that problem.
Housekeeping was very good, with only one exception. Our room was always properly made up and the bathroom cleaned by the time the day's convention activities concluded. The exception was that there appeared to be some cookie or cracker crumbs on the carpet in front of the TV (we picked a few crumbs up by hand). I expected housekeeping to vacuum the carpet to remove the crumbs; but they didn't appear to vacuum the room, and the crumbs remained on the carpet for the duration of our stay.
The hotel provided soap, shampoo, and hair dryer; but we brought our own toiletries, so I cannot comment upon those provided. Checkout was painless. An itemized bill was slipped under our door the night before our checkout, payment was charged to the credit card we provided upon check-in, so there was no need to visit the front desk upon departure.
The convention utilized most of the meeting rooms on the first floor of the hotel. The hotel staff was prompt and effective in reconfiguring the rooms, providing water and clean glasses, and cleaning up at the end of the day's activities. A little more attention could have been paid to keeping the restrooms adjacent to the meeting rooms clean. One pair of meeting rooms was used as a hospitality (food and munchie) room by the convention organizers. Hot food was supposed to have been served, but several of the electrical outlets were non-functional, which rendered some of the hot food cold, or room-temperature at best.
Now, unfortunately, the worst part: All convention attendees were presented with coupons for a daily buffet breakfast in the hotel's Stish restaurant. The service was largely, but not entirely, excellent; however, the food was absolutely awful. All the items in the buffet that were supposed to be hot -- eggs, potatoes, bacon, sausage, pancakes -- were cold, except the pancakes which were not only cold but crunchy as well. So, cold, crunchy pancakes and cold, greasy sausage and potatoes. And warm yogurt, which should have been cold. I ordered hot tea, received a carafe of tepid water, and was presented with a large wooden box which a server opened with a flourish to reveal three teabags and a lot of empty space. My wife and I recalled the exact same dismal breakfast buffet when we stayed at this Hilton a year earlier. We also compared notes with other conference attendees, and all reported the same awful experience with breakfast at Stish. We spoke with the restaurant's hostess, who explained that if they turned up the heat on the breakfast trays, the food would dry out. So we get it cold. On subsequent days, despite the free breakfast, my wife and I, along with many other conference attendees, walked down the street to the nearby Denny's to get a decent hot breakfast.
Parking: This Hilton normally charges an impressive $16 per day to park in their parking garage. Upon our departure, I inserted the parking ticket into the exit gate and was asked to pay $48 for our three-day stay. I remembered the free parking pass that the front desk had given me upon check-in, inserted it into the machine, and was promptly informed that the pass was invalid. I pressed the intercom button on the gate and, after a short conversation with a member of the hotel staff, was allowed to exit the lot. Thus ended our stay at the San Diego Mission Valley Hilton.
Growing up, I came to appreciate that Hilton hotels represented the highest tier of quality and service. Sadly, recent stays at Marriott, Hyatt, and even Holiday Inn, surpassed this Hilton experience. Certainly, the staff at this Hilton was largely outstanding; but the room, while comfortable, was average and the restaurant was truly awful. Compounding the awfulness of the restaurant this year is the fact that the restaurant was equally awful last year, which means this Hilton has a systemic problem with its restaurant.
Will we stay at this Hilton again? Probably, but only if the convention is held here next year. We'll certainly dine outside the facility. For others who have a choice, despite the excellent staff, I would not recommend this Hilton. Overall, it is merely average, not up to what I regard as the Hilton standard, and the parking gouge of $16 per day should push you elsewhere.