It's the little things
I stayed at the San Diego Sheraton Hotel and Marina in late April on a quick trip to San Diego. I used Priceline, so I had no choice in actually selecting this hotel. I was in town on urgent family business, so all I really needed was a quiet, safe place to sleep and maybe eat breakfast. Thank goodness I didn't pay the rack rate for this place!
First, the good:
- great location, literally, right across from the airport, and just a short ways from downtown, and right on the water
- an attempt at upscale surroundings, with nice landscaping, multiple pools, verandas, walkways along the marina/harbor
- multiple restaurants and lounges on the property; the breakfast buffet I had one morning was decent, with ample selections and more than enough to fill you up
- the pillows and sheets were nice; there were four pillows on both the beds in my room, and there was a good mix of firm and soft
- soundproofing in the room was quite good! Airport noise was minimal, and certainly didn't prevent or interrupt sleep. I was impressed.
Next, the bad:
- there are multiple buildings in this property, and at least one of them is a decent ways away from the main building. Make sure you know where you're going!
- given the layout, you may be on the first floor (as I was), but have to go DOWN a level from the hotel lobby.
- one of the restaurants, Harbor's Edge, isn't on the map they give you, and the in-room information doesn't make it at all clear where the heck it is. And that might be important because that's where the breakfast is served!
Next, the ugly:
- the bed seemed nice at first, but it doesn't take long for a stomach sleeper to realize the bed is sagging in the middle
- my room, which the desk clerk said had "a nice view of the marina and the downtown," actually had a nice view of the fence and the back of the rocks lining one side of one of the pools. The only water I could see was the pool, if I stood on one of the beds; the only downtown I could see was in the information on San Diego in the desk
- ironically, even though I couldn't hear airplanes taking off or landing, I could hear every single word of the conversation a guy was having on his cell phone outside my room. He wasn't being overly loud, either; for some reason, it just penetrated my door.
And finally, the inexcusable:
- I'm sick of upscale hotels selling wi-fi for ANY price, much less $11.95 per night. Are you kidding me? Thanks, but no. My smart phone is a nice mobile hotspot, thank you very much.
- parking, $22? Really? You're kidding me. If you don't have to go anywhere else, take the shuttle to and from the airport, for goodness sakes. It's not much, but at least you get in/out privileges.
- "convenient" parking? The desk clerk said there was ample parking right near my room -- almost right out my door! (I was in a separate building, only three floors, on one end of the property.) But more than half -- yes, MORE THAN HALF -- the parking there was "Reserved for Marina." Thanks, Sheraton. And at least two spaces were taken by vehicles that had covers over them, indicating long-term storage. These vehicles (a motorcyle, and a car) did NOT move in my four days there. The reserved parking for the marina cut my lot by about 60%. The closest parking beyond that was a gravel lot that was not clearly marked as hotel parking. This is upscale?
- Finally, the coup de grace, not asking me "How was your stay" on checkout. It's probably a good thing they didn't ask, as I surely would have told them.
If you get this hotel by Priceline, know that you could do worse. But if you're shopping on your own, just beware. The big things aren't bad, but it's all the little things that could just put you in a foul mood for days.