Porto Vista Hotel, San Diego

Likes: Location is awesome if you're into Italian Food/coffee shops. Hotel is literally one block away from the hotel. It's not walking distance to downtown which is about a 20-30 minute walk. Trolley is four blocks away so if you want to visit downtown/Petco area you'll have to walk these four blocks late a night. The free breakfast that was provided was good. The $5 orange juice was in my opinion way overpriced. Dislikes: I'm not that picky about hotel rooms. Heck I grew up on 2 star hotels, but I've fortunate in life to be able to upgrade over the years. This place is Motel 6 material. The rooms are very small, and need of a serious makeover. Room was dirty, period. I got towels with brown stains on them, dirty towels left on top of the entertainment center that looked filthy, my room had all kinds of stains on the carpet, and the room felt dirty. I only stayed their one night and that was it. I would not recommend this place to my friends. I paid $18 for valet service. I literally had to go pick up my own vehicle from the garage because they didn't have anyone to retrieve it for me. That in my opinion is bad customer service if you;re charging me $18 for the valet service.

My party of 6 arrived with confirmation number in hand for 3 deluxe King w/balcony rooms. We had double-checked with the hotel 3 days earlier when we started out by car and the front desk confirmed our reservation. We arrived road weary the first night and were told that they had only one of the rooms we reserved, the other two being the “cozy queen.” "Cozy” is an understatement. 2 suitcases and 2 men couldn’t walk around the room. One person would have to stay on the bed to let the other move to and from the bathroom. THERE IS A REASON THE ROOM PICTURE ON THE WEBSITE IS OF THE CORNER OF THE ROOM. We repeatedly asked for a manager and were told none were available in person or by telephone and concessions could not be made with out the approval of a manager. We were concerned that the last arriving couple was not going to be able to fit in such tight conditions as he was 6'4 and 270 and needed a king bed to be comfortable let alone fit his wife. Despite much pleading and complaining about how we had confirmed, we were told they couldn’t accommodate. We went to the car and searched another hotel nearby that had kings and went in to cancel the reservation and magically they had a room the third part of our party could have at no additional charge. If we could just be patient and accept the upgrade to a suite, all would be made good in the morning when a manager was available to discuss concessions. The next morning we were made to feel like we were granted the privilege of having our reservations honored but no apology was forthcoming for the terrible room that we had stayed in and for having to wake up extra early to have time to deal with the hotel management. Mr. Johnson, the front desk manager, told us that we would all be comp'd the parking expenditures for the poor customer service we had received and that the third couple would be "allowed" to stay in the suite for the remainder of the stay. During the stay the rooms were not well cleaned and refreshed, one room didn’t get toilet paper restocked and we had to call and get some brought to us. After 3 calls, an extra roll was donated from another room. The extra toilet paper was eventually delivered to the wrong room. The mirrors would fog from the shower and reveal pornographic images left by a previous guest; the refrigerators would not cool anything to below 57 degrees. You could not drink the complimentary coffee in the room because there were no cups in one room and only decaf another. The TV's were a different brand and size in each room, all circa 2000, no flat screens, no digital reception and the color tint function was broken in our room so we watched TV in blue and orange. Breakfast was included with the stay but if you slept past 8am there was no French toast, bacon or sausage. They bill themselves as a "Hip Hotel near Sea World | Zoo"...anyone paying attention to anything "hip" knows you better have bacon. This all culminated in a phone call from Mr. Johnson to my cell phone after leaving and 80 miles out of town telling us that it turns out since one of our party got the room they wanted, no one would be compensated for that first night and parking charges were added to two of our credit cards. DONT STAY HERE unless you want to pay good money for a renovated broken down motor lodge, right off the loud freeway, directly under the flight path of landing jets to the San Diego airport and the worst customer service. They fail to realize that it’s not about the money; it’s about customer service and being played by management.

This place is going to be good.... in like a year when they finish construction. I should have known something was up when I booked the room (on the phone, directly with super 8) and the rep said, "We have a pool and hot tub... openingin2008." Wait, what? Why even tell me? I stayed for just one night, needed an inexpensive place to crash because I had an early business meeting and live three hours away. Well - sleep in, I did not. First of all, the sheets were typical rough, cheap sheets that I expect in a hotel off a highway in the middle of nowhere, but not here. Second - the noise was insane. The construction got going at about 7am, with guys yelling, pipes banging and just general noise. Seriously, we are paying you to sleep here! Shut up! One other thing - the place didn't feel too shady, but the bolt on my door was broken off, like someone had forced their way into the room. It made me a bit nervous. Overall - there's probably a lot better out there for around the same price. Check back on this place when the construction is over.

We arrived to find that half the hotel was in the process of being pulled down and there were bulldozers hard at work, so this meant the parking at the front of the hotel was cordoned off for the work. The room was dark and smelled strange, perhaps smoky, albeit clean and the when looking out looked onto other rooms with no real ight coming through. looking down from outside the door looked like a dumping yard where groups of men hung out. pretty long hike to the town as well on foot so best to use public transport. Stayed one night then checked out the next morning.

convient easy to find and easy access to surrounding areas. enjoyed stay helpful staff, and easy check in and out. rooms were clean and good price for down town, considering its near major hotels like raddison and holiday inn