Alila Marea Beach Resort Encinitas

Beautiful location. Vaga and the spa were excellent. The pool is tiny and the service there lacks. The fire pit rooms are worth it!

Overall, the stay was disappointing for a luxury resort at this price point. The ocean views and direct beach access are beautiful, although the beach itself is quite rocky and not especially easy for swimming. Cleanliness and upkeep were the biggest issues: elevator buttons were greasy, outdoor furniture didn’t feel particularly clean, and fingerprints and handprints covered much of the glass throughout the property, including the restaurant’s ocean-facing glass. In the room, the countertops and finishes felt noticeably worn. We also had a broken beach chair brought out to us, despite other chairs being available, and eventually replaced it ourselves. The food was underwhelming, and we had issues with the room phone and accessing the in-room dining menu. Some team members were very friendly and helpful, while others were less so, although the hotel did make an effort to address our concerns. Overall, the property has a beautiful setting, but the experience lacked the level of polish, maintenance, and attention to detail I would expect from a luxury resort.

Would never stay here again. The service and facilities are way below the price point. Our room was very nice - ocean view. This was the only highlight. The pool area is not very inviting - and much smaller than it looks in the photos. We did not bother to use it. They charge the usual very high resort and valet fees. Take cash if you want to valet because the app they use to tip the valet actually makes you pay a charge to give them a tip! The food in VAGA restaurant was ok, but not exceptional. The server proceeded to lecture my husband on how he should order his food. The real issue was the service and billing. The phone in the room did not work - something I saw in an earlier one star review. We had to call from our cell phone instead. Even then, you find out that you're speaking to a bot. I'm not sure that they actually want to speak to their guests. You would think that they were NOT in the hospitality sector. We tried to order breakfast room service through the tablet they provide in the room (because the room phone didn't work and we didn't want to speak with the bot). The tablet informed us that the approximate wait time was 55 minutes! Then there's the usual sign about them caring for the environment etc. It's fine to show you care for the environment (even though, let's face it, most hotels only do it to reduce their operating costs. It's all PR). However, it's another thing to say that while "your wellbeing and comfort are of the upmost importance... we are EQUALLY committed to preserving the environment. Maybe use the word "also" rather than "equally". Ranking the importance of your guests with other things is distasteful. In addition, the correct English word is "utmost" not "upmost" in this context. On to the billing.... we ordered a bottle of wine. Upon checkout, they had charged us around $45 extra to cover their additional service charges and taxes. I queried this with the reservations person (who DID have customer service skills) at check out and he agreed to reverse some charges for us. When we got home the next day, I received an alert on my credit card that Alila had charged us over $60 for something. I called them to query it. Once again I had to speak with the bot before the bot put me through to a real person in the general Hyatt reservations team who then had to place me on hold and try to contact the Alila reservations team. She then came back to me and said that the charge was for a bottle of wine and champagne from the minibar, none of which we consumed because we never consume minibar items in hotels. It was not an automatic trigger minibar. The said items were still in the minibar upon our checkout. They agreed to reverse those charges. Let's see if this occurs....given their extremely poor service to date.

Service was poor The views are of mud and train tracks, barely ocean views. Breakfast eggs were raw amd the room service line doesn't work. Lines and wait at every turn.

poor customer service here, definitely not on par with the prices they charge. no beach service with umbrellas as you would expect with their location. front desk didn't offer us map or pool keys or hotel overview at check in and our room wasn't ready for 4 hrs after we checked in. phone in room was broken and didn't have cell service there, so couldnt call front desk when needed.