Hotel del Coronado

If I could give this place 0 stars I would. First of all, when we checked in, no one informed us that the beach is closed due to sewage contamination from the Tijuana rivers. Even the bellboy who took our luggage in told us to go to level T for the beach. It wasn’t until I was in the water with my toddler that the lifeguard told us the red flag on the beach means that the water is unsafe to enter. The first night, I didn’t say anything to the staff. But after hearing multiple other guests I met in the elevators, at veranda restaurant say that the beach has been contaminated for several days, I did a little research. According to the SD beaches website, Coronado beach has been closed since June 29th. We booked our hotel beginning of July. No one cared to mention this to us when we booked. No one cared to mention this to us when we checked in. When I asked the front desk staff, Leah was nice enough to acknowledge the issue but says that the “hotel staff are not locals so they are not aware of the beach conditions. And that the “hotel is not responsible for public beach conditions”. She subsequently told me she is a local and knows the beach conditions but that upper management has not brief the entire staff nor require them to disclose this information to guests when checking in. This I found was very upsetting. We pay an exorbitant amount for beach front property because my toddler loves the beach. I expect to be notified when the water is filled with sewage. Second issue is the room. There was rust on the hand soap holder. Who knows what else is not clean. Not to mention the paper thin walls, I heard every voice, every elevator ding. Needless to say we will never be returning to the Del. We drove 6 hrs to make memories with our toddler and this was not the memory I wanted to make.

We have come to the hotel many times but had not been back since COVID. The charm of Andrew in the hotel elevator was a loss but not the reason for the poor review. We booked a room in the Victorian building with 2 Queen beds and a balcony. We arrived in the early evening and the room itself was very nice. Everything changed the following morning at 7:01AM. A full renovation of the room right across the hallway (6 feet away) started. It was exactly as loud as you would expect a construction site to be. How in the world they thought it would be ok to put quests in this room while that went on, I cannot imagine. We inquired if it was an emergency fix that would be finished that day and were shocked to find out this was planned- and would be going on 7 days a week, starting at 7AM, except for holidays. Only after they were told it was unacceptable did they offer to move us to another room. That's all they did. They didn't make up for it in any way. They mumbled something about "let us know if there's something else we can do?" So instead of taking further steps to make things right they just left it that way. I didn't save up all year to go on vacation and then spend my time haggling about how they can fix something they did wrong. I wouldn't be writing this review if they had sought us out with some sort of gesture to show they realized it was a pretty crappy thing to do. But they showed they didn't really care enough. and that's the sad thing. They used to. But I suppose when a big private equity firm gets involved, charm disappears and profits are the top priority. I'm a capitalist, but if charm is what drew people to the hotel in the first place, you might want to consider adjusting your approach. Overall the beach is beautiful, if crowded. I'm not sure what happened to all the sea shells. If that matters to your kids, you might want to stay elsewhere. We went out at low tide a few times and didn't find much. Perhaps the ocean currents have shifted? The hotel restaurants are all nice and while pricey you expect it. The breakfast at the hotel, which we went to every day, used to be a bit nicer but it's still more about the view and the weather than the food. The pool is fine. It's a little on the small side and I don't remember seeing a life guard so careful if you have really small kids.

I traveled a long way to stay at the Hotel del Coronado and booked a fire pit room, paying extra for that feature. The fire pit didn’t work 2 out of the 3 nights, even after I reported it the first night and was told it would be fixed. It never was. When I called again, the front desk only offered to cover valet, completely missing the point. I paid a premium for a fire pit room and got almost none of that experience. At the very least, I expected a rate adjustment to reflect what I actually received. Really disappointing for a hotel of this reputation.

I meant to post this earlier. I love this hotel and my family has owned a home across the street for the past 12-14 years. We frequently go over to the hotel for dining or to hit some of the shops. Since we had a family Christmas with relatives planned and I wanted to bring my two, small French Bulldogs with us to Coronado this time, I booked to stay at the Hotel Del Coronado for the week of Christmas, thinking it would be give everyone at the house more room. I imagined that it would be wonderful with the decorations and a holiday dinner in the grand ballroom on Christmas Eve. The trip was a disaster. As anyone who has stayed at the hotel or has checked it out knows, it is pricy. We even booked an igloo on the beach for one evening - the ONLY good thing about the stay!! The hotel was MORE THAN OVERCROWDED. There were people milling around looking at the decorations and hanging out. As people poured in from all directions, there was so much congestion on the walkways that there were people traffic jams in every direction. They even let people not staying at the hotel to plant themselves on the lawn with strollers and coolers. Not trying to be a Scrooge, but the walkways were many times down to one lane due to construction and they were FILLED with people. Our pricy, relaxing holiday was anything but relaxing. Somehow the lock flipped on our door when the door slammed the first night and our Frenchies were locked inside the room. We had to call security and they kept saying ,"It is locked from the inside and we can't enter without permission." LOL. I was like, there are literally two dogs in there, that's it. Finally, we convinced them to get into the room from the patio. Then one of the security guard said, "Well, where did the little one just go?" The dogs were already freaked from all of the banging they were doing on the door and one bolted when he opened it. Took me 10 minutes to find her and get her back in the room. The hotel was still under construction, which again, I realized at the time was a BIG, ongoing project. However, the hotel could have easily stopped construction for the week of Christmas. Instead there was hammering/pounding, grinding, and other construction noises and mess going on that week including early morning. Insane! I will never stay there during a holiday again. This stay was definitely NOT worth the money I paid.

As a life time diamond member of Hilton with more then 2000 stays in the hotel group, I was underwhelmed with the hotel service and staff. Later then guaranteed check-in, chaotic self parking procedures, only benefits were two bottles given (no benefits as usual implied), request for later check-out not confirmed only after escalation before midnight. Overall a stressful stay with family.