Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Solana Beach-Del Mar

Just an absolute great stay here in Solana Beach. Wish we could have stayed longer, one of the best hotel stays of all the travelling Ive done. The hotel staff are without doubt the friendliest and most helpful of any place, just extra polite and nice. The breakfast? Incredible. Its an ok walk to/from the beach, nice balcony. Exceeded our expectations, thank you.

Absolutely Terrible: No Pool, No Spa, No ice, Nowhere to sit or go, and room has issues AND $16 parking. TLDR: Nothing working at the place but getting your room key Room: No bathroom fan, long walks to room, TV barley worked, sliding screen wouldn't open, terrible redesign choices for room, NO WATER PRESSURE for shower This place isn't even a hotel/Inn. The place is so destroyed that there is just an internal room with a desk to give you your key and your ROOM. That's it. There's a sofa at reception. There's nowhere outside to sit. There's nowhere outside of your room to go. It's your car or your room. That are your two choices. Even your patio on your room has no furniture. We had to eat in our beds (how sad). The website said the pool/spa worked but when you get there they hand you a sheet that says they are closed. My kids were looking forward to going to the pool/spa and were disappointed. It's difficult to find reception because it's gone so they created another one elsewhere. They put some big signs there to tell you but I still pointlessly drove around the parking garage trying to reach it. I had a hard time finding the elevator to all the rooms too, it's super buried behind junk like a table with 3 microwaves. Breakfast lacking We had just eaten at another Holiday Inn by IHG down the road the previous night and it was so much better than this one. This one was missing pancake maker, PLATES (don't even give you a plate), no hot biscuits, eggs, potatoes, or any of that from the previous one. Where do put my food if there's no plates? At least buy a stack of paper plates at Costco. It's just "Grab and go" they said while they're building some restaurant that you'd never go to anyway even if it was created. This placing having breakfast was a huge factor in my choice. Their toaster was super broken too, it took forever, and burned one side, and the other side was uncooked. If the only thing this place has, literally, is your room, then your room should be awesome right? Rooms They redesigned the room but their choices are worse than some outdated setup. Bathroom has no FAN! This creates an incredibly awkward situation where you hear anyone's bodily functions throughout the whole room. That's why they put fans in bathrooms, among other reasons, duh. This redesign doesn't even feature a vent or fan. I started just leaving the water going to mask the bathroom sounds. We all have to sit there listening to someone use the bathroom in our room. It was so awkward. Bathroom sink is some lame design where it's lifted off the floor so one kid got a sock under the sink we nearly missed. You're not normally looking for items under a sink that is raised off the floor. Shower has no water pressure and my daughter couldn't get the soap out of her hair. It just trickles out. Infuriating. No ice? The room with ice was completely empty where the ice machine should be and there was nothing in the lobby. They give you an ice bucket, why? $16 Parking? Why do I have to pay for parking at a hotel. I don't care if it's standard. There's no reason to charge you. The lot was mostly empty. People found a workaround where they park elsewhere then walk in but I have all this stuff and I didn't want to do that. With everything else missing like the pool, or spa, at least quit charging $16 for parking. That was the final slap in the face. The kids were pretty disappointed with this room and it certainly was a downer for our last night in San Diego. The only positives about this place is they seem to have lowered the price while everything is broken and it's location. Would never come back here again and certainly can only recommend it if it's free or because of the location.

We appreciate you choosing to stay with us and thank you for you for the great rating.