6 Reasons I Would Not Stay at the Hotel del Coronado Again

The Hotel del Coronado is one of most famous hotels in the U.S. On Coronado Island, just across from San Diego, it’s a property with an incredibly storied history. Chances are, you’ve seen pictures of the hotel somewhere, in a movie, or seen the Grand Floridian Hotel at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida, designed off of the hotel.

While the aesthetics are great, and the location is stunning, the hotel leaves a lot to be desired and isn’t a hotel I’d return to anytime soon. If you look at online reviews, you’ll see a pattern of neglect, poor service, and extreme nickel-and-diming, which makes this property one to avoid.

1. Unclean Room

The most important part of any hotel stay isn’t the hotel’s amenities, service, or even the staff, but rather the cleanliness of the room. After all, you’re paying to spend the night in a bed that thousands of strangers have slept in before you.

Unfortunately, the Hotel del Coronado gets low marks for cleanliness. I was assigned a room in the Views building (more on that later) and found several mysterious brown stains on the bedsheets and a ton of loose hair in the bathroom. It was so bad that I found hair even on one of the picture frames hanging on the wall.

This hotel could use a much better job in the housekeeping department, though the unclean sheets led to my next issue ….

2. Marijuana Left in My Room

After discovering that the sheets in my room were not clean, I contacted the front desk, who said that they’d send housekeeping to replace them while I was out to dinner. Ordinarily, this would not be a big task and, after returning from my evening out, I did find the sheets to have been replaced.

But a surprise was left on the nightstand. Whoever had come to change the sheets out had left their marijuana vape pen sitting on my nightstand.

While California certainly has lax laws and policies regarding the use of marijuana, using it while on duty at work is a big no-no, so whoever the front desk sent to clean the room was likely using the substance while at work.

I contacted a hotel manager, who agreed, and we were both concerned that it was not just the vape pen that was of concern but that an employee was roaming through guest rooms under the influence.

3. No Upgrade, Terrible View

Checking in to the hotel, I had low expectations of receiving any upgrade as a top-tier Hilton Diamond member after reading several online reviews and forums, but it would have been nice to receive something. I was staying at the property on an annual free night certificate earned from my Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card. These free night certificates were booked into a base room at this hotel, a 1 King Bed Views room.

All information about Hilton Honors American Express Aspire card has been collected independently by Upgraded Points.

Now, the name “Views” is highly misleading. These rooms are in a building called the Views, but many rooms in this building have no view at all, mine included. I was placed in a room facing a garage for laundry carts, hardly an appealing view, even for someone without elite status.

On checking the Hilton app, I saw numerous other higher-tier rooms available, but the front desk told me that the hotel was fully committed, a lie that would compound itself the next day.

The next day, I approached the front desk about a room change and was again informed that the hotel was fully booked, even though many other rooms were available, even more than the day before. After escalating to a manager, the manager told me that the front desk person who spoke with me was wrong and that there were, in fact, better rooms. So the manager placed me in a room facing the pool in a quieter section of the hotel.

It was clear that this hotel plays games with upgrading elite guests. It wants to either sell those upgrades at a cost or not provide them at all, which goes against the spirit of the Hilton Honors program.

4. Bathroom Door Privacy

This hotel seems to have a weird quirk in the design of the bathrooms, which will likely make most patrons quite uncomfortable. The bathroom doors are a 2-panel design that swings out, and you pull them together to close off the bathroom. However, when you do, there’s still a gap between the panels that easily allows someone else to see inside.

Unless you’re close to the person you’re staying with or don’t mind the lack of privacy, the bathroom is not a place you want to spend a long time!

Based on various other reviews online, this seems to be a consistent issue with many of the rooms.

5. Housekeeping Wasn’t Finished

On the second day of my stay, I had a chance to fully express my complaints to the manager on duty, who seemed to take them very seriously. Of concern, she noted that there were upgraded rooms available, and I should have been placed in one, so she offered to prepare a pool view room, which I appreciated. I received a call while I was out to lunch that the room was ready, and to stop by the front desk to pick up a key when I returned to the hotel. Easy enough.

I picked up the key, headed to the room and was delighted to see that my bags had been moved from the old room to the new room. So far, so good. After about 5 minutes of relaxing in the room, there was a knock at the door. I figured maybe it was a manager trying to check on how the room was, but, no, it was a housekeeper who said he needed to clean the balcony.

I was surprised by this request and had him repeat it multiple times, but it was clear he wanted to actually clean the balcony. I was baffled but let him come in, and sure enough, he started sweeping the balcony, wiping things down and mopping the floor. For a room that was supposedly ready and for a manager who went out of her way to tell me so, I found it annoying that housekeeping wasn’t actually finished with their duties. I seemed to have been placed into another dirty room!

6. Missing Benefits

Like all Hilton hotels, there’s a standard list of included benefits, including complimentary bottles of water, complimentary upgrades (if space is available), and an on-site food and beverage credit, all of which I knew about.

However, the Hotel del Coronado seems to offer some extra benefits to Diamond members, which I wasn’t aware of and wasn’t told about when I checked in on the first day. I only found out about them because, on the second day, when I went to pick up new keys for my new room, 1 out of the 2 key cards issued happened to have had these special Diamond benefits listed on the back.

No one told me about these benefits, and it was only when I looked at the card that I learned of them. Specific to this property were these benefits:

• Complimentary self-guided audio tour of the hotel and property
• 15% spa discount and spa day use
• Sunglass cleaning at the pool
• 10% retail discount

While these benefits might not sound like much, I had purchased a nearly $100 shirt (yes, things are very expensive at this hotel) at the hotel’s gift shop to commemorate my stay in this famed hotel (in fairness, this was right after check-in before I had a chance to see the room), and I could have used the discount there. In fairness, the hotel offered to refund me 10% when I mentioned this before checking out, which I appreciated, but not being informed of these benefits was simply weird.

Final Thoughts

The Hotel del Coronado is aspirational for many people who want to visit the San Diego area. However, the hotel’s lack of cleanliness and recognition of elite members leaves much to be desired. In addition, there are safety concerns with staff leaving marijuana in guest rooms.

I’d love to see the Hotel del Coronado improve and hopefully transition from a Curio Collection hotel to a Waldorf Astoria property, something that I think would truly reflect the location and potential of this property. With that transition, I hope cleanliness and service standards will greatly improve.