Monica E.
Yelp
There are so many other more reasonable and lovely hotels throughout San Diego that I can only recommend this particular Hyatt if you are here for an actual event. This is not the spot for a romantic getaway or a vacation.
For locals, be attentive: There a a destination fee for all guests, even if you are a local or California resident.
Those items aside...
The hotel is just fine. It is not well constituted however. Valet is offered, and you can temporarily park your car for check in and to move your luggage to your room. If you are self-parking, you need to park in what feels like a detached parking lot round the back and behind the pool.
And parking is expensive. $45 to $55 for daily valet and about $35 for self-parking per day. Yes, you get in and out privileges but that is an outrageous cost.
The pool is also in an unfortunate area, detached from the main hotel. So you will need to walk through the breakfast area and skirt by the meeting/ballroom area of the hotel and the section they use for VIP receptions to get to and from the pool.
The pool, however, is great fun -- for families. This is not the spot to relax. There will be children. And they will be having tons of fun. In addition to a sizable pool, they have a human-sized chess board and ping pong. During your stay, you can also rent items for the pickle ball court on site, or for your trip to the beach, which is just a few miles away (not within walking distance and, no, there is no ocean view here).
I did not have breakfast here, but the offerings are broad. DRIFT, the bar and restaurant for dinner service, is just meh.
One thing I will say, however, is that this team is very well trained in service. Every single person was attentive, helpful and kind. The valet staff, the team at check-in, the restaurant servers, the engineering team. I was actually quite surprised that over three days, we never ran into a single staff member who was a curmudgeon or inattentive.
Now to the room.
We took the king suite. Nice, spacious room! There was plenty of space for activities! Seriously, bring your Twister board game. The bed was very comfortable as well.
But everything else?
*sigh*
This was the tiniest closet, with no actual dresser in the room. The bathroom was clean, but there was this awful sewer smell the entire stay (we always kept the door closed, but I could still smell it -- and you could also smell it near the pool).
The pillows were the kind that deflate into pancakes until you pick up your head, then they inflate quickly.
And there was a problem with the TV and streaming (but, again, the service is impeccable at all hours and they had it fixed within 30 minutes of the service call).
And we made the mistake of unknowingly booking an attached room. Not only could we hear our neighbor using the restroom and watching their television -- and, people, I mean CLEARLY -- there was about a half inch below the door. KID YOU NOT! We could see the light coming in from their room into our room. Goodness me!
Plus, we had not an interesting view in sight.
So, I say it again: For the price point, there is no reason, and I mean no reason, to stay here if you are not here for an event. And it had better be either an event of the year or a mandatory conference. Remember, if you are coming here, that event will be the main draw.
But -- and I stand by this -- if you have to stay here, know that the team will at least take very, very good care of you.