Baymont by Wyndham Carlsbad NM

I skipped breakfast, so I can’t comment on it. The problems we did find made the positive reviews hard for me to believe: the hall and room carpets looked long overdue for cleaning, there was just one coffee cup in a double bed room intended for four, and the wall-mounted shampoo and shower gel bottles were empty. There wasn’t any soap at all. The bedding had odd yellow spots near the waist area. I’ll leave you to draw your own conclusions about the stains. I went to the desk and asked for replacements. The clerk offered to clean the room, but it was late, and we just wanted fresh sheets so we could get some sleep. After that, I wondered whether the room had been cleaned before we arrived. The phone was unplugged under the table and didn’t work. The daylight bulbs weren’t to my taste for a hotel meant for relaxing and sleeping, though I’m not counting that in my star rating since many hotels use them. We had trouble reconciling our experience with the glowing reviews, especially since the hotel seemed to have few guests while our first choice, Fairfield Inn, was full. Home Suites by Hilton was also fully booked. Both were in the same price range, so price didn’t explain it. I wouldn’t recommend staying here unless other places are full and you’re desperate for somewhere to sleep.

For the $160 we paid, there are much better places in town. We checked in at 9pm and found stained, dirty sheets, ripped and stained towels, and no bath soap or shampoo in our double queen room. The front desk man said stains were hard to remove, and that more shampoo should arrive in a day or two. We were only there one night. The beds were comfortable enough, but we slept fully dressed because we were uneasy about the sheets. We skipped breakfast. The choices were lukewarm coffee, waffles, some kind of premade egg bites, and packets of microwave oatmeal, and the property’s general lack of cleanliness put us off eating there. When we left at 10am on Wednesday, there still weren’t any cleaning crews in sight turning over rooms. That helped explain what we’d encountered. I don’t understand how this motel gets close to four stars. If you’re spending a night in Carlsbad, stay somewhere else.

The room we eventually stayed in looked decent at first, but it was bare and missing basics, including a blow dryer. We were first handed a key to a room covered in tarps, apparently being maintained or painted, and the paint smell was strong even in the hallway. It felt unsettling, and wasn’t what we expected at check-in. The female front desk employee also seemed bothered by our arrival, which started things off badly. Breakfast was very limited, with no eggs or bacon. When we asked, a gentleman at the desk kindly offered to make something himself and said they don’t usually prepare much because occupancy is low. I appreciated the gesture, though it underscored how unprepared the hotel seemed to serve guests. For what we paid, the stay fell far short of expectations. I wouldn’t come back and would look at another hotel brand next time.

A newer, nice hotel in southern Carlsbad, and the stay was great overall. The problem was housekeeping coming at 9am: someone knocked and then walked into our room despite the DO NOT DISTURB sign. Checkout wasn’t until 11am, and we weren’t happy about it. Thankfully, my wife and I were already showered and dressed.