Best Western Oceanside Inn

Most of the staff were great, but I left an expensive laptop charger in the room before heading back to Hawaii, and getting it shipped back became incredibly difficult. The manager was dismissive and rude, even though I offered to pay to have a box sent there for the return. He passed it off to the associates, who wouldn't be back for five days, through no fault of their own. I had 30 days to retrieve it before the policy said it would become theirs, and going back myself wasn't a reasonable option. I gave up on it as a loss, but I'm still extremely unhappy with the manager's lack of professionalism.

The beds and pillows were pretty comfortable, and the receptionists were good or great. James especially went out of his way to help me. Breakfast is fairly substantial, an 8 out of 10 compared with other BW locations, though Monday's bean and cheese burrito instead of the usual eggs was a no-no. Weekday breakfast ends at 9, which is ridiculous in such a touristy area and doesn't account for people sleeping in a little. The hotel is right by the highway, about a minute from a regular neighborhood on one side and an upscale area on the other. The grounds look a bit subpar, and the hotel and rooms are older and somewhat run-down, though some upgrades have helped. If noise bothers you, ask for a room facing the upscale neighborhood, away from the highway. A train also passes by every so often. The workout room seems underused, perhaps because the treadmills feel like a lawsuit waiting to happen. I tried them for a couple of minutes and experienced stalling, and the silver one stopped completely for no reason. The room needs a lot of cleaning and attention, though it works if you're aiming for the bare minimum. The weight locks are also missing, and one fell off while I was using it, even though I know how to lift weights. The balcony lights don't switch off, so the blinds can't make the room fully dark. They're said to be for our protection, which is a double-edged thing since it says something about the area. The HVAC blows straight over the beds, like a fan running all night, and my daughter got a dry, sore throat from it. The sliding glass door has no screen, so bugs could be an issue, although they weren't for us in early November. I saw someone take a dog to the second floor. I don't know if they were going to their room or visiting, or whether pets are allowed everywhere or only on the first floor, but it raised an eyebrow. It's an affordable place, but there are clear tradeoffs. What you get out of a stay depends on what you're looking for. It would be good to see these issues addressed over time and the hotel become a place people seek out.

A pipe burst during our honeymoon stay in early June, leaving the whole hotel without hot water. We were told we'd get 50% back for the nights we stayed and a full refund for any nights we didn't stay if we checked out early. We booked another hotel and left, but we're still waiting on the $225.56 refund four and a half months later. The third party needed information from the hotel to confirm its refund, but the hotel wouldn't provide it. We called the manager again and again. Calls usually took 10-15 minutes because he got confused, interrupted us, and became heated. By the end, he seemed to understand and promised to send the information, but despite our repeated attempts, he never did. EDIT: The hotel replied to my review. I've explained this many times already: Priceline may have refunded Super.com, the third party, but Super.com's admittedly poor customer service asked four questions as proof that it had been refunded. They need answers before they can pay us back. We spoke with the manager, who said the hotel would call Super.com to sort it out instead of giving us the answers to forward to customer support, as requested. The questions weren't sensitive. The only thing we couldn't provide ourselves was a statement from the hotel saying it had approved the cancelation. The one reason I'm giving two stars is that staff noticed it was our honeymoon and gave us a free room upgrade.

The room hadn't been cleaned before we checked in, and there was mold in the bathroom. Pieces of dog food were left on the carpet, and we found huge American cockroaches eating them. The screen doors don't close all the way, so huge spiders can get inside. This was easily the dirtiest place I've ever stayed. Definitely don't go here.