Homewood Suites by Hilton San Diego Mission Valley/Zoo

I stayed here for 4 1/2 weeks, and it was actually a nice experience. The staff were very friendly and took good care of my needs. The loud racket in the lobby and dining/kitchen area was hard to ignore, though. I made a few videos to show how nice the place was, then you’d suddenly hear a staff cook repeatedly pounding spoons against one of the main serving dishes. It made the place look and sound ghetto, which was a shock in such a high class suite. I don’t surround myself with that kind of energy. Other than that, it was great.

I want to start by recognizing the supervisor, who I think was named Samantha. She went out of her way to help us clean up broken glass when the cleaning crew was on break, so we didn’t have to wait with it all over the kitchen floor. The rest of our 52-day stay was a very different story. We spent over $10k, and then my daughter’s $100 Yoto and cards suddenly went missing from our room. We had a do not disturb sign up, but cleaners came in anyway. The managers didn’t seem interested and neither came to talk to us in person. After only two days of investigating, they had Samantha call to say they hadn’t found it. We never take it out of the room, and it disappeared when the room was cleaned, so where else could it be? This place isn’t worth the price, especially with parking charged on top. The bedding wasn’t proper bedding, just bed skirts and thin “blankets.” The TV volume was so low I could barely hear it even turned all the way up. Maybe the TVs are old, but at these rates they should be replaced. The knives couldn’t cut anything. Breakfast fruit was either under-ripe or overripe, and one day the oranges were green. When we called for things like more shampoo or dishwasher soap, delivery took hours. Every other hotel I’ve stayed at brings those things within 20 minutes. The bathroom in the basement by the gym had no soap. My mom reported it, and three days later it was still missing. The front desk said they were having trouble getting some, but someone could have gone to Target in the meantime or put dish soap there. The place needs a major uplift to make it worth the money.

The room was a great size and the Wi-Fi worked very well. Breakfast was good, but my one-star deduction was for how difficult it seemed to keep the buffet filled with so many rooms and guests. The staff had trouble refilling empty trays, so we had to wait a while for food.

Samantha deserves a special thank you. She was friendly, offered wonderful customer service, and was incredibly helpful, even after I’d checked out. I love the clean feel and atmosphere here, and having breakfast included is nice. I do wish the food were served a little hotter. It’s dog-friendly too, which is perfect when I bring my fur babies.