Holiday Inn San Diego Bayside, San Diego
The Holiday-Inn is located in between the airport and the Pacific coast, in northwestern direction of downtown San Diego. From the airport you could take the complimentary shuttle service to the hotel, which is less than five minutes, or you take a taxi for the short ride.
Downtown San Diego could be reached over the North Harbor Drive, which has a pedestrian walkway along. Though there are nicer walks, it not that worse, than I expected. You will go for 40 to 50 minutes before you reach the San Diego. A bus stop is in front of the hotel, but I have not seen any schedule so I could not say, how frequently the service runs. A taxi would be more convenient.
The hotel consists of several buildings, which forms a triangle. On the larger side it the main five-floor-building with the majority of the 237 rooms and all suites are in this part of the hotel. The other rooms are in two-floor-buildings around the garden with the pool and Jacuzzi. This wing is therefore called garden wing and rooms in this building in the basement have access to the garden and the putting green. Between the main building and the garden wing is a parking lot. Another parking lot is at the front
of the side, where two roads are crossing.
The lobby is at the main entrance at the North Harbor Drive and small. It has only a desk, where one could check-in or –out and a separate concierge desk. This desk is also responsible for a reservation of the shuttle service to the airport bike rentals. Some lounge chairs are available, but is not an area to spend some time. This could be done in the restaurant with adjacent bar. The “Point Loma Café” is that what I call a typical American styled restaurant with seat banks and checkered tablecloth. The
restaurant
serves American food like burgers, pizza and salad. Breakfast is also served there. The portions are large by European standards. Aside the restaurant is the “Bayside Bar”, where I have not been.
The pool is located in the garden and of average hotel size with a Jacuzzi aside. Lounge chairs and towels are available. The Gym is in a building near the entrance to the pool and aside the check-in building. It’s small and has some older equipment. But everything work and if you are not an “I-need-the-newest-equipment” person, you will be fine with it. Bikes could be rented at the front / concierge desk. They waived the fee for the first three hours for me being Platinum. The bikes are older and I am not used
to have no brake for the front wheel. A self-service laundry is available as well as a small business center and meeting rooms.
W-LAN was, as written, free of charge in the rooms and the restaurant.
visited on Pazifikhopping 2006
stays: 19 May 06
direct link to hotel
Holiday Inn SAN DIEGO - BAYSIDE
Arrival Date: 19 May 2006
Departure Date: 20 May 2006
Room type booked: Standard
Rate Plan: Award
Room Number: 121
Room Rate: Award
Status of Guest Program: Platinum
I called the hotel from one of the airport phones and was asked for my name and the confirmation number of my reservation. I was told the shuttle will be there in ten minutes and where I should wait. I headed over to the area where the shuttle buses and also the shuttles buses to the car rental agencies left and waited and waited … After 25 minutes I called the hotel by my mobile and was also asked the same questions. I was again told
the bus will arrive in ten minutes – whereon I replied that I got this answer already 25 minutes ago. To make a long story short after 20 minutes the shuttle arrived. So my first impression of the hotel was not the best.
At the hotel I was friendly greeted by the front desk and told that I was upgraded to a Garden Room due to my Status and the hotel being full. I also got a voucher for the restaurant and was told three hours of bike rental would be free. The way to my room was explained by a map and the times of opening of restaurant, pool and gym were mentioned without asking them. So the second impression was much better.
My room was larger than the standard room – at least this was my impression from the pictures of the homepage of the hotel. One enters the room from an open corridor and is right in the hall of the room with the sink on the right side together with a wardrobe while the bathroom with bath and toilet is on the left side. Brown terracotta styled tiles are laid in this area and it looks rather nice for a Holiday-Inn.
The room has a king bed with two bedside tables with reading lamps and phone on the one side and a small sideboard with the television on the other side. A lounge chair with a small table was placed in front of the sliding door to the terrace with two – dirty – chairs. A desk was also in the room. This was not a typical stand-alone-desk, like the most rooms have, but a built in desk at a half-room-height wall. Not a bad idea, but a little bit too high to get a good seating position for working. There was a bright
shining touch-screen lamp on the desk. Wireless LAN was available for free throughout the hotel with an unexpected strong and stable signal.
The bed was a bit too soft from my point of view, but otherwise okay. The furniture in the room was okay, some scratches here and there and a few stains in the carpet. Nothing big …
The room was dark, esp. since the furniture was of dark color and the lamps and lights in the room were not bright. I would have preferred to have an additional lamp in the room for reading.
Towels in the bathroom were provided more than I need, but again one single light in a very dark bathroom was not enough. Even worse, the light was in the middle of the room not over the bath so with a closed shower curtain one was in the need of additional light. And there was a rack missing to hang a towel at the bath. Shower curtain and shower head were of good condition. But there is still room for improvement in the bathroom.
I asked concierge about the bike rental and the bikes were shown to me. While the bike were older and in not so good condition I got a real good explanations where to go and the places where shown and marked in a map.
I had forgotten my adapter for my laptop and was in the need of a new one. While the front desk had only Asian and Australian adapters available, they searched where I could get one in San Diego and even phoned several stores if they had one available, a very helpful and attentive service.
Breakfast in the morning was not so good. Staff was not friendly and my muffin was partly cold and partly very hot – seems to be a wrong use of the microwave. The orange juice was not very good, while the coffee was okay. Considering the service level of the hotel, this was well below the average service level at this hotel.
Overall I think the hotel is not too bad at all. It’s a Holiday–Inn, but the service is nice, personal and friendly. The interior design of my Garden Room is in the most features typical for a Holiday – Inn but with some nice touches (like the desk) which is not standard interior. On the other hand there are things like the older bike and the service of staff in the restaurant. From my point of view, I would stay there again.
