Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites San Diego Otay Mesa, an IHG Hotel

Avoid This Location of Holiday Inn Express If You Can. I booked this hotel to catch an early morning flight from TIJ for my son’s spring break. I chose it only because it is close to CBX and our flight was really early. It was a Friday and we drove in the traffic all the way from Orange County. When we arrived, my autistic son was exhausted because of the long ride (yes, it took us almost 3 hours on the Friday before spring break from OC). When I was waiting for the front desk lady to get us checked in (she was talking over the phone and we had waited for more than 5 minutes while she was talking. there was no one ahead of us), my autistic son accidentally broke a chair in their lobby. The front desk lady said I need to pay for it and she told me her boss/manager said it would cost $700. I understand it might be a piece of furniture that they had customized ordered, but there was no way a good quality chair worth $700 would be so easily broken by just a push or pull of a 9 year old. I asked her to let me talk to her boss. So the boss called in and said he would find out how much it would cost to replace it. But before they could check us in, they wanted me to agree to authorize them to temporarily charge my credit card $500. And he promised he won’t charge me more than $500. When the he finds the actual cost, he would call me to confirm the exact amount. During this over 40 min wait, my AUTISTIC son melted down. This “boss” and the front desk were still trying to push me to pay for the damaged chair first before they could check us in. I did not want my autistic son to stay melted down and potentially go uncontrollable, so I agreed to have them temporarily put a $500 hold on my card so we can get to the room and have my son calm down. The “boss” left his phone number and “promised” me to get back to me about the exact cost of replacing that chair quite politely over then phone at that time. At least I felt he was polite then. So finally we got checked in. The hotel seemed to be newly renovated, however, they obviously did a poor cleaning work. There were trash right in front of our room door. And the hallway was not quite well maintained, although it looks quite new. Three days later, I found my credit card had a cleared transaction amount of $500, instead of a temporary hold / authorization. I called this boss and no one answered the phone. I called again a week later, he picked up the phone and said he was still trying to find out the amount of cost. When I asked why he had to charge my card instead of putting a temporary hold. He sort of threatened me and said when he finds out the cost it could be more than $500 (Remember he promised he would not charge me more than $500 on the day when the incident happened). And he would let me know once he finds out. Another week has passed and he never got back to me about the exact cost. I am extremely busy with an autistic boy as well as a full time job so I don’t really want to waste too much of my energy on this stupid matter. I would just treat any extra amount that I could have overpaid as a donation so they could improve their service or do a better cleaning work of the hotel. But I would like to share my horrible experience with this location and hopefully no one will have to encounter into this kind of situation. Overall, this hotel looks new. But don’t be fooled by the appearance and its low price. I can guess even without that incident, we would still not have a good experience because of their unprofessional service.

It was okay We only stayed here as we had to catch a 3:45AM uber to get to CBX for our early morning flight to Mexico. We thought we would get more sleep this way... Not the hotels fault but our neighbors were opening and loudly closing their door for an hour from 11PM to midnight. No common decency. You can definitely hear noise in the hallway and I highly recommend asking for a room above the 1st floor. Otherwise rooms were pretty and bed was comfortable. Couch had stains on it. Rooms are modernized. We didn't make the breakfast but it was nice to have the coffee ready that early in the AM. Note that they charge you an incidental charge for $100 for possible damage that they will refund you if there is none.

BEWARE false information and a hefty price for bad dirty rooms and no service. This hotel is currently undergoing renovation but they don’t tell you (bait and switch?) and charge premium prices. The assigned rooms are filthy, smelly, with broken items and dirty sheets and shower. The hotel refused to give us a different room. The manager refused to call or email us. The kitchen (only breakfast) is gross!!! Two of us got sick. They do not have shuttle service as we were told, or restaurant. Half hour drive to downtown, $60 Uber. Sits in the middle of an industrial area with few food options nearby.

Rough Night In a nutshell- the place was under renovation in their defense. It had a strong smell like wet paint, we saw a mouse run down the hall. No coffee cups in room. Beds felt like they were 100 years old. It sounded like the people in the room above us were teaching dance lessons until past 3am and to top it off the room next to us alarm clock went off at 4:15 am with likely no one in the room to turn it off. Guess this is what you get when there is only two hotels in the neighborhood. Next time I would try the other. The staff was very friendly!

Labor Day weekend Convenient location just off the highway. IHOP restaurant within walking distance. Very minimal accommodations and amenities. Would only recommend for a convenient overnight. Lowest price available for a Labor Day weekend.