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CA San Diego Comfort Inn Downtown-Harbor Island


tvl4free
By tvl4free,
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Arrived around 10AM and there was no room yet available. The front desk offered to accept my luggage - and advised that they would have a room in 30 minutes or so. I stepped across the hall and used 1 of the two FREE high speed internet cxns and by the the time I had finished checking e-mails, my room was ready. (The e-mail room also serves as the laundry... but the way the room is put together to serve a dual purpose, certainly gets the thumbs up from me).

This is a relatively small hotel and there is no pool or extra ammenities, ie a restaurant, etc. I got lucky in that my room was just around the corner from the front desk (room 115) and so didn't even have to deal w the elevator, etc. The room was, however, directly across from the ice machine and so I thought that I would have to deal w 'that ice falling sound' all nite, but the room was quiet and I didn't even notice the noise.

My room was small. In fact, it was very, very small. But mebbe compact would be the best way to describe it. Even so, it was equiped w a microwave, refrigerator, good TV programming, and an ironing board. And the singe double bed was very comfortable. But two people could prolly not fit in the room well. There were two 'dinning room table' type of chairs in the room, but they were not of the type that I would use while watching TV... so I just laid on the bed while watching TV.

One thing that I especially LOVED about this hotel was the shower. The water came out of one of those 'free falling waterfall' nozzles - the kind that you will find in the Wing at the Cathay Pacific's Lounge in HKG. There was lots, and lots of hot water - and the water pressure was excellent. No water saving device in use here (YIPPIE!!!). Again, I really, really... really, really, really liked that!

Another 'good thang' was that even on a Priceline stay, they offered breakfast4free. And the spread was fairly good... not excellent mind you, but pretty good none-the-less. Even my vegan buddy who stopped by for coffee the next morning was pleased. Lets see... they had 'make your own' waffles, all sorts of cereals and pastries, mini-omelets w cheese and/or spinach. Sausage (but no bacon) and nice big, green apples... two of which made their way to Mexico 4 use later in the day.

Lets see now... what else was unique? Oh yes, the hotel has WIFI 4free!!! And I was told that it works from all first floor rooms. (See the front desk for the card/disc).

I found a few little bummers w the hotel. Parking is an extra $14 per day. I dont like that, not so much because of the charge, but because you wont know about it until it's too late to to anything about it (in other words, its a separate fee from your PL bid... and so if you are on a tight budget BEWARE!!!). Another feature is that my room did not have built in air conditioning. A very small window unit was in place. While relatively quiet, it took me a day and a half to figure it out... and so the room was relatively hot. Just be advised. Crank it up to 10 (rather than 7) and IN TIME, it will freeze you out! Also, when you check in, the front desk will require a $50 cash deposit... unless you front a credit card.

Caddie corner to the hotel is a Borders - should you need some reading material. Hungry? Looking for a greazy spoon w great food.... almost 4free? Out the front door. Turn right. And down the street 2-3 blocks and turn right again. And there you have it... a sleazy little place called 'The Moon' Restuarant. Asian run. Short stack for $2.10. Hamburger steak w onions and mashed taters (plus rice) and green beens, and two slices of wheat bread. $3.98 in the Gas Lamp area! Can ya believe it???? But beware.... it is sleazy and greazy! But my kind of place!

Yum. But have em hold the gravy. OK? :)

Undoubtedly, the Comfort Inn is a jewel... not yet well described on this board. I would stay there again in a heartbeat.

I got it for $40 at 2.0* even tho rated 2.5*, but have a feeling that this can be tweaked by this crew 4 even better results.

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  • 5 years later...

Got this hotel just for one night for a place to sleep due to having an interview in San Diego County. Paid through Hotwire for $66.34 with tax. Pretty good value considering what I got with the price. With parking and having to pay to upgrade to 2 beds, ended up really costing $95.09.

Pros:

Location-There are so many cool restaurants and bars within walking distance. Borders is like half a block away so if you just want to browse books, go in there.

Free WIFI- Had a strong signal.

Breakfast Buffet- Offered from 6:30-9:30 and was pretty good.

Free scanning- Had to have 2 pages scanned and it's all free.

Price- Good value for what it is.

Cons:

Room size- They have everything you need for a hotel in the room, but it is all so cramped together. Next to the other double bed is the bathroom sink. I ended up getting sheets on that bed a bit wet from washing my face!

WIFI- My dad couldn't log on with his laptop and kept getting an error due to too many subscribers or something. I had to call the technical line for assistance to allow him to go on. Very nice person, but took maybe 20 minutes.

Air conditioning- Super loud unit!

Getting 2 beds- Okay this kind of sucked but it's more due to just taking a risk and going through Hotwire. Since I came with my dad and we don't have a relationship that the father and daughter had in "Precious", we wanted 2 beds. We had to pay $20 extra to upgrade for 2 beds so in truth the room cost $86. 34 for 2 people.

Pros or Cons Depending on How you View Things:

Parking- Parking here is $16 a night. I admit though that I don't know of any hotels in the Gaslamp District that has complimentary parking. I just didn't figure that on top of what I paid on Hotwire that I would have to pay for parking. Not worth it for the free breakfast (or $8 per person breakfast depending on how you look at it).

Mattress- Super, super firm. Not a fan of them this firm, but my father who chaperoned me on this work trip seemed to sleep like a baby!

Location- Although this worked for a 1 night stay during the week, I probably wouldn't stay here on a Thursday-Saturday night stay because of the noise on the street. But if you are someone who will be out all night, probably not a factor.

Tip:

I didn't pay for the hotel parking lot since I found a metered spot right next to the hotel. Parking there is free between 6PM and 8AM. To save a few bucks, we just did that. If you are only going to be here very briefly, you can save money this way. Comes to $1.25 an hour. We paid for the spot from 3PM-6PM (but went back at 5:00 to feed the meter since it's 2 hour parking), and then from 8AM-12PM. This probably would be an inconvenience though for those that want to explore San Diego. We just needed a place to sleep for the night and for me to change in interviewing clothes. The meter ended up costing altogether $8.75. Had we not lucked out though with just randomly finding the spot so close, we would have just shut up and paid the extra $ to be in the parking lot. Come with plenty of quarters since the hotel would only give me $2 worth of quarters since they seemed kind of ticked off that I didn't pay for their parking LOL.

Final Opinion:

Would I stay here again? If the pricing was around the same, yes. Through Hotwire and paying for the extra bed I probably saved $59.90.

Otherwise I probably would stay more in Shelter Island or some place a bit more quieter. However if I wanted a night out on the town with friends, this is probably the perfect hotel.

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