Holiday Inn Express San Diego South-National City

Booked 2 nights three days in advance, drive 6 hours to get there and they cancel the reservation because it was «overbooked»? When questioned about their mistake, they add excuse that credit card was declined? What? No call no email no class. Th same card just used to pay for dinner and movie down the street? Baloney. Unethical and dishonest to say the least. The desk sends us across town 30 minutes away to a less desirable area and a lower quality hotel where rooms would have been booked for less and upon arrival the same «declined» card worked just fine. The true story is quite obvious. A greedy manager took the opportunity to re-​book our room for higher price, customer (me) be damned. Years of staying at Holiday Inn Express hotels are over. This was the most disrespectful transaction I’ve ever been part of. Excuse after excuse does not wash. No courtesy call or email to advise of cancellation, nothing. Do yourself a favor, stay clear of this hotel and don’t let them transfer (con) you to the one at Mission Bay. That one is definitely several notches lower on quality. Shame on you HIE!

Rooms were new and updated. Beds were comfortable. Bathroom was small but nice shower pressure. The bad review comes from the fact that in a 2 night stay we had to call the front desk and complain about neighbor noise 3 times. There was a loud party going on both nights with fighting and door slamming. It was well after midnight to get them to quiet down.

i hate staying at a hotel that censors the internet! will not be back! i am an adult and i can decide which sites i want to go to!

I can’t give less than a star or I happily would. Where to start… I was charged 4 times for the same hotel room. When I tried to call prior to my stay to dispute, I was given a cancellation for the 1^st duplicate charge and told it would not be posted to my account. Needless to say, it was on there the next day. When i arrived the following day, I asked to speak to a manager to dispute. I was told the manager wasn’t in, that they didn’t do the booking or charging or rooms (which is just… ridiculous since they do). On my 2^nd day there I was charged a 3^rd time and opted to contact my bank to dispute, as management is a joke at this location. This morning, checkout day, I attempted to check out and was told I couldn’t get a receipt as I had booked through a website I hadn’t booked through. My account now has an additional charge for God knows what. My bank is now trying to have me refunded for 3 duplicate charges of $ 339.75. This is ridiculous!!! I attempted to speak with the manager again on the way out & she heard about 2 seconds of my issue & moved away to do whatever else was more important. This places exhibits horrible customer service & business ethics. Don’t waste your time!

Stayed here for just one night because we had a party in the area and it was one of the closest hotels. This hotel is directly off the freeway, and has several places to get a quick bite to eat around there.
First I want to say that my 4 star rating is in comparison to other similar hotels in expected quality and price range. In short, if you are staying at Holiday Inn for one night you’re not looking for a 4 Diamond Resort. I’m admittedly hard with my star ratings, and this one fell short of 5 because the elevator had a really weird smell.
I had made reservations on-​line, and check in was a breeze. The front desk people were friendly enough, and knew what they were doing. The first thing I do when I get a room is strip all of the bedding and check for bed bugs. The hotel had a great rating on the BedBugRegistry, and I found no evidence of bed bugs. The room and linens were clean. The mattress did have a large stain on the foot of the bed. It was either coffee, or blood. I opted to think it was coffee, and covered it back up because the linens were fine, and it didn’t smell.
Everything worked in the room as expected, and my stay was fairly quiet; although I was only in the room a few minutes before coming back at around 2am extremely intoxicated. So who knows how quiet it really was.
The breakfast was as expected for a Holiday Inn and was adequate enough to stave off a hangover and keep me from starving until going to a real restaurant.
Check out was simple and billing was exactly as expected. I would definitely stay again without hesitation.

Really nice hotel I Remember when I first moved here to national city this place used to be ramada but know it is Holiday inn. I stayed there for the week because they where remodeling my house .This place is the best hotel to go in national city. and good complimentary breakfast

Bed wasn’t comfortable but overall it’s very nice. Free breakfast parking wifi… overall happy!

The hotel is right off the freeway so you have easy on/​off access. The neighborhood isn’t scary, and there is a really good restaurant across the street-don’t let the appearance scare you it’s really good. There is ample parking (it is a tight squeeze though so larger vehicles or trailers be advised). The hotel staff was always very nice and helpful with any questions or needs we had. The hotel was sparkly clean and we even commented on how the elevators smelled like laundry detergent! Our room was very spacious with flat screen tv, fridge, drawers and armoire. The AC worked really well and kept us very cool as it was hot while we were there. The only part of the room that wasn’t super was the small bathroom counter– not a lot of space for all my stuff (I have a lot of stuff… I’m a girl). We never heard our neighbors on either side of us, but could hear the elephant upstairs but that’s not the hotels issue– people need to not STOMP when in hotels :)
The continental breakfast was awesome. Anyone who complains about this breakfast have obviously never been to a few other not-​so-​awesome hotels whose idea of a continental breakfast is a gallon of milk left out on the counter and two bags of cereal (I’m not kidding– check out my Days Inn Anaheim review). No, this place means business with its breakfast– make your own hot cakes, fresh cinnamon rolls, eggs, sausage or bacon, some days we had biscuits and gravy, sometimes pre made omelets. Always milk, yogurt, fresh fruit, many juice choices, coffee and hot chocolate and oatmeal. I will never skimp on a hotel again… I will always seek out a Holiday Inn Express.
My family was staying here to attend my graduation from college (yay me!) so thank you for only adding to my great week and being a safe, clean and friendly place for my whole family to stay!

Pros– I stay at a lot of Holiday Inns as a Preference because the service has always been wonderful. And it continues as of today. The front desk group was very nice and helpful. The cleaning crew did an outstanding job of keeping our room clean.
Cons– the business center is located on the 2^nd floor, I swear I was there for a good 5 minutes or less and you would think I was in a sauna. It was so hot up there. I’m not sure if the air was off or just not working, but it was very very hot.
The parking was pretty bad. Not sure why trucks were aloud to park and take up 3 – 4 spaces when the hotel is aware that they are sold out and that there’s a big event in town. I did not like having to drive around to look for a space.
The breakfast, was OK this round. Maybe I’m use to it and now it’s getting boring, but I only it once during my stay.
Besides that I will continue booking with the Holiday Inn franchise because I am aware they are not all the same.

Hotel was clean got there at 1 in the Morning by 7 a.m. they had a fire alarm go off had to get my two children up and out of the building just to find out that somebody was smoking in the room TV in the room did not work nor did the refrigerator was very disappointed to get such a small discount considering we didn’t get any sleep because they woke us up and the kids would not go back to sleep

This is a very decent hotel for the price– clean-​cozy and your stay includes breakfast. Area is ok but all in all they made my stay comfortable n pleasant. The staff was awesome.

I stayed here for a night, it was very quiet and close to a few things, the front desk agent a young female was very polite at check in she also gave my bf and me a discount since he works at a hospital. The room was clean and very comfortable.

I have Platinum Elite status with Holiday inn so I usually will stay with them first.
This place is right down the street from my family I was visiting and from the outside this place looks great!
Knowing its a holiday inn express means we get free breakfast with the stay, unlike Holiday Inn Suites where you do not get free breakfast, well as a platinum member I do if I ask but as a rule you don’t. the lobby was great and Michelle was an awesome host.
The room was clean and comfortable, the only complain, and I wish I would have taken picture of it, was the sink, it was so small you couldn’t even put your toiletries on it, there was no shelf either and with two people. no so good. the beds were great and the maids were very nice.
We went down for breakfast and we were very disappointed with the food they made these faux omelets with un-​melted American cheese inside my mom thought they were pancakes lol. I had a banana
The first day they at least had sausage links but the next day just Turkey patties.
I was going to make some English muffins, but they were as hard as a rock and once you put them into the toaster it would not have been pretty.
Plus there was a guest walking around in his pajamas coughing on everything yea, i didn’t want any of that.
The side of the hotel we were on backed up to Cul-​de-​sac, and on Sunday morning a house across the street fire up some heavy gauge guitar so loud that the power wire from our side of the street to the house was bouncing to the beat of the music! CRAZY! ha ha only in National City.
We actually checked out a day early, nothing against then but it was just sub par enough that we drove home Sunday night after the memorial instead of Monday morning.

Pretty okay Holiday Inn Express. I would give 4 stars for the room, but only 2 stars for the convenient breakfast. I’ve been to other Holiday Inn Express locations and this location made it difficult for us to get out quickly in the morning with a hot breakfast. First, why put out bagels, if you aren’t going to give anyone cream cheese? The machine that makes pancakes is super slow. It would have been nice if they had waffle makers but they did not. And, much of the pastries were stale and hard. It must have been a busy weekend because it was difficult to find a spot to sit, not to mention how dirty all of the tables were.

stayed here for the weekend to meet some friends of my wife. the hotel is awesome! newly remodeled. it’s close to the freeway, easy access to downton SD. the rooms are clean and well organized. it’s in close proximity to restraunts and stores. it’s location is right in the filipino community area which have great filipino restraunts! the holiday inn has a free breakfast buffet! great hotel and great staff. parking is secure and the location is safe. one downside is a noisy neighbor opening and closing the door. other than that, very good for the price!

It was okay…
Their breakfast wasn’t all that’s cracked out to be but at least they offered free breakfast. It wasnt a huge variety of offerings so I only ate two sausages. There were more pastries and bread than hot meat and items. I didn’t want to load up on carb so I didn’t eat any. There were no yogurt and I couldnt find the pancake machine. Perhaps they were too busy with valentine weekend? I can tell they just remodeled because there were sloppy glue jobs on the bathroom walls. Do they not have hot water here? because I took a shower in cold water in the morning. It was just me that stayed in the room for one night. Noise was good and bed was comfy. I slept well!

I wouldn’t normally give 5 stars to a hotel unless it was a luxury resort with all the amenities… but why not say that this hotel IS as good as it gets in its category? We got such a great price and it is so close to Downtown San Diego… Everything was great. The hot breakfast was everything we expected from the hype and I’m glad we chose this place to stay.
The cute little cinnamon rolls were awesome, but we totally geeked out about the automatic pancake maker. OMG, why have I never seen one of these before? It’s amazing, and now I must have one of my own. And yes, I did take a picture of it!
The parking lot is a little tight and you definitely should not go there for the pool… but I would return to this hotel for future visits to San Diego!

In a pinch; family emergency. I drove fr LA & needed a night to stay. I directly sought Holiday Inn Express. As late as it was on a Fri 9:30 pm; the front desk (Sarah R) was very friendly & accommodating. Offered to help me find my HIE rewards number & accepted my AAA for a discount on the room rate. My stay came with a secure, clean, well kept room w/​wifi & complimentary breakfast (which starts the day nicely). Thank you HIE for being reliable!

Awesome little hotel. Does everything you hoped it would and a little more.
The rooms and communal areas are clean and welcoming.
The hot breakfast included in your room rate is great for grabbing a quick bite before heading out for the day.
The in room wifi is amongst the best I have experienced in a hotel.
5* service at 3* prices, this is your place.

This hotel was perfect for me because I didn’t wanna pay a whole alot for a place in San Diego and also for parking. It is close enough to San Diego and comes with free parking and breakfast. Super easy access to all the freeways. The room was clean and renovated. Nice staffs too!

For this being a Holiday Inn in the ghetto it was very nice and clean and fancy on the inside. We love going to Holiday Inns because of the free hot breakfast that comes with your stay… that is pretty awesome!
My only complaint is that the internet was down on the day that we were there, which was a bummer. Other than that, it was really nice. Staff is nice and friendly. We paid cash so they asked for a $ 150 deposit that we got back upon checking out after verifying that our room was okay.
I highly recommend.

Room was nice, clean and comfortable. Good location to the freeway. Only complaint would be the ‘hot’ breakfast– sausage links, biscuits and a pseudo omelet with cheese. The latter didn’t that taste like real eggs but more like I nstant powdered eggs. The juices were ok but def from concentrate. Good thing there was milk and bagels.

I stayed here for two nights in December and it was a good experience. This hotel is smack in the middle of lots of Filipino stores and restaurants.
The staff is very friendly and will do their best to honor your requests. We stayed in room 124, which was on one end of the first floor. The room and bathroom were clean.
For the complimentary breakfast, the best thing was the warm cinnamon rolls. Yummy! The muffins and bagels were good as well. They also had sausage and eggs the mornings we ate there. There’s four juices, yogurt, coffee, tea, bread/​toast for your dining pleasure.
For parking, it’s mostly outdoors and right in front of the hotel. There is a few covered spots on one side of the parking lot.
Overall, a good experience. The hotel is about 15 minutes away (on the freeway) from the Las Americas Premium outlet mall at the USA/​Mexico border. The hotel is also fairly close to downtown San Diego.
Please see my pictures.
Xie Xie!

Wow to that 1 star review! Its sad that people open new Unilocal accounts just to write poorly justified (and poorly written) negative reviews on great establishments. I haven’t written a review in over a year, but felt compelled since this hotel deserves much more than one star.
The Holiday Inn Express in National City really impressed me. And it takes a lot to impress me as I’m a hotel snob. The hotel is very very clean, with modern décor, and is either brand new or newly refurbished.
I stayed in a king room with a couch. The bed was super comfortable and the bathroom was one of the cleanest hotel bathrooms I’ve seen. The room also had a large fridge, coffee maker, and microwave. Very kid friendly and my toddler felt at home. Big plus: my sixth sense for avoiding nasty hotel carpets didn’t kick in.
As for breakfast, there was a great variety of beverages, breads, spreads, juices, tea, coffee, cereal, and pastries. The breakfast area was very clean and organized with an impressive selection. And it was free!
So for less than a hundred bucks, I stayed in a super clean, new, comfortable, and kid friendly room, with free breakfast, free wifi, and free parking!