The Good: Excellent room size, Good amenities, Not a bad location, Friendly staff
The Bad: . . . Actually, none!
The Basics: Perhaps this is the grail of affordable hotels; with good amenities, clean rooms and a friendly staff, there's nothing it lacks!
No, I've not returned from my working vacation trigger happy with the ratings. For those who follow my reviews, it is well known that I hold out on the extremes and tend to rate everything fairly conservatively. So, this morning, it's possible some of those who follow my reviews might think I've lost it. No, in this case, I've just hit a patch of things I was reviewing that truly were superlative. In the case of the Comfort Suites Otay Mesa, as I wrote my review and contemplated my stay there, I simply could find nothing to detract from the experience. As a result, this becomes my first "perfect hotel stay" in memory.
Location
I recently took (and have returned from) a cross country trip. Like my usual business trips, there was an objective; a convention in Las Vegas, Nevada. However, unlike so many of my trips that I maintain as pure business ventures, this latest trip had a few additional days tacked on in order to survive the trip to Vegas, see some sights and fulfill some lifetime goals of my traveling companion. While achieving my companion's goals, it began to stick in my craw that last year when I first ventured so far West, I did not get to go to California (which is only some 40 miles from Las Vegas). This year, I was determined to change that and an additional day was stuck on the trip to go to California, even to the Pacific Ocean, which pretty much made my trip.
Finding a place to stay in California - the San Diego area - turned out to be remarkably easy with the Comfort Suites Otay Mesa. The Comfort Suites Otay Mesa (CA506 in the Choice Hotel numbering system) is located at 2351 Otay Center Dr. in San Diego, California. This multi-story hotel is located ridiculously close to the Mexican border and is very easy to find using directions from Mapquest or the hotel's website. There are no grounds to speak of for the hotel and it is fenced in by a wooden fence that separates the hotel and its parking lot from the rest of the sprawling blacktop in the area.
The Comfort Suites Otay Mesa is located a discrete distance from the primary parts of San Diego (San Diego is a split city, apparently) and the beaches. There is no neighborhood to speak of for this hotel and given the interstate (which goes right into Mexico) adjacent to the hotel, the place is surprisingly quiet. Cameras keep watch on the cars in the parking lot and the whole hotel has the feeling of being fairly secure.
Room Size
When one stops in to the Comfort Suites Otay Mesa, one might suddenly be hit with the notion that all of the rooms are suites. This may seem stupid and obvious, but after a week on the road in various hotel rooms, it's a strange form of ecstasy to walk into a hotel room and see high ceilings, a lot of space and all sorts of amenities.
The room I stayed in was a 29' X 14' suite and it certainly felt larger than that. The internet rate for the room totaled out at $89.50 for the Sunday night we stayed there and in retrospect, I'm surprised it was so inexpensive.
Cleanliness
For a state whose southern half seems to be engulfed in dust storms and sand dunes (we drove in through Arizona and the desert!), the Comfort Suites Otay Mesa is an oasis of cleanliness. How they do it is an absolute mystery to me. From the parking lot, which was spotless, to the rooms, everything was immaculately clean.
Every surface in the suite was spotless. There was no dust, no dirt, not even the slightest hint that anyone had ever stayed in the room before us. It was completely, immaculately clean. The toilet passed the first flush test without incident, the linens were all clean, dry and fluffy. The entire hotel was nonsmoking and nothing smelled like it had ever been in the presence of nicotine. It was clean in a way that would keep Monk satisfied!
The public areas were similarly clean. The hotel had two breakfast rooms, both were kept clean by help that was invisible. Despite a preponderance of children - and loud ones at that - running through the hotel at weird times with wet feet and such from the pool, the hallways were clean and somehow the floors were dried super quick. Even the walls were kept free of even a hint of dirt.
Despite staying at the hotel for almost a full day (yea early check in!) the cleanliness of the public rooms I saw did not go down.
Amenities
The Comfort Suites Otay Mesa ended up being a real value for all that we got out of it. While it might be standard in all Comfort Suites, the room had an herbal shampoo and conditioner that smelled wonderful and it made for a distinctive entrance the moment we stepped into the room. There is something reassuring about entering a room that smells good in a very familiar way to make one feel at home. So, the shampoo and conditioner being different from the others in the Choice Hotels chains was a pleasant surprise.
There seemed to be extra towels in the room (probably because of the pool), there were four pillows on the king-sized bed, and the room had a refrigerator, microwave and sofa in addition to the usual desk. The television had over fifty channels and from my room, we could see over the shopping areas and into Mexico (which was very cool for me).
Like most hotels in the Choice pantheon, the Comfort Suites Otay Mesa offered a free continental breakfast. This hotel's breakfast ought to be the standard for the rest! In addition to the usual "make-your-own waffle station" and the standard coffee, three types of juice, bagels, danishes, and mini-muffins, this hotel had a hot option; little egg and bacon English muffin breakfast sandwiches! After days of prepackaged bagels, this was a pleasant treat that was wonderful to wake up to.
And perhaps the "amenity" that threw the hotel up over the wall into the unexplored territory of a perfect hotel to stay at was the staff. The poor guy at the front desk who had to endure all of my questions took it with a cool professionalism that was the very model of what the service industry ought to be. When asked about locations of the nearest beaches and the border crossings, he produced a printout with clear, easy instructions and talked me through them making it easy to get where I was going around the area. And while this hotel did not have a business center with internet access for public use, the front desk staff was kind enough to let me use a computer in back so I could check up on my business. All of their assistance came without any apparent begrudging of the bother of my imposition. As I said, that's professionalism.
The pool was a decent size and was clean.
Overall
My stay at the Comfort Suites Otay Mesa was a comfortable, enjoyable, and VERY affordable stop on a long journey and while I crossed the country on business and vacation, this was the best hotel I've yet stayed at. Ever.
For other hotels in the Choice Hotels chain, please be sure to check out my reviews of:
Quality Inn - Lubbock, TX
Comfort Inn And Suites Airport - Masspeth, NY
Quality Inn North - Altamonte Springs, FL
10/10
For other travel reviews, please visit my index page on the subject by clicking here!
© 2011, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
Comfort Suites Otay Mesa
Click to reserve a room through Hotels.com!
Click to reserve a room through Hotels.com!
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