The Bristol Hotel San Diego

The Esthetics.

Location & customer service

Nothing

Very spacious room, friendly cheerful staff, great location, clean and quiet room

Nice area. Walking distance to convenient places. Restaurant convenient stores.

Lobby looks nice, and location is close to the Gaslamp district.

The front desk clerk who handled my check-in at 7:00 PM on March 21 and my check-out at 5:00 AM on March 25 was, unfortunately, unforgettable for all the wrong reasons.

At check-in, I was first shown to a room where the bed hadn’t been made at all. Sheets and pillows were just left on the sofa, as if housekeeping had simply given up halfway through life. When I called the front desk, I was told that the bed would be made “tomorrow,” and that I should do it myself for the night. A bold take on hospitality. Shortly after, I received another call informing me that they had given me the wrong room, and I was finally moved to a proper one.

Things somehow got even more impressive at check-out. The front desk is supposed to be available 24 hours, but the clerk was asleep. Not “resting his eyes” asleep, but fully, deeply committed to it. I had to call out to him for over 10 minutes before he finally woke up. Even then, I was told that check-out starts at 5:00 AM, so I had to wait.

I had a 7:55 AM flight, so I made it in time, but if my flight had been any earlier, this would have been a serious problem.

At 5:00 AM, I tried again. He was asleep. Again. It took another 10+ minutes of repeatedly calling out. At this point, a parking lot staff member heard my voice—loud enough to reach outside—and came in to physically wake the clerk by tapping his shoulder. Teamwork, I suppose.

Even after that, the clerk continued drifting in and out of sleep while processing my check-out. I had to keep asking, “Is it done?” multiple times before the process was finally completed.

For the same price, I’m quite certain there are many hotels where the staff remain conscious during their shifts. I strongly recommend that anyone reading this consider staying elsewhere.

The value was good, especially in comparison to the larger hotels in SD. The location was great being right between downtown and Little Italy. Room was clean and comfortable. Only two complaints. They bombard you with emails the day of checkin, and the shower pressure is very low.

Everyone from the Valet to the Hotel Front Desk Clerk were extremely personable and nice.

I would not give any rating for this hotel but since it wouldn’t let move on, I had to give it a one rating. The pictures advertised for this hotel and location in San Diego does not reflect on what it actually looks like from the inside lobby and the room we stayed in (room 505). My friends and I paid for two nights and once we arrived, it was already starting off bad. The lobby roof looks like a big piece fell off. The front of the lobby windows had plastic tarps. If the hotel is going under renovation, it should say so on their website and Expedia so people are aware. The elevator is so small, my friend and I barely fit with the luggage cart. As soon as we walked out of the elevator, the hallway smelled like a Motel 6. Honestly, we would have rather stayed at a Motel 6, at least they look more presentable than this “boutique hotel “. The closet had a plastic bin on the floor and when I opened it, there was extra linen and the shelves were very dusty and dirty. I would not even dare to make a drink from the coffee/tea maker after that. The rug was stained and so was the lampshade. The wallpaper was lifting from the edges. My friend is 5’10 and her feet were hanging off the bed. The restroom had a sliding door and it looked like a few paint jobs had to be done from either holes or some other reason. The roof was low enough that my friend could touch the ceiling and it also lifted when she touched it. It looked like two pieces of sheet wall next to each other. The sliding door also had a lot of dust and mold showing from a gap it had. The vent had a lot of dust as well. We were itching from just sitting in the room for an hour. We went down to the lobby to speak with someone and we got Sandra. We were very polite when explaining to her what the room looked like and if we were able to get a refund. She did say she was sorry about that and said she could change our room or cancel the reservation but the refund had to come from Expedia. We decided to cancel the reservation and she stated she canceled the reservation on her end so the next step was to get a hold of Expedia. We contacted Expedia and they said they were trying to get a hold of the property numerous times and no one would answer. They asked for the pictures and we sent them over. We also contacted the property to let them know Expedia has been trying to get a hold of them and Sandra was extremely rude. She gave us attitude, stated no one has called from Expedia and that she wasn’t going to handle the matter and hung up on us. I tried calling her again shortly after and no one would answer the phone. It rang for two minutes and they denied the call. We’ve been dealing with Sandra for a little over a week and going back and forth with the property and Expedia. This reservation was for 3/6/26 and now it is 3/16/26. On 3/12/26, my friend called and spoke to Sandra and was told we would get a full refund and processed it. The hotel was for two nights at $534 and she emailed Expedia that she would only do $50 refund and no more. When we contacted Expedia today, 3/16/26, they informed us that they have to go off what the property is stating that there was nothing wrong with the room. This is unacceptable and robbing people from false advertising of their property.