Sheraton San Diego Hotel and Marina

, San Diego, United States
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Sheraton San Diego Hotel and Marina

4 star

Rooms: 1044

1380 Harbor Island Drive - San Diego - California - 92101 - United States Hotel Website | | 6192912900
1241 Traveller

Reviews - Sheraton San Diego Hotel and Marina

2/10
Great unless you have a young family! Especially at Quin's restaurant.
Submitted by: John in 16/08/10
  • Age Group: 3140
  • From: United States
  • Traveller type: Adventurer
Great unless you have a young family! Especially at Quin's restaurant.

Had the worst experience at Quinn’s restaurant in the Sheraton in San Diego Harbor last night. I asked the waitress if she could please have a table bussed so that my family could sit down. She said it would be several minutes and if I wanted to wait I could but did not know when it would be done. Since it was my first time in the restaurant and first time in the hotel I asked how I go about to reserve the table (put my name in the front, with her, etc.) and she said to stand by the table until she had the time to clear it off. The table by the way was a complete mess, not so much with the dishes from the previous guest, but with her towels, serving tray, and cleaner. She bussed the table and my family and I sat down. After we sat down a booth became available and my wife asked if I could get it for us since our 2 year old would be easier if he was between the two of us inside a booth. The waitress quickly came over to me and told me that table was reserved for another guest that had been waiting. As I was confused because she had told me that for me and my family to get a table we would have to stand by it, I asked her why she would hold another table for a guest and make me stand by a table. The other guest came to the table that had been told by the waitress that she would hold it and created a very uncomfortable situation for them and I. I went back to my table to let my wife know the bad news and when the waitress went by, I asked for clarification from the waitress. She said that they had been waiting for the table and I said I understood but why did she make me stand by a table while she took their name, she looked at me, looked at my kids, rolled her eyes, flipped her hair, and walked away. I never received clarification, an apology, or even acknowledgment, and she had someone else wait on us in her station area so she would not have to deal with us. It makes me wonder why a young family would receive different treatment as my money, tips, opinions, and access to the internet to voice it are just as good as anyone else’s. It took over an hour to get our food while people who came in after us were getting fed. When asked turned out that they were holding the kids food until my ribs were done, Honestly, with two small children starting to loose it from lack of food common sense says bring it out. The food was overpriced and the kids pizza was cold. The hotel charged us for items out of the mini bar fridge automatically because the left over pizza we put in the fridge blocked the sensor for an item. The line to check out was over an hour to clear up the bill. The view was great and if you did not have kids could be a very romantic place to stay, DO NOT STAY HERE WITH KIDS. THEY TREAT YOU AS IF YOU HAVE A DISEASE!
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Historical Traveller Reviews of Sheraton San Diego Hotel and Marina

Nice View

from A TripAdvisor Member
Overall it is a very nice hotel. I must admitt that I was a bit worried after reading the review on this site. However, when I got there it wasn't that bad at all. Most of the review on this site is true tho. We stayed at the main tower Lanai tower which I found it very 70ish looking for the external part. However, the room is very spacious and everything is new. So it wasn't that bad at all. I found the view very nice. It is beautiful. The food at the hotel is very good and very good service as well. But just little expensive.

OK But Inconvient and Not A Good Value

from A TripAdvisor Member
I stayed at the Sheraton for 4 nights in October, and although it was not a bad trip, there were some drawbacks and problems.

First of all, when making the reservation, I had requested a room on an upper floor. I repeated the request when I confirmed the reservation with hotel directly the day before my trip. Yet, when I arrived, I was given a room on the first floor, with no acknowledgement that a higher room had been requested. When I asked to change, the desk clerk was mildly annoyed and said there was nothing else available. Then, when I fussed some more, she "found" a room on the 4th floor. Still not high, but better than facing a parking lot.

The room was a decent size, clean and nicely appointed - but that's the least one would expect at these prices. One annoying peculiarity was the lack of a minibar or refrigerator. Personally, I refuse to pay $10 for a glass of room-service orange juice in the morning -- as opposed to the $6 they would probably charge in the minibar ha ha -- so I bought some non-refrigerated stuff at a supermarket (which I had to drive some distance to get to ... see below).

This brings me to the biggest problem, which is the location. A piece of advice: Unless you will be spending all your time in San Diego at a conference in the hotel (and if you are, why? It's beautiful city ...
see some of it!) and ALSO want to eat all your meals in the high-priced and mediocre hotel restaurant, then you MUST rent a car and be prepared to drive around the city. True, the marina and bay are pretty to look at, but once you've spent a few mintues doing so, there is nothing else to do within walking distance. There are no stores except the absurdly priced gift shop and no restaurants except other hotel restaurants.
Cabs are plentiful at the Sheraton, but remember that this is not New York. Once you're out somewhere in the neighborhoods of San Diego, you won't necessarily be able to just walk outside and hail a cab.

Anyway, it's a pain to have to drive somewhere for dinner every night unless you have a guaranteed designated driver (i.e. teetotaler) in your party.

Overall, the Sheraton is not a bad hotel, but the amenities are nothing special for the price, and the location, while pretty, is very inconvenient for actually getting out and doing things. P.S. the parking price ($14, I think?) is an infuriating rip-off in a location like this. Downtown, it would be understandable, but there's plenty of space available on the Island. They just charge a lot because they can get away with it.

Nice business hotel

from A TripAdvisor Member
I stayed here two weeks ago for a two-night stay business meeting that was held at this property. The only real negative was the confusing status of its two towers. When booking online, there is no mention of the fact that the East and West towers are at different locations; The West tower is the main hotel and the East tower is a five minute walk along the marina and is not quite so large, although it has its own restaurant and meeting rooms. My meeting had sessions in the West tower one day and the East tower the next. Not as conducive as other hotels to going to and from the actual meetings and your room. Otherwise the hotel was standard business hotel with very nice rooms, great views from almost any room, good hotel staff generally, although a bit less attentive overall compared to some San Diego Hotels I've stayed at. The lobby and restaurants look magnificent, although the main restaurant is rather pricey and there wasn't any casual alternative when I was there.
It's very, very convenient to the airport: a three minute complementary shuttle ride. Downtown is another matter, so plan on $10 taxi rides every time you go downtown. They charge for parking, something unusual for the remote location, so take an airport shuttle if you are flying in directly. Very good value overall for the business traveler, less so for families or vacationers.

Only Nice in the new Towers

from A TripAdvisor Member
I stayed here for a convention and was suprised when I walked in the lobby- Very nice. I had upgraded to a bay view room. Bad idea. The bay view room is in the old towers. The old towers are old and worn down.
The soap dish was broken, The carpets were dirty and I was away from the main convention in the newer property. If you saty make certain you are in the new towers.

Airport noise!

from A TripAdvisor Member
Beautiful property, but right by the airport. Lots of noise with constant take offs and landings, plus street noise. We had to keep the fan running all night long so we could sleep. Maintenance had to over-ride the fan so it could run continuously. Otherwise, it turns off after 15 minutes of no movement in the room. Rooms were tiny.

Wonderful location and view

from A TripAdvisor Member
Just a couple minutes from the airport, the hotel is located on the man-made Harbor Island that also has San Diego marina port. To our pleasant surprise the hotel had a balcony overlooking palm trees and the marina full of yachts. The bed was comfortable. The bathroom adequate, although somewhat dated. DIfficult to beat the location though, - the harbor island is ideal for jogging or just taking a walk.
Be warned that there is no street parking, the overnight self parking cost 14$. The valet parking is outsourced and the attendants are somewhat snotty, make sure you do not pay valet just to check in. Would stay again for the location - and that sea breeze on the balcony.

Beautiful property, far below par in service

from A TripAdvisor Member
I stayed at the Sheraton Harbor Island from Aug. 11 - 17, 2003 and my experience was such that I won't stay in a Sheraton again. In fact, I turned down a referral to a Sheraton while booking a hotel for a convention in Los Angeles in Sept. 2003, specifically because of my San Diego experience. The Sheraton has a brand name that prompts certain minimal expectations, that include quality and customer service that is above a Radisson but not the Four Seasons. You expect something very nice, but not exquisite. And the property is beautiful, tastefully appointed in its furnishings and conveniently located so close to the airport that you could literally walk from theairport right to the hotel (I kid you not: You can see the hotel from the window in baggage claim). Not that you have to, because there's a convenient shuttle that picks you up, gratis from the airport. The rooms in the East Tower are on the small side, but they are comfortable and some sport balconies with a very pleasant view of the marina or downtown San Diego. Be advised that the West Tower is not just another building next to the East Tower, but an entirely separate hotel (I heard it was a Westin before), about a quarter-mile away, down the road and requires a walk or shuttle ride to go to the main hotel. It also is beautifully appointed and the rooms are larger than the tiny East Tower rooms. BUT. But. God help you if you are attending a convention at this hotel. Although the Sheraton have set themselves up for substantial convention business, with an entire wing and spacious meeting rooms and banquet halls, they don't seem to have the basics -- like control over their AC, basic sanitary practices involving water glasses, or ventilation allowing horrid sewage smells to engulf your convention participants. The "Sheraton Promise" of the If-it's-not-perfect-we'll-make-it-up-to-you variety should not fool you. You will have to fight very hard for them to make even the most rudimentary of amends. It required two meetings with the general manager. But the real issue is customer service at the level of rates they were charging in mid-August ($179 per night). Here are some examples: 1) My room-mate returned to her room midday while the maid was cleaning the room. She pointed out the used glasses and asked her to make sure we got clean ones. The maid proceeded to rinse them out in the sink and then replaced them on the coasters as though they were fresh glasses! The general manager apologized and said it was an isolated incident. My roommate found the maid later, who told her "We all do that because we don't have soap." We realized that for the past few days, we'd been trading our germs back and forth because we had no idea we were re-using unwashed glasses. 2) Our convention staff and members who came into the convention office that we had set up all came down with terrible stomach illnesses after eating food delivered to the room that had been ordered from the hotel. 3) A foul odor in one of the convention-wing restrooms began to emanate early in the day on Saturday, Aug. 16, and got fouler as the day went on. It was a sewage-like smell, not the type of odor from an indisposed guest. 4) We witnessed a Sheraton shuttle driver shouting rudely at two of our invited guests at the port cochere, in front of all other Sheraton guests. They were so upset and humiliated, they called the general manager. 5) I was frantically trying to retrieve my bags from the locked storage closet of the bell station. A desk clerk haughtily informed me that I needed to "make an appointment" with the bell captain when I needed to get my things out. This, while I was trying to get my bags to make the shuttle. The Sheraton shuttle driver refused to wait for me to find the bell captain and said it wasn't his concern that I couldn't find anyone to get my bags out.

Sweet San Diego Sheraton Stay

from A TripAdvisor Member
Beautiful property. We had a marina view room in the lanai section with high ceilings and an incredibly comfy bed. Front desk service was excellent. Requested refrigerator was in the room when we checked in. I reccomend spending the extra $6/night for valet parking; you get more for your money. Great service and atomosphere.

Loved the Sheraton Marina and Hotel

from A TripAdvisor Member
I just returned from Sheraton Marina and Hotel. I stayed 8/4-8/03. It was absolutely wonderful. The beds were so comfortably, staff courteous and very helpful and informative. The Conceige Area was very knowledgeable about the hotel and San Diego. Much Love to Eva- She was Great! The pool was large enough and warm. I stayed at the East Tower in the Lanai Section. I loved the hotel so much to do tennis, swimming, bicycling, ping pong spa etc. Restaurants great and shuttle from airport-Great I would recommend this hotel to other travelers. I found it on the internet viewed the photos and booked my trip. Didn't realize it was that close to airport. My next visit to SD I will certaintly stay here Again. Baltimore, Md

save your money

from A TripAdvisor Member
what a nightmare. one and only one good thing to say great gardeners and housekeeping. everything else is aweful. from you ridiclous parking fee which by the way the system of the card slide to enter your lot is horrible. we had to be rekeyed 4 times and the card still gave trouble.
to your $4 bottles of spring water in rooms that were unmarked. local calls $2 each. nickel and dime me to death. staff was very unhelpful and understood nothing. if you have a front desk staff who is almost entirely from other countries and can speak choppy english how can you communicate with costomers. i had to call the front desk 7 times to ask for a change in reservation dates before i got mad and got the manager.
i had an awesome rate due to a family members employment with sheraton corp. but if i had to choose the rate or pay more for a more cooperative and understanding hotel. i would pay, pay pay. avoid like the plague.

Top Local Tips for San Diego

San Diego Despite my hotel experience, San Diego was incredible. We went whale watching with Classic Sailing Adventures with was amazing. I would recommend the Fish Market on Harbor Drive from the best, freshest seafood and Extrodinary Desserts at 5th and Palm for a laid back gourmet coffee and desert treat. I also love Coronado Island for a beach break and the best coffee/sandwich shop on Earth: Tartine at 1st street and Orange. For beatiful views make an effort to go to the Corbillo National Monument on Point Loma.

USS Midway Museum If you are into warships and naval aviation, don't miss this. Very authentic and great access to the ship - the (free) audio tour guides you from the flight hangar through the crew areas. You'll get a realistic feel for life aboard an aircraft carrier. Additional areas (officer's quarters) opening in May, 2007.

Get on the trolley Trolley tour is well worth the time and money though I would not stop at every stop! There is a pickup from the hotel every morning.

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Other names for Sheraton San Diego Hotel and Marina

  • sheraton san diego
  • san diego sheraton hotel marina
  • san diego sheraton
  • Address: 1380 Harbor Island Drive - San Diego - California - 92101 - United States
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