Clarion Hotel National City San Diego South

Don’t let the tall building fool ya of thinking this is a nice hotel. This hotel is pretty darn ghetto. Very noisy hotel. People smoke inside the Elevator. Never again will I even make this my last resort. I’ll sleep in my car if I have to.

Stayed here over the weekend in a bid to enjoy a quick little get away with the fam. Booked it last minute, without reading reviews (which I NEVER do) But honestly I’m glad I did.
Reading over reviews now, There are a handful of things that some picked out that just have to be chalked up to price and big cities. Dont expect a Hilton for a budget 8 Price. What’s most important to you when booking a hotel room? Base the review on those things.
Whats important to us? Not to far from the beaches and things we wanted to do, no shady parking structures, CLEAN rooms, comfy beds, working shower, clean carpet, visually pleasant room so we feel half way comfortable and BUG FREE!
We had a view of the Ocean and ships that hubby and kids (10,8) enjoyed. View of Coronado bridge that i enjoyed.
Parking was good. Enough parking on main level. Didnt get a weird vibe at all about leaving our car. Lobby was nice. Nothing fancy but we werent there for fancy so it was good
The room was surprisingly nicer then I expected. ($ 120 weekend night in san Diego can be sketchy) but it was a nice surprise! Looked clean, carpet seemed fairly new and clean. Here’s the best part… I never travel without my own bed sheets… Never! And Very rarely do I ever feel like I Dont need them. (Maybe more towards 5 star hotels and that’s still a maybe) Well guess what… I didn’t use them here and slept like a baby. The beds were soooooooo COMFORTABLE. Nice pillows amazingly comfortable beds, oh and did I mention the beds? (My 10 year old even raved about them the next day!)
There was a blow dryer (might still need your own it was more like a faint breeze dryer lol) fridge, microwave and the best smelling coffee you will ever smell from a hotel coffee maker!
The hot tub stayed open til 10. The kids loved that!
The décor was updated but not flawless.
Again, the scratch on the dresser doesn’t change our experience as a whole lol oh and did I mention there was a small piece of tape on the wall in the bathroom? Gasp! Lol
Point being… People can nit pick at all the flaws but pick at what you pay for. Clean, comfortable room, amazing beds, bug free, clean carpets, do-​able parking, somewhat decent location, shower worked and we left HAPPY! Room 613 was a winner for us! We Will be back
Glad we decided to take the extra $ 100 + we saved on a room and let the kids blow it at Belmont Park. It was totally worth it!
(oh btw amazingly delicious Philippino restaurant 8 minute walk away that stays open til 3am!)

I wish there was a 0 stars button. The hotel looks nice in the photos online, but those must have been taken years and years ago. When you pull into the parking garage there is broken furniture and trash everywhere and bugs by the door.
I booked a prepaid reservation thru Priceline weeks in advance for a room with 2 beds. When we arrived they told me there was no 2 beds. I advised the lady working I had called several days in advance to confirm this was a 2 bed. She told me she had no record of my call, I also showed her my confirmation email on my phone that said 2 beds. She told me «we can give you a roll away bed and wave the normal fee.»
After going back and forth and me beginning to call Priceline she found me a room with 2 beds. To her credit she gave me free breakfast vouchers as an apology. After riding up the creaky elevator I entered my room that smelled like moth balls. The ice machine was broken on my floor. The list goes on and on.
Do not stay at this hotel.

Very old and run down. As a business traveler who’s seen a lot… Steer clear! Even if the price is tempting.

Spent 3 nights at this hotel and it only cost me $ 200 through a 3^rd party. I was a bit scared from the reviews, but my room was fine and I didn’t see any chalk outlines of people in the parking lot. This hotel is not placed in a good neighborhood, but I didn’t stay here for the ambience. For a place to sleep, it does the job at a real good price. The check-​in and check out was great and the lady in the front desk was very nice. Rooms were very clean except the bathroom smelled a bit strange (smells like someone was celebrating 420 a big too much). I typically stay at Marriott hotels as I am a Platinum member, but I couldn’t turn away from the deal.

We booked our stay using an online booking service for budgetary reasons for 3 nights. This hotel needs serious revamping. The interior reminds me of a throw back to the late 60s early 70s. Extremely outdated. But if you need to rest your head for the night, then it serves a purpose. We slept well despite the outside noise levels, the beds were not the most comfortable, and you have a flat screen HD tv, fridge and a microwave in your room. I visited the onsite gym to use the treadmill and weight machines, but none of the machines worked. They too were very outdated. I was able to get a cardio workout on the treadmill but using it created a lot of dust in the air that I broke out in hives. Oddly, there are coin washer/​drying units on each floor for use, along with soda vending machines. And even though we were in non-​smoking rooms, neighboring guests smoked on the balcony and the second hand smoke wafted into our rooms. The only saving grace from our stay was the front desk agent Dora Real. Dora was very friendly, knowledgeable, kind and accommodating. What a gem or an employee The Clarion Hotel has on their hands.

Not a bad hotel and certainly not a death trap. It looked like the pictures. The beds were small and kind of uncomfortable, walls are thin so we could hear people on either side of us. No free breakfast. Not a bad hotel though for the price. It did smell funny though.

Cheap and close to SD attractions, but not somewhere I’d want to stay again. There seemed to be some kind of mock Fast and Furious sketchy event happening in the parking lot that kept us up all night long. The room was decent but the area and the behavior of guests was kind of appalling. I guess you get what you pay for, but wouldn’t go by Expedia’s «three star» ranking ever again. This place is not three star!!! Don’t stay here.

If it wasn’t for the ending of getting kicked out of the hotel and getting sick from staying at this hotel, I would have given this hotel more stars. Initially I had no issues with the hotel. Everything was fine for our stay. However on the 3^rd day of our stay, it went left completely. We came back to our room late to find our toilet water was completely brown, the shower water was brown, and the faucet water was brown. So confused, we call the front desk. That’s when things took a left turn. Hector, the front desk Agent tells us that there was a water main break and that’s why our water is brown. So my companion goes on to ask, how are we supposed to take showers or wash up. Hector suggest we wait a couple of hours to take a shower. So essentially he does not know when the water will be fixed and we just gotta wait. After we paid for a hotel to use and a shower to use. So my companion ask him again what he expects us to do since we are paying for full services from this hotel. Hecor then is rude and disrespectful by basically telling us we’re just gonna have to wait and that’s it. He was very rude and condescending and when my companion tried to talk he kept cutting him off and wouldn let him speak tying to say he didn’t like my companion’s tone, even thugh my companion didn’t even get to say anything. So my companion says he is going downstairs to speak to a manager.
When he gets downstairs, Hector tells him that he is the manager and no one else is at the hotel but him. So for a 10 floor hotel, he is the only one in the building? Doesn’t even sound right to me. But he gets even more rude with my companion, which at that point my companion cusses at him because of the high disrespect and attitude given to him and comes back upstairs. 15 minutes later, Hector calls my room to speak to me and tells me my companion is no longer welcome to stay at the hotel and if he doesn’t leave in 15 minutes then he is calling the cops. WTH. So I’m trying to talk to Hector and he was stern on him leaving saying he talked to his manager and the manager just said ok go head. So then Hector tells me I can stay. Why the hell would I stay if my companion isn’t welcome? so we wait for the cops. After speaking with the cops, who AGREED with us in saying that this whole thing was ridiculous and Hector was over the top, we had to leave.
We had to leave and check into a different hotel, that we had to pay for ourselves over dirty brown water.
The only reason why I give the hotel 2 stars is because the following day we go back to the hotel to get my refund and to talk to the manager Sandra who was very helpful and understanding and she apologized. Even still while we waited and spoke with her 3 people came to the front desk to complain. 2 people complained about the water, which Hecctor said would be fixed in hours, yet its the next day and the water is still dirty brown. Guest literally had to ask for bottles of water to wash up with, and that is absolutely ridiculous. The other guest complained about his heat which had been an issue since November and it made him sick.
Sandra gave me a full refund of my entire stay cost and that helped, but I plan on speaking with customer relations as well as I had to pay for another hotel out of pocket.
I wouldn’t recommend anyone stay at this hotel, and even Sandra the manager said there is a water main break atleast once a month over there. SMH.

This hotel isn’t really a hotel! It should be called a motel! And the funny thing is rated as a 3 star hotel!!! Really? I only gave it 2 stars due the friendliness and awesomeness of the staff! Very nice people. The rooms are out dated and need to be renovated. The gym is really bad and most of the equipments don’t work properly. Beds are not bad though. The bathroom is ok. Overall ⁴⁄₁₀ experience.

My two star rating is actually really 1 ¼ stars.
1 star for the action packed night that included the cops shutting down the intersection out front due to a drive by at the gas station and the cop that was chasing the convertible down the street for not taking into consideration that the intersection was closed. ¼ star for the open hallway that allowed me to witness this amazingness.
In regards to the hotel, leave it to the rats.

STAY AWAY FROM THIS HOTEL AT ALL COSTS. I dont know where to even BEGIN with the horrendous experience I had at this location. The hotel looks COMPLETELY different than the photos. you THINK you’re getting a nice hotel, but it’s a death trap. complete with shady characters in the parking lot who follow you to your car before hopping in their car, turning off their lights, and waiting to follow you as you drive out of the parking lot.
I booked a prepaid reservation on August 9^th for a stay on September 6^th. I arrived to the hotel shortly after 10pm. As soon as I entered, the employee working the front desk, Jesse, asked me for my name, then immediately said «ohhh I’m sorry, we tried to call you but we are completely full». I told him I paid for my reservation a month ago, and then he demanded «proof». I had to return to my vehicle and get my cell phone just so I could prove that I did in fact have a reservation.
After that, he sort of apologized and said he did have a room for me, but since I «checked in so late», that they gave away my non-​smoking room reservation and only had one smoking room available. I told him that I shouldnt have been penalized for «checking in late» if my PREPAID reservation dictates that I am guaranteed to have the room that I reserved. I didn’t care at this point, so I said fine.
En route to the room, as SOON as I stepped off the elevator, there was a GIANT puddle of water pooling in the hallway. They were obviously aware of the issue because there were two «slippery when wet» signs that fell and were floating in this hallway pond. After trucking through, I went through a series of dingy and dirty corridors until finally arriving at my room.
As SOON as I entered, I killed two roaches that were seen crawling on the floor. I immediately left and tried going to the front desk, but guess what happened? THE DOOR WOULDN’T LOCK WHEN I TRIED TO LEAVE THE ROOM!!! Are you kidding me?
So I went to the front and complained about the roaches, not even mentioning the lock because I was going to end up using the deadbolt. Jesse told me that they were completely booked and no other rooms were available. I went back to the room frustrated. Not even 5 minutes later, a roach was crawling across the comforter of the bed, and at that point, I had enough.
I returned to the front desk and told him I cannot stay in a room where roaches are crawling on me if I’m laying in the bed. Jesse kept saying «I mean, are you sure you can’t sleep in the room?» … WOULD YOU sleep in a room having to worry about roaches? And at this point, he was on the phone speaking to someone who i assumed was his manager, and Jesse kept asking me questions like. «what did you say was in your room?»…“where were they?”… and made a joke saying «Derek said he didn’t come here to play Men in Black»… really!!!
At that point, my girlfriend who was in the room texted me photos of other live roaches crawling across the bed and I showed it to Jesse. who then confirmed to the man on the phone «yeah, I just saw cockroaches in his bed». Jesse told me they can refund me and instructed me to call Hotwire since I booked the room with them, to see if there was something that they could do.
I checked out of the hotel immediately and left to find another hotel… about 15 minutes later, my phone rings and I picked it up on the first ring. I heard Jesse talking about me to someone saying things like «that motherf#!%! was talking out of his ass!!» and I shouted «HELLO?» a couple of times. he says my name, and I said «yes, Im on the phone and I heard what you said about me» then he hung up. I called back twice and the hotel refused to pick up the phone!!! HOW UNPROFESSIONAL!!! I was nothing but NICE and only wanted a clean room without the fear of roaches crawling all over me.
Jesse mysteriously called me back a few minutes later and pretended that wasn’t him who just called me, and he said he just wanted to make sure that I already checked out.
This hotel is 100% aware of the filthy conditions from the elevator, to the bedrooms. They MUST have known that there is a roast infestation in that room because I spent no more than 20 minutes inside of the room, and killed 5 roaches.
I looked for contact information to reach out to management or corporate and was unable to find anything. STAY AWAY!!!

Place is really nice and neat for the price! 3.5 miles away from downtown, at a rate of 79 $ a night (active duty military) CANT BEAT IT!
The only thing that bummed me is they had NO lids for the coffee in the AM. yeah i know.
Facility needs a little updating but, over all it was our place to sleep and shower close to downtown. Will be back again

Holy noise! Talk about being near a freeway, I could not sleep. Loud cars, ambulances, and an air conditioner that makes a large Pop noise when it stops. The walls are thin so you can hear people walking past your door or even conversations. I even thought maybe we left the window open– it’s that loud! Other than not being able to sleep, the customer service here is great, clean affordable rooms, and secured parking. I would not stay here again because I am a light sleeper and being near a major freeway is not ideal. However, I would recommend.

DO NOT STAY HERE… the place is a dump, in San Diego on business in July most places sold out… The Clarion name I thought was a respectable hotel chain. You would be better off staying at a Motel 6 and save some money.
Dirty old room looked like a trip back to the 70s, knob came off the shower stuck on cold, $ 10. Breakfast buffet in lobby restaurant looked like it was a week old, my dog eats better food.
The Laundry valet states in by 8:00am back by 5:00 pm just like every other hotel… NOT HERE when tried to pick up shirts I was told that they would not be ready for 2 or 3 days. I was checking out the next day, lucky for me they were able to get my shirts back from who ever is doing their dry cleaning but had no clean shirts to wear the rest of the week.
The best thing about this place is that there is Jack in the Box across the street LOL got to love being a business traveler.

So for comic con weekend, most of the hotels are outrageously expensive. My group decided on more reasonably priced accommodations so we decided to give this place a try.
Positives:
1. Close to the freeway, and trolley station
2. friendly staff
3. plenty of free parking above ground and well lit, underground parking as well
4. breakfast buffet ($ 10– but comes with the basic, eggs, potatoes, bacon/​sausage, biscuits, cereal, fruit, muffins, coffee, juice)
5. plenty of food options nearby (philipino, ethnic, etc.)
Negatives:
1. Older establishment
2. traffic noise
3. broken ice machines
4. Small beds
Overall this place isn’t that bad, honestly ive been in worse and when you factor in the price during comic con weekend, this place is a good value.

Close to the freeway, a lot of access to restaurants and tourist spots. Parking is not a problem. Customer service is okay. View is great.
Tried to check in an hour early and the staff right off the bat said they can’t do it… Not even looking at his computer.
Room is okay. Missing coffee machine but staff delivered right away after request. The only thing that I do not like is the smell… No offense but it smells like old people.

Positives: the hotel is right by the freeway so you can pretty much get anywhere you need to go. There is a Walmart right down the street & places to eat.
They also have good channels on their TV.
Negatives: when we first walked into our room it was really stuffy & hard to breath, we had to open our door & window to let it air out. Also the bathroom when we would shower water would go everywhere. But other then that our stay wasn’t bad at all. :D

DO NOT GO BY BUSINESS PICTURES!
Nice stuff… that’s about the only positive. We stayed here on a busy weekend and therefore ended up overpaying for what we thought was a nicer Hotel. Both nights we stayed we encountered numerous amount of police officers that had responded to calls involving incidents within the hotel. Saturday night, we left for 20 mins max to grab food and to our surprise we return to a parking lot blocked with 4 police patrol cars questioning guests. Not once did any representative or manager informed us of any potential danger or updates on what was going on.
THE ROOM: very small. Loud refrigerator. Extremely thin walls… You can basically hear your neighbors. Worn out toilet seat. The room we stayed at faced the freeway and was therefore very noisy and hard to sleep. Positive: nice bed
THE NEIGHBORHOOD: the hotel is located in a suburban sketchy place. Not a place you can go for a walk to grab food and come back. Positive: hotel is located next to a gas station and close to the freeway entrance.
Overall ok if you have no choice or can get a good promo.

Staff was friendly for the 30 second interactions we had. Room condensation was terrible and smelly like grandmas. We couldn’t breath and had to leave the room door open the first hour and then the window open the rest of the nightdo it was a noisy stay from from traffic outside.
Bathtub was rushed and the blow dryer and iron both had gross sticky stuff.
Overall it was kind of like a motel 6 :(
I gave it 2 stars for the price because we booked through Sam’s club Travel but I wouldn’t stay here again.