Cape Rey Carlsbad Beach a Hilton Resort & Spa

Perfect spot to get away! Intimate hotel that’s just across the street from the beach. Good size pool if salt water isn’t your thing. In a nice quiet neighborhood so you won’t find other businesses within walking distance but no worries since they have complimentary bike rentals. Complimentary Morning coffee as well.

Stayed here for a few days with family. Had two rooms. #theytried is the general feeling of this place. They are understaffed, but the employees we did interact with were great. First, the location is just okay. There is nothing around this hotel so you need to drive to go anywhere. It’s got a beach view, but there is a camping site right in front of it. So, be prepared for the row of tents and RVs in front of the ocean view. The beach in front of the hotel is all rocks (like big rocks that you don’t want to be on). They do offer a shuttle and beach butler service at south pronto beach which is three mins away. There is one person manning pronto beach who is in charge of setting up chairs, umbrellas, towels and waters. That poor guy is overworked. It took him 20 mins just to get to us set up with chairs and an umbrella bc he was dealing with other people. The pool is okay and the staff offered balloon animals to our kids. Small hot tub and a small kiddie pool besides a pool with beach walk-in access. The onsite restaurant is decent with the same beach views. Food is good. The common areas in the hotel are decent. The rooms are not great. The carpets in the rooms need to be updated and are clearly stained and faded. The bathroom showers are prob a few years old - but they didn’t upgrade the bathroom countertops or the fixtures. The cleanliness is concerning. Our toilet had feces stains on the lip of the seat that had not been cleaned. We had two rooms and one was not ready until 6pm. The housekeeping staff did not attend to either of our rooms while we were here. The mattresses felt like hammocks and need to be replaced. AC worked fine. Appreciated the mini fridge and microwave in each room. The valet team is also another group that is understaffed. They charge $5 more for valet which encourages you to use valet. However, we were always waiting to find a member of that team who was often running between cars or driving people to the beach. Self-park actually saves you time bc their self-park lot is behind the hotel and closer to the majority of the rooms than the front entrance. Anyways, this hotel has a lot of potential but needs a lot of money put into additional staffing and upgrading the rooms. I would not recommend this hotel unless you can get a good deal.

Final edit: I have taken away one star after the reply from the director of the property. No apology was offered by management for the bad experience at check-in. We also checked with upper management at Hilton Grand Vacations regarding the upgrade eligibility and they claimed that it was not true. In the Hilton app under benefits it also clearly says; eligible for upgrades. A lot of staff are nice, but then the other half don’t even bother acknowledging the guests. As Mentioned in the original review, the rooms are nice and the beds are very comfortable. But due to the bad staff interactions and the $40/night self parking price, we would never stay here again. Original review: Might adjust this up or down, once we have been here the entire 4 days. Rooms are nice, but not up to par compared to other Hilton Resorts we have stayed in. The front desk lady who checked us in was not very impressive, to the point where she sounded rude. We asked for the upgrade since we are Hilton Gold members, she said oh yeah we have upgrades available. That’ll be $45 extra per night. We were never welcomed as Gold members, neither did she explain the benefits (we had to ask, a second time we came to the front desk). Parking at this place is outrageously expensive, although the hotel is not close to town.