Kimpton Solamar Hotel

This past weekend I stayed for one night solo. My wife and her friends were celebrating a birthday and I needed a mini escape. I booked the Solamar as I had been to their restaurant several times and I am a fan of not only Kimpton Brand hotels but their parent company IHG as well. I was able to check in at 11am which was incredible. As a member I received free WiFi. The room Itself was upscale and cozy. The pool was a great time with a DJ that played great music and the music never was intrusive in conversations. Everything about this hotel was great. This was the weekend before Comic-Con in San Diego and a hotel across the street was doing some exterior work which required big lifts and they were making horrendous beeping all night so I don’t think I slept but 2 hours. Not the fault of the hotel but played into my night experience of a big negative to the stay. Read less

We had a lovely three-night stay at the Kimpton Hotel Solamar thanks to Karinne. She was absolutely outstanding and helped us make our reservations, checked us in smoothly and provided excellent dining and entertainment recommendations, and checked in on us frequently to ensure we were enjoying our stay. She made our experience so enjoyable from the very beginning to the end. She is a great asset to their team and I recommend asking for her if you have any questions. The hotel itself is very nice and aesthetically pleasing and we enjoyed our interactions with all staff members there. Read less

We’ve stayed in Kimptons all across the Western US. We’ve found the chain to have excellent customer service and to be clean and polished with lots of perks. We always stayed at a Kimpton if there was one in town. Kimpton Solamar was a very unfortunate experience. When we got to our room the bathroom floor was covered in hair, the grout in the bathroom tiles was worn, the furniture in the suite was weathered and the baseboard in the living room area was chipped. I expect a 4 star hotel to be shipshape. We called down and they move us to a clean room, but the furniture and bathroom all still needed an update. We wanted to watch a movie so we turned on the TV. There was no channel to buy movies, only basic cable, no way to see a programming guide, and no way to connect a device to the screen. At many Kimptons in the past we could connect our iPad to the tv and play Netflix. I called down thinking something was broken. They said no, they don’t offer any of those services but they can send someone up with a DVD player. We laughed out loud. The front desk was always friendly, but were generally unhelpful. We asked if we could see the room service menu, they said it was only in our rooms. Then we asked, “where we could get a cheese plate in the area?” CVS the man said. I couldn’t find a place after googling so we decided to go upstairs and regroup. We took a look at the room service menu. Guess what? It had a cheese plate. The valet took on average 30 minutes to get our car. For $50 parking I’d expect it to be more organized. They often had a ton of space but wouldn’t move cars up so it would get stacked up. Then when they did bring your car, you couldn’t get out. The iced tea/coffee area was always out of ice since they only used a tiny ice bucket. We found people left cups and things around the hotel that no one cleaned up. The coffee/tea bar area was often never wiped down after service was over. Finally the pool area has no umbrellas. You can get shade from a cabana, but there were only 3, so otherwise you had to be in direct sun the whole time. At one point I called and left a message with the GM saying we were unsatisfied and I would like to speak with them. I got a text the next day from someone (not the GM) and she just asked if I wouldn’t like the DVD player. No one called. I’ve never written a hotel review. But I keep thinking back that I’d rather have stayed at a Travelodge because then at least the price matches the quality and I know what I’m going to get. For four stars I expect quality. My husband and I will probably not stay at a Kimpton again, since there were so many buzzkills. Read less

Location is great in the center of the Gaslamp tourist area. We parked our car at the $15.00 public parking two blocks away. So many restaurants in the area and a CVS just a block away. We walked from the hotel to the waterfront area ,seaport village, the convention center, the Chinese historical museum, the USS Midway Museum, Petco Park, the National Geographic Fine Art Galleries, and more. It's about a ten minute walk to the waterfront. The hotel offers free cocktail hours and free coffee hours during limited times. It is a dog friendly hotel, but this could result in some non stop barking when owners leave them alone in the room, which we experienced for a few hours before we checked out. Hotel staff members were all friendly and very helpful. Hotel interior is eclectic style with old world charm combined with a modern touch Read less