Best Western South Bay Inn Hotel

I stayed at this motel in 2007 while on a business trip to San Diego. I brought my wife with me and we both agreed that for the money this was a very pleasant and comfortable place to stay. I was working most of the time which left my wife to spend the greater part of the day around the room. She had ZERO complaints for the entire week and a half we were there. The complementary breakfast they offered was freshly laid out each morning and just enough to get you going in the morning. Every staff member we came in contact with was friendly and helpful. There were enough stores, lounges and restaurants within walking distance to keep both my wife and I busy during my time off and the trolley station is right next door for when we wanted to venture out in town or to a theme park. We found no reason to even think about getting a rental car. I have every intention of staying here again on my next trip. Just out of curiosity, I started reading the various reviews about the same motel while I was checking for availability. I can not believe some of the things I've read about this place. People have to keep in mind if you are not staying in a 5 star hotel; you probably are not going to get 5 star accommodation and service. I find it VERY hard to believe anyone that works at this motel was in the least bit unfriendly. The room we had was roomy enough and very clean. The maids were overly helpful making sure there was nothing that my wife needed when I was working. It just made me realize, the reviews you read about anything are only as good as the people who are writing them. Some people just are not happy with anything. Take it from me. I've stayed in many different types of hotels and motels and this one is WELL worth the money if you are traveling on any type of a budget at all. If you have the money to burn, pay $200 a night someplace else to have someone carry your bags to your room.

The Best Western SouthBay is the destination for you and your family to see all of San Diego.

This is probably the worst motel I have ever stayed at. Although they advertise that the rooms were recently renovated, they were dirty. There were stains on the pillow case and the room smelt bad. Upon check in, I found that they had increased their nightly rate and I actually paid fifty dollars a night more than had I just walked in off the street. Since Orbitz guarantees their low fare rates, I asked the hotel for a copy of the registration form I signed that listed the lower rate. They refused. They offered a continental breakfast, but nothing was there at eight o'clock in the morning other than the same three donuts that were there night before when I checked in. The rooms claim to be non smoking, but guests pull their chairs outside, sit in front of their rooms and smoke, so the non smoking guest can walk through a cloud of second hand smoke to just get to their rooms.

The location was ideal, in walking distance to San Diego Trolley and visitors' center where you could get tickets for most anything you needed. The rooms were basic, nothing fancy, but they were clean and close to downtown. The hotel was right off of Interstate 5 and only about ten minutes from San Diego Airport and ten minutes from the Mexican border via Trolley. They served an average continental breakfast.