Paint chipped and gone from room door and 2 room suite was setup badly with a full size Frig sitting in the (almost) middle of the front room, with no kitchenette...just the fridge and a small microwave??? Bed was old but passable and B-Fast had no Gravy for biscuits (HIX usually has great biscuits and Gravy). This is in NO WAY close to the beach and you will need a car to go anywhere besides an over priced Hooters across the street. I am Platinum member and I would not recommend this HIX for anything over $75.00, pay another $35.00 and stay in Carlsbad.

Here is a list of the problems we had at this hotel (we stayed there on 10/14/10):

1. Our room was dirty. I found two curly hairs on top of the bedspread and one large hair inside the sheets. The shower also had a few red spots on the curtain, which I believe were blood.

2. We could not sleep. We were startled awake at 4:30am to screeching pipes inside the wall. The screeching lasted for about 45 minutes. The temperature control was also insane. The room was either extremely hot or extremely cold. The air conditioning unit did not shut off automatically when the room cooled down so I had to manually control the temperature. This meant that I had to wake up every hour to blast the A/C or turn the A/C off (depending on whether the room was hot or cold). We barely got any sleep and were up for good as of 7:00am because we could hear all the activity of the other rooms through the hotel's paper-thin walls.

3. Our room was dark and old. The staff said that it had been "recently renovated" but I should have known better when they wouldn't tell me when the renovations took place. The only thing in the room that looked even remotely new was the TV (get it - remote?). Seriously though, the room did not look like it had been renovated. It was also dark (the carpets were dark brown, the windows were small, and there weren't enough lights).

3. Our bed was uncomfortable. The mattress bowed in the middle so we were on a slant, trying not to slide down to the middle of the bed. The pillows were lumpy puffs of cotton that hurt my neck.

5. Our keycard did not work. We had to go to the front desk EVERY TIME we wanted to get inside of our room because the keycard didn't never worked properly. When I say never, I mean NEVER. We had to treck across the hotel on six separate occasions for them to re-activate our keycard!

6. The continental breakfast was bad. The cinnamon rolls were okay but the sausage was horrible and my wife found a black hair in her water cup.

7. The manager (Mike P.) was a complete jerk. I spoke to him about the problems with our room and he was not very sympathetic. He ultimately agreed to give me a discount on the room but when I got home I saw that my credit/debit card had been charged 4 TIMES the amount I agreed to pay. I called him about it and he was extremely aggressive and rude. He interrupted me numerous times and would not let me talk. Basically the hotel charged me hundreds of dollars as a deposit but didn't make it clear to me that the money would be charged to my card. I have to wait until after the weekend to get the money back (which was taken directly out of my checking account)!

We were supposed to stay at this hotel for 2 nights but came home after only 1 because it was so bad. The only good thing about this place is that the lobby staff is very nice. Nicolette and Stephany were especially helpful and courteous.

One final note: Another reviewer on this site wrote that he walked to the beach from this hotel. I think he may have confused this hotel with the Marina Holiday Inn (also in Oceanside) because the Holiday Inn Express that we stayed at is about two miles from the beach. It would be a dangerous one hour trek to get to the beach from this hotel (and you would have to traverse two highways in the process).

Pros: Clean for the most part; comfortable beds; right off the highway and was easy to find; most employees were nice and willing to help if needed; room looked like the photos on-line but were starting to show ware and age; plenty of room on the bathroom counter for personal items for the family; hair dryer, coffee maker, large double mirrored closet, clean iron and ironing board; our room had a balcony which was nice and the door allowed fresh air into the room. There is a large variety of food and drinks, the food was ok, fresh make your own waffles were good. It was nice to be able to eat and have coffee before we left the motel in the morning. The dining area was kept clean and well stocked. Our balcony room was roomy.

Cons: Although the room was clean for the most part the sheets were only changed a few times during our extended stay; we would return to our room wanting to freshen up before we when out in the late afternoon and they would rarely have the extra washcloths and towels we requested; once there were no towels or washcloths at all and another time the room wasn't cleaned; although the bed was comfortable none of the numerous pillows were they were all flat and hard or lumpy, none of them felt new or very comfortable - barely ok.

Coffee, tea and note pad were never replenished after the first day, the used small old soap was left in tub after it was cleaned and we had to ask for new bars; the first day the drain smelled every time we used it, enough to make me ill; I needed to pour hot water down the drain from the coffee pot; every day we needed to shower with the door cracked open or the mirror would be dripping after the first persons normal length shower, they said they were sending someone to fix it and it never was fixed and they didn't live up to their make it right guarantee when I mentioned the continued problem.

Every night (after 9 pm) we would need to find a place other than a stall to park in because the lots were full; we always found a seat in the breakfast area by going to eat early although not everyone was able to find seating - the dining room is too small for the amount of rooms in the motel; the workout area wasn't large enough to work out in, it was like a large closet - just room enough for about two pieces of equipment and walking next to them on one side, even though my son brought his computer and dvd to workout with there wasn't the space to do it, there is no room for floor exercises or weights.

Some employees were hard to communicate with because they didn't speak english or had very strong accents. Cleaning ladies cleaned well what they did clean but would do annoying things like leave just a few kleenexes in the box and not leave a new box, leave just a few papers on the tp roll, leave small soggy soap bars in the shower, not leave enough towels and wash cloths in the room for the amount of people registered or not leave the extra wash cloths we requested and not changing sheets daily.

There is nothing to do in the area in walking distance unless you like Hooters next door. The pool is right next to the parking lot and right under all the balconies, it's small and unwelcoming with cars right next to the fence and people looking straight down on you from their balconies so we didn't use it or the hot tub next to the pool. In 30+ years of going to hotels and motels I've never returned to a room wondering what did they forget and not do today like I did it this motel. A day rarely went by that we didn't need to ask for something that was missing. Including one day the room wasn't cleaned when we returned and employees were leaving for the day, they found someone and the room was cleaned.

After a lot of research I found this motel online, was the best rated for the money in the Oceanside area. I would stay again because of the comfortable beds, breakfast, best rating for cost in the area and because it was basically clean but I would bring my own soft pillow and not expect things to be perfect.

Clean rooms, comfortable bed, delicious breakfast. Hotel was not centrally located next door is a Hooters Restaurant which you may or may not like, me not so much. Was quite a walk to the other restaurants, no stores that I could walk to to get lunch. Room had a balcony which was nice. The jacuzzi didn't get hot enough and really needed to be replastered, though the jets were strong.