We had an awesome room which was spotless, LCD TV, Jacuzzi and an ocean view. The staff was incredible. Make sure you check out the resturant

Just an okay stay - the rooms were very clean, which is our number one criteria.

Holiday Inn website mentions a "complimentary breakfast." When we asked about this they had no idea what we were talking about, but later gave us a coupon for $20 off a breakfast in their breakfast-only restaurant.

Holiday Inn website mentions that kids eat free at Maxims, their breakfast, lunch and dinner restaurant. As mentioned above, it's only open for breakfast. When we mentioned "kids eat free" to someone at the front desk they said that this wasn't their policy. A second staff member later confirmed that kids eat free.

We did book an ocean view room and did get an okay view of the ocean; just realize that you are at least one mile or more from the ocean, so it's not as if their offering ocean-view rooms means that you're a short walk from the beach. The patio in our room was tiny, but it did allow us to sit out there and listen to the night life (drunks crawling on the roof of a building a couple of streets over).

I didn't use the fitness room at all but my wife figured the machines were discount Walmart variety.

We had the server at the restaurant follow us to the front desk to ask us if we had not meant to tip him more. I've never had that happen. Okay, perhaps we were closer to 10% than 15% and in hindsight should have left another buck or so, but his questioning our tip like that showed no class.

Nice looking hotel, okay location, but we just had such an odd experience there that if we ever come back to San Clemente (beautiful town, beautiful beach) we'll look for another hotel.

My father, fiancee and me stayed for one night on the way to San Diego at the HOliday Inn San Clemente. I was not familiar with this neighborhood, so I choose this hotel upon the reviews I read on tripadvisor, hotel.com and yelp.
It was a great stay. I was not disappointed. The room felt spacious enough for the three of us and everything including the bathroom were updated and clean.
The staff was extremely friendly at the check in and I didn't hear any other guests. So it was quiet and nice. The free wireless was helpful for our ipad to connect with as well.
Overall it was a great stay. Would come again.

For the price and value, this was a perfect stay in San Clemente! We were treated fantastically by the staff- who are friendly and quick to help out any way they can. Don't get me wrong, this is not the nicest or newest hotel, but for the area this is a resort compared to 95% of the other options close by!

We loved our stay there and would give it 4 stars, but being treated kindly and with attention to serve by the staff added the extra star.