I made a reservation for Christmas night, 2011. When arriving we were given a room that was simply not cleaned. Although the beds were made, the bathroom had body hair and dirt all over the sink. The pillows had blood stains and there were additional stains on the wall. We took pictures of the issues.

At that point we made a reservation for another hotel in town. We told the owner about the completely unsanitary condition of the room and he made excuses and offered another room. Obviously we didn't want another room in the hotel. The owner agreed to refund my credit card but never did. I am currently trying to resolve the issue with my credit card and Travelocity. I also filed a complaint with Super 8.

We found this place on Expedia and figured it was worth a shot - I have no problem with older properties as long as they're clean and safe. Too bad neither can be said for this place!

We checked in at the cave-like "lobby" which was weirdly situated and not at all labeled from the outside (it looks like you're entering a residential portion of the property instead of a proper front desk area). We were assigned room 322 and the owner, Uday, told us we could go in the back door after we parked. I noticed when we parked that the parking lot was surrounded by a fence topped with barbed wire, not a great sign.

At least the back door of the hotel had a key-card slot so only hotel guests can enter... or not. The door swings open without the benefit of a key card so anyone can sneak in the back, day or night. In our room I saw what appeared to be dirt on the ceiling. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be dirt gathered in old cobwebs spun on the popcorn ceiling, with plenty of bug carcasses thrown in (moths, gnats, etc).

We got out of there with the quickness after discussing our concerns with an uncaring sour-faced woman at the front desk. We drove with haste to the Holiday Inn Express we had seen on the way into town, and the woman at the front desk here (where I am writing this review!) told us that we are the third guests this week to make a quick transition from the Super 8 to the Holiday Inn.

We booked our prepaid reservation on Expedia, so I addressed our issues with them. They were very nice and attempted to extract a refund from the hotel. The customer service guy at Expedia told me they spoke with Uday and that he assured them the property was safe and security was properly addressed. Hah! Expedia gave us a credit on our account, which is just fine by us. If I had thought about it, we may have stopped to take video of the non-functioning "security" door. But in all honesty, we just wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible.

I will never ever try to do business again with the Super 8 in Carlsbad. I booked a room for the 22nd of December and wanted to check out the next day. On the 22nd there was a huge storm warning and I didn't want to get snowed into Carlsbad (I live in El Paso). So I called to cancel, explained my situation and wanted to book a room another time. They said I had to pay for the night's stay even though I couldn't come because they only give you 24 hours to cancel. Even when I said I would book another night, they still wanted me to pay for the night I wasn't even going to stay. I talked to corporate and they were wiling to work with me and not charge me, but this Super 8 refused to even consider not charging me the full night's price. I talked to a guy at the front desk who was extremely rude and blatantly lied to me. He said corporate wouldn't let him cancel the charge which was untrue. I told him I would never do business with his Super 8 again and he asked me if I was threatening him. Really??

Hotel is clean. Hotel feels very old. If you are looking for a less expensive room stay at one of the motor courts for $40.00. That is the quality you get at the super 8 for $90.00. The hotel is run and managed by people from India. You can smell the cooking on the second floor.