El Cajon Holidays from AU$1,047

This is a property to avoid, unfortunately, and especially at the price. The low quality of the rooms and in particular, the poor mattress quality, made our stay extremely uncomfortable. The beds have so little support that my lower back and hips were punished from side sleeping (stomach sleeping was impossible for me). The bathrooms and sinks weren't in good shape; our bathroom had a smudged mat in it and the finish was coming off of the tub. I understand that wear and tear happens, but the mat could have at least been cleaned or replaced. The desk staff did their best to help with issues. Of course, they are limited in what they can do, but they were nice and attentive. The location of the hotel is right in Little Italy and next to downtown. Walking out of the hotel and around the corner of the building opens onto a vibrant market full of shops and restaurants. My score for this is based on the comfort of the room itself, the price for value, and my experiences in other urban hotels of this type that attempt to be boutique. For example, we stayed at Hotel Lucia in Portland earlier this year, which is the same type of boutique hotel in the city, and it blew this hotel away in terms of comfort, amenities, and cleanliness. You would be better off getting the same quality for cheaper at nearby Motel 6 or just paying a bit extra a night for a superior Little Italy hotel than staying here. Sadly, you should avoid this hotel.

Sharing my experience with Sophia hotel. My husband and I stayed for a few days — When we arrived, the hotel had a cigarette smell in the lobby. Once we got to the room, it was so tiny and very stuffy. We immediately noticed it wasn’t the right room however, we didn’t mention anything to the staff members because we didn’t want to make too big of a deal. We got the AC running, and there was a rotten/dairy smell coming from the vent. We again did not want to make a big deal, we were there for only a few nights, so just wanted to suck it up. That night it was so difficult to sleep, the AC stops running when there’s no motion in the room and the windows do not open for any air to circulate. The next day, once we got back to the room. The smell from the AC was worse than the day before. We decided to reach out to the front desk and got our room changed. The staff was kind enough to do that change for us. I do want to note, for the price that we are paying to stay at the hotel, I was expecting the Customer Service to be higher. The second room was much better and the AC no longer had that smell. The AC is pretty loud and there are random buzzing noises during the night. In the second room the sheet on top of the blanket had two blood stains - We just threw it off. I recommend to avoid staying on floor seven :) Cheers and enjoy your stay my friends!

The room itself was very nice. The staff were completely unhelpful (e.g., took 30 mins to get a wine opener, every time I called the front desk it was a long time before someone picked up, no valet there upon arrival, etc.). The drinks at the pool were overpriced and poor quality. Overall, compared to the price point we paid, the service level of the facility was not up to par.

Even though our check in was delayed due to housekeeping, we loved the upgrade to an ocean view room. The room was well lit, well maintained rooms, the beds were really comfortable. I traveled with my special needs young adult and it was a wonderful stay for us. We loved the access to the beach, the pool was great for all of us, there were pool and beach towels available to us everyday, we loved having a supermarket near by. We can't wait to go back!