Bonita Beach

DO NOT book this hotel! I needed to cancel 3 days prior to arriving before the Nor’easter storm because it was getting worse and I had a disabled Vietnam Vet I was bringing to OC from 8 hours away. I contacted the property via messages, and phone call to the reservations department. They said no problem and gave me bookings.com phone number. I contacted them, they contacted the hotel I thought everything was fixed. Come to find out the hotel reservation department learned a loop hole in the system. If the booking company contacts them and the hotel fails to respond the reservation will be canceled by the booking company but that means the hotel doesn’t have to refund the pre-pay rates. I was told in good faith by the hotel they would refund me. I was told in good faith by bookings.com I was good and would be refunded. Several days later no refund. Called and spoke to the manger and he said he has issues all summer long with every booking company out there. Called the reservation department and she says her name is Kimberly but when you tell her you spoke to a Kimberly when you cancelled she says no Kimberly works there. All they did was find a loop hole in the system. If they don’t acknowledge the cancellation from any booking company out there that you use. They don’t have to refund. Bookings.com still has a confirmation that a verbal agreement took place between them and the hotel. Honest they must need the money that bad that they aren’t honest and good for thier word that I would receive a refund. I cancelled days in advance. This should not have been an issue. All they needed to do was honor their agreement. But because they won’t respond back to bookings.com I am out my pre-booking money. There are a lot of great hotels in OC go to the grand if your looking for good coffee and breakfast in the morning they have a great little coffee shop! Go to quality on the boardwalk if your looking for a heated warm pool in the off season. Stay at the holiday inn, or castle in the sand. I can go on and on I’ve about stayed at every place on the boardwalk. But this was a dirty move. Must be in pretty bad shape and hurting pretty bad. But if you use booking.com or Expedia or one of those booking sites red flag this place. I hardly ever have to cancel. But it just wasn’t worth putting a disabled vet in this weather. Shame on you Bonita Beach! Do better and fire Kimberly and your manager also. 7 comes before 10 so if bookings contacted you on the 7th then I guess that’s not a no show. It’s called you found the loop hole. But you shouldn’t play the system a refund should have been honored! A verbal confirmation was provided by the hotel but you failed to do the paperwork back to bookings. Bookings still has it documented the verbal confirmation took place between the hotel and them. All you had to do was the paperwork and honor your agreement. I did mine by contacting both the property and the booking company. How bad is the stay there that you needed to keep the money??????????????

Good location. We came in and our room had a huge crack in the balcony door which exposed the room to hot air coming in, with only a portable ac unit the room was 78 degrees. They changed our room so no harm no foul. Next morning we woke up and there was no hot water to shower. I called the front desk and they said it would be fixed soon. We went to the beach and came back at 5, still no hot water. Finally got fixed around 8-9 o’clock at night. Besides that, everything was ok till the last night. We planned on a slow relaxing night at the hotel pool to hang out till 10pm because that’s what they advertise. We got kicked out at 8:30 so they could clean it. This was an awful place. Do yourself a favor and somewhere else.

Do not stay at this property. The service, especially from the hotel manager, was unacceptable. The only positive was the close distance to the beach, but everything else about the stay was disappointing. The hotel was extremely dirty, mold on the shower lining, dirty walls, unvacuumed floors, and thick dust on the vents (a serious health risk for anyone with asthma, like my friend that was staying in the room with me). Despite multiple complaints, housekeeping never showed up. We also had no hot water for the entire stay. After calling the front desk twice, we were promised follow-ups that never happened. Our room key even stopped working at one point. We requested a refund both through Expedia and directly at the front desk, but it was denied. For the price charged, the conditions were unacceptable.
The manager showed no empathy, made no effort to accommodate us, and failed to address a single issue. Please don’t waste your hard-earned money here, you deserve better. The night before check out, I even received a text message advertising this place as the “ALL-NEW Bonita Beach Hotel.” That claim is completely false, nothing about this hotel is new.