Surfbreak Hotel - Hotel in San Clemente - 1819 S El Camino Real, USA

I will absolutely be making a point to come back to Surfbreak in the future. Everything from checking in, finding a room assignment that worked for me and my partner, and even getting amazing restaurant recommendations was stupendous. The staff is incredible, I absolutely adore the lot of them. They ensured that we had a good, quiet room with a lot of privacy - and in general the other patrons were awesome to talk to. The overall vibe of the people around this place was great. Nice and great temperament. Also, this place is less than 2 miles away from the beach! There is a park nearby for easy access as well. Whenever I'm in San Clemente again, I will be prioritizing staying at Surfbreak. Very memorable place, quaint and rustic aesthetic, in a great location.

From what I gathered upon research, this was previously the Inn at the Beach. I believe it was bought out and “renovated” in 2020. It looks nice enough in the pictures, but was clearly done on the cheap. The furniture is already beat up and the floors in our room were cracking. The floors are definitely not mopped, so I recommend always wearing shoes or your feet will be black. The staff woman upon check-in was very friendly and helpful. The motel was nice and quiet with only a couple other guests, as we stayed mid week. The bed was very comfortable and the room was just fine for our two night’s stay. We adore San Clemente so much that we don’t care a whole lot where we stay. You get what you pay for. For a budget lodging option, this suited our needs.

Overall hotel is very nice . Room was very comfortable and well decorated. I stayed on the 2nd floor . View is the freeway but you also see the ocean from the 2nd floor . My issue was I emailed the hotel a week before asking for an early check in due to a wedding I was attending . Wedding started at 3pm . I asked to be checked in at 130 and the front desk (male, early 30s) told me to avoid a bigger charge to wait til 2pm . I was confused , but waited in the parking lot (4 cars total in the lot on a Friday ) til 2pm . I checked in and was charged $30 for a early check in lol I asked what the difference was if I would’ve checked in at 1:30 and it would’ve been even more of a early check in fee ! Disappointed due to the conversation I had in the email with the staff never mentioned an early check in fee . I will never stay here again , I’m a Hilton Diamond member and that weekend would’ve been $400 a night . No thanks , no hotel is worth that much for one night . Instead ended up paying $231 for a Friday night in May due to the early check in .

Avoid this hotel at all costs!!! I had the worst 4 night stay of all the hotels I have stayed in. The first two nights, there was NO hot water. The television froze approximately every 20 minutes for the entire stay. The floor was FILTHY. I asked to have the floor mopped and it took 2 days before they so called mopped it. I say so called because housekeeping took a bottle of water, poured it on the floor at the front door, placed a towel over the water, then placed a broom on top to "mop". I even had to tell her to clean the entire floor. When I returned to my room one night, it had not been cleaned. I spoke to management and was told they clean every 3 days. (They placed towels, no wash cloths on a bench on the balcony for self service). If you need to iron, be prepared to either iron on a table or floor because they do not have a standard ironing board. Also there is no phone in your room, nor was there a peep hole in my room for security purposes. The floor was also cracked in 3 spaces. One other thing, we were there for a wedding, occupying 85-90% of the rooms and every room we occupied had the same problems. Side note: a party of ours arrived early in the day. She was given the code to her room (they use codes, not keys). After she was settled in, management went to her room and told her she had to pay a $150.00 early arrival fee!

Overall not particularly impressed, but you get what you pay for. Pros: - reasonably updated room - comfortable plush bed - clean upon arrival Cons: - location not ideal…right across from the highway, not scenic or quiet - could hear the upstairs guests walking around the whole time - the only window in the room views out to the exterior hallway…only options are blackout curtains or zero privacy (this place could really benefit from some sheer window curtains!) - slow WiFi, struggled to videoconference and stream

I booked this hotel because of last minute changes, leaving me with few options due to it being Father’s Day weekend and regrettably I didn’t read the reviews (lesson learned). Upon arriving the damp smell hits you and you can immediately see that room is not thoroughly cleaned, I found dead flys that have not been cleaned up and trash under the bed. Like most hotels that carry white towels these were no longer white as they were stained with dark black and brown spots and they had a particular smell to them. I would never offer refillable complimentary toiletries to guests as you never know if someone with bad intentions could have possibly put something inside them. This is why I always travel with my own, this is just a way for hotels to cut back on expenses and not offer sealed toiletries instead. My most important complaint was that I woke up to many bug bites on my legs. I made a complaint to the front desk, I was even considerate enough to not mention anything in front of the guests that were what appeared like they were trying to book a couple of rooms next to each other at once. I allowed and suggested to the person at the front desk to take pictures of the bug bites, he apologized and said what would you like us to do as if I was looking into getting reimbursed and I responded “it’s not about the money, it’s about the service you are providing and it is unacceptable”. This happened on Sunday morning when I checked out and I asked him to have someone reach out, it is now Monday evening and no one has reached out. I am writing this review because they didn’t care enough to reach out and hear what I had to say, so this is me not only reaching out to the hotel but also reaching out to any future guests to warn them and to consider a different hotel. Thankfully I only ended up staying one out of the two night I stayed here, in which I would never stay again.

Great value! All the staff are friendly and helpful. The rooms and property are clean and maintained. There is a great donut shop across the street and a burger bar a block away! And they don’t charge extra for parking!!!!

We had an amazing time here. The rooms were very clean and the staff was wonderful. It was very close to our planned event and seemed very well placed to get to many great attractions. The ambiance at night was great, with all the little lights they put up. It's also right across the street from an awesome donut and coffee shop along with a small cafe. We will definitely stay here again.