Sunshine Suites at Little Italy

After driving from LA with our family and on arrival we were instructed by the attendant at the office desk that this Sunshine Suites only do corporate let (by the way there is no reception desk). This is despite paying for our accomodation and holding confirmation from Expedia several months in advance.

A word of warning if, like us, you arrive at the address and think you're going to be able to check in - you're wrong! There is no reception desk, no signage to suggest you're in the right place and if you have no internet access you may feel a little stranded like we did. The set up must have changed since we booked a few months ago as you are now emailed check in instructions just a few hours before you're due to arrive. The problem with this (and it's a pretty big problem!) is that we, like many travelers, don't have internet and email access as we travel to the accommodation so we didn't receive that email. It needs to be sent well in advance of the stay (days not hours) to give guests time to use wifi or somewhere with internet access in order to receive the check in instructions. When we rang the one phone number we had for 'Little Italy Luxe Apartments' attached to our booking confirmation it didn't connect! So as you can imagine we had no idea how we were going to find our way! As luck would have it, as I stood outside the building waiting for a miracle, a lady approached me asking if we were going to be checking in and it was the lady we were instructed in the email to meet! So it worked out in the end, but for half an hour I didn't know how it was going to pan out. The apartment itself was great as was it's location and proximity to San Diego zoo and the Gaslamp Quarter, as well as Little Italy of course. Management should adjust their email schedule to ensure guests have plenty of time to receive the check in instructions and maybe even confirm with a second email that both parties understand the check in process.

I made reservations at Sunshine Suites at Little Italy in San Diego four weeks prior to our trip. It was for 3 nights/4 days this past weekend for 3 adults and 3 children. We booked their unit that held six people. We received confirmation that the rooms were booked and was charged the full amount for the trip at that time. After a 7 hour drive, we arrived around 8:30pm, tired from the long drive. About 15 minutes before we arrived, I called to inform them that we were 15 minutes away, so they can meet us there to let us in. It was then that we were informed that our reservations were double booked and there were no rooms available. When I asked why I was not notified, they told me that the site I made reservations through was supposed to contact me. Really? And Sunshine Suites never bothered to check with them that it was done? To make a long story short, we were stranded in San Diego with six tired travelers (3 of them children), with no place to stay, and no help whatsoever from Sunshine Suites! We were also not offered a room at any of their other locations. Their ONLY response was, “I don’t know what to tell you…we don’t have any place for you to stay.” It also took us a few days to get our refund. I would not even give them one star if that was possible. The last thing you want to have to do when at the start of your vacation is to find out you have no place to stay and you have to scramble to look for another hotel at the last minute!