Hilton Garden Inn San Diego Mission Valley/Stadium

The first room that they put me in was on the fourth floor, which I would normally prefer--high floors tend to be quieter--but the room was actually located right next to the elevators and ice machine, which seasoned travelers know is a terrible location for a room. But the staff was very understanding and happy to move me to a different room on the third floor that was near the end of the hallway, which tends to be the quietest rooms. The pictures below reflect both the rooms, so you can see the differences, or lack thereof, between the rooms.

The Good: There are a lot of good things that can be said about this hotel. First and foremost, the rooms are very dark at night and very quiet. I never had any problems falling asleep, and there were no "extra steps" that I had to take to make it easy to fall asleep. The staff were all friendly and helpful, and I never once had anyone deny a request and they were always happy to help. The room was also very clean, and well maintained. The hotel restaurant is quite good, with only one thing disappointing me (see the mention of bacon below). I ate dinner there every night except one, and every meal was great. The Internet access was very good and I never had any problems connecting. The room had adequate space, including the restroom. The hotel's location is also very good - depending on where you need to go - being located right off the freeway, and on a non-main road for commuters.

The Bad: The location of the couch next to the bed led to me literally breaking my toe on the foot of the couch my first night as I was going to bed. The bacon at breakfast was kind of hit or miss with it be firm, thick bacon on one day and limp and paper thin on others. The parking spots are incredibly tight, so much so that most people double park just to fit in, which means fewer spots for everyone. There is a "parking garage," but it is very small, and the large columns make parking in a lot of the spots challenging. To add insult to injury, they charge $14/night for parking, which still amazes me that hotels are still charging for parking separately. Why not just roll the cost into the nightly stay and spread it out to everyone and lower the overall individual cost for the parking, but still have enough to pay the bills?

The Ugly: Nothing would prevent me from staying here again.

Suggestion: Hilton needs to start looking at what competitors are doing regarding the modern traveler and technology needs and desires. I stayed at a Marriott a couple months ago, and they had an integrated entertainment unit that allowed guests to easily plug in devices like Chromecasts, laptops, etc. But even better, the TV was a smart TV which directly allowed me to use my Netflix account, and then automatically deleted my account data upon check out. We need to see more of this happening in the hotel business.