Sonesta ES Suites Carmel Mountain - San Diego

One of the best hotels I’ve ever been to. My daughter likes it so much. Cozy like own house.

I have stayed at this Sonesta twice now. Once in 2024 and again 2025. I selected this hotel for its proximity to eateries - Subway, Sombrero Mexican Food, California Pizza etc. it’s convenient when I am on business trips. The front desk is friendly. The rooms themselves are clean. Never tried their breakfast. The first time I encountered this ‘sewage’ smell in the bathroom sink. The kitchen sink was fine. Assuming it was a one off thing and limited to that one room, I booked again. I had the same problem this time. This is something management cannot do much about. Either their drains need deep cleaning or they need new sewage lines. The second time the smell was so bad , I was using the kitchen sink to brush. Won’t recommend this hotel unless management posts some sort of update to this problem.

If this property is in the process of being sold or offloaded, here's a simple strategy: take stock of which units are in questionable condition and stop renting those ones out. Letting guests deal with severe plumbing, odor and maintenance issues just to keep occupancy high is short-sighted and reflects poorly on the Sonesta brand. I stayed here recently and I'm honestly shocked at how far this property has declined. What used to be a well-maintained extended stay (back when it was a Staybridge) now feels like a skeleton operation being kept barely functional to generate revenue. If you're going to keep a place open, the bare minimum is to make it habitable. Let's start with cleanliness: The walls and doors were visibly stained, the window sills were filthy and I ended up hand-washing all the glassware with soap and water before using anything. The air conditioner claimed it was 72°F. It absolutely wasn't. The room was stuffy, hot and uncomfortably humid. And the odor? Likely caused by a dry or improperly maintained P-trap. It came up through the dishwasher and lingered. If you're not going to maintain plumbing systems, why even bother offering dishwashers? Speaking of which, dirty dishwashers that haven't been cleaned or flushed properly just become odor vessels. Don't install features you're not prepared to maintain. And then, after all this, I had to move to another room mid-stay because of how bad the issues were. Not only was the new room only marginally better, but l had to move all my belongings myself. No staff assistance. No apology, just a key and a new door number. If this property is being kept running with minimal staff and minimal reinvestment, you still owe it to your guests to make it clean and functional. That's not luxury. That's baseline. I don't expect perfection from an extended stay. I do expect the space to be safe, clean, and properly maintained. This was not that. The only nice thing I'll say is that when I checked out, the man working the front desk was very pleasant.