So disappointing, the service was terrible, it took forever for the food to arrive and the portions were tiny. They are trying to make this hotel "high-end" but they totally missed the mark. The design is nice but it was built cheap. Don't waste your time or money. I give this place one year before they change managers. read more

Am local and decided to try this out ... big family reunion coming up ... lunch was ok at pool bar ... then we decided to have a drink at bar .. service was dreadful . Gentleman ( I use term loosely ) had us wait for 18 minutes and we never got served . There were 3 people working the bar ? We ended up leaving and will never return . It's a beautiful location ...5 star. The service is a 1 if that .... Understand places are short handed but ... be kind a smile goes a long way .... read more

Stopped in for a cocktail. $14.00 to park your car (Valet only option), Margarita was $23. and a Martini $20. Overpriced.

Very disappointed with this property. The phones in our room malfunctioned. It took hours to relocate to a new room. The new room the lights didn't turn on. I got a gift certificate for my wedding anniversary and tried to redeem it with the extremely rude staff at the front desk and they didn't offer me a receipt. They HAND WROTE IT! Then on top of it the gift certificate was more than the cost of the bill and I haven't received a credit. I've emailed 3 people from the hotel. Not a single response. I was loading bags into my car alone with my baby, 4 valets on staff and not a single one helped me with my bags upon departure. HORRIBLE SERVICE upon checkout. Not worth the $900/night AT ALL. read more

This hotel has a lovely location and beautiful ocean views (from certain rooms). We paid a premium for our room and expected service/ quality on level of a Four Seasons/Ritz Carlton. Sadly, we did not receive it. First issue was that "maps" directed us to the wrong location. When we finally found the hotel and let the valet know they said "oh, that happens all the time". Someone please put in a call to make sure directions are correct - this is not rocket science. Second, we had pre-checked in, and were just looking to grab our keys. Reception made us wait and ignored us and served bottled ice water to the guests in front of us. We were not offered water or anything. When we finally got someone to talk to us she didn't realize we already had checked in online. After some back and forth we got our key and a hand wave/"that a way" arm movement towards the elevators. No one offered to help us with our luggage or show us to our room. As we were winding our way down the long hallway to our room we noticed stained carpet and breakfast trays left outside doors. We checked in around 5 pm, so breakfast trays left in the hallway at that time is pretty inexcusable. Once in our room - small but great view - we noticed it was somewhat worse for wear. Although the hotel apparently opened on March 2021, and our visit was in August 2021 (5 months later), the stain/paint was already worn off dressers (see pic), there were glass rings in the bathroom (pic) and the bedside table had obviously not been wiped down and did not appear clean (pic). To top things off when we arrived back from dinner around 9:30 pm we wanted to order after dinner drinks delivered to our room. There was no menu for this - in room dining offered nothing. We called the room service number twice and nobody picked up. So, overall this was a disappointment considering the amount we were paying. Again, lovely location, and we would have no problem paying the rate if we had received quality service, cleanliness, etc. But the service and the room itself is more akin to a $300/500 rack rate, versus the close to $1,000 we paid. read more

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I am giving five stars for two reasons only. One of the managers at Alila Marea/Encinitas, AMIR, went well above and beyond to make sure we enjoyed our stay at this beautiful property. He was more than willing to hear our concerns about the location of the room we were first given by the front desk staff. We reserved a water view room but it was greatly obstructed by 2 rows of pool lounge chairs, the pool and then beyond, the water. It was not ideal. However, he took the time to relocate us to a room with an unobstructed view. He really cared. It was very impressive and kind. He also made sure upon checkout to revisit us and cared about our feedback on our stay at the hotel. Alila is lucky to have him on their team. Also, the staff at the on site restaurant, VAGA, was excellent. The food was also quite tasty. We also noticed the excellent valet staff - their friendliness and quick response. As for the front desk staff, much improvement needs to be had. They were more unwelcoming than welcoming and seemed overwhelmed, uncaring. Almost bothered. Alila needs to do more training when it comes to check in procedures and protocol. read more

We visited on Monday May 10 at 2ish pm. We wanted to check out the new hotel so we made reservations at their new hotel restaurant. We pulled up to a tiny, not clearly-marked valet circle...the valets are in casual shirts and jeans that look like what any local would wear so we had to ask them if they were actually valets. The lobby and hotel is minimalist modern in grey, beige, blue tones. The decor looks bland compared to the Waldorf Astoria, Ritz Carlton and Montage hotels that we have in Orange County. Actually all the dark grey is depressing. We took the elevator to the restaurant. A man and a lady at the check-in desk were on phone-calls...I assume taking reservations. Having worked in the restaurant business, I get it. But my companion and I stood in front of them as they conversed for at least 4 minutes. I said loudly to my friend, "You know they have a wonderful thing these days where you can put a caller on hold while you attend to the live person standing in front of you." They still did not acknowledge us. Finally, the man ended his call and showed us to our table outside. Lovely view! However, there are only about 10 items on the menu to choose from. We ordered the $28 hamburger and the $17 pancakes plus 2 Diet Cokes. Fine, we expected inflated hotel menu prices. What we did not expect is arrogant, neglectful service from our server Jeremy. We had to ask twice to get ketchup (a tiny ramekin) for our very expensive burger and fries. He seemed angry that we even asked. The burger was okay but the pancakes were like lead. Glad we saw the place but would recommend to anyone visiting the area to go to a less expensive, less snooty establishment in town with better food and better service. We should have looked at all the 1-star reviews for this hotel before we visited. read more

Let me start from the top, I stayed at this property for my first Mother's Day in May 2022 and it was absolutely glorious. My husband knew how much I loved my stay and was so excited to surprise me with a weeklong stay in a suite to celebrate his birthday and our 5 year anniversary. Not sure what happened, but things went severely downhill in the last year. It didn't even feel like the same property. The hotel staff knew about both special events but nothing special was done. That was a small drop in the bucket compared to all of the issues we experienced. First of all they gave us the worst suite in the house. A suite right over the pool, so it couldn't be further from relaxing and private. Our heads were rattled with jarring pool gates slamming closed from sun up to sundown. Our room was also directly across from the housekeeping linens closet, so that door constantly opened and slammed shut all day long. And let me just go ahead and mention the doors in this property are metal & extremely heavy, so they are beyond startling & jarring when they shut. There is zero soft close on them which would be such a simple fix. To amplify our already subpar suite location, we experienced a boatload of issues in our room. My husband sliced open his finger on the razor sharp peephole on the outside of the door. We were unable to retrieve ice for his injury (or drinks) because the property does not have ice rooms. Also there was a constant chirping in the bedroom for a solid 24 hrs. They sent up a maintenance guy twice but he unable to hear it. It was so irritating that I had to spend my vacation getting so involved with these maintenance requests. I requested to send up a different team which they did and I guess the third time was the charm, because Brian and Alexis were able to easily hear it and identify that it was coming from the faulty USB ports on the side of the bed. But unfortunately I had to listen to a constant chirping the first night of our stay because the first two rounds of engineering staff were unable to troubleshoot. They disabled the USB ports so we no longer had to endure the chirping but unfortunately we weren't able to charge our phones on one side of the bed for the entire stay. Also, the drapes feature did not work so we had to manually open and close them. That was annoying because we had to commit to either having them completely open or completely shut. Nothing in between. Our phone in the room didn't work for the entire week which seemed like a safety issue. We spent so much time troubleshooting our lemon of a room, it really cheated us from any sort of relaxing getaway. It is with 100% certainty that every single hotel manager who worked from July 13-19th was completely aware of how unhappy we were and did absolutely nothing to remediate it or make our experience better. I was in tears to Rachel and Vivian, and at best she said she would talk to her director to see if she could downgrade us to a regular room and hopefully get us our suite upgrade back. I never heard back from her on that. The gentleman who checked us in on July 13th offered breakfast for all of the horrible malfunctions in our room. We already had plans on Friday but we went to breakfast on Sunday so my husband texted the staff to see if they be willing to comp that instead. We never heard back. We also had painfully slow service at The Pocket. The director who oversees the restaurants recognized us at breakfast on Sunday and came over to personally apologize, and tell us our experience was unacceptable. We appreciated his apology but he did not even comp a round of drinks to make up for it. Just very disappointing all around in regards to the subpar non-compassionate hotel management staff, and all the faulty issues we experienced in our room. We spent thousands of dollars at this resort for what we hoped would be a very special celebration, but our experience fell short in more ways than we deemed imaginable. In a nutshell, this resort has a five star look on the surface, with one star hotel management and two star hotel finishings. read more

Janky overpriced hotel rude staff and poor security a lot of doors left u locked for any intruder to walk in

This place is a joke. The front desk and Restaurant staff are inconsiderate. Pretty disappointed in the experience. The valet guys however are great. read more

Looks like a prison on the outside when you drive up. The rooms are not spacious but tiny. Food was not cheap and it was bad. All i can say is dont get the adobo ramen bowl for lunch. The adobo is overpowering and the limp tasteless vegetables were scarce. One thing I can say though is that the staff was impeccable. They were very professional very nice very attentive and made the difference. read more

I am shocked this resort doesn't have better starts here on yelp- we are DREAMING of when we can go back and planning our next trip already to the resort. My family and I spent a week at the Alila- we loved it so much! Not wanting to fly to Hawaii for our summer trip- we decided to do a staycation and head to a new beach down the coast. We were hoping for a vacation that would allow for everything we wanted to do to be at the resort- and we did get exactly that. We spent hours at the pool, then would walk down to the beach ( they set up chairs and an umbrella and towels for you at no cost when you mention you are going down the beach- how nice it was to have a spot already set up by the water!) A huge plus that I also didn't have to bring our boards down to surf- they had complimentary ones to take down to the water as well! After a day at the pool and beach, we would come back to our hotel room and relax with our outdoor fire pit for the evening! Also- If you do want to go in town, they have e-bikes they allow you to take for a ride... I mean, doesnt this all sound so dreamy? It is! Everyone was super friendly and overly accommodating, never got bad vibes or better than attitudes as anyone else experienced- it felt and was a real five star experience. You won't regret staying here! read more

This is a very new property and some other eviews have found some issues with the staff, excused by the response for being new. The staff we encountered were great, very polite, friendly and some really stood out with interesting chit chat at the pool or in a bar or restaurant. That said, it is new. Danny Meyer, the highly regarded restaurateur from New York City was once quoted as saying the most challenging thing in the hospitality business is finding good staff, training them and retaining them. Every time I have eaten at one of his spots, the staff know the menu cold, the ingredients, wine pairings... it's great. They could use a bit of that as the staff matures here. I hope they get at least weekly training about the menu and daily about the specials. One wait staff called something NOT gluten free when we found out later it was (I really wanted to try it...) and that type of error is something you can train good staff out of. Ditto for the staff who we addressed about the bar fireplace going out. Laughing giddily and wondering out loud is the wrong answer. "I'll go check" works every time. However, I have no complaints about the people, they really were interesting to speak with and helpful. The rooms were wonderful, I think all come with a great view. Most comfortable bed I have enjoyed in a hotel in my life. Some reviews weren't nuts on the decor but tastes vary. For our tastes, my wife and I quite enjoyed it. The pool and hot tub have the best views I have seen at a hotel in San Diego county. Grab a surf board and test it out on the adjacent beach. Not bad. I would the guests we met were all having fun and also enjoyable to speak with. I think the place takes your mind off of the crap in life and let's you kick back and enjoy yourself. While rooms are pricey, I found the restaurants and bar about what you'd expect for nice food and drinks. The food reminded me of the interesting combinations one gets in Peru with their use of potatoes and corn for example. I liked the food in Peru and I liked it here. So all in all, we felt great after our stay. read more

As long-time residents of Encinitas and the beach community my wife and I were extremely excited to have a higher-end hotel, restaurant and bar embrace the beautiful ocean scenery we have appreciated for so many years. We tried to get a dinner reservation but were told they were booked up until August 24, 2021, but we could try and find a table at their sunset view bar. We arrived at 6:30pm to a very friendly and professional valet who informed us only valet parking was available at the property and it was only $14.00. (We decided to always Uber when we visit the Alila / Vega restaurant. We easily found a great place to sit overlooking the bar area with a perfect view of the sunset. The staff greeted us and quickly brought us a wine and drink menu. We ordered our drinks (this is where the 5 star service begins to fade)....approximately 15-20 minutes later! our drinks finally arrived at $18.00 each (still happy to pay the inflated price as the view and bar area is pretty nice). The drinks were good and we thought we would get another glass of wine and beer (nervous though as the wait was so long for the first round) - again, we had to wait minimum 15 - 20 minutes for a glass of wine and a beer (anyone could have quickly poured these items, but instead of quickly taking care of us, we disappointedly waited). Being in the food, catering and hospitality business, we understand labor is hard to find now, but I think management should take a look at procedure and try and instill much quicker ticket to table guidelines. The bar hostess should be trained in pouring beer and wine to quickly serve guests, ensuring 5 star customer service in every aspect of the property experience. Hopefully, management can correct the service issue and treat all guest to the property in a manner which exceeds expectations. We may visit again, (bring our own wine maybe) and tour the beautiful property without having the excessive wait. Just a thought. read more

The resort is beautiful, but the pool service is pathetic. At a nearly 1k price point for the rooms, you would think the level of service would be higher than what we received while renting a cabana at their pool. Upon arrival to the pool area we were greeted by a tired looking staff member, who told us she was still setting up the cabanas. This was at 10:30 am on a weekend. We let her know there was food stains and smashed pieces of food around the cabana area. Our initial impression was the cabanas needed new carpets or the carpets cleaned as they were pretty filthy. It gets better... they then told us we would need to go into the Pocket Bar to order drinks and food orders would start at 11 am. So we rented a cabana for $650 and had to walk in to order food and drinks for several hours. There was a packed house and no servers‍. One bartender as well. She was swamped. Why pay for a cabana if it's self-service? Others around us started complaining as well. Eventually more staff showed up and a manager and they began taking orders and delivering food and drink. We ended up spending a fraction of what we could have because they were so unprepared to serve the guests at the pool and cabana areas. I won't be spending Mother's Day here next year. If they expect to charge high rates and stay in business, this hotel better get their act together. read more

We had an amazing weekend at the new Alila Marea Beach Resort in Encinitas. The room was spacious and beautifully decorated, and the ocean view was spectacular. We enjoyed having cocktails at sunset by the large comfortable fire pit on the pool deck on the first night and then in the lawn chairs in the bar area the second night. The restaurant, Vaga, was fantastic and everything we tried was delicious!! I would highly recommend getting reservations for your stay. The fitness center was immaculate and all the equipment was top of the line, and they have the Peloton Bike!. We can't wait to go back! read more

The property is truly magic! An oasis of bliss. The most special part was the superior customer service of them being so hands on, they are very catering. Views are endless! You'll feel as though you're in heaven! Can't wait to return! read more

Absolutely beautiful property, perfectly positioned to take advantage of gorgeous views of the Pacific coastline. Alyssa and Jayden at the front desk took great care of us. Rest of Resort staff was super friendly. Would highly recommend the Alila Marea Beach Resort for anyone looking for a high-end yet completely relaxing premium hotel experience! read more

This hotel was such a beautiful resort, everything was five star and spotless! Corinne at the front desk checked us in, and even with two young kids made us feel very welcomed. The beach is a 3 minute walk down the bluffs and the majority of the rooms were ocean view. We would definitely stay here again and highly recommend it as all of the staff and facilities were great!! read more

Book this now! This resort is outstanding. The views from the pool and rooms are incredible...we felt like we were on the ocean! There was plenty of staff, even during Covid, and the decor is perfectly suited to the natural beauty. The small touches (like the individual face sun screens on each beach chair!) don't go unnoticed. Complimentary surfboards and chairs that the staff will happily take down to the beach for you! We ended up at the upstairs bar both nights for sunset which was MADE for this location. Truly a beach-front resort....much needed in the San Diego area. read more

This hotel is amazing! The views breathtaking. Service is first class as usual and expected from a Hyatt hotel. The food was not out-of-the park but still good. read more

Very clean, modern look. Loved the oversized patio with private fire pit. Pool area is a little small, but very quiet and the entire hotel has unreal views. Very unique for San Diego area to have hotel on the Pacific Ocean. Highly recommend. read more

Overall an absolute delight! Had an amazing view, I almost didn't want to leave my room. The entire experience was memorable. From the front desk to the bar's staff. Next time I'm booking the spa! I'll be daydreaming of my return............ read more

We had a great stay at Alila Marea Beach Resort! The staff was friendly, the rooms were clean, and the restaurant was delicious!

We went to Alila Marea Beach Resort to celebrate my husband's birthday with our son and daughter-in-law. Had a fabulous dinner overlooking the ocean. The food was amazing and our waiter was so attentive and suggested great food. It was such a fun and delicious dinner and we will definitely return. read more

My husband and I are SD natives and decided to do a staycation. Our room had an Amazing view of the ocean !! Vaga restaurant is a must, the chef is beyond creative. The spa was a treat, I highly recommend the Talisman massage. We will definitely be coming back !! read more

From the moment we arrived at the Alila Marea Beach Resort I knew it was going to be the perfect place for our girls trip. The restaurant and bar were incredible. The beds so comfy and the view from our room was stunning. It was perfection! We can't wait to go back! read more

I see some of the manager replies and the general excuse is "we are new". Let's be honest, at $900+ a night I have a hard time buying into that excuse. I have been fortunate in that I have traveled the world and stayed at many fantastic hotels. This is not one of them. 1. the morning manager berating the valet in front of me for not knowing where the luggage storage room was a real turn-off. Such a weak sign of management. 2. Requesting that they slice the $110 tomohawk steak and being told that the chef won't slice the steak . 3. Although i did not take children they do not like them. All you need to do it look at the restaurant menu. 4. Finally on my last day ordering room service and getting eggs, bacon and potatoes and coffee. $49. the meal on the menu was $16. $10 delivery, 22% service charge and obviously all kinds of hotel tax. they were sweet enough to leave a space for the tip. I did call kings X on that one. The only redeeming part of the stay was the bar and the view. not to mention Josie the bartender had a really funny great way about her. Oh. almost forgot this part. Open kitchen in the restaurant so i walked by and asked all the chef's who were standing there what they recommended. they all looked at me like a deer looking into headlights. no clue. the sassy female chef who ya'll tout so hard has absolutely no game. read more