This hotel was clean and the housekeeping was so on top of things - I just had to tip them! Everyone was filled with smiles. The shuttle does have limited hours unless you call ahead for very late night and very early morning shuttles. However, the hotel will left you to many sights around town for free like SeaWorld, Balboa Park, Downtown and Old town San Diego, USS Midway etc.... so that certainly makes up for a rental. The free breakfast is actually the best free breakfast I have had at a Holiday Inn Express. The USA Today in addition to the local paper makes the morning nice for planning. AND - if available and you are a Priority Club member you can extend check out until 2PM!!!!
Now across the street is a beat up old food shack called Dos Brasos - it is hard on the eyes, true, but this little taqueria has the BEST Mexican Food in San Diego - HANDS DOWN. It sports the highest Health Code rating available. In San Diego you will see the grade on the entrance of the establishment - from A to F. This little dive has an A and they are friendly to boot! Just yummy and great on the pocketbook too. In Old Town - The Alamo has the best and nicest priced margaritas. We went to the Coyote for my birthday dinner and it was good - our server was awesome - Rich - but the food was basically like Chili's version of Tex Mex except the homemade tortillas. They were overpriced but it is a tourist arena so....

We just came back from a weekend stay at the HIE and the rooms were modern, well appointed & clean and the staff extremely are helpful. The breakfast in the morning was standard but there was plenty to go around. We did take advantage of the free shuttle service into Sea World which was convient. However, the hotel is located alongside the freeway and the rooms not well insulated so it sounded like traffic was going through our room all night long & the bed shook each time a large truck went by. I am an extremely light sleeper and did not manage to catch much shut eye while there & even my husband who sleeps like the dead was bothered by the noise.

Arrived at 11:30 PM at the San Diego Airport and called the hotel for the free shuttle service. I was told that there is none after 11:00PM an I can take a taxi. I did, cost me extra 16 USD.

I don't understand how can an Airport hotel call itself Airport hotel and blatantly disreard the flight schedule of the Airport it is supposedly serve? It is an outrage and misleadng advertsing. Needless to say, I will make sure that neither me nor any of my friends will ever set our feet i this place again.

This hotel is definitely worth the price. The customer service is excellent, and the shuttle is very convenient. The hotel has been recently updated and is very clean, which is most important. The breakfast is also good. As others have mentioned, the area isn't the nicest, although I wouldn't say it was scary. There just isn't a lot around until you get to Old Town. The hotel is right on the freeway, but we didn't hear it from our room, which was on the other side. The complimentary parking was also a bonus. On the negative side, the wifi wasn't the fastest, but it was definitely better than nothing and was free. My biggest complaint is that you have to call to have the shuttle come pick you up at the airport. This wouldn't be a big deal except it doesn't say that's what you have to do anywhere on the website. After waiting a half hour at the airport, which is the last thing you want to do after traveling for 6 hours, we called and the shuttle came. It would have been nice to know that before though. Despite this, our overall experience was good and we would definitely come back.