I stayed at One Tijuana Otay for one night. Overall, it was an average stay with a great location, but the lack of air conditioning during the night really affected my experience.
I arrived around 5:00 PM, and there was a long line at the front desk. Instead of checking in with an employee, I was directed to use one of the self-service tablets. Personally, I prefer checking in with someone at the front desk. Since I booked through Expedia and had already prepaid, I was also surprised that I had to enter almost all of my personal information again. The only information already in the system was my name and payment.
The room itself was very basic. It was clean and served its purpose as a place to sleep, but don't expect many amenities. There was no closet, no safe, and no refrigerator, so keep that in mind if those are important to you. I stayed on the sixth floor, which is the highest floor, and I also found the bed to be less comfortable than I expected.
One of the hotel's biggest advantages is its location. It's located in a shopping center with plenty of restaurants, bars, convenience stores, and grocery stores within walking distance, making it very convenient. They also offer a complimentary breakfast buffet, which was a nice bonus.
One thing to be aware of is that some nearby bars play live music at night. If you're a light sleeper, you may want to consider another hotel. Personally, it didn't bother me since I'm a heavy sleeper.
Unfortunately, the biggest issue was the air conditioning.
The first thing I do when I check into any hotel is turn the AC on. I did that before leaving to explore the area, but when I returned around 7:30 PM, the room was still warm. The AC was running but wasn't blowing cold air.
I called the front desk, and a technician came to the room around 8:00 PM. After working on it, the AC started blowing cold again, but only temporarily. Around 8:45 PM, it stopped cooling again. I waited, hoping it would start working properly, but by around 9:30 PM the room was getting uncomfortably hot, and I was sweating.
At about 11:30 PM, I called the front desk again, but no one answered. I had to go downstairs in person to explain the situation. The employee told me the technician had already left for the night and that the hotel was fully booked. She said if a reservation didn't show up, they might be able to move me to another room and promised to let me know by 12:30 AM.
Unfortunately, no one ever called. I waited until about 1:00 AM, but I never received an update and ended up spending the night in a hot room with a malfunctioning air conditioner.
When I checked out around 7:00 AM, I spoke with another employee who appeared to be a manager. I asked if there was anything they could do because of the inconvenience. I was told that since I booked through Expedia, they couldn't provide any compensation and that I would have to contact Expedia instead.
I understand that booking through a third party can limit what the hotel can do, but spending an entire night without working air conditioning and still paying full price was very disappointing. I also wasn't thrilled that nobody followed up after promising they would.
One final thing to note is that parking costs 100 pesos per night, so be sure to factor that into the total cost of your stay.
Overall, this hotel is fine if you're simply looking for a basic place to sleep in a convenient location. However, because of the AC issue and the lack of follow-up from the staff, I would probably stay somewhere else next time. read more