Holiday Inn Resort Catalina Island

Avoid this poorly managed motel

This resort is poorly managed. They tried to charge us $3471 for a massage in the spa. Our credit card company flagged it as fraud and called us immediately. This alone took hours to sort out and ruined a whole morning. We got our bill at check out and there were still all kinds of charges on it that weren't ours. It took three rounds for them to get it right. Like I said very poorly managed. We had to call three times to get a shuttle from the Ferry to find out the women answering the phone never bothered to let the driver know we were waiting. We were woken every morning by construction noise at 6:30. One morning there were two workers having a very loud conversation right at our door. I had to ask them to keep it down. They were changing a light bulb. 6:30 on vacation. This resort has no food service. I'm not kidding. There is NO food available except dinner a few nights a week and the restaurant isn't even managed by the resort. Seriously, you can not get breakfast at this "resort". For breakfast you must walk 1/2 a mile to town. No lunch, no poolside snacks or drinks. You can buy a yogurt, spotty bananas and potato chips in the lobby. Our room had a Keurig Coffee Maker but no coffee. You have to go to the lobby and buy the cups for $2 each. My wife and I enjoyed Catalina Island very much. We met so many very nice people and had great service everywhere EXCEPT at Catalina Canyon Resort and Spa. My suggestion is to avoid this place entirely.

Proceed with caution

We visited during off season so we were unaware that the hotel wouldn't be open during our entire stay and room service wouldn't be an option for breakfast. The shuttle drivers were very friendly but we did a lot of waiting because only one shuttle was running and in one case, after waiting 20 minutes we were told the driver was on lunch break and there was no substitute driver during that time. Not the drivers fault. That was a mint schedule planning issue. The website pics were great but our stay was during the prep for summer season. Things needed cleaning, painting and repair. In the week before arriving, i emailed and voicemailed the spa in an attempt to schedule 3 massages and facials. I received a return phone call on our departure date just as we were returning to Long Beach. We ended up having our spa day at an off-site location. Overall, I rate the resort a 3 out if 5 stars. I attribute the mishaps to being there in off season and not having adequate staffing.

Not having quicker transportation to downtown and unable to use onsite spa facilities - that was the main reason that the site was selected, was for the spa treatment. That was a real "miss". There was only one staff member that did not seem as eager to please and it ws likely a communication gap. She seemed passive-aggressive in two different occasions. Once when we found, after waiting in the sun for 20 minutes, the driver was on lunch. I was asking if they had somebody else to drive during his break (we had an appt and had allowed 30 minutes to get from hotel to downtown) and architecture defensive and said it was the law that he take a lunch break - which had nothing to do with the conversation. She offered to call a cab, at our expense. And suggested we share it with another couple who was trying to make it to their zip line appointment. The second time was after the city had cut water off to the hotel and one of my party was in the shower sussed up. She thanked me for letting them know because the city hadn't notified of the outage but followed with a sideline remark that we should be glad it wasn't an earthquake. Again, that's the only two times that I felt uncomfortable and wished I was someplace else. Oh... we never could get the free Wi-Fi to work either.

Backup hotel at best

• clean bathrooms • decent staff

• hot tub was broken whole visit (access to the hot tub was the main reason we picked this hotel) • hotel grounds were rundown, mostly dirt patches where plants might have been, dried up fountains and ponds • breakfast at hotel restaurant poor quality and very expensive • no WiFi connection whole visit (staff explained "sometimes it works, sometimes is doesn't)

Rude Staff & Poor Service

Upon arrival at 10am off the ferry, the concierge dismissively informed us that we couldn't check into the hotel until 4pm. When I asked if there was any chance of getting into our room sooner so that we could change and get settled, he looked annoyed, rolled his eyes, and told us that check-in was not until 4pm and that, if we were lucky, he would call us when our room was ready. I asked when he thought that might happen, and he scowled at me and just repeated what he had already said at twice the volume, then turned back to his computer. We left our bags in an unlocked storage closet, as instructed. Then we asked when the next shuttle into town would be, and the concierge told us that he didn't know. When we asked if he could call the shuttle driver he didn't even look up from his computer, he just said "The Shuttle runs every 30 minutes at random times." which I'm not even sure makes sense. The next day, we asked if we could have a late checkout since checkout was 11am and our ferry didn't leave until 5pm. There was a new lady at the front desk who told us no, because she had already given away all the early checkouts and the housekeeping staff needed every available minute to clean the rooms because they were booked solid. We hurried to get out by 11am after breakfast. When we passed a cleaning lady on the way out, I told her we had rushed to get out and she said "Oh there's no rush, I won't get to your room until 1pm anyway". We get into the shuttle that "randomly" shows up every 30 minutes and ask if he can take us to Descanso Beach but he tells us no, he is only permitted to take us to the town center, which is still a 1 mile walk to anything else. This is the first hotel review I've ever written. I don't write reviews because I'm really not that hard to please. If the sheets are clean and the staff is friendly, I've got no complaints. But everyone we encountered at this hotel was either flat out rude or just didn't seem to care at all. Don't stay here.

Dirty sheets and towels reminiscence of an old man

AC Worked.

Sheets - yellow and brown stains on white sheets upon check in. Left a day early and forfeited our pre-paid money. Towels - so worn you could almost see through. Staff at check, not a charmer. No help. They don't care.

Location

Bar closed in the evening, pool as a consequence not attractive at all. Airco to noisy.

The transportation and the view was perfect

Both my wife and I are somewhat disabled and found the steps and ramps very difficult to navigate.

Shuttle service to the town

Overpriced! It is definitely not category "Resort".

Close to downtown; shuttle available every 15 minutes.

Onsite restaurant was only open for breakfast, and had odd hours. Open for dinner Friday/Saturday only.