Pier View Studio by the Sea

Was such a cute place to stay in for the weekend! Has beautiful views of San Clemente pier and the ocean and offers a great balcony to sit and enjoy the view. The check in progress was smooth and easy. The room was clean and well kept and was all modern design. While being a studio room, it was very cozy and had everything we needed for the weekend. Overall, we really enjoyed our stay and would come back!

From start to finish, this was a very frustrating stay. I would be very careful before booking it.The sad part is that it has great potential, but it's really poorly managed. It is in an awesome location right across from the pier with stunning ocean views. First, there were no check-in instructions, so I had to call VRBO to get them on the day of check in. The owner doesn't give you any contact information, so you have to message him through VRBO. The check-in instructions don't tell you accurately where to go. The address is on one street, and the garage that you go through is on a different street behind. Once I got that figured out, I couldn't get in. The door lock was faulty. I had to stay at a hotel the first night. No apology, no compensation. The next day I tried and tried again, and finally messaged him. He said to pull or push the door hard. Bottom line is he did replace the door lock, but it cost me several hours that day. It is advertised as having heating and air conditioning. It does, but another unit controls it, so you have no control over the temperature. The worst part was cockroaches. Absolutely disgusting. There was a dead cockroach in the built-in ice maker. The back door to the deck has a lock that also doesn't work at all. Not a big deal except there are two adjoining units making it very simple for someone to climb over. As I said, it has great potential, but there needs to be more attention paid to quality and communication.

The directions for entry to the unit were incorrect and the response we were given initially was:There’s good video tutorials online as well - just look up the brand of the lock. After travelling all day, with no power left in my cell, this response was not welcomed. The only entry to the unit was through the garage. Inside there were 4 large containers of overflowing garbage with a stench that turned your stomach. The stench would follow you inside the unit. The unit was clean, minimally furnished with lovely views of the ocean and pier. There was a nice newly renovated bathroom with a slow draining sink. Our biggest surprise were the continual trains. Being right across the street from the train stop, we were very aware of the 22 stops per day with whistles and horns starting at 5:00 AM and ending at midnight. This was definitely our fault for not checking out the area beforehand. The other concern we had was the lack of a working lock on the porch french doors which could be accessed by the porches in either side. We certainly enjoyed being walking distance to town and beach.

This place has the potential to be great if it was managed better. At first we found it quite confusing how to even access the place and once we opened the garage (the only entrance and exit to our place) we were met with 4 large trash cans full of garbage and the smell to accompany it. We found out that the trash was supposed to be taken out the day before but wasn’t. It looked like it was a couple weeks worth of garbage built up in there. We were able to get into our place with the keypad lock on the door and drop off our things before heading out for the night but when we got home around 7 PM the key pad just wasn’t working. We tried every thing and weren’t able to call the management and were only getting communication through the Vrbo app. This was frustrating when our issue was so urgent. We sat in the stinky garage for hours waiting for the locksmith the management was sending our way. The time for them to come kept getting pushed back and we didn’t see anyone until 10 PM and he didn’t finish at our place until 11:30. The locksmith said the issue was poor installation and a battery that needed replacing. I was never sent information on check in or anything until I had to ask, and there was no number to call to talk to a real person when things went very wrong in our stay. The back double doors didn’t lock which was concerning when our balcony was so easily accessible to the tenants next door to us. It was as simple as hopping a small fence.