Looking at Yelp and Trip Advisor, the Town an Country Resort looks like a dive. The place consistently has very poor reviews. Dirty, bugs and poor service. Is it this bad?
When we were there before it seemed like a pretty nice place.
I agree with Denny. It showed some evidence of age, but it was far from terrible. That was in 2011.
That said, a hotel is only as good as its management and staff makes it.
We had an e-mail from them before the conference was announced to be in SD, where they were offering introductory rates to the refurbished hotel. Before it looked to be a little long in the tooth, but was not a dump. I have stayed in some real dumps in my day.
Will find out when we get there if it has been spiffed up or not.
Edit - that may have just been one of the towers that got the refurb.
Edit2 - it may not be refurbished by the time we are there. It was announced but no timeline in this article.
I guess it really doesn’t matter. Good or bad, we are going to the Town and Country. My wife is just a little freaked out by the bed bug photos… I’ll keep her glass full.
Bed bugs? I am not risking bringing those nasty critters back home. Is there another, better managed hotel close by?
Bed bugs can happen at any hotel. I’ve known people that got them from a top hotel in Vegas.
The one time I’ve gotten bed bug bites was at a Hilton. 
Bed bugs are one of the reasons why I have avoided traveling during the last decade. Cockroaches are the only type of bug that I loath more than bed bugs. What’s crazy about beg bugs is that they were pretty much eradicated in the Western world, thanks in large part to DDT and other planet destroying pesticides.
Umm…Can we get this guy his own personal chair for the seminars? 
side note: bed bugs have been reported at some point in the 2013, 2012, 2011 host hotels. Didn’t find any results on my searches prior to staying at the Holiday Inn and Amway in Grand Rapids last year, but it happens all over the place. I do my research and thus far I’ve not been scared away from any host hotels.
San Diego has a “hotel loop” off the highway with a whole bunch of different hotels really close to each other, and the Town and Country is in this loop.
The Town and Country is a really weird hotel. There are some new and modern rooms in a tower and then there are the rooms on the grounds of the garden area. The old rooms are not nice at all, except for the fact that you can walk out of your room and you are in tropical-ly gardens, and you are close to the swimming pool. I have stayed in my fair share of grungy hotel rooms throughout Latin America, and I would rate the one that I stayed at in the Town and Country (in the old garden area) as about average for a grungy Latin American hotel room. No bugs or rodents, but everything was just kind of dirty.
In other words - fine for crashing in bed after a long day of drinking at the NHC.
But seriously - Yelp’s score is low with ~400 reviews but every other review site gives the place about 3.75/5 including TripAdvisor with 2500 reviews. A quick scan through theirs and everybody complains about the outdated rooms, but nobody mentioned bed bugs. Not even the 1 star reviews.
I don’t know why, but I feel like NHC should be here.
I personally have stayed at the Town and Country at least six times, probably more and always have had a great experience. While in past stays some of the rooms were a bit dated, I never experienced any issues with dirty rooms or pests. All of the rooms in the two hotel towers (representing the vast majority of rooms) were renovated two years ago, so should be in good condition.
In addition to holding the AHA Conference at the Town and Country previously, the Brewers Association has hosted the Craft Brewers Conference there three times–I’m sure the CBC would return if it could still fit there. We’ve had great service from the staff at the Town and Country for our events, and they love our attendees.
As has been mentioned in this thread, the Town and Country is in San Diego’s Hotel Circle. Once the Town and Country fills up (and it will), we will be releasing overflow hotel info with group rates for the AHA Conference at surrounding hotels. We’ll also have shuttles running from overflow hotels to the Town and Country.
I am quite certain everyone attending this years conference will have a great experience. I know I can’t wait to be back in San Diego.
See you there!
Thanks for the input Gary.
Thanks for the input Gary.
I’m a hilton frequent ‘flyer’ so we’re staying at the Doubletree and bussing it probably.
I guess that I can leave the DDT home. ;D
I attended the 2011 NHC, and my room was, as Gary says, “Dated,” but it was clean, and I expect the towers to be better. I’m confident we’ll be OK.
No, by all means. Check onto your plane with DDT in your carry-on. Really … go ahead. :