The Resort at Pelican Hill

My wife and I just finished a great 4 night visit to Pelican Hill. After reading some of the other reviews, I have the following comments: The service, for the most part, was superb. At check-in they gave us a phone number to text and all of our service requests - room service, shuttle service, housekeeping requests - were immediately responded to and handled. One of the best service experiences I’ve ever had at a resort. I will agree the poolside service is slow, which is really puzzling as there are numerous waiters and waitresses working the pool, yet when I needed a drink or the check it seemed like forever before our waitress came back by. I can’t believe they were overwhelmed with customers given how many servers there were. We stayed in a bungalow and yeah, the furnishings are outdated, but it was certainly spacious, comfortable and functional. It took me some time to find where they had hidden some plugs but the rooms definitely need an upgrade to accommodate all of today’s device charging needs. We loved that we could park our car right out front and access it whenever needed without navigating valet parking. Shower water pressure was not great but not bad. And, unlike many of the place we stay, the resort has not installed AC thermostats with motion detectors that cause the AC to shut off in the middle of the night. The pool is awesome, and the crowd there is generally pretty upscale. Generally. The good news is, unlike many resorts with great pool situations, Pelican Hill doesn’t sell day passes. The food by the pool is fine, it is what it is. Guests who complain about the poolside food need to recalibrate their expectations. We didn’t play golf or go to the spa or fitness center so no comments there. We will definitely come back!

We went to the Resort at Pelican Hill with my husband and 8 month old baby. We have the Amex platinum so we were upgraded to a partial ocean view suite. The resort is beautiful and the service is great. We arrive at our bungalow and notice that there’s tons of dead little bugs all over the floor. They were all over in different areas of the room. They moved us to a different room which was a hassle because we already unpacked a lot of our things and we had a baby. Our new room also had a dead bug in it. I understand that maybe there were more bugs do to the location of the hotel, but it was a bummer since the hotel is a 5 star and very expensive.

This is our second time staying at Pelican Hill, as we were last there in 2019. This time we had a 3 bedroom villa with ocean views that was great. The villa was spacious, with a beautiful yard overlooking the golf course. It had a full kitchen and a washer and dryer. While the location and the space was awesome, it could definitely use some refreshing. The kids loved the pool and Crystal Cove tide pools, we loved being so close to Laguna and Newport for great restaurants and fun activities. We even spent a rainy morning at Fashion Island. If you are traveling with a group or with kids I would definitely recommend Pelican Hill.

We had booked to stay for a couple of nights as part of our California road trip. After reading some reviews I was a little concerned- how wrong I was. We had an amazing stay, my favourite of everywhere we’ve stayed in So Cal. Cannot fault anything- service, cleanliness, food etc I believe they are going though a transition and being taken over by Marriott which is affecting phone lines etc ( we did struggle to call hotel from outside before we arrived) but calling reception etc from the room was no problem and super easy. Pool is incredible too Would Love to stay again

Called to inquire about the bungalow rooms (amenities, pet policy, etc.) because we have a reservation coming up in a few weeks for our anniversary. I pressed option #6 (other questions and the operator). Was on hold for almost 10 minutes before I hung up. Then I read other reviews reflecting the poor service and other patrons being on hold forever, YIKES! I think I will be cancelling our reservation. We used to come here all the time after it opened so this is really a shame.