Palihotel San Diego Gaslamp Quarter

Full disclosure I booked this hotel through Hotwire. I was on a business trip and wanted to stay near the convention center. I paid over $260 a night which isn’t necessarily that expensive for downtown San Diego. The walk to the convention center was not bad at all 8 to 10 minutes at most. Where the hotel is located is not in the best area. There was actually a hustler store down the street. The room itself was fairly nice but very small. I expected that with a boutique hotel. The restaurant attached the hotel was decent. My overall experience was not great. The air conditioner did not work. The TV did not work. The room was extremely loud. They actually included two sets of earplugs because of the noise. Street noise I can deal with however there is a rooftop bar on the hotel and they play music all night long that you can hear if you’re staying in the 10th floor. The last night I stayed there they had a party with a DJ and it was extremely loud. Pay the extra cash and stay in a hotel closer to the convention center.

I went to the Pali in San Diego for work. Great customer service. Susana did an amazing job on our room and keeping it very tidy and clean. The room was quaint, boutique and clean. Lots of good places within walking distance. I highly recommend!

Worst Hotel Accomodation I ever had! Not recommendable! Permanent noise from ventilation system nearby. No solution given. Bad internet. Bad TV set up. Extremely small rooms. No desk. 'Open closet' No space to put clothes in. Bad and old elevator!

pretty hotel trying to keep its original features. friendly staff (apart from in the restaurant) old style lift incredibly difficult to manage when your moving a case. the tiniest of rooms, overly dominated by a king size bed, thats confortable, however no room to fully open a suitcase, and having to bend over when walking past the bottom of the bed to avoid scraping yourself on the TV unit protruding from the wall. not enough room to swing the proverbial cat. no kettle but a coffee pod machine - watch out for the earl gray mascarading as coffee... an unpleasant experience. coffee pods were replenished after the first couple of nights but then the housekeeping seemed to not bother. no desk in the room so when trying to do work you had to go to reception to sit on the communal desk not idea when trying to do work calls. overall if you are going for a weekend, this is perfectly well located and comfortable. however not ideal for longer stays nor for business trips.

What this spot offers aesthetically, it lacks in functionality. I wanted to love the vintage vibes, and there were some really cute aspects, but the reality of the stay kept bringing the fantasy crashing down. First off, I would NEVER stay in the Gaslamp unless I had to (and we had to), so I was really on a mission to find a fun hotel that would make up for it. I live in Oakland so I'm used to noise and commotion but the vibes in the Gaslamp are truly darksided. I was thankful to be within walking distance of some other cute neighborhoods, but the streets directly outside were pretty stressful. The room itself was adorable. The bed was comfy, the shower was huge, and there was a fully stocked mini fridge (which is rare for hotels at this price point), but the walls were thin. We had very noisy neighbors who were fighting on and off for two nights in a row, and when I called the front desk for assistance there was no one there. We could also hear every car and motorcycle that drove by throughout the night. The windows all faced a walled-in courtyard so there was hardly any natural light in the room, and they could not be opened which caused a big air flow problem. It got stuffy and damp in there almost immediately. We also had a lot of trouble using their vintage elevator. It was a huge pain to get our bags in and out with the folding gate and heavy swinging door. Once in the elevator, it would often start up again before we could open the door, or skip our floor completely. We could also hear the gate crashing from our room every time someone came in or out, which disturbed our sleep. We opted to use the stairs for most of our stay because we were only on the 5th floor, but this is something guests should definitely be aware of before booking since it's an 11 story building. Definitely not accessible.

The noise from the street was deafening! Didn’t sleep at all. Should have known when I saw there were earplugs in the bathroom. And I’m fine that the elevators are old… but when one of two is out of order it pretty much means you need to use the stairs. When you are on a top floor, this is mighty inconvenient.