Palihotel San Diego

I landed in San Diego for a work conference after an 8 hour delay from my airline, and a lost suitcase. As I arrived at Palihotel on a Sunday night, my check in was incredibly smooth. I wandered over to the restaurant/bar to grab a nightcap & snack. The bar manager, Nikki, was immediately friendly offering insights to the menu, drinks, and providing me with all the options for both. This interaction made the choice easy-I didn't need to go off site for any meals. I had dinner, for the next 3 nights, at St James and a breakfast before I checked out. Nikki is an outstanding asset to this operation. I was able to find the GM, Chris, to let him know what a tremendous team he has; the concierge fielded several deliveries for me, including that of my luggage, and the housekeeping staff is beyond helpful. He was equally fantastic, indicating that good leadership starts at the top. I was incredibly appreciative to have found Pali and am looking forward to returning, not just to the San Diego location, but to the other sites as well. Lifelong fan, love your work! Some notes: -Rooms are small-this is normal for bigger cities...They are comfortable. Room Service is tricky in a regular room (& there also isn't much room if you have bigger suitcase). Be resourceful with you space. -I would've loved some trash cans on each floor to throw away larger & food items. -No ice machines, but the bar and/or concierge will bring you a bucket of ice if you request it. -Provided in-room ammenities (mini bar offerings, shampoo, soap, etc) were lovely. -The famous elevators! I am a history junkie, and still can acknowledge these babies are form over function. I would make sure to request a room far from them if you're noise sensitive. The elevators are much easier to operate with two people. However, they offer a nice pace for a mindful moment ;)

The only real draw of this hotel is the design. It is really beautiful and unique. The hotel itself is very old and the redesign did not include any construction renovation meaning it is very old and a loud building. You can hear door slamming all house of the day. It also features original elevators which are very slow. So we ended up only taking the stairs. They weren’t steep at all and we were on the 4th floor so it was fine. But if we were higher it would have been more annoying. The front desk staff mostly seemed annoyed when having to deal with guests. The diner attached to the hotel was also very well designed and the staff was friendly, especially the bartender. However the menu was very small. Overall, it was fine but I wouldn’t stay here again.

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.