I haven't seen any recent updates, so I thought I'd provide one. Plus, I started this thread many years ago, so it seems fitting that I add something now that I've stayed here as a guest.

We're completing a very pleasant long weekend at the San Gabriel Hilton. We're generally open as to what part of Los Angeles we stay in since we always have a car and are open to finding things to do. For this trip, the rates at San Gabriel were much cheaper than any of the other mainline Hilton/Doubletrees, so we concentrated the most of our activities in the San Gabriel Valley, including Pasadena, Monterey Park, Arcadia, and Monrovia. For these areas and with a general knowledge of the surface streets, the Hilton is a good base of operations. Weekday rush hour traffic on the 10 is best avoided if possible, but other than that, being freeway-close is convenient.

My tip to those driving in off the 10 is to consider getting off at San Gabriel Boulevard instead of Del Mar. Del Mar is very narrow and has two intersections with tricky left turns - the first is a left turn into the shopping center anchored by the 99 Ranch Market; it's currently too narrow for a dedicated left turn lane there so traffic will back up during busy times as that center is always packed with vehicle traffic. The second is the left onto Valley, which has a short left turn lane and a lot of people wanting to make that turn so you may need a few cycles to get through. I used to drive through here as part of my daily commute so am well-versed in the traffic pattern. San Gabriel Blvd is wider than Del Mar and it's not too much back-tracking as the exits are very close.

The property is in good shape and very well-maintained. We were told that the rooms had recently been refreshed.

As Golds, we weren't able to get upgraded to a room other than what was shown on the mobile check-in, but the standard room we selected on the 6th and top floor was perfectly fine, with a king bed, flat-screen TV and mini-fridge. We had a nice view to the north, facing Mount Wilson and the San Gabriel mountains, with the courtyard of the hotel below us. This is at the back of the property which is nice as there is no traffic noise from Valley Boulevard outside. We left the window of the room open most of the time and enjoyed the cool breeze and sound of birds chirping.

Self-parking remains an excellent choice and really reasonable at $5 per night. We noticed on our online bill that the parking hadn't been charged to us, so either it was waived as a Gold amenity or it was a mistake. Either way, the only time I saw someone checking the parking was on Saturday evening when there was a wedding banquet going on. That was the only time we had to park on the second level of self-parking; all other times we easily found spaces by the lobby elevator (and it's nice to be able to go straight from the garage to the room level).

We enjoyed the Chinese breakfast selections of jook/congee and toppings, noodles, char siu bao, and dumplings to compliment the Western options. Service was very attentive and pleasant and we never had to wait to be seated.

Our only gripe was that our experience with Housekeeping was somewhat frustrating. We had called and asked for our bedding to be swapped to feather-free, and that wasn't done. We also found that our room, while cleaned each day, was missing some details like restocking coffee and some bath amenities. These were minor things and didn't really detract from our experience. Overall, we'd be perfectly happy to stay here again.