I took advantage of a "Be The First" rate (50% off, plus breakfast) to try out this property, which seems to be another "new life for a historic property downtown" (until recently it was law offices), which looks to have opened in October 2024?

SD Tribune article: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com...w-its-a-hotel/

tl;dr I wanted to like this property more -- it looks gorgeous, they did a great job with the build and the design elements -- but IMO there were functional issues/nits everywhere, starting with the small rooms (and I know, historic building, yada yada yada) but I was upgraded from a Gas Lamp King to a Gas Lamp Corner King which is 280 sqft vs. 250 and it still felt a bit on the small side even if traveling alone, let alone two people, and there was almost no storage space, no drawers, only a tiny shelf in the bathroom, etc.

Tucked away in the armoire, in lieu of bottled water there is a large jug with a cork stopper. I kinda wonder how long it had been there though because the water tasted off and cork-y, so after one sip I dumped my glass out and thereafter refilled my glass from the sink.

The thermostat (Google search suggests it was a Daikin Madoka) has a set of minimalist control buttons that wasn't too hard to figure out, but often displayed confusing numbers there were neither the set point (which I confirmed was still set) nor the actual current ambient temperature (e.g showing 78 when it was nowhere near that warm).

The chafing dishes for the breakfast buffet are set under a shelf that makes it impossible to keep the lids open, so you have to set your plate down (and there isn't a lot of room to do so), hold the lid open with one hand, and serve with the other. On my first morning, there were no spoons for the scrambled eggs, or the biscuits and gravy, so you had to use tongs from the adjoining dish (e.g. bacon or breakfast potatoes) as a scoop instead.

I will say though that the bacon was fantastic scrambled eggs seemed freshly made (or at least, weren't powdered), and there was one hot dish that seems to vary (biscuits and gravy my 1st morning, chocolate chip pancakes the 2nd; the biscuits were sitting in the gravy already)

From the article linked above:

I didn't see soft drinks but maybe didn't open all the cabinets to find them. I did open one cabinet and find paper bags containing what looked like leftover takeout food boxes

I suppose the property somewhat delivers on this promise, as I don't recall city noise being much of an issue, but you can hear hallway sounds (though I didn't see a lot of people around so this wasn't particularly an issue either), thumping and scraping sounds from rooms above/next to you, etc.

Click to expand for photos