I stayed here with my husband for a conference. I found out this enormous hotel is new, only 3 years old. The rooms and bathrooms are modern, immaculate and bright with floor to ceiling windows. The beds are extremely comfortable; we slept so well. There was no minibar in the room which was fine for us and there were many places to get food just outside the hotel in the Gaslamp area. There is a Starbucks and yogurt store onsite but they can only be accessed by going outside which is a bit inconvenient. As with previous reviewers' mention, it is a little sterile and impersonal. The lobby is open and there was always people milling about. The concierge was a bit snobby, not even attempting to call one restaurant for a reservation as she was sure it would be fully booked. We used the hottub which was nice.
Regarding conference areas, these were plentiful but the wifi access was terrible and not available in the rooms. With conference booking, we got free wifi which was a super perk (they left a message on the phone with the password) and wifi worked seemlessly in the hotel bedrooms, thank goodness. My husband and colleagues were appalled that the waitstaff were clanging dishes and serving etc during a lunch session when speakers were presenting. We hope that the hotel can communicate better with conference organizers to prevent this rudeness by organizing time/breaks when there is no food service and disruption to speakers.
The main onsite restaurant Vela was terrible - they messed up our order twice (bringing the wrong dish to our table and then the dish had the wrong side dish) and the total time between sitting down and finally getting our meal was 45 minutes. It was not busy and there was no compensation. I would not eat there unless you absolutely felt lazy and don't want to leave the hotel. Maybe try the Sports Bar.
Location is good, right next to the Convention Centre and 5 minutes walk to Petco Park and 5th Ave/Gaslamp Area. Horton Plaza shopping was disappointing. We had dinner at the Hotel Del Coronado one night. It's worth visiting that historic hotel across the Coronado bridge. There is some strange thing about which kind of taxis and can you between San Diego and Coronado though. Nobu in the Hard Rock Hotel across the street was excellent.
I was also displeased to find out that packages I sent to this hotel required at least a $6 fee per package for handling as all their mail is processed through the UPS store. No other hotels at which I've stayed had this policy but I think because this hotel is so large, it requires this service. You can check-in for your flight and print your boarding pass for free in the UPS Store/Business Centre. I still give this hotel a 5 points because it was comfortable and new.
We paid conference price for this hotel, which was still about $250 per night. I would only consider it again if it was quite discounted. We did however, make good use of Hilton HHonor's current bonus points deal.
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