I had a relatively decent experience at this particular Hilton. I booked several months in advance for a King Terrace Loft Suite in the 5th avenue section, yet when I arrived, the hotel staff placed me in a downgraded King deluxe guest room (essentially with a bed, a TV, a bathroom, and a little chair in the corner).

I called the front desk to figure out what happened, and the young lady stated that I was, in fact, staying in a King suite. I had to explain to her that this room was indeed NOT a suite and not the King Terrace Loft Suite that I specifically booked and paid for. Well, this was 11pm at this time, and of course, there was no King Terrace Loft Suite available in the hotel. However, the staff did anticipate that some guests would check out and "free up" one of those rooms tomorrow - that my "chances were very good" that I'd get transferred the following day.

I'm a reasonable guy, but I had a tired wife an 18 month-old child. We slept in this small room and were transferred to the suite that we actually booked the following day. Overall, it seemed like the staff was doing this begrudgingly, and that I was getting some special favor despite me showing them a printout of my reservation stating what I had booked. There was a very helpful young lady the following day at the desk who apologized for the mishap and gave us a voucher for a free breakfast at the New Leaf (delicious).

The King Terrace Loft Suite was a beautiful, spacious room with contemporary colors and a splendid bed. The view was not great - it overlooked the Hard Rock Hotel across the street that was being built & had pretty noise construction.. not the fault of the Hilton. The bathroom was gorgeous with plentiful, high quality toiletries, a jacuzzi tub, and a large glass shower.

However, the next day, my laptop's CPU had this weird meltdown - frying the internal circuitry while it was plugged into the hotel's outlet. I have no idea if this was related to the outlets there, but Apple's repair department said they'd only seen this particular crash about 2-3 times before. I would've chalked this up as a coincidence without laying any blame on the Hilton.. but on the same day, my plug-in clock/ambient noise maker froze and would not turn back on - never happened before or since. A few hours later, we smelled a terrible burning coming from the bathroom, only to find one of the wall lamps smoking. The hotel staff sent up a repairman a few hours later to take care of it. I really didn't think the room was safe from an electrical standpoint.. imagine that?

Location is very centrally located - parking deck right down the sidewalk which was inexpensive and next to Petco Park. There is no need to pay the exorbitant valet fees, which are approaching $40/night. The gorgeous convention center is literally 1 block away.. overall, this is a pretty nice hotel in a fabulous city. The stay, however, could've been better - but for the most part, it was enjoyable.

My advice to hotel management would be to explain to the front desk workers about the definition of a suite, and to never change a guest's previously booked room unless it's an upgrade. These types of things are enough to make me think twice in my future trips to San Diego about whether to spend them at this particular Hilton. I'm plus/minus on the experience - would've been wonderful except for a number of mild to moderate annoyances.

Stayed here for a weeks holiday with my partner.

Really close to the shops etc.

Room service was great and the upstairs open air bar was fun.

Room was clean and tidy.

Front Desk helpful as our luggage was lost.

Recommend to anyone.

I was very pleased with my stay at the Hilton Gaslamp. I haven't stayed at many Hiltons so I cannot comment on "typical vs non typical Hilton". The reception was very helpful and pleasent, the restaurant was quick and courtious.

Location is great, very close to the Gaslamp with many many restaurants. very close to Padre stadium so the energy over flows before during and after a home game.

A cab ride from the airport was $12/$15 with tip.

Maybe I'm used to HIltons in less urban areas, but this HIlton wasn't cookie-cutter, boring. It was very chic and trendy. I liked it

The location was great for us. We were there for a convention. And our convention happened to be in the end of the center right across the street from the hotel. The anchor hotel for the convention was about twice as far. So that worked out in our favor. Its also right at the start of blocks upon blocks of restaurants, shops, bars, etc. We couldn't have asked for a better location.

The room was good. We stayed on the side overlooking the lofts. We looked down onto a cement courtyard. Not very interesting. Noise was never a problem for us, and we stayed through the weekend. We were also in the room right next to the elevator shaft, and we never heard that either.

My only complaint is the shower. The first couple of days the drain was slow, but the water did go down. Then one day, the drain wasn't working, or it was very slow. I played with plug in the shower drain, but didn't really want to touch it because it was rusty around the edges. By the end of my shower, I was standing in 2 inches of water. The next day, the drain was back to what it had been. Never enough to complain, but annoying.

And with how nice the rest of the hotel and room were, I wasn't impressed with the shower. Like I said, it was rusty around the drain, and the metal disk between the shower head and shower wall had fallen off so that it was hanging around the neck of the shower head. And it seems like a lot of hotel bathrooms, there wasn't a fan in there. So we dealt with steamy mirrors every morning. And the lighting wasn't great. Hard to put make up on in the morning.

Overall, nice hotel. Maybe a few annoyances, but never enough to complain. I guess we didn't spend enough time in the hotel for it to be too bothersome.