Golden West Hotel in Downtown San Diego, California

San Diego is an expensive city, though there are cheap accommodations available in downtown area if you know where to look. Unfortunately most of the area's cheap extended stay hotels aren't very findable online (your best bet is to drop into to town and pick up a copy of the San Diego Reader free weekly local digest and browse through its advertisement section toward the back. There are stacks of this thing at most of downtown's grocery and convenient stores, libraries, and some sidewalk racks). It is possible to find a decent furnished room in the heart of downtown San Diego for $155-200 a week (though you may have to use common shower and/or kitchen).

The Golden West Hotel at the northwest corner of 4th Avenue and G Street in the Gaslamp Quarter is one such extended-stay/residential hotels... Actually, having been built in 1912, it is one of the oldest businesses around with the look and feel (and smell, unfortunately) to match its age. Its 3 stories of wood & brick sits adjacent to colorful Horton Plaza, but has no access to it (or its parking garage), and is surrounded by expensive restaurants and bars.

Walking into the place (there are entrances on both 4th Ave and G St) is like walking into a time warp. The wide corridors leading to the large high-ceiling front desk area are lined with musty old wooden benches, old paintings, and historical photos of the place. The G St entrance will likely see many of the hotel's long term residents sitting around socializing (or not)... I suspect many who have wandered in looking to rent a room for a week or a month never made it pass them (you sort of get a good idea within a few steps pass the door why the rent is so low here).

The staff at the large open-top square lobby compound that houses the front desk is generally very nice, though. The place doesn't seem to have been computerized, so it takes a bit longer to check things (or to calculate rent for you if you are planning on staying for more than 1 week or 1 month). They'll let you see the room(s) before deciding whether you'd like to stay or not. To the far/right side of the front desk complex is the TV area with a large screen monitor (usually tuned to a film-oriented cable channel or to a sport network) with rows of wooden rocking chairs for hotel residents. The front desk guy has the remote controller and you have to tell him if you want to change the channel or turn up the volume.

On the other side of the lobby is a row of really old wooden telephone booths that were clearly made in the era when most people were under 6' tall and weighed less than 180lbs.... If you are claustrophobic, you're out of luck... The same applies with the really small elevator on the south side of the lobby (3 persons max). There is no in-house laundry service, but there is an ill-maintained coin laundry and convenient store (where you can buy detergent and softener, along with toilet papers, sodas and snacks) next door on 4th Avenue.

There are two types of rooms available, really small ones with just enough room for a twin bed, a wooden dresser, and a sink and nothing else (just enough room to squeeze by these furniture) and where you have to use the common bathroom costs $37/night or $150/week or $485-503/month, depending on whether you have outside view or not.

The large rooms with a private bathroom (bath/shower, toilet, and sink) come with a twin bed, a heavy wooden dresser, a smaller dresser, and 2 chairs cost $44/day, $180/week, $503-518/month.

The hotel's upper floors where the rooms are are carpeted (though could really use some shampooing). You don't get any television (but there's a cable outlet if you bring your own), refrigerator, microwave oven, or wifi. There is a walled cord telephone in the room that costs $5 to activate and then 35 cents per out-going call (plus 5 cent per minute rate). The only 'perk' you get here is a weekly maid service.

So... this may be the Golden West, but even gold loses its luster when it goes for years without getting polished. The place is really not very well maintained (and rather infested with roaches and mosquitos). Black out occurs frequently during the evening hours when long term residents who had equipped their room with hot plate or microwave oven start cooking their dinner and overloading the main circuit. The rent seems cheap on the paper, sure, but for what many 'basic hotel things' that you don't get, even $485/month seems quite expensive for this place. I'd say... check in only if you must. Else, try the Baltic Inn on 6th Avenue or Island Inn at the corner of Island and 2nd Ave first. You get more for what you pay there.

Golden West Hotel:720 4th Ave (at G St), San Diego, CA 92101. Tel. (619) 233-7594. Fax. (619) 233-4009.
Daily Rates: $37 (use common bathroom), $44 (full private bathroom)
Weekly Rates: $150 (use common bathroom), $180 (full private bathroom)
Monthly Rates: $485 (small, inside building), $500 (small, outside building)
$503 (large, inside building), $518 (large, outside building)