Greetings! I am a big fan of San Diego hotels. I have stayed on hundreds of vacations and business trips to this excellent place and I never get tired of it. My latest hotel stay was at the Hard Rock Hotel. It looked really cool on the web site so I decided to go when I found their cheapest price I could possibly get (paid around $200, plus extras). Was it worth it? I personally liked it, though my older travel companion wasn't as excited about her room.
Here's the scoop:
When you check into the Hard Rock Hotel lobby at the entry way to Gaslamp Quarter, you are greeted by a night-time, dark version of the Jetsons cartoon in which cute girls (usually in cool clothes and short skirts) welcome you with the space age video and changing lights behind them...kind of like a Las Vegas or Pechanga night club display. It's just as if you were going into a bar, and by the way, the bar is located to the right of the check in. There's no traditional desk for check in, but kind of individualized podiums or lecture stands, only space age style, again.
What's really funny about this faux modern check-in lobby is seeing all the men in their oxford shirts who are staying at the hotel for a conference. Wearing the little plastic name tags around their necks, you get the feeling the kids are in school and have their names so they don't get lost. Then you put them in a night club and the whole thing kind of creeps you out like this is trying to be one thing, but it turns out to be a joke.
So you get past the cute girls and the dark lobby, heading for your room. Get ready for a surprise, they promised me. Nothing! What's the surprise? I sure didn't find a surprise, and also, my room didn't include an IPOD like I've had in Crescent Hotel in Beverly Hills. For a place focused on rock, wouldn't you assume each room would be wired to the latest sounds? It turns out my surprise was supposed to be a song playing when I entered the door of my room. I guess they forget to turn it on.
The room itself: Are you ready for installment 2? If not, you can just go to sleep now. Sleep tight. Don't let the bedbugs bite. (No, there are no bedbugs at Hard Rock.)
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Hard Rock is hard to swallow. Have you ever wondered why hard rocks come & go? It's a commercial approach to trying to cash in on the part of r&r that was the result of excess. Too much money, too old. It needs to re-invent itself. Loose the trappings and become real.
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