500 West Hotel

Just found out Hotel 500 West will be closed for remodeling! Thank Heaven! I guessed all that complaining from previous guests n the homeless crazies nearby startin to use the place as shelters finally tick the owner of this fine establishment to do something! Hope the new refurbishment or facelift will get more decent guests or clients. My last couple times stayin here gave me the chills n willies. Hear people sceamin n talk in to themselves in the hallway in the middle of the night! Remind me of the Cortez of American Horror Story tv show! Can’t wait to see how 500 West transform itself! I do kind of like this place for the convenience to Cruise ports, Gaslamp Quarter, Airports n San Diego’s fine Public Metro Rails!

If I could leave a zero I would. Room smelled like urine, seat in room was mysteriously slimey, hallway was squishy from flooding, elevator had a bunch of graffiti, bathroom had no soap. Was horrible, I got out of there asap and expedia refunded me.

This place is DISGUSTING!!! Notice I said place, because it does not classify as a hotel. This building was once a YMCA. Not to mention that the pictures online are DECEIVING. If you’ve never been to jail, come stay here and you’ll definitely know what being in jail feels like. I went to stay at San Diego for the first time with 2 of my friends and let me tell you, this place ruined the experience for me. Since I went during spring break, there weren’t any rooms available at other hotels, so we had to stay there. Here’s what I experienced:
Check-​in day: the hotel doesn’t offer parking, so I had to leave my car in a parking structure next door which costs $ 25 a night (yikes!). As we were at the concierge checking in, an African-​American man goes in and is waiting for the elevator. The receptionist makes a face with disgust, asks what room he’s in, he replies with the room number and tells her he has a key. She then asks what name the room is under. Really? You have to ask? HE HAD A KEY! If you ask me, it seemed like a prejudice act from her behalf solely on his appearance. Afterwards, nobody else was questioned as that man was, not I, nor my friends, no body. As we get into our rooms, we notice THERE ARE NO BATHROOMS! Ugh. Disclosure: the restrooms are shared. You’d think that since they are shared, they’d at least be kept clean by housekeeping AT LEAST every hour. Yeah, definitely not the case. Some of the restrooms had been completely shitted on and it stayed like that the whole day! We even called to ask that the shitted restroom be cleaned, yeah that didn’t happen.
Overall, if you are in need to get a room don’t stay here please. Not only is this place disgusting, it is infested with drug addicts. I even found a condom wrapper and syringe cap on the restroom floor next to the toilet, one can only speculate was was going in in there. Also, the fact that they are prejudice ass holes, should be reason enough not to look twice into staying here. You have been warned.

Low service
you have to take your shaver in common facility
room without TV
Try to avoid if you can

This will be the first and last time I will stay at this hotel. If you’re looking for cheap well you found it! You get what you pay for! This place is not only cheap it’s disgusting and filthy! They seriously need to upgrade and remodel this place from the inside. Worse part about the stay was the shared bathrooms! Gross! They have mildew on the ceiling. No ventilation at all! They do not clean these rooms or anything at all right! Anyways enough said never staying here again! If I can rate 0 stars I would!

Checked in and 10 minutes later checked out. That bad.
I would have rather slept in my car.
Pictures from other sites are very deceiving.

Don’t do it! Pay and extra $ 20-​$ 30 to stay at a Motel 6! The rooms smell and bathrooms are disgusting! Might as well get a room in TJ!

Not even worth it for the «cheap» price. This place is DDDDIIIIIRRRRRTTTTYYYYY! I stayed for 2 hours, and checked out the same day.
I’m not going to get into the details, but just know that EVERYTHING is dirty. Carpet is a WRECK! Bathroom… and I only went because I was fresh off of a 3 hr drive and I HHHAAADDD to go… is disgusting! I barely wanted to pee, I absolutely refuse to disrobe and shower or even brush my teeth in there. I have zero desire to check the bed, mattress, or sheets. Leaving them as they are. I don’t even want to put my luggage on the ground, it’s so gross. Definitely wiping everything down when I get home.
KEEP LOOKING! And if it’s too expensive at other hotels, then skip San Diego altogether!
I’d rather sleep in my car or on a park bench.
***However, I did ask for a refund, and they gave it to me with no problems. Not worth an extra star, but worth the mention to balance out my negative review.***

Stayed here with my gf and friend when competing in a Muay Thai tournament. The entrance is cool shares it with the YMCA. we played a game of pool before going in our room
The room was small with a twin bunk set up. Everything looks to be clean and in order. The room served its purpose as we only stayed in it when we dropped off our stuff and slept after the evening was concluded.
It’s difficult to complain for the price. Would probably check this place out again if I didn’t plan ahead of time or really needed a place for downtown SD. It’s prime real estate. I’d suggest better accommodations if you’re going out with a significant other. But if your out with your dudes and looking for a place to crash while smashing SD definitely check this place out.

I wish I could give this place 0 stars. The only thing that makes me ok with giving it at least 1 star is the location. It is very conveniently close to the gas lamp quarters. Other than that it’s disgusting. The carpets all over the building are filled with stains. The pictures they have up on
is a complete fabrication of the actual rooms. There were rats outside the building and roaches in the lobby. I only stayed one night so the community bathrooms weren’t a problem for me, but I was so grossed out that I slept on top of a beach towel that I brought from home.

DO NOT STAY HERE, seriously. You’re basically paying to sleep in the equivalent to your car. It’s disgusting. It honestly feels like a prison.
We literally checked in, saw the room, and walked right out and stayed at the Day Inn down the street. For $ 50 more you actually get a restroom and shower in your room! Oh and a screen on the window!
Such an awesome location for such a shitty place.

DO NOT STAY HERE. I WOULD RATHER HAVE SLEPT IN MY CAR. If I could, I would give this place no stars. There honestly just aren’t words to describe this place. My boyfriend and I booked this «hotel» (it’s not a hotel, it’s a hostel) last minute for two nights on a quick trip to SD Labor Day weekend. It was cheap and central and since we were on a budget, seemed okay. We actually checked out the next day and moved to a Sheraton, more than willing to cough up the extra money after fearing for our lives every second there. We were so terrified we slept with the lights on and pushed the bed against the door!!!
The website is unbelievably misleading. They advertise parking but they only have metered parking or $ 25/​day in a parking garage. This was not advertised and since we took two cars, we paid an extra $ 50 just to park overnight.
We weren’t sure what we were in for so we decided we would bring our own towels, pillows, shower shoes, and sheets just in case. Thank god we did that. The room is maybe 7×7 feet and contains a tiny twin bed, a desk, little TV, and a closet. The walls were stained, the carpet was stained, there were no screens on the window, the place was LOUD! The bathrooms and communal and couldn’t have been more disgusting. This was basically a hostel that welcome in drunks, drug addicts, and overall sketchy people who we usually avoid. Neither of us wanted to go anywhere in that place alone and constantly accompanied each other, even to the bathroom for safety. We were in tears the entire time we were there.
Either don’t make the trip if you can’t afford to stay somewhere halfway decent like a Motel6, or sleep in your car. You’re probably safer.
The only thing good about this place is that they have wifi and the staff we encountered seemed nice enough. They also have security guards in the lobby (much needed and still didn’t feel safe).
After I take a bath in disinfectant, I will be filing a complaint with the board of health. This place should be condemned. DO NOT STAY HERE!

WARNING: BED BUGS
We stayed here Labor Day weekend. We planned a last-​minute bike trip to San Diego and amenities were not a priority, and the $ 60 price tag was very attractive — all we needed was a bed to sleep in, and we were not picky about the shared bathroom situation.
The morning after a night of hanging out in Little Italy, we packed up our (very few) things and groggily went to find breakfast and coffee. Later, I was so itchy and, lo and behold, my body is COVERED in bed bug bites in their tell-​tale lines and clusters. I’m talking my entire arm, back, legs, and even behind my ear.
Thankfully, since we were traveling so light, the bed bugs are unlikely to have hopped into any of our things, and we are going to put everything we had in there in the dryer for an hour or two.
Not worth the cheap price to be covered in welts.

If you’re looking for a decent and cheap place to stay. This is NOT one!
If I could, I wouldn’t have even given it one star. It’s so bad I would’ve given it a symbol for Uranus if I could. That’s how bad this place is. (Got to find the humor in things).
First, when you search for cheap hotels this comes up as one. It’s not even a hotel it’s a HOSTEL. And the worst I could ever imagine.
We booked it thinking it was a hotel and because one review said it was decent/​okay – I don’t know what they were comparing it to, and it alarms me as to what they thought was horrible.
The lobby is the only decent area in the building, and even though there are two ancient elevators, only one works. And even that one had us worried that it was struggling to take us between floors.
The worst was the bathrooms. The bathrooms and showers are communal (which always are horrendous – trust me I used to be in the army). But these were the worst.
I know they were not cleaned or checked up on by staff that often. They we’re just downright dirty. All the showers we saw (at least three or four) had mold everywhere and tiny bugs – just nasty. And every sink and toilet area had my fiancée and I reluctant to use them due to being worried of catching something contagious.
The rooms don’t have AC and only one plug in, and the beds were pretty small.
The only good thing was that they have free wifi.
Overall just a place to avoid. Especially if you want clean facilities and amenities. Spend the extra $ 50.00 to $ 60.00 bucks and stay at an actually chain hotel. Anything is better than this place.

The cheap price might be tempting but just don’t do it. Definitely has a «hostel» feel with no screens for the windows and I’m actually scared to lay on my pillow :/
No parking.
Elevators smell like ass.
Rude receptionists.
No screens on windows. I’m definitely tempted to jump out right now.
Shared restrooms.
Wish i did my due diligence and read the Unilocal reviews ahead of time.
Okay I’m gonna go die now, byeeeeee.

I will preface this review by saying that I am giving this hotel ⁴⁄₅ stars based on the fact that a 2 person room was $ 67 per night, the hotel is located less than a mile to the gaslamp quarter, the convention center, ballpark, USS Midway, etc., I didn’t get robbed or find any bed bugs, and was overall quite content with my stay.
With that said, you have to understand that you are not staying at a 5-​star hotel. Are the walls and carpet stained? Yes. Did the place smell or feel dirty? No. This is coming from someone who is somewhat of a germaphobe too.
The only really negative thing I found about the bathroom was that these toilets are very delicate and cannot handle a lot of stress… if ya know what I mean. Sometimes I found them clogged — but they were fixed by the next day! If you’re concerned about other bathroom cleanliness issues, just bring flip flops to the shower.
I am contributing photos to the already great collection so you can see straight up that this is by no means going to be a glamorous stay. The fan was small but mighty. It is true that the windows don’t have screens, and this might have been the reason for my [one and only] bug sighting — it was a giant cockroach. However, since living in Washington, D.C. I have come to terms with the fact that cockroaches and other bugs exist no matter how clean you are or how many chemicals you spray. In fact, cockroaches should probably replace the bald eagle as our nation’s symbol because they are eeeeverywhere.
If the statement I read in another review about their plan to remodel the hotel is true, I really really hope they don’t get too crazy and suddenly join the fleet of $ 250+ hotels in the area. As a student it is really nice to have this type of place as an affordable option in the heart of downtown.

Oh the star dilemma — not a 5 but it fit our needs, not a 1 because we got a decent room, not a 3 because the bathrooms were bad, so we shall go with a 2.
A room for 2 people for $ 89!!! Within walking distance to the Convention Center?!? Booked the week of Comic-​Con!!! Yes!
This place has private rooms as well as hostel dorm style rooms. Our room was on the 2^nd floor which seems to be better off than other floors.
If you’ve never had to walk down the hall to the bathroom with your own toilet paper (there was toilet paper there, but bringing your own wouldn’t hurt at all), or ever had to share a co-​ed gym-​style dorm bathroom, then you won’t like this place, and that’s without the issues other people had.
Lobby is nice, and looks like that obviously staged website photos, plus the lobby bathrooms are NEW giving you hopes, but dashing them later.
One elevator was broken, the other one worked… «normally» it didn’t seem slow or dangerous, but we never had more than 3 people in it at once. The buttons were cracked and unreadable.
1) Our room was an 8×8 box with an Ikea Tromso bunk bed. The bed was brand new, the mattresses were brand new and still had some tags on them. A towel, washcloth, sheet and pillow with case were provided and the bed had a fitted sheet on it with a non-​plastic mattress pad under it. We stripped the beds to look for bedbugs — none found and happy to see the newness of the bedding. There was a cute ceiling fan with short blades that made a strong breeze!
2) The room needed painting, the desk was torn up, the «flat screen» TV was an 8 or 10 inch one that worked if you could figure out what channel to get to using the remote. Windows are screen-​less. Our room faced the courtyard so street noise was minimal but you could hear things like people walking, doors closing, normal hotel noise.
3) In preparation for a disaster I hit the 99-​cent store in advance and brought Lysol wipes, Febreeze and bathroom cleaner. The room had no smell at all and the carpet was clean. The bathrooms however…
4) Bathrooms — first let me say there is AWFUL ICKY NEED-​TO-​BE-​SCRAPED OFF black mold and mildew in the showers.
Bathrooms open with electronic room key and look like a bathroom at home — a door, sink, toilet and shower. Once you are in, lock the door and it is your bathroom. People will knock and you should knock first as there is no indicator that someone is inside.
On the 2^nd floor, #2 didn’t open with our key, #3 was out of order, #4 was smelly and mildewy, #5 the shower had pooled water, #6 was passable, #7 needed a regular key to work so didn’t see inside, #8 was a toilet and sink only.
Mildew in the showers was bad, but curtains were clean. Toilets and sinks seemed recently installed, but #6 toilet had dark water stains or ink? Even before we unpacked, I went into #6 and doused every surface with cleaner because I needed to shower and wasn’t bringing home any nasties. I dropped my bottle of cleaner in the shower so the floor ended up sanitized really well LOL
Shower shoes and a caddy are critical, and also some kind of floor covering, newspaper, a plastic bag, etc. if you also change in there. #6 did not have shower soap/​shampoo dispensers.
6) Staff — very nice and seemed sad that we couldn’t check in at 9am when we arrived but told us to call or come back around 12 to see what could be done. Check in is 4pm, check out 12, but with some options for late check out ($ 25 an hour till 3pm and then a full day’s charge after I think). There is a security guard in the lobby and I guess doing rounds all day, we saw them in the lobby but I never looked for them in the hallways.
7) Booked room on Orbitz through Trivago for $ 89 + tax. At check in no problems and no extra fees, but contract at hotel states $ 50 deposit hold on credit card with a $ 125 fee if you lost your key.
8) Cleanliness — When we walked in, someone was mopping the lobby with what seemed like straight bleach, which was comforting. On the 2^nd floor there was a man removing/​installing carpet and cleaning the hallways. We told him one of the showers was backed up and he said he was waiting for maintenance, so he wasn’t the maintenance guy.
9) Parking — no hotel lot, we parked across the street for $ 28 per day with no in and out, but able to leave anytime.
10) There was free WiFi, you get the code upon check in. It worked and was strong.
Would I stay there again? Yes, not alone though and only if they renovated, and not like Four Seasons renovated, but just renovated so it was cleaner and had «occupied» indicators on the bathroom doors. Can’t really say how to manage bathrooms used by dozens of people daily, you can’t give out 50 bathmats, but at least put some shower spray in them with a note to spray after each use or something.
We got lucky with our room, and given that it was Comic Con and we were within 1 block of the transit center, Amtrak, three 7-​elevens, a Starbucks and a bank, I can’t complain much.

Don’t get me wrong, we knew this was a cheap hostel-​style option. My standards were low to start: all I wanted was a mattress for it to be clean. We were SO wrong.
Bathrooms are shared with the floor. Ok fine. But they are by no means clean. Grime and rust stains all over. The room itself has stained carpet.
But the WORST part is hands down the bugs. Our last night, we found 5 half inch sized bugs crawling on the walls, floor and bedside.
I actually believe this last one is a legit health concern that I’ll be submitting formally right after this. But had to Unilocal review first. #priorities.

What do people expect to get for $ 89 (for 2 people) in downtown to Gaslamp Quarter /​Convention Center area where the average hotel price starts at $ 200?
Whoever said that this is a Hotel in a crack area has obviously never been to tenderloin district in San Francisco. Here is the real deal as I sit in the room itself right now. I will update this after we leave.
We called 500 on the phone to inquire about parking. They were upfront and very friendly. I even tried to bribe the front desk woman 20 bucks to give me any secrets on secret parking because we are here during comic-​con. She laughed and said she wish she had some secrets but gave me some interesting advice for street parking.
Checking in was a breeze very nice clean lobby & friendly front desk guy. No frills. Nice outside (no frills) area to take your delivered food.
The elevator is old — that means it’s going to make noise and it’s not going to look pretty. You are not going to die {rolls eyes}. Elevators are inspected once a year for safety.
The hallways are clean but the carpets are stained & ugly. Our room had a modern key lock. From the Unilocal reviews I read I was really hoping for a skeleton key oh well.
The rooms have no air conditioning, ours had a fan and no screens on the windows. But considering that we are up on the 4^th floor the only person who can rob us is somebody who has Spiderman like abilities. Besides we left our million dollar jewelry at home so what’s there to steal other than our clothes & accessories.
No bugs at all. Not when we arrived, not when I woke up during the night or in the morning. Our mattress was clean & so was the wood frame it was on… no I didn’t lift the mattress up to see underneath. I have no plans to remove the mattress & eat a meal on it.
Parking does cost a lot of money in the public spot but you can find street parking bring quarters or credit card.
For two people in the room and a twin bed, bring a camper cot. This way one of you can sleep on the bed and one can sleep on the cot. Than again I’m a plus size grrl & my boi is 5’11 with some meat on him. We fit the twin bed together — cramped but we slept fine for the most part.
The hostel /​hotel is right next to the train & in downtown SD. That means lots of transportation noises.
There are no bathrooms in the room, it is a shared bathroom but it is a very clean bathroom and it requires your room key just to get in. Keep in mind that people in the morning are going to take showers so it’s probably not going to look perfect for you. Bring a robe & flip flops so that you can walk from the bathroom /​shower to your room or get dressed in the shower room.
For those of you who are complaining — pay the extra $ 50 to a $ 100 and go to a motel 6 because this is a place for you to sleep and that’s it. Its not a be seen kind of hotel. If you’re worried the paparazzi wont find you then you need to go to the Westin a block away.
UPDATE
Here’s a checklist for almost any metropolitan city in America — add $ 20 for every Yes. I want:
Stain free floors, large room, bathroom in the room, air conditioning, min 75% noise free, tv in the room, absolutely no bugs of any kind including flies, I want to do yoga in my room, located in an area that is pretty & full of expensive cars, people, shopping & dining. Total that up & add that amount to the the average hotel price of $ 100. That is approximately what you need to pay for your ideal room.
We got a clean, safe & reasonably quiet room with access to a bathroom & shower. YES! We headed over to the bar area via Urber & spent our money on drinks, food & tips for street entertainment. The one Con I will mention is some kind of something outside the hotel (the bus station?) that vibrates everything around it including our room. It was sorta like a vibrating bed without having to feed it quarters. Just wish it was a little quieter but the vibration felt good.
Lost 1 star for noise level outside the hostel /​hotel.

Why 3 stars: It’s not like you don’t know, going in, that what this is, is the old Armed Forces YMCA that your great-​grampa stayed in when he had shore leave in San Diego back in ’47.
Why 3 stars: PRICE. Downtown San Diego, on the edge of the Gaslamp, for under $ 50/​night? Boy howdy.
Downside: Really crap lighting. No A/​C. Teensy rooms. Building is old, tired, and needs a stiff drink. Elevator had a bit part in a ‘50s horror movie, and won’t shut up about it.