For those of you who are handycapped - beware -,
Our room (while adequate ) The door to our room was warped and did not close properly and took considerable force to close it.
Also, this room was labeled as handycapped accessible: the bathroom was, but getting to the bathroom was not.

I stayed here in August of 2007. My room was perfectly fine. In fact I thought is was great considering the location. Right next to the harbor. Restaurants and shopping nearby. I liked it so well, I am going to stay there again this August. Can't be beat for the price and location. Sounds like these other reviewers have a grudge against the hotel or slept in their cars in the parking lot

I wish that I had seen these reviews before I made a reservation to stay at this motel. I thought the pictures online looked 'quaint and kitchey" - like and old 40's motor lodge. CREEPY sums it up. Filthy smelly rooms, stained worn thin bedding (I slept in my jeans becasue the sheets scaed me) Holey towels (You'd think iI was kidding, eh?)
I asked for nonsmoking (there is no such thing there) The room more than just reeked wiht cigarette odor - but oh - there was no ashtray. LOL
The broken and stained shower had NO HOT WATER handle, so cold shower in the morning. There were holes kicked in the bathroom wall. Looked like snot slung across another wall. No hair dryers like the ad online said. LOL No refrigerators. NOTHING. I had to special request a fan to drown out the noice, and had to ask for a working TV. No heat. No clocks. No desk attendants there even afetr 8:30 AM (I wanted to complain!) NOISEY all night long , not just becasue of the 2 streets - but that didnt help. I lucked out and got the room that had someone living above it. This place makes welfare housing look like a great place to hang out at. Maybe it woud be better than being homeles, but I'd ratehr sleep in my car. I got this palce becasue it wsa 1/2 the price of holiday Inn express. I dont think you could PAY ME to stay there again. Seriously folks, unless you are destitute and this is your ONLY option - spring for the better place!

My girlfriend and I chose this hotel on Hotwire because it was a good deal for what that website claimed was a 3-star hotel. While the newer part of the hotel might be 3-star, the older part that we were in was almost exactly like a motel. I should note that it wasn't horrible, however. Here are some quick bullets:

Dislikes:

-Very noisy. We could hear the highway, a baby screaming at 3am, and a group of teenagers running around, among many other things. There were also many noises inside the room, such as the very creeky bed and the toilet that would sometimes seem to flush itself.

-It just looked old. It certainly didn't feel like we were staying in a 3-star hotel. There were odd combinations of pictures, lamps, bedspread, etc. This didn't bug us (we actually got quite a few laughs out of it), but others might be annoyed by that sort of thing.

-No service by the pool. We had intended on sipping some drinks by the pool and hot tub, but there was never anyone in the bar by the pool to make this happen.

-It's in a bit of a weird spot. Getting to the hotel from the south requires a bizarre route that can be a somewhat tricky if you don't know your way around. We figured this out quickly (San Diego was incredibly easy to navigate), but it still was annoying getting back to the hotel from downtown. NOTE: Getting back to the hotel from the north (i.e. La Jolla) is very easy.

-Beaches aren't horribly accessible by foot. We got to Mission Beach by foot, but it requires about a mile walk and the crossing of a busy 4-lane road.

-No Free Wireless Internet. This is one of my biggest pet peeves at hotels. You have to pay $3.95 per day to use their wireless. NOTE: We were never charged (yet, at least) for the two days we used. Perhaps they messed up?

-The bathroom does not have a tub. The shower is one of those small boxes with a glass door. I needed to bend down to get my hair wet, as the showerhead was very low.

-There is no thermostat in the room. Our first night there was pretty cold and we had to keep turning the little AC/Heat unit on and off as we went from freezing to burning up.


Likes:

-The pool and hot tub were great. The Dana has two pools; we only went in the 'tropical pool' which has a more chilled-out, secluded feel. The pool was very warm, which allowed us to swim even though it was barely 60 degrees (if that) outside.

-The place is right on Mission Bay. If you feel like taking a kayak or paddleboat out on the bay, you can, though it'll cost you quite a bit (which is why we didn't do that).

-The Blue Pearl restaurant on site. We went there once and it was a lot of decent food for a small amount of money.

-You can kind of walk to the beach. It can be a little treacherous crossing the bridge and the highway, but you CAN walk to the beach.

-As far as I know, rates for the rooms in the old section that we are in are pretty cheap (we bought a vacation package which knocked the room rate down to around $90 a night, so I'm not sure what the regular rates are).


BOTTOM LINE:

If you are a family that is used to noise and are on a tight budget, this is probably an OK place for you. If you're a young couple that wants more amenities within walking distance and fewer annoying distractions, stay downtown or right on a beach.

I think the way to go if you're visiting San Diego is to pick a nice hotel either right downtown or right on the beach. That would cut driving time in half. ALSO, if you DO stay at the Dana, try to get one of their rooms in the new section, which looks a lot nicer than the motel-like room we had.