Terrific hotel and great place for romantic getaways. Walking distance to restaurants so if you have a glass or so of wine, no worries. Love the unique glass shower and decor. The hotel was designed by Ferrari and it has the oldest steam elevator in california.

I don't even know where to begin... First advise, do not let the website photos fool you. It serves no justice. Had a convention to attend & website was very inviting, looked very trendy. Thought it would be our retreat after our our daily convention. We were wrong. Booked a pre-paid 5 night/6-day reservation to take advantage of discount. Upon our arrival, there was no hotel lobby, much smaller than described. Staff was awesome though!

We were placed in what they call a "Penthouse" & as we take the smelly elevator upstairs, we enter more of a Bachelor's or Party studio for party-goers! Bed on left side, stainless sink on the right & a shower nearby your bed.. No doors separating anthing except for a toilet and it had a foul smell in there. The whole studio room smelled like mold! No carpet in the room, just cement floor that looked like it doesn't get mopped. We wore our slippers at all times in the room and even in the shower. This place had stains everywhere.

After checking-in, we request to speak to the person in charge of Hotel (Christos Brooks) & explain this Hotel is different from what we saw. Nothing wrong with the place, just not our type.. More for the really young crowd. We request to get our refund back so we can book for a different hotel. Christos says he will check with mgmt and will let us know by Sunday. We stick it out on fri nite & sat nite. It was so loud until 3am, we were miserable! Never received a call from Christos & we check out on Monday. We leave more messages for Christos to call us w/ update, no answer. I finally request to be transfered to his boss & I leave a message for Sandra Viva. I ask to be transferred to Corporate office & it is Acctg Dept that is evidently their corporate office. Suprisingly, we get a voice mail message from Christos that same evening & tells us our refund cannot be granted but they will comp us with free nights at their hotel for the nights we did not stay? Does this make sense? Already said, this isn't our kind of hotel but they are giving us free rooms to appease us...?! We left Keating on 10/8/12 & it is now 10/19/12 and we have left numerous message & Christos still hasn't called us back with details. We don't even know if he really spoke to anyone.

I understand this is a Privately Own Boutique. Although, an acknowledgement from Christos Brooks to customers would be critical whether you have an answer or not. Keating hotel needs to improve on having a phone # to corporate office for customers to call. I think this boutique is a perfect place for party-goers and I was going to recommend it all to my neices & nephews. But, due to the lack of management follow-up, that became a deal breaker. To this date, we are still waiting for Christos or mgmt to call us. It is not uncommon for hotels to refund customers when they are unhappy, but Keating management has a history (based on other reviews) of not refunding customers. Again, we don't even know who makes these decisions or if its even being discussed. All we know is we notified Christos the minute we checked in & did our best to stick it out and ended up paying for this place & another hotel because we couldn't take it anymore. Still waiting for Christos and/or Keating management to call...

Let me start by saying that the staff at this hotel is very accommodating -- though young. They are welcoming and eager to help; however, even the best staff can't make up for what adds up to a very strange hotel experience.

First, the area is geared to a very young crowd -- think Spring Break on Padre Island. Lots of drinking establishments with young patrons screaming and yelling. Remember that old beer smell in the frat house? It wafts out from every bar around here.

Second, the noise level is uncomfortable. I actually found earplugs waiting on my pillow when I first entered the room -- not promising.

Third, there is a mild odor of "old house" in the entire building. Not sure if this is intentional (a cleaning product or incense?) but it made me feel like I was touring a crusty old museum.

Fourth, the room (I stayed on the 5th floor on the Penthouse level) could not be less welcoming. Concrete floors, stainless steel countertops, multiple "cool" electronic gadgets (including the lights) that I had to struggle to figure out how to work (nobody came to the room with me, which is fine -- preferred, actually -- in a "normal" room, but not here). Intriguing Lavazza coffee machine, but nobody bothered to tell me how to turn it on (luckily, Starbucks across the street). No reading lamps beside the bed. Plugs hidden low (had to move the bedside table) to plug in my phone (I like to have it nearby when traveling). Nice city view, but the windows were filthy.

On the plus side, the room was meticulously clean and I liked the high ceilings. The bed was also very comfortable and I slept quite well once I got over the noise outside.

Basically, if you're under 30 and in San Diego to party, then this is the best hotel ever. If you're not -- and you're here on business, like me -- then head to one of the dependable standbys (Marriott or Hilton) nearby and with water views instead of bar views.

I am a very experienced traveler and I understand the wide variety of hotel product in the marketplace. Although I typically stay in big brand hotels, I do enjoy experimenting with boutique properties. By in large, I have never had a bad experience until now!

My wife and I booked a room at The Keating Hotel in the Gas Lamp district in San Diego to celebrate my 50th birthday. We arrived at the hotel around 1pm. Our room was not ready but they said they would call around 5 when the room was ready. That was no big deal. But when we finally entered our room, we noticed a distinct mildew/ mold odor that consumed the room. The windows to the exterior were also caked in dirt. Not a "they have not been washed in a while" dirty but more like "they have not been washed in years" kind of dirty. After sitting in the room for a couple of minutes we decided to complain about the odor. Their answer was fabreeze. That did not do the trick. They offered to move us to another room but that room had the same mildew/ mould aroma as the first. So 20 minutes after checking in, we are checking out. I asked management for consideration/ refund given the circumstances and they said no. We occupied the room for 30 minutes tops and they charged us full charge for our stay. There is a bright side to this story, I was able to book a renovated view room on a high floor at the Manchester Hyatt a few blocks away for less and the room smelled fresh and clean!