Old Town Inn — Hotel in San Diego

OK here it is up front - Old Town Inn is THE HACK for San Diego - including of course, Old Town. Here's why. For the price:

*It's ridiculously close to most of what you want need without a car. I stayed there without a car. It's a 3-5 minute walk to Old Town Transit Center which means you can get the San Diego Trolley, Coaster, and Surfliner - all within steps of where you're staying. That practically unlocks most of San Diego without a car.

*Within a 10 minute walk, you can find yourself in the middle of quaint old classic, historic, throw back Old Town in one direction - or in the middle of modern shopping and dining (read: chains) mecca on Rosecrans and Sports Arena Blvd in the opposite direction.

*The rooms are clean and convenient. The room for my stay featured comfortable double beds (the pillows could use some help but hey, I doubled mine up), mini-kitchenette featuring mini-fridge, microwave, sink, and mini-range (if you want to be economically minded and cook some of your own food). There is laundry on the property (which has a Ms. Pac Man/Galaga arcade machine) - which I used during my stay there (The laundry machines and arcade take quarters, which the front desk happily can change dollar bills for).

*They feature cute quirks and features, such as a DVD based library which you can patronize during your stay. Each room has DVD player and the lobby features the DVD titles/jackets. Simply provide ID and borrow and view DVD's to your heart's content.

*Free Parking, Wi-Fi, and Breakfast featuring make your own waffle bar - need I say more?

All that being said, be aware:

*It is on the 101 so there WILL be some road noise.

*It's close to Old Town Transit Center, there WILL be train horns.

*Walls aren't the sturdiest so some room noise DID make it's way through.

*It's set up as a motel and has multiple buildings, each room in each building has to be entered directly from outside.

*The area IMMEDIATELY ADJACENT to the hotel is a more on the light industrial side. You walk about 5 min towards Old Town Transit Center (which you can see from the Inn itself) to access Old Town; you walk about 5 minutes in the other direction to come out on Rosecrans and access all the shopping and dining (of course being Cali they are all in strip-type malls designed for cars).

I'm a city guy though so none of those were dealbreakers.

In my opinion, if you're staying in San Diego and desire value, function, convenience, and accessibility - the Old Town Inn...

Confused as to why the reviews are so glowing for this property. Mediocre at best with outdated amenities and poor air circulation in these old motel rooms (this is not a hotel). It’s clean enough, but this is 100% no frills.

This property is close to Old Town and other destinations — but it’s in the middle of an industrial area, and is kinda on an island that requires your own car or rideshare to get anywhere.

Each room offers a DVD player and the lobby has a library of movies to check out. Quaint in the ‘90s, I’m sure. In 2025, guests simply need decent signal and streaming channel options. The signal in our room was so poor, watching TV was a chore — glitching image, often completely dropping out.

The walls and floors are very thin; forget about privacy. Run the fan non-stop or you’ll hear traffic from the street and airport all night and all morning. This is a structural issue that little can be improved on — it’s an old motel. There’s no modern soundproofing here.

Tech seems to be an ongoing challenge for this group, as the payment/deposit method HAS to be on the same card, which sucks if you want to pay with a debit card and want the security deposit to be on a credit card that you don’t need to worry about. Alas, no go. Has to be the same card. A little inconvenient, but something to plan for. It would be nice to have a more updated folio system that allows for multiple cards for payment/deposit. That said, it IS only $100, so it’s not the end of the world — but slightly annoying that I need to stay on top of this after the vacation to make sure the deposit is returned.

We would not stay here again, although it wasn’t a BAD stay — it just wasn’t great. I don’t think it was worth the price point of $384 for two nights (via Expedia). Maybe $100 per night. In the future, I’d look elsewhere and opt to spend more — the reviews were so favorable for this property, I was convinced I’d found a gem of a deal. Not the case. It’s an old motel close to Old Town with bare bones offerings that aren’t BAD — they’re just not modern or exceptional, or...

This was a great experience ! I highly recommend staying here. Check-in and out was super easy and quick. We stayed in the family suite I think? We luckily got a corner unit that was on the third floor and it was perfectly quiet and close to the parking/elevator. I almost wish we could've stayed multiple nights because we enjoyed the room so much. Clean, big suite and very comfortable. A/C was blasting the whole time so the room was very very comfy. Beds and linens were clean, soft and SOOO comfy. Don't know if I was just tired or it was the nyquil, but that sleep was the BEST sleep I've had all month LOL.

Hotel is easy to find, kind of an industrial area. Area is kinda sketchy just cause there is a lot of foot traffic and it's close to the metro station, so definitely lots of transients in the area, but we never felt unsafe. Don't keep stuff in your car - you shouldn't be doing that anyways, but yeah the parking lot is open, so just be smart about securing your stuff. Pro is it is close to Old Town, and the metro station, so if you're traveling, this is the perfect spot to rest. Very well maintained property, I love the "spanish style" design of the buildings, ala Old Town right next door. Clean and well maintained. Parking lot is small though, we came back around midnight and got very very lucky with finding the literal last open spot in the lot - maybe like 40 ish spots?

Shower and bathroom was very clean, had plenty of towels and soap. Kitchenette was cute, although we only used the fridge, which was small but useful for what we needed. Sleeper couch was definitely stiff, but it was definitely comfy to sit on as a couch. TVs worked great and had plenty of channels to veg out to.

Overall, great price for a clean and comfortable stay, free parking (AMAZING deal for a San Diego stay - avg parking price for hotels around here are $30-50/night), would definitely stay here again! If you're iffy about staying here, don't be! Definitely check...