The Dana on Mission Bay — Hotel in San Diego

Update: Another great stay at The Dana - 5 nights this time and we also had a party in their event space. This go around we stayed in the conference room bay suite which was super spacious with a huge patio on the end of the bayside building. Our room was clean and very comfortable (they could use an upgrade on their pillows) and I loved that we could have some of our other family staying at the resort over socially. Every staff member we interfaced with was awesome, from the front desk, to folks around the property to the people working at Firefly. We did a pre get together at Firefly on Friday at the big area to the right of the restaurant with the fire pit tables. The food was delicious and the service was outstanding for the one gal taking care of around 12-16 of us.

The event that I had been planning here for about a year was amazing. Christina Gold is gold standard for partnering with and she made sure that everything went off beautifully. The staff we had for the event were amazing and took great care of us. All of my guests had a great time, were super complimentary of the event food, cocktails (GREAT bartender) and attentiveness. We recently had a lovely 4 night stay here and enjoyed every single moment of it. We come back to San Diego at least 2-4 times per year (I grew up here until I was forced into becoming a desert dweller for the husbands job years back) for visiting family AND so that I can soak in and breath the Pacific air. I got to do just that at The Dana. Now, I will say that previous to this visit we stayed across the bay at The Bahia on almost all of our stays... and I will never go back after staying at The Dana. That is how much I loved it here. There are some nuances in pricing that level it out to being about the same (free parking vs. Dana charges, pet fees, etc.)

Quiet, low key, clean, friendly staff, great restaurant/food. We brought our pups with us this trip and I enjoyed seeing other guests with theirs and how dog friendly they are. We got their 'dog' package - but even when having lunch at the restaurant one day, our server brought our girls a cute little bag of milk bones which was so sweet.

Our room was a bay facing double Queen on the first floor and we LOVED it. We could walk out the gate right down to the water edge. The room itself was comfortable and clean, great sleep quality although you can hear people walking above you if the room is occupied... at least we could and they were jumping around a lot at night (so maybe kids? not a big deal they were done by 10 or so)

I am hosting an event here in February, and I hope that the service and hospitality we received this trip is the same as I will be bringing roughly 60 or so of my closest peeps with me to stay. I was a little bummed out that I tried to get a quick peek at the event space during my stay on Thursday and Friday, and nobody seemed to want to accommodate me. Each time I had five minutes to take a few photos, my event person was 'unavailable' and I was told to send her an email (really?) Hopefully not a sign of...

I had a very disappointing experience at The Dana. We booked two rooms (traveling with 4 adults & 4 kids ages 9-12) specifically for the Holiday Light Boat Parade. The Dana advertised that with the Boat Parade promo code, you received a ton of “perks” including rooms with a view and balcony, two Irish coffees and offer to get VIP seating to watch the parade (VIP seating included heaters, character visits and a snow machine).

We didn’t get any of that!

First of all, the room we received was like a motel, not a hotel. The building was two stories and our door opened directly to the parking lot.

The carpet in the room was old and frayed. You could feel bumps in the padding underneath and you could feel where there was no padding at all.

There was a gap in the door allowing cold air, light and etc in.

There were spiders making fresh webs in the corners of the room. Seems like house keeping did their best to knock them down but with a hole in the door they just keep coming back.

You could hear everything from the parking lot, neighboring toilets and showers, every doors open and close. It was not quiet.

The parking lot is SMALL. We squeezed our mini van between a sedan and a jeep. The poor mom driving the jeep had to pull out to get her baby in/out of the car seat because it was so tight.

We tried to contact staff before our arrival to confirm everything with the Boat Parade package. They said that they hotel was fully booked and so they shoved us over to the motel and knocked $36 off the price. The day before arrival they offered to cancel our room without penalty but at that point we had no where else to stay.

Overall, very disappointing. Even at check in staff were so distracted with setting up for the boat parade they were not very welcoming to us.

I would not be returning. I would not recommend.

This should be called the Dana Motel.

Note- I originally planned to give this a one star but a VERY nice gentleman working for the hotel helped me locate a lost item. He was worth 5 five stars ⭐️ ! I gave one extra star just because of...

Here are the Top 10 things to know about The Dana:||1. Real estate is about location, and the Dana occupies prime bayfront property. The hotel offers immediate access to wide walking trails that circumvent the bay. A few restaurants are within walking distance, and the beach is a mere mile away.|2. The motel-style layout means access to all rooms is from the great outdoors. That also means that the room’s prime windows – next to the door – give passers-by a quick look into your temporary abode.|3. Not all buildings are created equal. Some buildings have a view of the parking lot, and others overlook the bay for an added cost.|4. Imagine a bowling alley as we venture into the room. The bathroom entryway is straight down the entry corridor and dead ends at the air conditioning unit (more on that next). The desk faces a wall that separates the bathroom from the sleeping quarters. The greatest challenge with the layout is that the coolest part of the room is the bathroom.|5. Sound travels, and that was abundantly clear on a Friday night when my neighbors hosted small gatherings. I felt like I was there.|6. It pays to park. Scratch that. You pay to park - $29 per night. The Dana eliminated the resort fee and replaced it with this vehicle overnight fee.|7. The parking lot to the east of the property for Dana Landing is a literal mess (abundant refuse). It felt like a completely different world when you take a few steps off the property.|8. Early check-in entails a charge, but they waived it within two hours of the posted time.|9. The pool and fitness center were adequate for the property’s size.|10. I’ve often traveled to San Diego for business and never found a go-to hotel. And I'm still looking. The Dana is uber-convenient to downtown, Old Town, Sea World, and Mission Valley. It’s 15 minutes to go everywhere, but you need a car if you’re there longer than an overnight. Overall, it’s a mid-level hotel (far from the luxe side of things) in a superb location.||Location: 4.5/5|Rooms:...