San Diego, CA
Overview: This is a historic hotel right by the water in San Diego. The rooms in the main hotel are the best rooms—the rooms in the adjacent buildings are a little dated. There are a couple of nice restaurants and shops right on the property and you are within walking distance to a number of great restaurants. Everything is a bit pricey, but that is to be expected from a classic hotel like this.
Ballrooms: There are a couple of ballrooms. Off the main lobby there is the ballroom called “The Ballroom”, which has an existing stage and windows that wrap around the room. This is a great room for food events or gala dinners.
Another ballroom on the property is called the Crown Room. This is a beautiful wood-lined ballroom, which works great for meals and could be used for a small general session.
The final ballroom is the Grande Hall. It is located in an adjacent building and features an upstairs ballroom with multiple breakout rooms on the first floor.
Note: There is a large elevator stage that is ideal for load-in and load-out, but I’ve heard it breaks often. This means load-in to the Grand Hall can be an issue as there is only one other small elevator.
AV Staff and Equipment: In-house AV is expensive at this property. We mainly worked with them to handle a few breakout rooms, but the staff was attentive and the equipment was in good shape.
Note that in-house AV is exclusive for AV on the garden lawn by the beach. Again, I thought the equipment cost was expensive but they set lighting out there often and provided some nice options for lighting and décor.
Bottom Line: The hotel is a historic hotel with a great vibe that is frequented by movie stars. For a destination trip, it would be fantastic. While the rooms for general session are not very large, there are a ton of breakout rooms so the hotel is well suited for a medium size show.