I cannot actually comment on how staying at this hotel is because the 20-something jerks that run the place canceled my reservation and gave our room away. On our way to the motel (with no phone reception in our car) apparently they tried to contact us to see what time we would be arriving. They didn't reach me so they gave the room away. When we got there and spoke with the people, the kid acted like it was my fault. No apologies, nothing. He was an absolute [-]. It felt like a Seinfeld episode. They never said anything in my email correspondence with them that if we didn't arrive by a certain time they just start giving rooms away. I couldn't believe it. I guess I should have seen this coming from a motel with a Myspace. Save your money and go to the El Prado across the way. Friendly staff, nice pool to sit and eat your free continental breakfast by. That's what we did.

We stayed in this motel for one night but we would have stayed one more if there was any room available. The rooms are newly renovated, nicely decorated and very clean. The location is great. Just about 10 min walk to all sorts of restaurants and shops and 20 min to the beach. The staff is friendly and helpfull and the rates are quite good.

My wife and I have just spent 4 weeks driving round California, Nevada and Arizona. Along the way we stopped in quite a few motels and hotels.

The Presido is excellent – it looks like it has been decorated. Our room was upstairs by the sun deck, the room was very clean, nice linen and towels.

There are some nice touches eg the sun deck and free breakfast and we would certainly go back there.

It was excellent value.

This place is essentially a Motel 6 or equivalent that a some people IKEA-fied. No doubt about it -- they were creative and they made it look very cute. And they clearly took some time to do it (the wall decals in unit #1 seem like they would've taken forever to put up).

Cute wall decals and down comforter notwithstanding, however...

Both the towels and the walls are *paper* thin. T

he comforter must have been left over from when California belonged to Mexico it was so broke down and saggy in the middle.

The shower had limescale and rust all over it.

Separate from the comfort of the room was the service. Whenever I saw someone at the front desk, they were very nice and accomodating. However, when I needed a plunger (damn those low-flow SB toilets!), no one was at the front desk and the door to the front desk was locked. So I rang the "night bell" (this is at 8:00 p.m. -- a little early for the night bell, no?), but there was no answer. I went back every 20 mintues for an hour, to no avail. Finally I called the "emergency number" -- at which point someone (one of the owners I guess?) who was clearly out at a bar answered, heard my problem, apologized profusely (to his credit), and told me that apparently the night bell doesn't work but someone would be by soon. (I'm no MBA, but perhaps you could put a note by this bell indicating that pushing it would be an exercise in futility?) The girlfriend-hotel owner came by about 45 minutes later with a plunger and again apologized, but still... by that point it was 10:00 p.m. and we were feeling more than a bit inconvenienced.

It's a cool idea, turning an old place like this into something hip and comfortable, and I heartily salute the couple who is doing this (we specifically considered this when we decided to stay here -- why not support people who are essentially "recycling" and making something for themselves?). But there's still a ways to go before these hipsters can justify charging 180/night. So here are my recommendations:

Invest in some new towels. Go to Tuesday Morning for pete's sake; they have good deals there. (We even mentioned this to the owner in the morning, and he said "Yeah, other people have said the same thing". THEN DO IT.)

Get some hard core cleaning products for the showers. Retile and invest in new hardware in the not-to-distant future.

Get some new mattresses. STAT.

PUT A NOTE UP BY THE NIGHT BELL EXPLAINING THAT IT DOESN'T WORK. HAVE SOMEONE READILY AVAILABLE FOR FIXING PROBLEMS. Yes it's an incovenience, hipster hotel-owners, and yes you may not be able to go out with your friends on Saturday nights, but you wanted to own a hotel, so make sure your guests are comfortable and happy. Either that, or drop your rates SIGNIFICANTLY.