If you just need a no-frills, safe place to rest your head at night, this is the perfect place! I stayed here for 6 nights, knowing that I would be spending most of my time outside the apartment and would only need to be in the room for showering and sleeping. It was perfect for that!
Great location, as well. Donut Bar is just a block away -- the best donuts and chai latte I've ever had, with the friendliest staff. Went there every morning. There's a scooter parking place just outside the front door (across the street) so it's also super convenient if that's how you plan to get around the city. I walked to Balboa Park most days (~1.5 miles), you can walk to Gaslamp District in just a few minutes, and it's convenient to other places you may want to Uber. There's a CVS very close by, plus several other restaurants and coffee shops. Very walkable and also felt very safe to me. There's a little shared outdoor area that is nice to sit and have breakfast and the entire time I was there I never saw anyone else use it but me.
The room has a bit of a funky vibe as far as decor goes, and I appreciated the novelty of it. Check-in was very easy.
Some things to be aware of (not pros or cons, necessarily, just things of note):
1. This is an individual room inside what appears to have once been a hotel. So there will be other people in rooms around you -- think like a dorm type of situation. But luckily the room and bathroom are private to only you.
2. The street noise outside tends to start picking up around 6:30 a.m. every day, and it'll likely wake you up unless you're a very heavy sleeper or wear earplugs. You can also hear lots of noise from the people/animals in the apartments around you, and this apartment is right at the top of the stairs, so you'll hear the suitcase noise on mornings when people are checking out.
3. The bed is the only comfortable place to sit in the room. There are two chairs to the left of the bed, but they're high stool-type chairs with no table or anything so not really ideal for sitting to read, etc. That's why I mention that the room is ideal, in my opinion, for someone who isn't looking to spend the majority of their time in the room.
4. There's an air-conditioner unit type thing that has a hose that goes out the window. I stayed here in March and it got pretty chilly at night and there was unfortunately no way to turn on heat or anything. I've let the host know that when I arrived the duvet didn't appear to have been cleaned appropriately, so that made it a bit worse for me since I could only use the top sheet (the sheets and pillowcases looked and smelled clean, it was just the duvet I was skeptical about). I'm confident that won't be an issue for future stays as I'm sure John will ensure that the folks who swap out the linens take better care to check the duvets.