The Margaritaville Hotel San Diego Gaslamp Quarter has opened in downtown San Diego as the brand's first city-center location on the West Coast. The former Hotel Solamar, a Kimpton Hotel, underwent a nearly $30 million propertywide conversion ahead of its reopening.
The property has San Diego's largest rooftop pool deck, three dining and entertainment options and flexible meetings and events spaces. Margaritaville Hotel San Diego is close to Petco Park, the San Diego Convention Center and the USS Midway Museum.
Dawson Design Associates, in partnership with San Diego-based Rossi Architecture, designed Margaritaville Hotel San Diego to combine the brand's signature island visuals with a Californian sensibility. The lobby is reminiscent of Baja California with a Mission style, using raw materials like stucco and concrete, custom hand-made furnishings from reclaimed wood and creative works from Mexican artists. Even the brand's signature margarita glass chandelier is unique to the region, comprised of colorful pieces that were hand-blown in Mexico.
Extending from the lobby into the halls and common spaces, the design was also influenced by Jimmy Buffett's Laurel Canyon days with art and décor that echoes the Golden State in the 1960s. The entrance has portraits in the vein of Andy Warhol, while murals of Volkswagen buses stacked with colorful surfboards can be seen in the elevator lobbies. Visible from the rooftop pool deck, two parrot murals are painted across the exterior walls.
Margaritaville Hotel San Diego's 235 guestrooms and suites have white shiplap walls and rattan fixtures that mimic the sea, sand, and sky. The design is meant to evoke a vintage beach bungalow aesthetic with surfboards hung on the walls alongside tropical accents and framed Jimmy Buffett albums.
Margaritaville Hotel San Diego has two specialty suites that open onto the hotel's lively pool deck: the Jimmy Buffett Suite and Nothin' But Breeze Suite.