The hotel has about 320 rooms. It is a single room occupancy hotel.
In San Diego, this means it serves as one step above living on the sidewalk.

Many residents of the Golden West are mental patients, ex-cons, other lost souls, who can't afford any place else. Most are on SSI, which covers their monthly RENT at the Golden West.--$500 per month, for a room that's about 12 ft. by 20 ft. at most.--no cooking facilities, no private toilet, lots of bugs, though.

The toilets are filthy, the rooms are home to other guests, besides humans. Bedbugs will eat you alive. The cockroaches are kind of fun to watch. They're really quite intelligent!

Get all of your shots before staying at the Golden West.

I didn't actually stay at the Golden West. I visited a friend who lived there and brought him Thanksgiving dinner. The place is disgusting. The rooms are tiny, and there are cockroaches crawling on the walls. Good luck using the bathroom! It's communal. You have to share a shower with everyone who's on your floor. The manager requested my I.D. because I was a visitor, and my friend managed to get it back for me, but I was still up in the room. Well, the manager (or whoever was running the front desk) called the room and tried to tell me that he still had my I.D. (it was in my hand) and that if I didn't leave, we would both be kicked out of the hotel, with my friend being evicted! Upon entering and leaving the hotel, you will notice an overwhelming stench of cigarette smoke and will have to pass groups of people who give the place the feel of an old insane asylum. It figures that I would later find out what a scumbag my "friend" was...the hotel where he lived says it all. Just avoid this place at all costs. I couldn't imagine spending a night in this filth bucket.

Well, it was an experience I will not forget lightly. First off, the desk staff didn't seem to care that I even wanted to stay for several nights; almost as if they took it as a joke! After checking in, I noticed that the hotel must also be residential because they rent rooms at weekly and monthly rates. So, no big deal; until I experienced half a night's loud TV through paper-thin walls from my "neighbor." Be cautious using the bathroom, asking the patrons for directions (one older man was wandering around the hotel with what looked like magic marker on his face-the staff had to take him up to his room on a stretcher) and generally look out for yourself. Though it must be said that the location in downtown SD is great--near Horton Plaza, the Gaslamp, numerous restaurants, etc; I will definitely not be staying there again.

If you want to live among the homeless and the ones on welfare then you came to the right hotel. The customer service is just terrible and the manager will throw you out just so he can have a room to sell to the next person, and if he knows your from out of country, he will take your money and then call the police and have you escorted out of his hotel. He is a fraud and should not be in the position he is in at the hotel. Besides all this, if you stay at this hotel, your a bigger fool than the staff. Have a great day.