A birthday well spent.
I visited The Pearl Hotel earlier this month and had a great time there. It was my birthday and I wanted to see a concert going on that night at the sports arena nearby. I found the hotel online and loved the unique look and feel of the place. The staff were all very friendly and gave us a surprisingly spacious room complete with goldfish (Ours was named Bruce Lee). The whole place has a fun, tiki lounge feel to it. It most certainly does not have a conventional hotel feel to it, but that's exactly what we liked about it. If you want someplace that feels more homogenized, I'm sure that there's a cold, uniform chain hotel somewhere in the area. Please go there instead. 
 The missus and I had dinner at the hotel which had a nice, laid-back feel to it. The food was very good and, because of my aforementioned birthday, my steak was free. We took a bus that stopped right across the street to the show (That's right, public transportation in Southern California). Afterward, my girlfriend's cousin, a San Diego native, picked us up. When I told him where we were staying, he was very impressed. "How did you know about that place?", he said. "It's great". Well, I agree.
I have to come to San Diego about once a year for work and I no longer have any intention of staying anywhere else.
Thanks again, Pearl Hotel, you really helped make my birthday a special one.
P.S. The concert was pretty good, too.