STAY AWAY!
I seldom write a review but this place is so far from the positive reviews you've got to wonder if the staff isn't pumping them out. Full disclosure: I checked into this place after a long flight from Boston so I was tired and looking for what I expected from the positive reviews. 
This hotel MAY have been decent at one point, perhaps back when Greta Garbo was the queen of the screen. And it may be nice again some day in the future when the renovations are done. But my room tonight--the better of the two I could have picked from, the desk clerk assured me--has "a few problems." It doesn't take an investigative reporter to see that's a little like saying there's "a few problems" in Syria at the moment.
Neither the air conditioner nor the heater work. ("You know, most of the hotel never even HAD air conditioning," I was told.) There's one window to open...the screen is absolutely filthy and half falling out but, hey, some air is better than NO air! And don't count on the new ceiling fan to help...it does work but when the blades are turning, there's a short in the light that causes it to flash erratically. Is there some way to turn that off?
The rooms have kitchens but, well, "The cooktop doesn't work at all," as I was warned. Nobody mentioned the refrigerator also doesn't seem too cold and the freezer is apparently not capable of making ice. That's okay, though, because I was assured "There's an ice machine downstairs in the basement if you really need some." 
A business center? Any place to print just one page off my laptop? "Sorry, that's being renovated. We're really frustrated, too, but if you can pdf it to us maybe we can get it printed for you. Oh, and there's a Kinko's just a short drive away. Do you have a car?"
And speaking of laptop, there IS supposedly high speed internet but "we've been having some trouble with that. If you come down here to the lobby and sign on, then carry your laptop back to your room, it MIGHT work."
Are you getting the picture? And as for charm, the desk clerk tried his best to charm me from walking out, as I would have done if I wasn't so tired. Otherwise, I'm missing the "charm." 
As I say, one day in the future this place MIGHT be nice...but they're certainly not ready for guests NOW, yet they charge as if it's just as nice as some of those reviews say it is. I'm kinda thinking you'd be just as well off across the street...bunking in Balboa Park! As I say: KEEP AWAY!