Is this place really as good as Tripadvisor raters say????
We booked six nights here through Priceline, to celebrate our anniversary, due to our wanting a pet-friendly place near the beach and the "rave" reviews here on Tripadvisor. BIG MISTAKE!!! Yes, it's right by the Ocean Beach Pier and Newport Avenue, desk clerks are friendly and generally helpful, the room is clean, and it has a nice-- not necessarily beautiful-- courtyard (which, by the way, had it's view of the beach TOTALLY obscured by scaffolding). Here's what we experienced-- 
1) Much difficulty gaining access to the room with card keys.
2) A dog on the one side of the wall in the adjoining room barking incessantly throughout the entire entire evening (obviously left alone in the room).
3) A dog on the other side of our room moaning all evening (also alone?)
4) Live music and talking all evening by the entrance to the pier and within 100 feet of our ground floor room and patio .
5) One dresser drawer was missing both handles and another was missing one handle (when I complained to the night desk person about it, she just shrugged her shoulders).
6) A tiny bathroom -- my knees were under the sink as I sat on the toilet-- and a tiny shower.
7) A hole in the bathroom wall.
8) The full-size bed was lumpy and uncomfortable.
The hotel is long overdue for remodeling. Considering their failure to provide simple maintenance it doesn't appear likely, despite the room rates, which are similar to many better properties in San Diego. In my experience, lower end properties that advertise themselves as "pet friendly" and segregate their owners in specific rooms (in this case, all on the ground floor) tend to attract those that don't expect much better because they have fewer choices. Also, dog owners should not leave their pets in alone in hotel rooms, in consideration to the comfort of their neighbors, if their dogs are not well behaved.
Perhaps there is some truth to the claim by one previous reviewer here that the hotel offers it's guests a discount on a future stay if they submit a positive review to Tripadvisor.
We would have checked out IMMEDIATELY if we were able to obtain suitable accommodations on short notice. 
As it was, we did check out the next day. We were so unhappy, that we were willing to forfeit the money which we pre-paid for the rest of our stay through Priceline. Fortunately, we did get get a refund.