The Lafayette Hotel and Club
a 1946 hotel reopened in 2023 after 31 million dollars of works, whose pool was designed by the Olympic swimmer Johnny Weissmuller
The place
On El Cajon Boulevard, a white colonnade announces a building opened on 1 July 1946. Behind it, the twenty-five-metre pool draws morning swimmers and evening drinkers until nine o'clock.
The operator's website lists seven bars and restaurants, one of them open until two in the morning: noise remains the main reservation. Valet parking, the only option on site, costs 38 USD a night.
A boulevard-side manor built in 1946, put back in order eighty years later
The property opened on 1 July 1946 under the name Imig Manor, financed by the car dealer Larry Imig, according to Historic Hotels of America and Wikipedia. Both sources describe an architecture mixing Colonial Revival and neoclassical, rare in San Diego at that date; Historic Hotels credits the plans to the architect Frank L. Hope Jr. A divergence to note: the same Historic Hotels page speaks of “Imig Motel”, while the local press and Wikipedia use “Imig Manor”. Conrad Hilton bought the place in the 1950s; the building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on 31 July 2012, according to Wikipedia.
The pool is the house's historic anchor. Historic Hotels of America writes that it was “specifically designed by the famous swimmer Johnny Weissmuller”, Olympic gold medallist and screen Tarzan, and credits it with a capacity of three hundred thousand gallons, just short of Olympic standards. The local outlet SDtoday describes a twenty-five-metre pool. Divergence: several press write-ups, including SanDiegoVille, call it “Olympic-size”, which the historical sources contradict. The operator's website, for its part, does not mention Weissmuller in its description of the pool.
The restoration carried out by CH Projects, also known as Consortium Holdings, with the New York agency Post Company, closed the hotel from autumn 2022 to summer 2023. Reopening on 12 July 2023, according to SanDiegoVille. The figure of 31 million dollars is the one used by Hospitality Design, Travel Agent Central and SanDiegoVille; divergence, the trade magazine CCR-Mag runs with 35 million. On the number of keys, the press and Expedia use one hundred and thirty-nine rooms, Wikipedia states one hundred and forty-one suites, Trip.com shows one hundred and thirty-three: we use one hundred and thirty-nine. The operator's website publishes fourteen categories, from the Petite King to the Four Bedroom Bungalow, by way of Poolside, Pool Balcony, Family Suite, Penthouse and Accessible Queens.
Seven places to eat and drink, a pool open to non-residents and a bill that lengthens
The operator's website lists seven venues: Beginners Diner, open twenty-four hours a day; the Lobby Bar, from 11am to 11pm; Quixote, an Oaxacan table and mezcalería, from midday to midnight; the Pool Bar, from 11am to 10pm; The Gutter, bowling and games room, from 5pm to 2am; Lou Lous, open for events; and Le Horse, announced as “coming soon”. Divergence: the 2023 press, including SanDiegoVille and Travel Agent Central, announced eight venues, counting a ten-cover Chef's Table that the website no longer mentions.
The pool is open to guests from 7am to 9pm, free of charge, according to the operator's FAQ. Non-residents can buy pool passes from 11am, at a rate that varies with the season and is booked through OpenTable. Loungers cannot be reserved and belongings left unattended may be removed. The operator specifies that there is no swim club membership in force, despite the word “Club” in the name, and that a membership scheme is being considered. The hammam spa is still marked “coming soon” on the website.
What is charged on top, according to the official FAQ: valet parking, the only form of parking, at 38 USD a night with unlimited entries and exits, or 15 USD for the day; a dog under 45 pounds at a flat 100 USD per booking, cats refused; a 100 USD daily card hold for extras; 500 USD of cleaning in the event of smoking or vaping in the room. Additional guests up to maximum occupancy are not charged. Minimum age to book: 21. Divergence: Trip.com shows parking at 22 USD and states that animals are refused, two points contradicted by the operator's website.
Between North Park and University Heights, a quarter of an hour's drive from the airport
The address is 2223 El Cajon Boulevard, an east-west shopping street lined with bars, record shops and restaurants. The operator and the local press place the hotel in North Park; divergence, the OpenStreetMap database and Kayak locate it in University Heights, the neighbouring district, the boundary running immediately nearby. The property's decline in the 1960s in fact stems from the boulevard itself: the opening of the I-8 freeway removed its role as a main axis, according to SanDiegoVille.
Balboa Park and San Diego Zoo are about 2.7 km away, or 1.7 miles according to Kayak. Downtown and the Gaslamp Quarter are less than 6 km away. The neighbourhood is flat and can be covered on foot; the hotel also asks guests parking in the street to be considerate of the neighbours.
Recent news: the hotel received a MICHELIN Key on 8 October 2025, at the Paris ceremony, the only San Diego property distinguished that year among thirty-seven in the United States, according to SanDiegoVille and the San Diego Business Journal. It had been named “Hotel of the Year” by Esquire in 2024. On its entry into Historic Hotels of America, the dates diverge: Historic Hotels says 2023, Wikipedia says 2024. The Le Horse restaurant and the hammam spa are still announced without an opening date.
What to take away
- The white colonnade and the “LaFayette” sign on the facade on El Cajon Boulevard.
- The two bowling lanes at The Gutter, open from 5pm to 2am.
- The red banquettes and chrome counter of Beginners Diner, open around the clock.
- The Lobby bar under its glass roof, in the atrium lit by daylight.
Noise is the most consistent complaint. Tripadvisor reports stays disrupted by the music and vibrations of a property that also operates as a night-out venue, with earplugs handed out on arrival: The Gutter closes at 2am and the Pool Bar at midnight at the weekend, according to the operator's website. The pool is open to non-residents from 11am, which adds to the daytime activity. Ratings diverge sharply between platforms: Tripadvisor shows 4.6 out of 5 from 213 reviews and a rank of 52nd out of 260 hotels in San Diego, Expedia 9.4 out of 10 from 1,895 reviews, while Kayak relays a Booking.com rating of 7.7 out of 10 from 516 reviews, with repeated criticism of cleanliness and service. That gap deserves to be taken for what it is: a signal of uneven experience. Published rates also vary between channels, from 223 USD on Kayak to 285-575 USD according to Tripadvisor, excluding 38 USD of valet parking, a 100 USD daily hold and a possible 100 USD for a dog. Finally, this is a 1946 building: several Tripadvisor reviews mention cramped rooms, insufficient storage and partially open showers that flood the bathroom. There is no in-room safe, the operator offering a deposit at reception, and the minimum age to book is 21.
We have not stayed at this property. This entry is written from verified sources, including the operator's own website, rather than from a visit.
Practical information
San Diego International Airport (SAN) is 9.6 km away by road, about 12 minutes' drive without traffic according to OSRM routing; the operator's FAQ states “15 minutes or less” by ride-hailing. Kayak gives 3.6 miles, or 5.8 km, which corresponds to the straight-line distance and not the actual journey: a divergence worth knowing if you are timing it.
On public transport, El Cajon Boulevard is served by the Rapid 215 and route 1 of the MTS network, with a stop in front of the hotel; the trolley does not serve the neighbourhood directly. On site, all parking is valet: 38 USD per night for guests, 15 USD for the day with the vehicle returned before 1am, according to the official FAQ. Free parking exists in the adjacent streets, the hotel asking guests to be discreet there.