HotelChatter

If you want to feel like you're in Southern California or Australia while in San Francisco, then Hotel Del Sol is for you.  As part of the resort/beach front hotel feel, there's a couple of huge palm trees in the center courtyard as well as a heated swimming pool. (Though this is San Francisco, and heated or not, it is hardly ever swimming weather here.)  Still the bright beach chairs and umbrellas make you forget that it's actually 50 degrees and overcast.  

As you can tell, it was once a motor lodge.  But unlike the other anonymous motor lodges in the area, the colors of the Hotel Del Sol is either a welcome change of pace or a bad acid trip, depending on your tastes.  Outside or in, the color scheme here can be best described as a Jelly Belly factory explosion.  

What is nice about the hotel is that the owners don't treat it like a motor lodge.  The staff is very friendly.  The rooms are immaculate and... um... cheerful.  I believe their philosophy is "if you count less than 100 colors, your room is free!"  They've also got this interesting thing about naming some of their rooms.  I saw "The Burbs" and "Love Shack".   I've always wanted to stay in a "Love Shack".  

The hotel is located on Greenwich and Webster, which, while it's not exactly right next to anything, is near a lot of things.  Within a 15-20 minute walk are the Palace of Fine Arts, Chestnut Street (shopping), Union Street (shopping), the Golden Gate Bridge, the Marina Green, and stretching a little further is Ghiradelli Square.

You pay more for the Hotel Del Sol than you would the true motor lodges in the surrounding area, but if you want to stay in that neighborhood, it's worth it.  The free parking is a tremendous bonus.  The hotel seems to cater to families.