Keating Hotel

Ciao Bello!

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So where do celebs and top executives stay when they're in San Diego? Developers hope it will be The Keating, opening downtown this month at 5th Avenue and F Street in the Gaslamp. It's the latest in a string of hip, higher-priced boutique hotels to hit downtown, following on the heels of the W San Diego and Hotel Solamar. And how's this for status? The Keating will have among the highest rates in town beginning at $429 a night.

Concieved by La Jolla enterpreneur Edward Kaen and operated by Bond Urban Habitat, the 35-room luxury hotel was designed by Pininfarina, the Italian design house perhaps best known for fast luxury cars like Ferrari and Maserati. As a matter of fact, the 29-year-old Kaen was thinking about buying a Ferrari when he persuaded Pininfarina to collaborate on the project, the first time the firm has ventured into hotel design. (Kaen, by the way, didn't buy the car - he invested in the Keating instead.)

The hotel is a study in contrast: outisde, the historic building is in the Romanesque Revival style; inside, it's sleek Italian modern. The hotel has a red color palette throughout, along with custom mahagony furniture and stainless steel accents. Guestrooms - stanzas in Italian - boasts Jacuzzi bathtubs, Bang & Olufsen plasm TVs, and goose down feather beds. And wouldn't you know, those Italian designers are putting an espresso machine in every room? Now, that's amore!

619/814-5700, www.thekeating.com