“Why not just have the Ferrari of hotels?” – Eddie Kean
The Keating Hotel is located in the Gaslamp Quarter in San Diego, California, a premium destination in one of the most popular tourist destinations in the United States.
Eddie Kean, the owner of this 35-room boutique hotel and a property developer, talks about how “the Keating was my vision” after he got inspired by checking out Ferraris at a dealership.
“Why not just have the Ferrari of hotels?” he adds.
However, the hotel is “all style and no substance,” Brian Rutherford, executive chef, notes. “It feels like it’s a jail.”
I’ll add that at first glance, the Keating looks light years more attractive than the typical Hotel Hell episode. It also has the sleek modernism that I’ve seen in some hotels in SoHo in Manhattan. So while the vibe might be out of place in SoCal, it’s not that wildly outside the norm, really.
The devil is in the details, of course, and Gordon Ramsay quickly notes that while Kean dumped millions into the hotel’s interior design, he’s spending “peanuts” on other essential things that keeps a hotel running successfully.
Example: rusty towels. Not great.
And over in the hotel restaurant, Dave Oliver, the assistant restaurant manager, feels that the menu is a “four page f—ing joke.”
We then see a scene where a diner says, “The food is f—ing horrible.”
Overall, the Keating Hotel is losing “millions of dollars,” which, doing the math, is at least a few Ferraris.
When Ramsay arrives at the hotel, he’s greeted by a sweet-looking dog named Smudge. When the British chef says, “My how that dog is ugly,” my opinion of him nosedived more than at any other point, including those in which he’s indulged his own most obnoxious, bulldog-y instincts.
As we get a better look at the lobby, the “sleek minimalism” takes the form of a shocking red that reminds one of the final scenes of The Shining versus merely a SoHo chic.
When Ramsay arrives at his room, it does look fairly high end and spacious. As a longtime West Coast resident, I wasn’t totally shocked to learn that the cost is $759 a night, though of course I’d never personally opt to pay that much.
The little touches are also to be desired, with wrinkled sheets, scuffed up floors, strange room layout, and poor water pressure. Certainly, at that price point you’d expect better.
In a little bit of a Hotel Hell twist, Ramsay then calls room service… which oddly routes through the hotel’s front desk. When his food arrives, it’s served in little plastic containers that you’d perhaps expect from a fast casual spot but not at a high-end hotel. The portion size of the soup is also miniscule, with Ramsay’s other items “not my idea of luxury… in fact, that’s embarrassing.”
Ramsay next meets Eddie Kean and quickly learns that this is the first time he’s owned and managed a hotel. After Ramsay walks the Keating Hotel owner through his initial list of complaints and criticisms, Kean tells the camera that “it’s complete bulls—.”
It’s telling about how little Eddie understands about the details of his own business when we see him relaying to Sandra Vivas, the general manager, the various issues that Ramsay quickly found.
She slaps Kean playfully and says, “Welcome to my world.”
It’s a bit shocking to hear Eddie add, “I was in shock. That was very embarrassing.”
As Ramsay hangs out at the front desk and chats with people checking out, he observes that the Keating Hotel has “more complaints than guests.” One aspect that Ramsay focuses on is the dreadfully slow room service – for example, a cheese platter that’s pre-made takes more than 45 minutes to arrive at a guest’s hotel room.
When Sandra shows Gordon the laundry room, we learn that the laundry machines are undersized for a 35-room hotel, and that it lacks the irons that can handle ironing sheets effectively.
“$800 a night for something pretty mediocre,” Ramsay concludes.
Down at the hotel restaurant, Dave Oliver rates the food a “6 out 10,” hardly a ringing endorsement. He adds to the camera that he feels that Chef Brian has “given up” because of Eddie’s domineering managerial style.
“This position is killing me in my soul,” Chef Brian tells the camera.
When Ramsay’s “brick chicken,” which costs $21, is served, he quips that “it looks like a brick shat out of a chicken.” And then the chocolate pig dessert is deemed as something that he’s never seen something that unappetizing in his life. I’ll add that Ramsay isn’t wrong about this – it looks gross.
As Ramsay is chatting with Chef Brian and giving him a relatively light dressing down, Brian literally passes out on camera in a disturbing, this is not a reality TV set-up thing kind of way.
Ramsay quickly yells for 911 to be called and stays with him until medical help arrives.
Eddie takes this opportunity to blame Brian’s medical condition on the stress relating to Ramsay and Hotel Hell’s presence (which of course he signed up for as the Keating Hotel’s owner). Kean doesn’t directly confront Ramsay with an accusation, but Ramsay senses that Eddie clearly isn’t appreciative of the British chef’s presence and calls him a “little spoiled f—ing magpie” to his face.
Brian is released from the hospital after being diagnosed with “dehydration and anxiety,” and Ramsay soon visits him at his apartment. Soon after, Brian returned to the hotel, feeling more energized that Ramsay is in his corner.
Next up, Ramsay brings in a large group of hotel guests to confront Eddie with their feedback. All of them thought their stay wasn’t worth the price and overall was a poor experience. This finally starts to break through to Eddie, who realizes that large changes are needed to give the hotel and restaurant a chance to succeed.
Ramsay next gives Brian a cooking lesson, who is both super excited and clearly emotional to work with a renowned chef.
“Gordon unlocked the chains” that Eddie had put on him, Chef Brian notes.
The next day, the overnight renovation is revealed, and as a starting point, The Shining’s creepy influence has been removed from the lobby. The chic vibe still remains, but the guest room’s décor has been warmed up to an extent.
By now, Kean is completely on board with Team Ramsay and heralds the “amazing things” that Gordon has helped to bring to the Keating Hotel.
Over at the restaurant, a shortened menu is unveiled that plays to Chef Brian’s strengths. Also importantly: no plastic containers for room service. David also notes that the tightened-up menu will also help speed delivery to rooms considerably. We also finally learn that the name of the hotel restaurant is the Merk Bistro.
The relaunch night/end of episode segment shows us that things seem to be going in a more positive direction in both the hotel and Merk Bistro.
Hotel Hell, “Keating Hotel”: is it still open?
No, the Keating Hotel is closed as of this writing! It’s hard to tell exactly what happened but according to Yelp, the hotel is no longer open, with its last review posted in October of 2023.
Some stats and info about Hotel Hell, “Keating Hotel”
TV SHOW – Hotel Hell
SEASON/EPISODE – Season 1, Episode 2
NETWORK/STREAMING SERVICE – FOX
EPISODE DESCRIPTION – Gordon visits The Keating, a “luxury” boutique hotel in San Diego, CA. The Keating’s supercar-obsessed owner, Eddie Kaen, has blown millions designing the hotel to look like an Italian sports car, but neglected to spend money on things the guests need.
GENRE – Docuseries, Office Culture, Trashtastic TV, Reality TV
CAST – Gordon Ramsay