A quick search for an arbitrary Friday and Saturday night next month gives a ton of options right around $300/night in Midtown, plus plenty under $300. I wanna say we paid around $220 or $240 a night. I did shop a little (maybe twenty minutes?) to find one that low that seemed pretty good (and was in fact pretty good)

My point is hitting $300/night in San Diego... and not even in a desirable location in San Diego, for a very-basic hotel... seems like an outlier, when you can get in (at least a little) under that in Midtown Manhattan of all places.