The hotel's early decades were financially precarious. Babcock and Story had overextended themselves building something too ambitious for its moment, and the original ownership struggled to keep the property afloat. The rescue came from John D. Spreckels, the San Francisco sugar dynasty heir who had been quietly accumulating power and property across San Diego County since the 1880s. Spreckels purchased the Hotel del Coronado in 1890 and held it for decades, using his railroad connections and development interests to transform Coronado from a speculative venture into an actual destination. He also owned much of the surrounding real estate, the ferry service to San Diego, and the San Diego Union-Tribune. The hotel's survival owed less to its Victorian charm than to the resources of one very wealthy owner.

The guest list over the hotel's history reads like a catalog of American power. More than a dozen sitting presidents have stayed at the Hotel del Coronado, from Benjamin Harrison — who visited in 1891, three years after the hotel opened — through more recent occupants of the White House. Edward, Prince of Wales, danced in the ballroom in 1920. The hotel is perhaps best known to contemporary audiences through cinema: Billy Wilder filmed Some Like It Hot here in 1959, using the hotel's beach and exterior as the backdrop for the Florida sequences in the film. The distinctive red-roofed Victorian towers are immediately recognizable to anyone who has seen the movie. Less cinematic but equally claimed by the hotel: L. Frank Baum reportedly wrote parts of The Wizard of Oz during his stays here in the 1900s, allegedly drawing on the hotel's architecture for the Emerald City.

Every storied hotel needs a ghost, and the Hotel del Coronado provides Kate Morgan, who checked in under an assumed name in November 1892 and was found dead on an exterior staircase five days later from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. She was twenty-four years old. Her room — variously numbered 302 and 3327 depending on the era's numbering system — is now the most-requested accommodation at the hotel. Guests report flickering lights, unexplained sounds, and an inexplicable presence. The hotel maintains Kate Morgan's story as part of its heritage, a Victorian ghost for a Victorian building. She had been waiting for a man who never came. The hotel has preserved her story longer than most of its guests are remembered.

The Hotel del Coronado was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1977, recognizing its architectural significance as one of the largest surviving wooden Victorian-era structures in the United States. The original wooden ballroom ceiling — assembled by Chinese craftsmen using techniques borrowed from maritime construction — remains intact. The hotel has expanded substantially over the decades, with modern towers and convention facilities supplementing the original Victorian main building. It is now operated as a resort within the Curio Collection by Hilton. From Coronado's Silver Strand beaches, the red roofline is visible for miles. From the air, the original building and its distinctive crown-shaped roof cupola are immediately identifiable against the flat peninsula geometry — one of the most recognizable structures on the Southern California coast.