To save any confusion right off the bat, this review is of the newly opened (Feb 28 2008) San Francisco Intercontinental Hotel. San Francisco now has two Intercontinental hotels, and this is not the age-old Mark Hopkins Intercontinental located at the top of Nob Hill. The new San Francisco Intercontinental is located at 888 Howard St at the corner of 5th Street and is two blocks south of Market Street. The hotel is adjacent to the Moscone Convention Center. We stayed only one night, however enjoyed our visit very much. We arrived early, around 11:30am, and I inquired if there were rooms available ('official' check-in time being 3:00pm). The front desk employee asked if I would accept a room with two beds. I replied that would be fine, however I would be willing to wait for a king room to became availalble. He said he would try and locate an available king room, however no guarantees as the hotel had been sold out the previous night. After a couple minutes scanning his terminal, he located a king room for us, gave us keys to the 22nd floor and we were on our way. I thanked him not only for the early check in but also the king room. Trying to locate our room on the 22nd floor (33 floors in total) I began to get a little excited as it looked like we were headed for a corner room at the end of the hall. Sure enough, we were assigned a corner room with floor-to-ceiling windows along two walls affording a fantastic panorama. Our jaws dropped as we surveyed the views and wondered how we scored such a room assignment on a Hotwire reservation. Being new, everything was fresh, clean and in working order. In addition to expected amenities, the room also had both wired & wireless Internet access, flat screen TV, an IPOD docking station, coffee maker, doorbell, electronic "make up room" and "do not disturb" signs and mini bar. Upon retiring at night, I realized I had neglected to pack both toothbrush & toothpaste, so I called their "anything you need" line on the cordless phone. About ten minutes later the two items were delivered, and ten minutes after that a call asking if I had received the toiletries. A nice example of good customer service & hospitality. Because of our awesome views, we decided we must have breakfast via room service the following morning as opposed to eating out in the hotel's restaurant or elsewhere. Breakfast arrived quickly and was nicely served. I was a bit disappointed in the quality of the food, however, and prices were steep. $20 for Continental breakfast and $28 complete breakfast w/juice, coffee, eggs, meat, potatoes, fruit & toast. My omelette was overcooked and the diced potatoes seemed like the frozen variety. It certainly didn't overshadow our stay, however I would expect a little higher quality from a hotel of this calibur. Coffee, however, was very good. When we checked out, I made a point to ask the front desk employee what type of room we had been assigned. He looked in his computer, and said our room was an Executive King, and commented we had received a significant upgrade. We enjoyed the upgraded room so much that I would be prone to book this type of accomodation directly with Intercontinental in the future. Here is a link to some photos of our room and views: http://picasaweb.google.com/thebeav7874
