CA San Francisco Marriott Downtown USE

[Glenn]

Arrived at 11:00 pm and was greeted by friendly staff who offered to help with my bags. Lobby was beautiful with an aqua fall in the middle. Requested king smoking room at check in but none were available. Got smoking 2 double beds on the 7th floor and was told by front desk there is no view. Went to my room and noticed a no smoking placard by the door. Called front desk to let them know of the mistake and they said I could smoke in the room. They arranged to have an ashtray sent, which took 10 minutes.

Room was fairly large and adequate for the price I paid. See my winning bid. There was a huge desk with a comfortable chair and the desk had wheels. It can be moved from against the wall and be used as a dining table. High speed internet is available and if you forget your cords, an ethernet cable, USB cable, and phone cord are supplied in the closet. Bathroom was moderate sized with Neutrogena products. Surprisingly, there was no coffee maker.

Overall I was satisfied with my stay. Would definitely stay at this hotel again because of its excellent location. Central to public transportation, restaurants, and shops.

[cakobau]

This was a really great 3-night August stay that exceeded my expectations.

The Marriott website does not do this hotel justice

[Phaelon56]

Just checking in to concur with these assessments of the Marriott on Fourth Street. I recently stayed here for two nights and expected it to be much like the Marriot properties I've stayed in elsewhere (e.g. Manhattan's (East side). Wrong. The size and quality of the room and the furnishings were a noticeabel step up from typical Marriott's.

I paid little attention to the public areas (I rarely do) and although I agree that they're just a trifle dated they were spotlessly clean and well maintained. Elevators were abundant and remarkably fast. It was one of, if not the most, comfortable beds I've ever had in a hotel. Even the pillows were really good - soft and squishy but still with good support like my pillows at home. The windows could be opend a bit to let fresh air in the room and the staff was very friendly.

High speed Internet was $12.50 per day from noon to noon and although the connection was a slower than my cable modem at home, it wasn't bad.

Not sure if I posted my winning bid info yet but I paid $73 per night before taxes and fees.

[bluesavvy]

Marriott San Francisco

We stayed there 9/3-9/6 after successful priceline bid of $95. Hotel was nice, but dated. It was a business hotel, as evidenced by the conference rooms and business center. But it looked like they ran a local special for Labor Day weekend. The crowd was not exactly the upscale business traveler. Parking was very expensive (~$45/day, valet only), but convenient city garage was across the street for $20/day. Location was excellent, near cable car turnaround and union square. Lots of shopping and good restaurants nearby. Only negative was response of business center. My husband received a document for work (reason for trip), and the business center didn't deliver it to us. He had even called to find out if the package arrived, and they said no. Then upon checkout, he found out it was waiting for him at the business center. I'm not sure if delivery was delayed or they were just waiting for him to get it. Overall, a very pleasant stay.

[lindisfarne]

Marriott San Francisco (on Market Street) April 2006

This hotel is quite nice. It's a convention hotel so you get what comes with that: a huge impersonal lobby, hordes of people going/coming from the convention, and so on. Location is in the middle of the shops on Market Street, right near a BART station, a nice walk down to the Embarcadero. Parking at hotel is very expensive but there are nearby municipal lots for about $22 per 24-hours (no in/out privileges). If you can, park at one of the east-bay BART stations ($5 per 24 hour period but reservations for long-term parking need to be made in advance; instructions at the BART website) and ride BART in. Pretty much anything you could want is near-by: drug store, office depot, radio shack, all the shops you'd find in a mall, cafes, restaurants (from cheap to expensive), a copy place just a block or two away on Market Street with fairly cheap internet access (10 cents/minute with $1.50 minimum charge - hotel internet is $13 per 24 hour period (noon to noon, I believe), or, at the business center (limited hours), $4 for 15 minutes). We couldn't find an internet cafe nearby.

The reception staff were quite competent; I checked in before the "rush" so there wasn't much of a wait. I requested a later check-out which was granted so check-out didn't involve a wait, either. I requested that no newspapers be delivered but USA Today was delivered anyhow. When I checked out, I left my luggage at the luggage check. Luggage drop-off was quite quick, but luggage pick-up involved a long wait. To add insult to injury, there were a number of us in line, but when the employee came back from retrieving someone else's items, he went to a businessman who had just arrived and who was standing on the other side of the podium, well outside the line, and helped him before helping those of us who were standing in line. Needless to say, I didn't give him the tip I had prepared.

The rooms were acceptable. Clean, recently renovated, but impersonal. The hotel has gone to duvets which I wholly approve of, and beds have a nice selection of pillows (4) of varying firmness. No mini-bar in the room (I usually store my drinks in the refrigerator), so I requested a refrigerator be delivered, which was quite loud and ugly. The bed was fairly comfortable - a bit soft for my liking - I didn't tear the bed apart but the mattress was either a pillow top mattress or had a feather bed under the sheet. Bathroom floors were marble tile which was quite a nice touch and the vanity was wooden with built-in shelves for the towels. The office chair at the desk was a little ratty. There was no fan in the bathroom although ventilation seemed fairly strong (but no way to turn it off if you wanted to steam up the bathroom to remove wrinkles from clothes).

I asked for a room in the highest tower as I had read that rooms closest to the street could be noisy. Street noise was not a problem if the windows were closed. I also asked for a room well away from elevators, ice machines, traffic, etc. and did not have any problems with hallway noise. I was on the 24th floor on the St. Patrick's Cathedral side ("city" view) which had as good a view as any of the higher floors as surrounding buildings were high enough to block the view from them as well as from the 24th floor.

The room overall was quite clean although it was clear under the bed had not been vacuumed in quite some time, which is really surprising seeing as it shouldn't take much time at all to run a vacuum under the bed (assuming the Marriott has purchased vacuums which fit under the bed - if they haven't, that is pretty stupid). Marriott's policy is to NOT change bedsheets for guests staying multiple nights unless a card is placed on the bed - I highly approve of this policy as it's much better for the environment. In addition to the Gideon Bible, the Marriott is providing the Book of Mormon. In my opinion, all religious material should be removed from the rooms and only delivered upon guest request.

The room had a hair dryer which almost burst into flames the first time I tried using it. It kept dying and I thought it was a problem with the outlet, but then a bit of smoke started coming out of the exhaust vent and I quickly unplugged it. It was replaced in about 15 minutes by housekeeping by the same model which worked fine. Marriott probably buys extremely cheap hair dryers (who can blame them as people are probably careless with them) which eventually short out as mine did.

The best part of the hotel was the fitness center. There was no additional charge for using the equipment, although use of the shower room/locker involved a $5 additional charge. There was quite a range of machines to use and an adequate number. The pool was small - not good for lap swimming, although the hot tub was huge. I don't trust the cleanliness of hotel pools/hot tubs (due to all the kids) so did not use them. In the reception area of the fitness center, they had ice water with lime or lemon, plus a variety of fruits (apples, bananas, oranges) and plenty of towels. Other hotels I have stayed at have charged to use fitness centers that are this nice. The tread mills and recumbent bikes are hooked up to the hotel's cable, although you do need to bring your own headphones.

The concierge line was quite long every time I passed by; the one night when we wanted information and were in line, the bellboy came over and offered to help. We wanted information about the Mission District: best burrito place and help finding an ice cream place I had been to before but didn't recall the name of. He was quite helpful: he knew the ice cream place and provided directions but couldn't recall the name (we found it and it's called Bombay - I strongly recommend it although it closes relatively early), and sent us to Pancho Villa for burritos which had fantastic and cheap burritos. I think we got better information from him than we would have from the concierge, who was probably used to sending guests to far pricier restaurants. The bellboy, in contrast, lived in the Mission District.

I had previously stayed at the Grand Hyatt on Union Square and thought it was nice, but the Marriott's fitness center and somewhat better location make it the better hotel, in my opinion. The Hyatt's top-floor bar is nice (but pricey); the Marriott is supposed to have a nice view from their top-floor bar, but I never made it up there.

[d_inkubus]

Got back from my trip. Hotel is a very nice hotel but I ran into some problems straight away. The taxi guy out front was pretty rude and didn't help with the bags and he cursed at our cab driver (who was lazy, but hey). Then I tried the classic $20 tip to the front desk person and he made a big deal about it.

It was pretty embarassing, he said he couldn't accept the tip, made a big stink, finally took it. Anyway, then he put us on the 34th floor in a king room. The only problem with the 34th floor is the corner rooms are level with the roof of the floor below. So we had a beautiful view of vent fans and chimneys and over the lip you could see the city a little. It was ok, but not the best.

I don't think I'd stay here again, if I have a choice. It's like they treated me differently becauase I paid the priceline rate rather than the $450/night retail rate. It IS a good location, and they have a hip lounge at the 38th floor (top) but the service was subpar.

It was a good room for the price, however.

[Monarch]

I stayed here from 9/12-9/15, with a winning bid of $120 per night. I had to change hotels the morning of 9/12 because I was unsuccessful in bidding for 4 nights at any hotel in the USE are during 9/11-9/15. I also wasn't able to add a night here after I won my bid.

The hotel is a half block off of Market Street, which is a main thoroughfare for buses and cable cars. It's also 1 block from the Powell Street MUNI stop. I you want to shop, Westfield Centre is literally around the corner and dozens of other stores are within walking distance.

I arrived at 10:30 am, with the intention of checking my bags with the porter, doing some sightseeing and then returning around 2pm to check in. I asked the clerk if there was any chance a room was available this early in the day. I was pleasantly surprised to find out there was. I was given a room on a high floor, away from the elevators. She even asked if I preferred a king or double beds.

The room istelf was very nice. I had a partial view of the bay, but that was alright. There was no adjoining room, so I didn't have to worry about noise from my neighbor. There was a large work desk, with the obligatory mini bar items (don't remove them from their pressurized perch or you'll get charged), a work station for your computer, the frig with more mini bar items and my favorite, a large, flat screen LDC TV. The room was very clean. The bed was a bit too soft for my taste (a pillow top matress) but it had 8 pillows on it! The bathroom was modern and very nice.

I wasn't in my room 5 minutes before a guy came to inventory the mini bar, which is a good thing, I guess. I didn't like the fact that you are not allowed to put anything in the 'frig that you might pick up. I made do with the ice bucket.

The lobby was huge, with a wine bar located in one corner and a Starbucks in the other. I didn't get the feel that this was a convention hotel despite the fact that the ADA was having one of it's largest conventions of the year. I was treated like any other full paying guest. The staff was very friendly and accommodating. I would definately stay here again.