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CA San Francisco Westin St. Francis USE


jmulligan
By jmulligan,
in

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Just finished my stay and wanted to share a few thoughts. FYI - I have some built in biases having formerly been in mgmt at a 5 star resort. Also, I have been out of the biz for awhile so I am not all the way up to speed on the latest hotel stuff but know enough to be dangerous. Here are my thoughts on the Westin St. Francis -

The Union Square Area is very energetic and vibrant and no hotel is better located at Union Square than the Westin. It is an old property but has had plenty of life breated into it. I had a tower room (an upgrade, more on that below). Fabulous view. As for the room, you can tell this was an old room they have attempted to inject some modern feel too. Room size is great. Water pressure in the shower was great. The Heavenly bed thing is for real, really good. But, the bathroom was not really what you would expect at a property of this caliber. Small tub, no fan, that sort of thing. Overall a very good room but not of the 4 star quality you might see in a "younger" hotel.

At check in the desk agent noted that my gal and I were quite tall (6' and 6'5") and that my hotwire reservation got us a double bed in a small room that is not in the tower. For $30 more per night they could upgrade us to a bigger bed. I agreed so long as they agreed to put us in the tower, which they did. This is not an unreasonable thing to do in the hotel business and the staff handles it well. But, it is something hotwire users need to be aware of. FYI - For a vacation with my gal it was worth it. If I was traveling alone on business I would have seen no need.

This hotel is clearly aggressive about filling rooms. The day before my stay I checked it out on Expedia for the same dates. $100/night, $16 less than what I paid through Hotwire. Expedia was clear it was a small room with one double bed. Add the $30 and it is a heck of a deal.

Really a great staff at this hotel. Top to bottom.

Be prepared to pay for EVERYTHING here. There are no freebies. They will put a couple of small bottles of water in your room at the rate of $4.50 each. I understand the economics of this but it really feels wrong. Also, ice machines are on each floor but if you ask for it from room service you are charged for the ice. What happened to the days when you could give the delivery person a few bucks for the effort?

We did not have a car. I think it is something like $40/day at the Westin. I would avoid this as driving the Union Square area is no fun at all.

A few recommendations for the area. The top floor bar at the Grand Hyatt on the other side of Union Square is GREAT. GREAT views. Get there early for a window view of the bay at Sunset. Lefty O'Douls across the street was good for breakfast. Great bloody's at Jack Foley's. The Top of the Mark (at the Mark Hopkins) also has great views. Just around the corner from the Mark Hopkins is a neighborhood restaurant named the Nob Hill Cafe. Excellent food and a very affordable wine list. Great Italian Food in North Beach. Jack's by the wharf sucks. Expensive, no good and surly management. Yes, we pretty much ate and drank our way through the city.................

Cable cars were too crowded and the wait was too long to get on. It runs in front of the Westin but other than maybe to go to the Wharf I would take taxis or walk.

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  • 3 months later...

The only problem I had with the St. Francis was at check-in. I arrived at about 2 pm, just as check-in began and there was a bad backlog and understaffing. There are two check-in lines, one for Starwood members and a general line, but the Starwood line is not clearly delineated so there was grumbling when the 15 people (including me, and I am Starwood Gold) watched someone else breeze by, and the clerk (a trainee) did not handle it well. No big deal, though I did mention it to a manager the following day; it's a guest's first impression and they want it to be a good one.

Other than that, I really enjoyed this hotel. As a priceline guest, I was offered either an interior room with a queen bed or an exterior view double. I chose the exterior double (the view was on to Geary Street, and not particularly special), pictured here. If you are a single traveler or an intimate couple that is fine with a double bed, there's no problem with the room. The bed and bath are great (even as a double, it really is Heavenly) and even with renovation going on, I loved the historical character of the hotel and the room. My room measured about 10x20, had a chandelier and a huge walk-in closet. I had no complaints. Caveat about the exterior double, though, there is a ton of street noise in Union Square, not the least of which are the clanging trolley bells, which start early. If you need your sleep, pick the interior rooms.

The hotel does nickel and dime you - local phone calls are $2 per call up to 60 minutes. High Speed Internet access is $15 from noon to noon. I opted to make dial up calls. Even the health club costs extra - $10/day or $30 per stay. I opted for this and thought it worth the money; the machines are of very good quality. There's also Michael Mina in the lobby, which is at present one of SF's hot restaurants. I did not eat there, though.

At $73/night, the hotel isn't the biggest bargain I ever got on Priceline, but I would not be at all upset to get it again. I have a soft spot for grand old hotels, and this is one of them.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I thought it was worth following up this one after my stay.

All the stories are true about the Westin - Hotwire and Priceline guests are allocated very small rooms in the old building with one small double bed. They will upgrade you for $30 to a bigger room, but this is only subject to availability and on the day of my arrival the hotel was totally full.

The location cannot be beaten, but the rooms really let this place down. As long as you go knowing what to expect you should be fine, but I would recommend upgrading out of the tiny rooms, especially if you are staying more than a couple of nights. Hotwire and Priceline sell rooms that are supposedly suitable for 2 persons - the rooms you get at the Westin should really only be sold as single rooms.

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  • 2 years later...

Stayed here for 4 nights in end of April 2007. As expected we received the smaller inner rooms that were next to each other for the 2 of us. Rooms were quiet as it was in the back. Beds were of the heavenly type and quite nice. Even though I had a Starwood points number I didn't get an upgrade (didn't expect or requested). Bathroom was actually quite large vs. the bed room.

The hotel was nice and historic.

Check-in was quick and polite. Free USA Today paper.

The gym/spa is an extra $15. Very nice with free bottled water (including flavoured water) I was let in free as I got there at 9pm and it was only going to be open for another 2 hours. Full set of machines and dumbells and a number of aerobic machines.

Location is excellent right on Union Square. The front bar lounge is very hip in a high ceiling room. From here your laptop can pick up the free WiFi from Union square saving on the hotel's internet charge.

Parking is expensive (typical for 4* San francisco) working out to $50 per night once taxes included. I saved by parking in the Sutter-Stockton Garage about 2 blocks east walk away in the safer part of town. Overnight after 6pm to 7am was $7.5. All day Sunday was $7.5. So even with a late day start at 10am parking was about $15. If you are really lucky you can find free street parking. Depending on the location you need to move the car by 9am. Otherwise San francisco has excellent public transportation. I the past I have sometimes not had a car in SF.

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  • 1 month later...

A friend and I stayed here on 7/14 and 7/15. The lobby is really beautiful with a lot of high ceilings and mirrors, and the lounge areas as you walk in are wonderful.. very comfy and nicely appointed.

Our check-in was very fast! I was amazed. We were there about 2:45 and no lines, a lot of hotel clerks available, etc.

We knew the hotel was pretty well booked so I had emailed a request ahead of time for a room with two double beds. I asked what room we had been assigned, and the guy politely smiled and said that we hadn't been assigned yet. Then he gave us a small room in the older part of the hotel with one double bed. Since I was there to see the Smashing Pumpkins and the guy I was with is just a friend I've known since grade school, I wasn't very happy. I told the clerk that I'd emailed in advance (in which I mentioned I was a Starwood Preferred Guest) and that not having two doubles was a real issue since sleeping in the same bed wasn't an option. The clerk went back to the computer and messed around for a bit. He then said he could put us in a junior executive suite with a murphy bed and a roll-away if that would work. Anything with two beds was fine, and that satisfied us both. Later my friend laughed and said when I pulled out my credit card and ID and a lot of cash fell out, the guy had started looking in earnest, so he thinks the guy thought he was going to get a nice tip, lol! I hope I didn't disappoint him too bad! I was actually expecting to have to pay for an upgrade as I've read in this thread, so was pleasantly surprised when I didn't.

On to the suite: It was very nice, with a generously sized main room, a hall, a small anteroom with the wetbar and coffee pot and a good sized closet that was next to the bathroom. It was very clean and the carpets looked new and the wallpaper and paint looked like it had been pretty recently redone. We were on a lower floor so we had quite a bit of street noise, but neither one of us was bothered by it at all. It overlooked Union Square and had a lot of room to walk around even with the roll-away there. The shower is great-- double-headed and plenty of pressure. The tub was a little dingy on the bottom so I opted to shower. All the staff were very attentive. The internet was 14.95, a bit pricier than most places but that was fine. I had done as snq8888 advised and parked my car in the Sutter-Stockton garage, although it cost us $26 a day. The prices were posted so I was aware of that price and it still beat the $50 a night at the Westin.

We had a minor incident in the lounge. We went to get drinks (their mojitos and mai tais are excellent!) A patron had clearly been enjoying the good drinks for too long, and he came over to us and started patting my shoulder and saying he wanted to pay for our drinks; he kept talking to us, making no sense and being overly boisterous and too friendly. It was a minor unpleasantness but the bartender dealt with it very well, and later came over and apologized. The manager also came up to us later and said the bartender had informed her about the incident and wanted to apologize and make sure we were ok. That was very nicely handled.

We had room service after returning late from the concert and it was quite good. They were out of our first choice, but what they did have was tasty and well prepared, and very prompt! Almost no wait at all.

We went to Dotties True Blue Cafe a short walk away for breakfast the first morning and had probably the best pancakes I have ever had. Absolutely delicious! Be aware that every place you go you are going to get approached by the homeless asking for money. I definitely wouldn't want to be a female walking alone even in the nicer locations.

For the first night we went to Gordon Bierch brewery which is right across from Pier 2. According to my friend, the beer was great. He enjoyed his meal of goat cheese ravioli; my fire roasted chicken and fettucini was uninspiring and very dry. The fried artichoke hearts were delicious, however.

We did the typical tourist things and went on a cable car (fun!) and to the wharf and of course Pier 39. That was so much fun! I wish we had more time than we did for that because you can easily stay there the whole day. I love carousels, and the one on Pier 39 is beautiful. And they have plenty of shops to spend your money in :)

All in all I really loved our stay (the Smashing Pumpkins were amazing!). Knowing I might not get such a great room next time, if I travel with a friend I might hesitate to stay here again via Priceline. The next time I go to San Francisco and don't use Priceline, I would definitely choose this hotel. I loved the location and it truly is a beautiful hotel.

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  • 1 year later...

Not so pleasant stay

We traveled around the U.S from Australia staying at 4 star hotels using Priceline. This one was a disappointment.

We arrived from New York on Dec 29 after a delayed flight and were so tired that we did not check the room(869).

As I tried to get to sleep I kept hearing a noise that I put down to the cable cars outside on Powell Street. At 2am I realised that the noise was not the cable car but the elevator and our room was directly behind the elevator shaft!! On thinking back to the checkin I remembered the woman behind the desk grimacing when she saw what room she was giving us and a slight look of panic as she handed us the room keys.

At 6am, after getting no sleep I rang down to the front lobby to get a change of room as we were staying 4 nights and the room was too noisy. The clerk on the front desk asked what room I was in. I told him and he said he understood perfectly. He told me we could go to 874 and I should come down to reception to get the keys. After packing our bags and moving them to outside 874 (at the other end of the hotel) I went down to the lobby to drop off the old keys and pick up the new ones.

I asked the clerk if 874 was next to an ice machine, stairs, elevator etc and he said "I wouldn't do that to you, brother. I'll just make sure".

He opened a drawer and consulted a sheet of paper which I guess contained all the Priceline rooms. It took him 15 minutes of consulting the computer and the sheet of paper before giving me the keys to room 867 (two rooms from the first room, 869). So I went back up to the 8th floor, told my partner that we had to move the bags back to the other end of the hotel. I wondered what was wrong with 874.

So, after carrying our bags all the way back to the other end of the hotel, I opened the door to 867 to find the new room was a lot smaller than the first one and we had been downgraded from a king-size bed to a queen. I rang the front desk again and was told that I was given a standard room with a queen bed and the only standard rooms with a king size bed were next to the elevator shaft.

I am 6'6" tall and am used to sleeping in a king sized bed but having had no sleep that night I resigned ourselves to this room. The room did not appear that clean- it looked like it had not been vacuumed in quite a while (there was visible dust and the bath looked like it had not been cleaned with a creme cleanser it a while). Little did I know this was just the start of our hygiene problems.

On New Years Eve, the 8th floor rooms started filling up with what appeared to be frat aged guests. The hotel was hosting a New Years party and the atmosphere became quite lively which I enjoyed.

In the early morning we stepped out of our room to go on a tour to find a pool of vomit just outside our neighbor's door. A few more yards along another pool of vomit and then another one just outside the elevator. I thought I should mention this to the front desk as it would be hours before the housemaids would be coming around. With the smell still in my nostrils I mentioned this to the women behind the front desk. She did not look surprised and asked if we would like another room. I said no as I had already been moved and I was just mentioning this as it should be cleaned up as soon as possible. I told her where the vomit was.

She consulted her computer. After a few seconds she said "Priceline" to herself out loud without looking at me and opened a drawer. She removed a couple of complementary coffee coupons from the drawer and asked if could she offer me them in apology. I said no thank you but felt quite insulted by her manner. First of all, a coffee costs 20c to produce and secondly, she categorized me by the fact I was a Priceline customer.

When we returned to the room that evening the "solid" bits of the vomit had been cleaned up but the smell and stains were still there. I rang the "Express Service" number and mentioned it to them. Two hours later, after no action, I asked one of the housemaids cleaning a room next door (late checkout) to address it. The stain outside my room was shampoo'ed but not the others. Is "Express Service" an oxymoron at Westin??

In our travels around the U.S we used a mix of Priceline and hotel chain websites to get good value rates. In comparison to to other hotel chains where I received excellent service and value for money I don't think I can recommend Westin.

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  • 4 weeks later...

We had a good stay at the St.Francis, which is in a great location on Union Sq. And the Wx was perfect. Hotel gave us a standard room in the "Historic" (old) section; still very nice. The main hotel rooms are in the "new" Tower. Our room was quite small, with queen bed, but newly renovated. The amenities were sparse (no shower cap or robes) but staff provided all on request. Recommended.

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