CA San Francisco Holiday Inn SFO

[zbenye]

Although this hotel is in the city of South San Francisco, it is in Priceline's SFO zone and not in the South San Francisco zone. Do not confuse.

Previous stays at Holiday Inn hotels taught me to arrive with few expectations. The room was large and had a comfortable king bed; desk; couch; dresser; two night stands; iron and board. No closet, just a hanging rack in an enclave. The furniture, upholstery, carpet and curtains were somewhat worn and stained.

The TV had a sufficient selection of channels.

A 70's bathroom with soap, shampoo, lotion, hair dryer, coffee maker. The wallpaper was peeling off and the toilet reservoir leaked.

The old wall-mounted air-conditioner heated well.

It was very quiet. Either no neighbors, or they were all quiet.

One telephone by the bed, another - that didn't work - on the desk. Present your Priority Club card (free; apply there or on the Internet if you don't have one) at check-in to waive telephone charges for local and 800 calls.

High-speed Internet service by Wayport (about $10/day) available wired in the room and wireless in the common areas. Neither worked in my room.

Parking is free.

USA Today was delivered to my door one morning. On other mornings I could pick up a copy in the lobby.

The Priority Club card got me 3 vouchers (for 3 nights) each for 2 free drinks at the bar. I also had reasonable Fish & Chips there.

Breakfast was about $10, or go to IHOP across the street.

There is a fitness center with mostly cardio equipment. Guests staying at the nearby Ramada Inn also use the fitness center. In exchange, if you stay at the Holiday Inn in the summer, you may use the Ramada Inn's large outdoor pool and hot tub.

The front-desk staff was cordial and asked about the condition of the room when I checked out. I told them about the telephone and Internet problems and they immediately paged maintenance.

No additional taxes on checkout. This was surprising, because the city of SSF imposes a convention-center tax at all other hotels in the area. The tax seems to vary based on the hotel's rating and distance from the center. The Holiday Inn is right next door to it...

[zbenye]

Second stay: a room in a little better shape (wallpaper still attached), but lukewarm water in the shower and on the second night the air conditioner ceased.

Still no add'l charges on checkout.

The desk clerk made a point of repeating the fact that I booked on Priceline and to get any amenities I should book with Holiday Inn directly. Right. If I wanted to spend $80, I would be getting the Hyatt or the Westin in downtown SF on Priceline - not a crappy Holiday Inn.

I paid $38 this time again, and even that is too much for this hotel. I don't understand why non-priceliners choose to stay at Holiday Inn when there are so many nicer hotels for about the same price.

[zbenye]

Third stay, May '05. Got checked in by the same clerk as on the first visit. The guy (Andrew) is so nice and efficient, I don't understand what he's doing working at a Holiday Inn. His public-handling skills are so impressive he should be a concierge at a 5-star hotel.

This time too he was sorry that he couldn't grant any points or stay credit for this Hotwire stay, but cheerfully granted me all amenities for being a Priority Club member: a coupon for two beers/wine at the hotel bar and a basket with fruit and snacks. In return, I spent $11 + handsome tip on a burger at their bar instead of dining out.

After this nice reception, it was lamentable that someone had to spoil the experience when they decided to distinguish me as a Hotwire customer in the morning: my room did not have a newspaper by the door. Others did. The paper was available free at the front desk, so what did they gain by skipping delivery to my room?

The room itself was a bit rundown like the previous ones but everything worked fine. The hotel is undergoing renovation.

[DaveMac]

I stay at the Holiday Inn SFO last night and let me tell you, it doesn't deserve its 3* rating. This was by far the worst hotel I've stayed in in a while. They are completing a remodeling of the lobby and the restaurant, but I didn't see any work on the rooms.

First of all, at checkin the woman at the front desk was obviously intent on giving me the worst room since I had gotten the room via Priceline. I was given a smoking king room next to the elevator. She said "all we have is a smoking room. Open the window if the smell it too bad." The wallpaper in the room looked like it hadn't been changed since the 70s. They had obviously removed a painting from the wall as you could see the dingey faded outline in the wallpaper. The toilet was stopped-up, the shower was luke-warm, and the TV reception was marginal. The hotel did have free internet access, though. Given the other hotels listed in the area as 3* (Westin, etc.), I would say the Holiday Inn is far below the mark.

[FlyConcorde]

I just won this hotel on Priceline 49+ taxes. I could not get any 4 stars up to 60 as it seems all the hotels are fully booked that night. There must be an event in town.

I can see that there is nothing to expect from this hotel and from the staff at the reception desk. :) :) I'll be off a transatlantic flight and on to another transpacific flight the next morning...

[cyllabus]

I stayed in early December, '06. Third time and last. This time forced into a smoking room. Even the hallway was rank. With windows open and mosquitos and jets flying around, wasn't too happy. The front desk people were unable to help and condescending about this Priceline guest. Wouldn't take note of my Priority Club number so no amenities.

Next day I was able to change rooms. Killed time killing roaches in the sink area. The little ones were tough. (I am not kidding. First time in 25 years travel I've EVER seen roaches in a US hotel.)

I got the manager's name the following day. But I won't go back even with a freebie. Watch what you bid for in Priceline's SFO region. Keep to 4 stars there. I'm using 3* only in San Mateo.

The Holiday Inn at SFO is barely a 2 star. Priceline has wildly overated this joint.

--It's Fumigating!

[smooshiefaceinc]

This place is awful. I have stayed in a LOT of hotels from Priceline and all of them in this area. This is by far the worst. The front desk staff forced us into a smoking room and even though their website says they had refridgerators in all rooms, when I asked the front desk clerk to be sure we had one...he said he couldn't tell. That was a lie. So then we get to the room and it was so noisy it wasn't even funny. It was by far the worst hotel room I have stayed in ever. If you are going to pick this star rating and area for hotels on Priceline my recommendation is to make sure to get the $5 cancellation option because you do NOT want to sleep (yeah like anyone can sleep with the amount of noise) in this hotel.

[zbenye]

smooshiefaceinc: note that the $5 insurance only applies "in the event of unforeseen illness and injury". It does not give you the option to cancel your booking just because you don't like the hotel. Sorry...

[gjjohnson]

When we checked in and went up to our room we found the bedspread rumpled as if someone had an afternoon nap and a Carhartt baseball cap on the pillow. We called the front desk and when the clerk came up to the room he said that they had a guest who had asked for a different room and must have left the cap on the bed.

The room was large, but very dingy. The chairs in the room were stained and threadbare and the carpets were very dirty.

This hotel is in desperate need of refurbishing and is in no way a 3* property.

I've stayed at much nicer 2* hotels in the Bay Area.

[kayla]

Not too bad as I feared after reading many rants about this hotel all over the WWW! Was able to get 1 room w/ the fridge + microwave for the kids. I think most of the 4 th floor has newer stuffs ( better climate control, newer furniture, etc.). The other room was on the 3rd floor, w/ a bit older furniture but new carpet & almost brand new & comfortable mattress ( I happened to see the manufacture date of the mattress while looking for my slippers). Pillows were kind of puffy for me. Cleanliness was fine. The wall paper in bathroom is dated & some was peeled off at the bottom (cheaply installed).

Staff was friendly; I noted the daytime staffs were more friendly & helpful than the night ones. Free parking, easy access by the freeway. There is Beijing Chinese buffet nearby beside American style dinning: Houlihan (inside the hotel) and Hungry Hunter (2 short blocks away). House keeper was prompt. Lobby is nice. Surpisingly; it was not too noisy; I heard only twice the airplane flying sound-- briefly-- at night.

It lacks of an inside pool (compared w/ the 3* Radisson in Brisbane) or free buffet breakfast ( compared w/ the 2 1/2* Best Western nearby).

[Colfax]

I've stayed at the Holiday Inn SFO at least a half dozen times, all via Priceline. I've never had an issue with noise, either plane noise or noise from neighbors. Some rooms have been remodelled more recently than others but I've never had a room that I thought was dirty or that I was unhappy with. (I'm not real picky.)

I've found front desk staff consistently professional and efficient. I've never experienced "Priceline attitude" at the hotel.

Internet and parking are free, which isn't true at most of the other 3* hotels in the SFO zone. The lobby was totally redone about a year ago and it's very modern and stylish now....not at all what you'd expect from the hotel's dowdy exterior. Same is true for Houlihan's restaurant in the lobby. I haven't eaten at Houlihan's but it seems to do a good business, and especially the bar after work.

If there's a problem at this hotel it's that they run out of nonsmoking rooms when the hotel is busy. A couple reviewers mention being given a smoking room when they stayed via Priceline. My experience is that they give you a nonsmoking room if they have one. My last stay was the first time I've had to take a smoking room. But I arrived at noon, 3 hours before checkin time, and they only had smoking rooms clean. They told me if I came back at 3pm I could have a nonsmoking room and they offered to hold my bags until then. I took the smoking room rather than wait.

IHOP across the street is open 24 hours. Drive about a mile to Grand Avenue, South San Francisco's main business street, and you'll find Chinese and Mexican restaurants, Starbucks, banks, and a post office.

[chrispee]

This was one of the worst hotel experiences of my travels. The hotel physically is acceptable for a 3*, but here's a list of the deficiencies that we were unfortunate enough to experience:

1. musty room odors covered up with copious amounts of strongly scented spray.

2. in the checkout line we had to wait for 10 minutes while the front desk clerk argued rudely on the phone with a caller because she had "no room to sell them".

2. no towels in the bathroom.

3. called for more towels... twice. It took over half an hour for them to arrive at our door. normally wouldn't be a huge deal, but we arrived at 1:00am and had to get up in 6 hours for our flight so waiting to take showers wasn't ideal.

4. called to ask for a 7:00am wake-up call. confirmed the time twice, and our room number. did not receive a wake-up call, but luckily set the alarm clock as a backup.

6. room clock was 5 minutes slow, causing us to to see the shuttle pulling out as we went out the lobby doors in the morning. will take partial responsibility for this one for not double checking the time ourselves, but it would be nice if it had been set correctly.

Perhaps we were unlucky, but I would suggest that anybody staying at this hotel should be extra cautious as there is definitely no attention to detail or standards. If the hotel cleaning staff can't catch the fact that they forgot to put out towels, who knows what they forgot to clean. To me, the missed wake-up call is absolutely inexcusable for an airport hotel. Good luck to anyone else who wins this hotel on priceline.com!