Westin St Francis Hotel San Francisco

I stayed here for 3 nights in March 2008. It's a fantastic location - right by the cable cars that zoom passed the front door. It's a large hotel and the rooms are very modern with 42" plasma TV's and room service. Good wireless connection all over the hotel for your laptop - useful for blogging on this website but it does cost $15/day.

Food is expensive, but generally above average. As I am from the UK I found the exchange rate made this place a cheaper than I expected.

Staff were great :-) Especially the girl on reception when hotels.com screwed up my booking.

Over the years, I've attended several legal conferences at the Westin St. Francis but never actually stayed the night there myself. The Westin has always provided stellar service and food for the conferences.

During conferences, I know rooms run over $300 a night with a corporate discount so when we did a Priceline search for the weekend, I never thought we'd end up here. My first bid of $75 a night was accepted though so we were booked for 3 nights!

We ended up in the historic wing as we only needed one bed - the new tower is an upgrade and features double beds in some rooms. Personally, I prefer historic buildings (especially in SF) as much as possible.

We were on the 8th floor and had a great view of the Patron billboard and down to my old hang out, Lefty O'Douls.

The rooms are elegantly appointed - flat screen TV's, walk in closets, in room safes, and plush down linens. We did not eat on site at all but past experiences with the food would indicate nothing less than superb. There is a Michael Mina onsite and now even an accompanying bar in the lobby.

Obviously the location of the Westin is great given that is is right in the middle of Union Square but if you plan to drive in to the hotel, parking is EXPENSIVE! $49 a day with in and out privileges. There are other nearby lots that are probably cheaper but this is obviously convenient. Also, wifi is not free - slower access is available for $14.95 a day and faster speeds are $19.95 a day. Between Internet and parking, you could end up spending more than your entire hotel room bill! LOL

This would mark my second trip back to San Francisco, but this time it was for business. I figure that since I was in the area for just two days, it would probably be more suitable for me to find an inexpensive hotel.

It is located about a few miles from Union Square, so the shopping centers and the sightseeing isn't too far away. My impression of the rooms were outstanding. I thought I ordered a king sized bed, but I ended up getting two queen sized. Besides the point... the beds are luxuriously comfortable and anything you forget to bring on your trip, you can find on any of the street corners.

The room was pretty much clean and the service was great. The location was the best thing about staying there, so I would definitely come back here to reserve a room.

The hotel is truly a classic San Francisco treat and it boasts excellent five-star service. If you are planning to hold "the" perfect event, you should not decide on the venue until you see its new top of the tower banquet space.

An interesting old hotel that is great to visit, but stay somewhere else.

The older portion of the hotel is full of tiny rooms, many of which have windows that face a brick wall or the window of another guest's room. If you are "lucky" enough to face Union Square, count on road noise, street musicians, and the loud bell of the Cable Cars keeping you awake from dawn to well past mid-night.

The tower portion of the hotel is concrete modular construction. If you are not high up and you are facing Union Square, you will have a nice view of the back brick wall of the old portion of the hotel. If you face West, you will roast as the setting sun super heats your room. The "helpful" housekeeping staff will turn the A/C off when then are done cleaning, ensuring the room will be like a sauna when you return around dinner time. (No amount of complaining will change this, as they are instructed to do so to lower the hotel's energy bill.)

If you should need some help from the staff, such as you lock yourself out of the room, be prepared for up to a 45 minute wait. Room service is expensive and slow.

Trust me, this is the worst business class Starwood property in the city. The W, Westin Market Street, Sheraton Palace, and Le Meridan are all vastly superior hotels at the same price point.