K T D.
Yelp
Can I put a "do not recommend" on this any more strongly? The only reasons I'm giving it two stars instead of one are a) because Rachel and Donny at the front desk were helpful and nice , and b) because the housekeeping staff and cleanliness were excellent.
There's a lovely sitting area on the second floor. Unfortunately, the sitting area, which must have been a thriving bar and restaurant at one point, is only open from 7am-10am. During that period, there's free coffee. No decaf, no muffins or bagels or anything even for purchase, and the coffee isn't changed out often enough, but it is free.
During our stay, we begged the front staff to leave it open until 5pm so groups from our event could gather there, and they did.
The rooms are small, as many reviewers point out, but we were prepared for that. It's supposed to be a "European-style boutique hotel", and rooms in the older European hotels are even smaller than these.
Our parties were on the 7th and 8th floors, which was fine until the elevator went out. The hotel brags that this elevator is "one of the oldest Otis elevators in San Francisco". Apparently, it's also one of the fussiest. When we checked in, we asked a woman named Lovely at the front desk about reviews saying the elevator hadn't been working, but were assured those were "old reviews". I wish we'd double checked ourselves...
The elevator went out just before the weekend. Rather than call the Otis repair people (apparently there is only one company doing repairs), the staff told us one of their people had done a temporary fix. Temporary indeed. It stopped working that night. So, they had a full hotel, with many elderly people because of the event, and no elevator. The actual manager of the hotel, meanwhile, was apparently away at a convention somewhere.
What SHOULD have happened, the moment they found out the elevator wasn't working and wouldn't be repaired for 2-3 days, was the hire of at least one person tasked ONLY with assisting customers. Helping them navigate flights of stairs with their bags, for instance. Instead, it all depended on who was at the desk.
Speaking of that, there's only one person on the desk, so if something needs to be fetched (anything from a spare razor to help with baggage, if you were lucky enough to get someone willing), the desk has to be shut down. Additionally, when they're busy, they turn the phones off, interal and external calls. The message you get is that the mailbox is full.
What if someone was sick? What if someone had a heart attack? It's easy to say "Well, they'd call 911" but how on earth would they get down eight flights?
The hospitality people, poor things, were great, trudging up and down the stairs for 3 days and keeping the rooms up.
I want to particularly note that one of the people on the desk was, we think, very stoned during their shift. I can't say for sure, but this person forgot simple things in seconds (like "Could I have an extra towel" and then the towel is sitting next to them at the desk but they insist there are no extra towels available.)
We took to hanging about the tiny lobby rather than shlep up seven or eight flights to our rooms between meetings. In the course of a few hours, we watched a female desk attendant have to leave the desk for an hour to deal with a domestic violence issue on one floor, then spend a good amount of time removing a person (not a guest) who wandered in and began fooling with the alarm system in the wall. In fact, that was only dealt with because one of our colleaues also sitting in the lobby noticed it!
We were told the hotel was short-staffed "because of Covid", but honestly, I'm getting tired of that excuse. After listening to a young man tell us that his 83-year-old mother had to struggle up six or seven flights of stairs, any excuse wears thin.
All in all, we would not stay here again. Ever.
