Spending A Week In San Fran, CA and Looking For Suggestions

[heyzeus]

We'll only be there 3 nights.

[Radbird]

Question for you San Fran experts (especially 33.333333)

We're looking for a hotel, any recs? We'd like a place centrally located, maybe Union Square, with distinctive rooms.

Define "distinctive"

[JackofDiamonds]

I'm heading to Palm Spring and Sonoma this week... I can't get away from 4:30 start times.

[lukethedrifter]

Texted my sis who lives on Russian Hill:
Hmm I am not sure since I don't stay at hotels here. Maybe a Kimpton hotel. They are known for distinctive rooms. Also, the hotel that the burrit tavern is in looks cool but never seen the rooms

[33anda3rd]

Question for you San Fran experts (especially 33.333333)

We're looking for a hotel, any recs? We'd like a place centrally located, maybe Union Square, with distinctive rooms.

The closest thing to Union Square is the Grand Hyatt, it's right on the square. If you're looking for distinctiveness, though, it's not all that. I worked there 2002-2003, and I know it's been recently renovated (vessel sinks, bamboo accents, etc.) but it's not going to be remarkably different from any other Hyatt property--I'm kind of surprised that hotel is allowed to carry the "Grand" brand, it's a far cry from the Grand Seattle or NYC.

If you're looking for distinct, there are a few companies that have a wide variety of properties in the city. The first is Joie de Vivre. You want a new-ish (I think it opened around 2004) spa-focused property, they have the Vitale on the Embarcadero. You want a 1950s motor-inn style hotel with a cool pool that is family friendly, they have the Del Sol. You want an old school salon-style hotel they have the Rex. You want the rock and roll, cool kids place they have the Phoenix. They have a few more, I'm forgetting. Check their website.

Kimpton (they started in SF) has a bunch of options too. They bought the Sir Francis Drake (old school), they have the Triton right at the Chinatown gates and just north of Union Square, they have a Spanish-style place called the Serrano, they have one of their Hotel Monaco brands there that's really architecture- and design-centric.

I'll offer a little price/value advice, applies to any hotel anywhere really. When I was out there I was a divisional revenue manager, my gig was to oversee the properties from Vancouver to New Mexico's revenue managers, and help them price their hotels. If you're not familiar with hotel pricing and why the rates can be so disparate, it comes down to demand. If there's a convention in town, based on the size, the price will be high. Look at the convention calendar for the Moscone Convention Center in SF on the dates you're going. If there is a large convention (it takes at least 10K attendees to start to compress hotel inventory in SF), and prices appear high now, they may remain high, if demand is enough to fill them to a certain point. If the hotels have all contracted blocks of rooms for the attendees of the ABC Convention, and the Hyatt for example contracts a rate of $329 for that convention, they won't offer a public rate under $329 until after the convention's cut-off date passes, usually 30 days in advance is when the convention meeting planner must have submitted rooming lists to get the convention rate. They may not lower the rate, depending on how big the convention is. However, convention business in the US except some of the huge ones (Natl Restaurant Assn in Chicago and a couple dozen more) stinks. So what happens is, you shop for a hotel, checking in on 11/15, on 10/1, and holy smokes, the prices are really high. There's a convention, the cut-off hasn't passed--or, the hotel has a couple weddings holding a block and their cut-off hasn't passed--and the price is high. You look back on 10/20 for that 11/15, and perhaps it's lower but perhaps not. Keep checking. Of course, if demand is low, like if it's February in Chicago or Minneapolis, you can probably get a hell of a good price regardless of the timing of your booking. If you're in SF over the weekend after Thanksgiving and looking at Union Square, there will be no convention, but a lot of weekend shoppers--book NOW, because prices will go up as hotel inventory fills. That's the other side of the deal, when a night that looks to be slow starts picking up, rates go up as you get closer to check-in, not down.

My advice to anyone traveling and looking for a good hotel at a good price.
1. Book a room you are comfortable that has a reasonable cancellation policy (48 hours or fewer) and no pre-pay required, so you're not locked in.

2. Keep checking the internet, and don't be lazy. Check the hotel web sites, NOT Expedia, etc. The hotel pays Expedia, depending on their deal w/ them, 15-20% of your rate. And the rate on the hotel's own website will be either equal to or lower than Expedia. If you see a rate on Expedia or Kayak or Hotels.com, go to the hotel's page. If the rate is not there, call and ask for in-house reservations--in-house is important, you'll get someone who can make a decision, not a person in a cubicle in Omaha. Ask for the rate you saw on Expedia. Wanna get that king bed you requested? Book on the hotel's site. Want to get the view you requested? Ditto. Want to have your requests politely declined because the hotel "doesn't have a room matching your request that is available"? Book on Expedia or Hotels.com. Not having a room that "is available" in that sentence means "we have reserved the good stuff, the Glengarry stuff, for people who have booked at rates that generate higher revenue for the hotel." And it's not BS that they do that, it's good business to reward customers who book that way. They're not going to tell a guy paying the same as me, but resulting in the hotel making 25% more money, that he can't have his request while honoring mine. Keep checking until your cancel policy with the other hotel is near. If you can get a better value, get it and cancel the other. If the hotel you booked originally has a lower price, call and ask for it. Yes, the reservation agent will hate talking to you. (S)he'll get over it. If her boss didn't want rooms booked at the new, lower rate, (s)he wouldn't deploy that new, lower rate. If they won't let you change it, ask to cancel it and if the prospect of you canceling it does not result in the reso agent giving in, go through with the cancellation and re-book it online, or by calling back and getting reservations again (no need to ask for in-house this time, the central reservation office will have the rate you saw on their website.)

3. Re the above and Expedia, Hotels.com, Kayak, etc. If there's a difference between booking via the hotel and booking via one of those third-party sites where you make a choice in your hotel, there's an even bigger difference between Expedia et al and the blind-bid sites--Priceline and Hotwire. You will get the worst room they have available. It will be a loooooong walk to the elevator, or right on top of it, so you hear the cars running behind your headboard. Or you will have a dark room 10 feet from an office building, or one of the unrenovated rooms. If you 100% do not give a hoot the quality of your room and are after value alone, go the Priceline route. If you want some quality, and are ok with a lousy room in a nice hotel, go the Priceline route but don't go under 3.5 stars--plenty of Holiday Inn Express-type places in big cities are considered 3 stars. The good stuff on Priceline will usually hit the market 24-72 hours before you check in. That's when a good hotel on Union Square that you've seen at $350 for four weeks might have a few rooms on Priceline for $125--they're probably forecasting under 85% for that night, and they're just putting heads in beds, that $125 minus CPOR being better than $0. If you have a 24-hour cxl policy on an existing reso and can land a blind-bid room you like, go for it.

4. (Tacked on) If you want to get upgraded by the front desk, the last thing you should do is give the front desk agent $20. I don't mean don't tip, I mean it literally: don't lead with that, do it last. Lead with flattery and some faux naivete. "Oh, we're here from Peoria and we've never been to San Francisco, I bet you have a lot of great recommendations for us." If there are not people behind you waiting in line that the agent is anxious to get to so they don't have to wait, you're right, that front desk agent has just as many good ideas as the concierge. Butter them up, and ask for their favorite sushi restaurant, while hinting that you're here for a special occasion, and then act impressed by the suggestion and write it down. THEN you tip the agent what you're comfortable with for the "great advice" (even if you hate sushi and don't plan to go there) (also tell them they saved you a trip to the concierge, who the front desk agent probably has at least a mild chip-on-shoulder thing against, b/c the concierge will just send you to downtown restaurants that give them kickbacks and it's kinda [expletive] that the concierge has very limited knowledge often of what's more than 10 blocks from the hotel or not entirely touristy and will only refer you to "friendly" places instead of the best place for you, while the front desk agent will tell you an amazing Thai joint in their 'hood where you'll have a great time and they make 70% the money the concierge makes b/c of the concierge's "specialized" knowledge of the city), rather than tipping them up front and making the whole deal awkward. If you get a great room, and they did something above and beyond for you, you might not know it. If you get a [expletive] room, you tried. But this will work a lot more often than tipping up front, which ensures only that later, you'll be another story of a douchy guest who thought he could buy a good room.

[lukethedrifter]

That is some good hotel booking insight. Thanks from the future from my wife.


The place my sister was referring to is apparently a Charlie Palmer hotel a block or so up from Union Square. http://www.mystichotel.com/

[heyzeus]

Thanks for all of the solid info, Middle. I just read your post aloud to my wife, and we really appreciate the insight. We've been looking at a few if the places you and Luke suggested, and now we have some good ideas on price and getting a good room. Thanks again.

[33anda3rd]

Any time Zeus. Have fun out there.

[heyzeus]

We got a really good deal at the Triton - thanks for your advice on making cancellable reservations and checking back in. The price went down Something like $70 a night this morning.

My next and final question: Restaurants. This is an anniversary trip, and we'd like a few great places to get our eat on. Four categories we're most interested in:

-Sushi
-Italian
-Dim Sum
-Coffee/pastries

Any rec's you fine people have would be highly appreciated.

[lukethedrifter]

Tartine for sure, for bakery/pastries. I had a great meal at Delfina a few years back (Italian)