Themosser.com is in a great location, clean and well priced. They have rooms with private baths or some that use a shared hall shower/toilet which are kept very clean.

It also depends on what days of the week you will be in town.

Weekends are usually less expensive.

This is a relatively inexpensive hotel that a friend always stays at when he's in the City. All rates include full American breakfast.
http://www.cornellhotel.com/rooms.html

Dinner there is supposed to be very good by the owner/French chef.

The Carlton, The Cartwright, The Parc55, The Queen Anne, The Columbus.

I had the same problem last year, plus I didn't want to stay in the Union Square area. I'd have picked a B&B in the North Beach or Marina districts, but since I had little faith in my train arriving on time (turned out it was only 10 minutes late) I needed a place with 24 hour checkin.

I wound up at the Hotel Tomo (good rate through one of the online booking services, maybe booking.com) in Japantown. Maybe not a main tourist area, but on a bus line, and with plenty of places to eat nearby. And the Kabuki Spa....

The Hotel Rex is charming. A member of the Joie de Vivre group.

Priceline . . . 4 star in the Embarcadero zone, failing that bid the Union Square East zone.

We recently learned that hotel prices can vary wildly, depending on conferences in town. One day a room might be $200 a night, the next day it could be $600. If you have flexibility with your dates, you can see if the rates vary. Sometimes you can find this out by calling a hotel directly.

A few weeks ago we got a great rate at Kensington Park Hotel and really liked it. It was comfortable and friendly and close to transportation.

We've stayed at the Hotel Kabuki in the Japantown neighborhood, The Laurel in Pacific Heights, and the San Remo in North beach. All are in nice neighborhoods. The Kabuki and Laurel are very comfortable 3* hotels, the San Remo feels more like a small European style inn.

We just stayed at The Pickwick this past weekend. It was the 3 star hotel "Moscone" area on Hotwire. $112 a night.

Small, "Euro-sized rooms" but very clean, fridge, flat screen/hi def tv etc and located 5th/Mission right out the backdoor of SF Centre Shopping Mall. Also has bar/restaurant.

Very short walk to street cars/cable cars/muni and in our case, the Amtrak bus stop.

Are you planning on renting a car?

Bay to Breakers is in May also Google Developer Days from 5/14 -5/16 will take 3000+ rooms and then the American Psychiatric Assoc from 5/18 - 5/22 take 6600. Those are probably putting pressure on room rates.


Room77 is a good booking site for lower priced rooms rates.

We usually don't get our room for the Bay to Breakers 1 or 2 days before going down. White knuckle bidding on P'line.

If you want "safe", then stay away from the Tenderloin, which is about a block away from Union Square to the west.

If you want "quiet", then stay away from Lombard Street, which is also Highway 101.

Otherwise, the recommendations given are all pretty good.