Planning a trip to San Francisco with my daughter and have selected 3 different hotels to consider - I enjoy smaller hotels......White Swan Inn, Orchard Hotel, and Hotel Monaco. Could anyone familiar with these hotels give any pros or cons? Thanks so much for any help.

Have you seen the Joie de Vivre properties? We stayed at their Hotel Rex, near Union Square, a couple of years ago and it was a charming boutique hotel.
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I live here so I've never stayed in any of them, but I've seen rooms at the Monaco when friends have stayed their. They're very nicely, and individually, decorated.

We also looked at staying at your same choices, we also added Hotel Rex based on the recommendations from Fodors. We did stay at the Rex and found the location to be fantastic, the staff extremely helpful, rooms clean, bathroom a tad old fashioned, but perfectly fine. Our room was a little noisy but that was because it was the suite at the end of the corridor and it wrapped around another room. Our son's room however was quiet. It had character and I would recommend it. The hotel is very close to the cable car stop and coming from Australia we enjoyed Lori's dinner on the corner of the street. Walgreens chemist was over the road and we could buy our muni passes there before we hopped on the cable car. How long are you staying Judy?
Schnauzer

Thanks for the comments. I will look into Hotel Rex before I make my decision. To Schnauzer - we will be in San Francisco for 4 nights and Carmel for 3 nights. Can hardly wait! Thanks.

We nearly stayed at the White Swan but opted for the Argonaut which had just opened at the time. We poked our noses in the White Swan though and thought it was quite pleasant and homey. The receptionist was friendly and offered us cookies from their cookie jar.

We had breakfast at the Hotel Monaco's Grand Cafe. Interesting decor but less than enthusiastic staff and overpriced food. I would expect tastefully decorated rooms in the hotel.

I think I'd be happy to stay at any Kimpton or Joie de Vivre inn.

Thanks, April, for your comments. I'll need to decide soon as my trip is 4 weeks away.