San Francisco Motel
 

Hi guys,
what a wonderful and useful site this is.
We're spending 4 nights in San Francisco in September as part of a California grand tour on a narrow budget. Any suggestions for a decent low-price hotel or rather motel (since we have a rental car with us and require parking)?
Thanx
Tom from Germany

We just returned from SF; have posted our trip report which you can find here. We found a great deal on the Serrano hotel, which when including parking for our rental car, was about the same as a room rate only for further-out accomodations (we like the Union Square area and the Serrano is just a block or 2 off US).

There are cheaper motels on Lombard Street, which is a busy east-west street that leads to the Golden Gate Bridge and Highway 101. I forgot the names, except the Cable Motor Inn and Ramada Express. The nieghborhood is safe. 1 block away is Chestnut Street where the homes are not big but are expensive.

The Lombard Street motels are cheap by San Francisco standards, but are not cheap. My guess is that they cost $80 per night. There are some motels south of Market Street, but this area has high crime.

If you have a car, some motels in Oakland or San Mateo County (Burlingame, Milbrae, etc.) may be cheaper.

You may also try www.priceline.com and tell them how much you are willing to pay. Their computer will respond with a "yes" or "no".

Check the Lombard Motor Inn, We found it to be nice, inexpensive, and it included parking. This was a few years ago.

www.lombardmotorinn.com

Several are run by one company and are really great value with free undercover parking. One is Cow Hollow Motor Inn on Lombard and another is Coventry Motor Inn. You can find them by a Google search. Cow Hollow is a great area to stay, by the way, especially with a car, even though public transportation is excellent there as well.

We stayed at the Ramada on Airport Blvd. for $52 a night for 3 nights last month. It's about 10 miles south of downtown SF, they have free parking available.
Not bad uh!

We've stayed at the Townhouse Motel on Lombard Street and it was nice, quiet (we were back from the street), inexpensive, free parking and great area. They have a website.

I also like the sound of the Marina Motel (they also have a website) but havn't stayed there yet.

That whole area of Cow Hollow/Marina is the nicest part of S.F. (I think) and with a car definitely the only part I'd stay!

thanks everybody. I guess we're settling for Lombard street
Tom