Westin St Francis
 

I have a tower room booked in July. can anyone tell me about the hotel and its location. are the rooms nice? anyone stay there recently? its my first visit to San Francisco. thank you...Beth

It is located right in the heart of Union Square. It is a lovely hotel. However, if you did not get a bargain on it, I suggest you use Priceline and bid $60 for a 4 star hotel. You will probably get the Grand Hyatt which is very nice and also located in the heart of Union Square.

I don't want to put a damper on things for you, but I hated that hotel. Stayed there for a week during a conference about 5 years ago (hopefully it's changed) and although the lobby is grand, the rooms were disappointing.

My biggest complaints were the moldy grout in the bath, thin walls (you could hear others coughing and talking in their rooms) and just general drearyness. I stopped in a few months ago and based on the appearance of the lobby, my husband summed it up well as "a really nice old hotel, that isn't maintained to the standards you'd expect for the rates."

It is in a good location though. I hope you have a better experience than I did.
Oh, and by the way, I changed rooms three times before I accepted the dreary moldy one.

Doesn't a cable car line runs on the street in front of the hotel?

Make sure you get a tower room above the 20th? floor so you get a city or bay view. Below a certain level, you will have a view of the older part of the hotel. We have stayed there twice prior to Christmas. Our tower room was very nice with a killer view of Union Square and the Bay Bridge. This past Dec. we had a room in the old part of the hotel. Had a nice view over the square. The rooms are much smaller(oldest part of hotel) but nice. If you can, try to request view rooms, because you could get stuck viewing brick walls. They also have the Heavenly Beds, which are truly heavenly. Have fun and catch the cable car out front!!!

MichelleY

If you're picky about hotels, you may have issues with the WSF. It's an old hotel, and as such things like bathroom size and fixtures (compared to hotels built in the last 5 years) are ddisappointing. Some like the old world charm. I personally prefer the best of modern convenience, but everyone's different.
WSF location is great.
It's a huge hotel (built in stages, different eras) so you can often find deals thru room brokers like priceline, hotwire, and many others.
Don't overpay. SF is expensive, but there's a good eal of hotel competition.

Just to help clarify, this Westin has two personalities in one hotel. The first time I stayed I was in a high floor in the tower which is the new part of the hotel. Clean, contemporary decor and beautiful picture window view of the city. The next time I stayed, I was put in a room on the other side of the lobby and I thought I'd been put in another hotel. Much older, smaller and stuffier room with an older bathroom with older fixtures. What a disappointment. Since I was really only there to sleep a few hours and catch an extremely early am flight, I did not request a room change as I'd normally do on a longer stay. I'll know for my next SF trip to request the tower. The Westin's heavenly bed is the best.