Chronology will get a bit wobbly from here on out, as I'll try to keep all my remarks about each hotel to a single post, and separate out sightseeing activity.
As I'd be doing one night for free in LA (courtesy of Visa), and my week in San Diego would be on expenses, it didn't seem unreasonable to splash the cash a bit for my brief detour to San Francisco. Of course, I forgot to factor in taxes when looking at the prices... So it was a bit more extravagant than was perhaps wise for a standard room. I solved this problem by using Hhonors points to upgrade to a tower room: in for a penny, in for a pound! As well as a better view, the rate bundled in wifi (normally $12.95/24 hours) and continental breakfast for two from the on-site starbucks. This was offered for 3600 points per night, which I value at less than £15. To do it on e-standby (which wouldn't guarantee the upgrade) would be $39 a night; booking today for tomorrow, there's a $50/night difference. So the points certainly seem the most effective way to gain some height!
However, I made this change pretty close to arrival (I can't remember if it was in London or San Diego, but I'd definitely started my trip), and this perhaps explains the kerfuffle in actually getting these benefits! I was correctly assigned a tower room on arrival, way up on the 39th floor, but no mention was made of the rest.
After a gravity-defying ride in the express lift (skipping past the riffraff in the first 30 floors) and a few photos before I got settled in, I tried to rejoin the loving embrace of the internet. To my inexpert eye it looked like signing in would add the usual $12.95 charge to my room, so I called up reception for guidance. There I got through to a lovely woman who confirmed that it was included in the room so I could go ahead without fear of turning this into an even more expensive stay; she was also on the ball enough to realise that if I didn't know this, I probably didn't understand breakfast either. So she cheerfully explained that I should have received vouchers when I checked in, and invited me to pop down to collect them.
Foolishly I never got her name, and thus after a high-speed plummet in the lift back to reception I ended up with my third member of staff in thirty minutes, this one cut from the same cloth as the first. Which is to say, he refused to accept that I was entitled to breakfast, claiming I was misinformed. Cue panic that the wifi wasn't mine for the taking either, but he acknowledged that was included. There is literally no rate available in a tower room that doesn't come with breakfast, and even if there was, for over $200 a night, isn't it better to just dish out something that probably costs them less than $5 rather than frustrate a guest? It reflects poorly on the higher-end brands in the Hilton family when you have to quibble over such details. Especially when you consider that at the Hampton Inn the night before it would be a complete non-issue, since everyone gets internet and food as part of a room rate less than half of this Hilton.
Skipping forward slightly, the situation was successfully resolved the next morning, as I approached staffer number four ready to brandish a screengrab of the rate details, but he was more than happy to issue my vouchers. These entitled me to any pastry, a piece of fruit, and a drink; sadly you don't get to double dip as a single occupant, so the upgrade is a better deal for a couple!
Anyway, the room:
Hotel 3: Hilton San Francisco Union Square, 2 nights, City View Tower Room.
6824 Hhonors points collected (inc. the last of my 2500 Visa bonuses), less 7200 for upgrade: net -376. Double-dipped for 500 avios.
Bed and sofa.
Reverse angle.
Bathroom.
The room itself was of a decent size and well-appointed, but the real draw is that city view, which is maximised by the majority of the wall being window-
Yep, that'll do nicely.
I spent close to two months away from Bristol last year, and one of the (few) frustrations I have with such a mobile lifestyle is keeping healthy. I'm not a fitness fanatic, but I do try to grab at least a couple of workouts a week, with my preference being for indoor climbing, or compound lifts. Whilst I accept the climbing is a niche interest, I often despair of hotel gyms which – if they even exist – tend to emphasise cardio over weight lifting. I'll take a rowing machine if it's all that's available, but I am not the running type: a zombie apocalypse event, and being about to miss the last train out of Glasgow on a Friday night, are the only recent scenarios that pushed me up to a sprint. So I'm delighted to report that the basement of this Hilton houses an excellent fitness centre for all tastes. Besides the usual dumbbells and array of treadmills and cross-trainers, I had the option of barbells, a proper bench and rack for, well, bench press, a Smith machine, and various isolation exercise stations. A good way to work out the frustrations with the upgrade items!