Starwood Preferred Guest - Experience with Westin St. Francis SF ?

Can anyone offer me some thoughts on the sprawling Westin St. Francis, in San Francisco ? I'm booked there for a conference in May - in a "City View Tower Room". What if any is the likely upgrade for SPG Gold ?

As an aside, do people find Starwood more or less willing to upgrade those business travellers staying on conference rates ?

Thanks,
Ben.

Since it is an old hotel, room size varies considerably. As noted in a number of other threads, gold status doesn't seem to mean much when it comes to upgrades at SPG properties.

Having just returned from a week stay at the St. Francis and having stayed there on three other occasions over the years, my opinions are as such:

The Tower Rooms, while offering better views that the original building, lack any personality as the entire Tower building. I much prefer the original building.

Of my 4 visits over the years, 2 were as a Gold member and 1 was as a Platinum member while the 4th was as a preStarwood Preferred Guest member. On 1 Gold and 1 Platinum visit, I was provided with:

Gold: Executive Suite on the 28th Tower. The room consisted of two rooms in the corner of the building.
Platinum: Large room overlooking Union Square in the original building, this was my favorite of all rooms.

I don't know if the upgrades were a result of my Starwood status as I was with the organizing group for a conference and we had sold many rooms at the St. Francis and are typically entitled to a number of upgrades for staff.

The lobby of the hotel is a construction zone at the moment and one needs to enter via the side enterance on either end of the hotel. The Compass Rose restaurant, setting for afternoon tea is being replaced by a hipish Michael Mina restaurant. The check in lobby has been transformed into a temporary lobby bar, but the space was tight for all of the tables that were set out.

Overall, I prefer this property to some of the newer hotels in the area, but would prefer the Palace or W over the St. Francis.

It's been a couple of years since I was at the St. Francis, but I would agree with raffy that the rooms in the original building are superior, although it is a bit of a crap shoot as to what you will get. The last time my wife and I were there for a conference with our then-6 month old daughter, they upgraded us (I'm Gold) to a very nice 2-bdrm suite (no view to speak of) which allowed us to have a separate room for the wee one to sleep in. This was greatly appreciated by all!

Thanks for all the feedback. I'll try and book one of the regular rooms and see what I get. And yes, I really don't expect much of SPG Gold. I've found other programs vastly superior, but I didn't want to start a flame war of who thinks which program is best, since its all a matter of choice.

I generally find about a fifth of my stays per year are Starwood, about 2/5 are Hilton, and 2/5 are 6Continents. Throw in the odd Marriott for measure, and there's no way I'll ever qual for a Plat on any of the programs, since my 150 nights get spread around too many programs.

Thanks though !
Ben.

I was there night before last, in the Tower. Modern room with a great view (27th floor). Friendly staff.

The one odd thing was the price list from the Business Center. The fee for checking e-mail was listed as "$5 per e-mail"! With the amount of spam I get, I didn't dare check my e-mail. (Also, in-room broadband service was available.)

Had the filet mignon at the Compass Rose, which was quite good.

The hotel is right on Union Square, which is a great location.

Parking is $39/night PLUS $5 tax. If you want to take in a play, there is a TIX (sp?) kiosk right across the street in Union Square, which has half-price, last-minute tickets.

I've been here quite a few times and as a Platinum been given a wide variety of rooms--from nice modern rooms (never a suite) in the Towers to a 'single'--yes as in one single bed in the old section (must have been a maid's room in the past). Overall it is a nice hotel in a great location, right on Union Square with the cable cars in front and within easy walking of major shopping and restaurants--

In case it's helpful, there are pictures of the hotel and bedrooms at HotelScoop: http://www.hotelscoop.com/hotelDetail1a.php?Hotelid=6414

There are also a couple of reviews.

rgoel: What a cool website hotelscoop is! Thanks for your link! I'll be at this Westin late May and have found everyones comments very helpful.

rgoel: What a cool website hotelscoop is! Thanks for your link! I'll be at this Westin late May and have found everyones comments very helpful.

May 22 to May 25th by any chance ? :cool:

Ben.

rgoel: What a cool website hotelscoop is! Thanks for your link! I'll be at this Westin late May and have found everyones comments very helpful.

paradocs, thanks for the kind words. Please contact me if you have any suggestions on how to improve the site. It was launched recently and very much a work in progress. All photo and comment contributions to the site are welcome. You can contact me at info@hotelscoop.com

Stayed at the St. Francis about 15 times in the past year. Nice hotel with a great location. The tower rooms are more modern but the old section of the hotel has more charm. Stayed in the old section about three times and enjoyed but found some of the rooms were cramped.

I've stayed a dozen times or so and prefer the tower rooms. One special case: My wife and I arrived after midnight once and were given the very last room available--the Shangri La suite on the 31st floor. This was in summer 2002 when they were still offering great deals online, and we spent the Fourth of July week in the greatest hotel room I've every experienced for about $120 a night. Even though I've been SPG Plat ever since then, I doubt I'll ever get that upgrade again!