PsiFighter37

How would you know that Intercontinental is his (or maybe the SS) preferred chain?

I'm a member of PC but just to accrue nights I book through hotels.com (so far the only chain I have encountered that does me the favor of crediting nights booked externally to my account). Stayed here with a view of the interior courtyard (facing east - I could barely make out the Bay Bridge) and found the accommodations decent - a few worn details here and there. The lobby itself is magnificent and befitting of a city of SF. Yes, being on top of Nob Hill can be a pain, but the exercise ain't all bad! And for my wife, the upside was that if you go a little northeast, you find Chinatown at the bottom

mahasamatman

Nobody said it was his preferred chain, but until this year, he pretty much always stayed at the Intercontinental when he was in SF.

http://blog.sfgate.com/matierandross...his-s-f-hotel/

MJ777

My wife and I just returned from an excellent stay at the Fairmont San Fran. The service was top notch and we felt spoiled throughout our time there.

We used a suite upgrade and based on advice this thread, called in to inquire about bumping up to a main building balcony suite. No problem at all (called in the week of our arrival) and really loved waking up with a cup of coffee on the balcony with fresh air. The suite is nicely renovated and spacious. Ours was on the 5th floor and offered nice city and peek-a-boo water views. As others have commented, the bathrooms are on the small side in the main building suites. We had a red-eye flight out and late checkout was granted for 5pm which was greatly appreciated after a pretty full day of sight-seeing.

We checked out happy hour at the Tonga Room and had breakfast in Laurel Court. We also took the complimentary bikes out for a day and ventured over the Golden Gate bridge to Sausalito (bucket list: check). These don’t seem to be used all that often as there was some confusion from the bell desk on where to find the liability forms. For anyone in San Fran, it’s a great (free) way to see the city!

The only slight hiccup came at check-out time when I was informed that my platinum dining certificates could not be applied to the Laurel Court breakfast. This took me off guard as the primary reason to eat there was to use the certificates. Given the great experience we had I didn’t kick up much of a fuss but it did leave a bit of a bad taste. Lo and behold, after returning home I found the following sentence buried in the FPC terms and conditions:
"The Certificate entitles the Holder to $25 USD credit towards lunch, dinner or a Willow Stream Spa treatment.”

Clearly breakfast is not listed. Has this tripped up anyone else before? I had no problems claiming for breakfast at the Royal York earlier in the year so this added to my surprise this time around.

Anyways, this was a minor inconvenience at the end of a wonderful visit to San Fran.

mahasamatman

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/fairm...breakfast.html

Some properties exceed the terms, some don't, and some are inconsistent (note that thread has someone who was successful at the Fairmont SF).

MJ777

Interesting, thanks for the thread.

italdesign

To answer my own question: yes, you can.

So I'm booked into the main building Fairmont Exterior Room. I can use room upgrade cert to upgrade to a Tower Deluxe room. From my reading, it sounds like that is a good idea, the best benefit being the superior view from the room (though room size is actually smaller than Exterior Room). Anyone disagree and think I should stick to the Exterior Room?

mrstraveler

I'd like to use my annual free night certificate and FPC points to redeem for a two night stay at the Fairmont San Francisco. Since collection B's require 35K points for a standard room I was wondering if I should pay another 5K points to upgrade to a junior suite or if I can just apply my complementary room and suite upgrade certificates for an upgrade on both nights?

Jasper2009

Yes, you can apply either your room upgrade cert or your suite upgrade cert towards your booking. Both free night certs and ovation certs (the certs you can redeem your Fairmont Chase points for) can be combined with upgrade certs.

mrstraveler

Thank you Jasper so I can redeem my ovation award for a standard room and then use my room and suite upgrade certificates for both nights to get bumped up to a suite

Jasper2009

Unless something has changed very recently, yes, no problem at all. And you can use either a room upgrade cert *or* a suite upgrade cert.

Btw, the designated suite upgrade category at the Fairmont SFO is the "Main Building Suite".

jameswes

I concur with Jasper - as long as the specified room/suite is available, you can upgrade using either of the certificates.
You can even switch between which upgrade you're using - I have a stay booked over Labor Day and initially they didn't have the "Main Building Suite" available, so I used a room upgrade to get to a Tower Deluxe room. Then when the suite opened up for both days of my reservation, I changes from the room upgrade to the suite upgrade.

I'm definitely looking forward to my stay at the Fairmont SFO - I'm hoping I'll get an upgrade at the hotel from the main building suite to a tower suite (a little smaller, but a better view), but since my confirmed reservation is already a $800/nt suite, I certainly won't complain if all I get is the main building suite.

jameswes

Unless you have another use for the certificate in mind, I would go ahead and use it. And, if they front desk gives you any upgrades from that, it would likely be into the Signature rooms (higher floor, better view).

mrstraveler

Thank you! We are looking forward to kicking off our holiday with a four night stay at the Fairmont SFO in the Main Building Suite...the countdown begins

wwtsang

i had booked a stay at the Fairmont SF and used a suite upgrade, check in was great however we were informed at check in the main building suite we were placed in was with an obstructed view (think there's two like this on the 7th floor of the main building)
the FPC check-in desk gentlemen was apologetic about it and suggested they should really move that room out of the category for upgrades due to the obstructed views (you see the exterior wall when u look out the window)

various alternatives were offered (the only suites they had left was i believe the cambridge/buckingham that i could pay to upgrade to) or use a room upgrade and switch to a signature room, at the end i stayed in that suite for the first night but was able to switch to a different suite for my other 3 nights (it was on the 3rd floor facing Mason street so most of Grace Cathedral was obstructed by the Pacific Union Club opposite the hotel) and another downside was since this suite has the ability to form a 2 bedroom suite with adjacent rooms, you may be woken up/kept up by your neighbors or also hear the other end while in the living room

i'd recommend calling the property ahead of time to see if the know which suite you might be in if you haven't already stayed

apart from the small snafus everything was top notch there, would love to return there and maybe calling ahead to find out more beforehand

LarkSFO

http://insidescoopsf.sfgate.com/blog...the-age-of-70/

"In 1945, just a month after VJ Day, 70 years, the Fairmont Hotel turned a former swimming pool room into a bar with Polynesian flair. Believe it or not, the Tonga Room wasn’t always ultra-Tiki: It used to be more reminiscent of a cruise ship, though from the beginning the tables were arranged around an indoor sea beset by hourly rainstorms. In 1967, designer Howard Hirsch turned it into the jaw-dropping spectacle we know today."