sbiddle

I stayed here for a 3 nights last October. When I booked (around this time last year) I asked them on Twitter about the WiFi and was told work was just starting on an upgrade. Obviously that is complete lies as it was totally unusable in October, and obviously totally unusable now.

My day job is doing WiFi installs in hotels - I just really struggle with the fact internet in US hotels is just so terrible. I even stayed at a brand new Holiday Inn Express in Australia a couple of weeks ago (a country which doesn't have great Internet connectivity) and could get 90Mbps up and 90Mbps down over WiFi.

Sisosig

Staying at this hotel now. Premium internet has a steady 30 megabit speed up&download, all day long. Was pre-upgraded to city view executive floor room, but no room selection available. Work on anchor points for future window washing projects continues: Monday-Friday between 8am-4pm. It will cause drilling noise - but I didn't notice anything, as: only here for the weekend. This work is being carried out in front of my room, so this may explain the upgrade. Windows seem to have a grayish sun protection film, making every clouded day look much more dull than it really is.

Diamonds are allowed to have the full breakfast buffet in the restaurant with many, many options. Also received a coupon for two drinks on the house plus one appetizer, between 5-7PM. Large selection of local (=bay area) craft beers on tap included with this coupon, as well as some wines. This may be a weekend-only thing, because the lounge is on standby during the weekend. Water bottles replenished each day. I would rate my diamond freebees worth at least $100, for a three night stay, which overall makes me happy with this stay.

Almost forgot, because I asked for it in a previous post, here's my Airport BART experience. Got out at Embarcadero station. Needed some help from my phone to maneuver the city blocks. I think Montgomery would have been easier, more like walking in a straight line, but indeed busier sidewalks.

Buying a ticket at the BART station is something special, they have very sophisticated ticket machines - after all this is IT Utopia. You first need to lookup the fare on a printed table, which is $9.65. Then insert a credit/debit card into the payment machine and it will say: $20.00. Lower the amount by repeatedly pressing + or - buttons, until $9.65 or $19.30 (return) has been reached and then have your ticket printed. The trip by rail took quite some time, but not half as long as the six (!) immigration officers took to 'welcome' >1000 foreign visitors into the country.

squeakr

storewanderer

That particular Hilton operator seems to be rather generous with its benefits. I recently stayed at another of its hotels and as a Gold the benefits I received were WAY more than required. I thought I was in Asia. I kept it quiet because I did not want to call attention to it knowing that Hilton corporate is rumored to pound down the hammer on hotels that exceed minimum benefits in the US.

Yes, that is how all BART Machines work. Using the metro in Washington DC recently I had the same experience (though the machines may have been a bit newer they worked exactly the same way). Toggle +/- 5 or +/- 1 dollar cents 30 times to get to the fare you want. BART also has another quirk with credit card velocity limits. You can only use the same card at a BART machine (regardless of station; if you buy ticket out at Pittsburg then ride into Montgomery then want to go later from Montgomery somewhere else then return on BART your card will at some point there stop working if you buy a ticket for each ride. The velocity limit is 2 or 3 times within a 24 hour period. This is due to card skimming concerns. This is a major inconvenience. They should probably velocity limit it to same card within 7-8 hour period or something and they'd accomplish what they are trying to accomplish (not having someone standing at the station and using a stolen or skimmed card 15 times in a short period of time). What they want you to do is do a large load at one time and not buy a ticket for each trip.

The DC Metro did not have that awful velocity limit like BART has, or at least if they did it was much higher (like more than 5 transactions).

RoxyMountain

Stayed here last night. Nice city view but super dirty windows. My co-worker was upgraded to a nice suite with a terrace.......and a terrible view of some construction site. Wifi worked good but as a Diamond I get the premium. Breakfast buffet was good and not crowded. House of Nanking is just up the street.

Would stay again.

sethb

I've stayed there about a dozen times as a Diamond and have never gotten an upgrade (other than to a high floor with a great view if only the windows had been clean). What's your co-worker's trick?

RoxyMountain

Good question.

He checked in on line and when we got to the hotel around 2:30 his room was not ready so she upgraded him on the spot to a suite. I think I was upgraded to a nicer view. 23rd floor with a view of the bay......through the dirty windows

Oh, and the TV screen was broken. Giant crack that went the entire width of the screen

kpbadger

A couple days ago, I received an e-mail from the property which read in part:

It would be interesting to have a speed report from someone who has stayed there after June 17, 2019.

zombietooth

If you have luggage, don't get off at Montgomery unless you don't mind dragging your luggage through, and standing in, pools of urine in the elevator like happened to us a few days ago. We ended-up dragging the bags up the stairs.

evergrn

Kacee

Don't ever take a BART elevator.

Sisosig

Stayed there twice this month, but before June 17. Didn't record the speedtest results, but I can confirm both my rooms had an in-room Cisco access point. Tried to look up what type it was, it seemed to be EOL. Premium Internet speed was around 30Mbit upload and download, no matter what time of day it was. Even better: you didn't have to logon again every 24 hours.

As far as BART is concerned: for a stranger to the city it is almost impossible to locate an elevator near Montgomery Station. I would recommend taking an elevator at Powell. From the Hilton, walk south along Kearny, make a right into Market Street. Do not cross Market Street, stay on the righthand sidewalk. Walk for another five minutes, then opposite of stores of Old Navy and Levi's you'll notice an elevator. Most BART and MUNI exits do have escalators going up, but not down.

arlflyer

Hopefully never, so we can keep this joke running in eternity!



Well jeez, that's the selling point right there. To be frank, I haven't had markedly "slow" hotel internet since about 2009. I watch YouTube content every day and can't recall the last time I had any issue streaming in a hotel, so speed is a non-issue for me. But man, the number of times I've had client emails other other important stuff hung up due to the login cutting out after 24 hours, or the sum total of wasted time logging back in (my work PCs tend to not like to find the landing page once previously connected)...this is the value, not the speed.

mdbe

Have a stay here tonight. Will try and do a speed-test. Last time i stayed here in 2018, the internet was unusable.

mdbe