Starwood Lurker

Unless of course you stay at the Days Inn across the street from it.

Sincerely,


William R. Sanders
Customer Service Coordinator
Starwood Preferred Services

[email protected]

sandyweb33

Can't speak about a suite there, but the ambiance is mostly very young upwardly mobiles who put on quite a fashion show at night at the bar scene. If you are 40+ I would recommend the St Regis or the Westin St Francis. Altho at the Westin, be careful not to stay in the old part of the hotel. Don't know how much it has been remodeled but I think I've heard the tower is the place to stay. Maybe William can help you with this. The restaurant there is getting a lot of press. Pricey but delicious I am hearing. Tell us what you do and have a great time! Don't forget to stroll on over to the Ferry Blding Market Place.

ss

This discussion may be moot. When I stayed at the W SF last year
and considered a 10K point upgrade, William told me that the W SF doesn't
offer such upgrades.

--ss

777 global mile hound

Probably because there are so few to begin with

ENIAC

I got a lovely suite for three nights last August at the Palace on a low govt rate. Very big living room. It was a definite step down when I over to the W for the final night and got their high floor corner room.

As others have said, it's a nice but unexceptional W. I'd save the points unless you have no other use for them. But then I've never had a suite there.

Viking547

Yeah I'd save the 10k as well. I do have to chime in though and say even the corner rooms are tiny. A good point was made earlier about them not being "NYC tiny" but they're still small. A big difference from a lot of the other W's I have stayed at. I generally do one night stays at the hotel and never long stays. For the one nighters, the corner rooms suffice. And definitely ask for a room with a view of the bay bridge. The ledge by the window is really nice to sit by and look out...

Save the 10k and enjoy your room!!

They're very accommodating there for SPG status holders...

danwhy

Agree with the previous comment about a Bay Bridge view and how accomodating the staff are at the W SF. I stayed in January and had no problem with a 10:30 AM check in, they offered me a choice of a few different rooms and overall my experience was extremely positive. Corner rooms are a good size, you'll have a great time there.

BlissWorld

I went to San Francisco this past weekend to celebrate my birthday. I had to stay at one of my favorite hotels in the world: W San Francisco but I also wanted to try the new St Regis San Francisco. So, I splitted by stay between the two hotels.

First night: W San Francisco
As a FT guru , I logged on to spg.com and checked to see what room they had assigned me the night before. To my surprise, I got the "We're sorry, we found your reservation but are unable to show you the details." Right away, I knew I was upgraded to a suite . Upon checking in, I was informed that I had been upgraded to the Marvelous suite on the 28th floor (out of 31 or 32)

The suite was very nice. It basically was a standard corner room with a large bathroom connecting to a parlor with sofa, murphy bed, and another bathroom.

Bedroom corner
Corner Area
Bed
Connecting Room and Bathroom
Suite living room
Sofa
Fortune cookies turn down
View from room

I didn't take a picture of the murphy bed since it was still in the wall. I did use it though with a friend visiting. I called housekeeping and had them change the sheets and bring extra pillows. The murphy bed was a full size W bed, which was pretty nice. As always, service was excellent and my stay was wonderful.


Next, St. Regis San Francisco:
I had been looking forward to try this St Regis for ages. Upon check-in, I was informed that I had been upgraded to the Grand Deluxe on the 19th floor (out of 20). I inquired about suite availabillity and was told they were available but none had 2 beds like I had requested. Wanting the 2 beds, I took the Grand Deluxe. The room was very nice and spacious. The front desk agent then (again, to my surprise) came out of the front desk and escorted me to my room ^ Very nice touch!

The room was equipped with a high tech control center (for drapes, lighting, radio, phone, etc all in one) a plasma tv, tall mirror dressing area and a work desk. The bathroom had a separate toilette, shower, and bath. The cool feature I like was the LCD tv in the bathroom....but it wasn't just any LCD tv, this one was obviously made for St Regis because it had the ability to flip and rotate image. What does that mean? Well, if you have a hard time looking at the LCD tv, all you had to do was click flip image on your remote while taking a bath, and the LCD screen flips its image so you can watch tv on the mirror facing the bath! I thought that was awesome! There were also a couple bottles of Evian water waiting for us in the room.

Here are some pics:
Beds
TV and desk
Night shot of the room
Bathroom


We left the hotel for a day in the city. Upon arrival, here's what I found sitting on the counter of the dressing area:
Waiting for me in the room
Cake
My friend and I were surprised to find a beautifully decorated birthday cake, along with a birthday card and a business card hand written by the manager wishing me a happy birthday! Very impressive! ^ The cake was delicous!

Our beds were turned down. Two bottles of Evian water were placed on the night stand. Slippers were placed next to the bed.

Some other pics:
Who said W's hallway was dark?
Random shot
I really like this piece

The next morning, I requested a late check out. Initially, my butler told me that the manager had informed them to only grant 1pm check outs. I reminded him that I was a platinum member and his manager would most likely be okay with a 4pm check out. He called back in a couple of minutes and said the manager ok'd the late check out.

Later the day, I went back to the hotel to retrieve our stored luggages. While waiting, I asked the agent who checked us in the day before where the restrooms were. To my (yet another) surprise, she said "The restrooms are over there Mr. Blissworld, let me escort you." So she escorted me to the men's room. I was really surprised that she remembered my name!

I was extremely satisfied with my stay in San Francisco. From the fantastic upgrade at the W to the extraordinary service at St Regis, I will continue giving my business to starwood ^

ldsant

Happy Birthday BlissWorld!

Two things:

First of all, great trip report per usual! Thank you for incorporating pics and impressions.

Secondly - I apologize - all of this time I thought you were a "she" Now that you informed us you were escorted to the "men's room. . ." well. . .

car_guy1

I know (after a lot of searching) there has been a lot of discussion on where to stay while in San Francisco, the W or the Westin St. Francis. I just returned from there over the weekend. I stayed at the W. One thing to say, FANTASTIC! I payed a paltry $209 for a normal room. My platinum upgrade gave me a corner suite 2 and half times the size of a normal room. Awesome view by the way. Beyond that the service was the best I have ever experienced at any starwood property. For the first time in over 40 stays this year and 60 last year, I received a phone call from the front dest about 5 minutes after i got to my room checking to see if everything was acceptable. Everybody was very nice and extremely helpful about sight seeing in the city.

As for the Westin. I went in to explore for a bit. Its not as cleen, nor were the people very friendly. It could be due to the location (shopping galore) that they have a lot of people coming in and out and they are just trying to cater to actual guests. But in my opinion the only thing i could see the westin having over the W is location. Granted I didn't stay at the westin. But after the stay at the W, I don't think I ever need to go anywhere else while in San Fran.

tjk1976

Great info, thanks. ^

number_6

The W is quite nice, and worth staying at, but it is only the 4th best Starwood in SF. I would rate the St. Regis, Palace and Le Meridien as being better. Also suite upgrades for Plats are quite rare at the W, consider yourself quite fortunate, I'd bet the upgrade rate is well under 10% and maybe even under 1%. The Westin St. Francis is indeed the 5th best hotel, unless you get into some of their tower specialty suites, which are gorgeous.

777 global mile hound

I predicted the W SF would improve dramatically when new highly seasoned management stepped in awhile back
(see past threads)
Starwood is lucky to have one of the best at the W SF who has Park Hyatt and Four Seasons past experience.
Thanks for your post it is nice to hear that the progress continues ^
Cheers

Eastbay1K

I'd differ with you in that the W is better than the Palace. But if a suite upgrade is what you are looking for, then the Palace it is. If you get a tiny room at the Palace, you feel like they gave you an insulting closet (although I've not received anything less than a deluxe room since the SPG program began). If you get a tiny room at the W, you have all the comfort (but not all the space) of the nicest room. There's an intangible at the Palace that is the difference between a decent hotel and a luxury hotel, and I can't quite put my finger on it.

itsaboutthejourney

I agree, Toni Knorr the GM seems to really have W SF up there with excellent service & staff.