I recently returned from a six night family vacation (with my husband and three children) at the Ritz Carlton San Francisco. We had booked two interconnecting deluxe rooms through the American Express Platinum Fine Resorts and Hotels program (which I highly recommend using – more on that later). We enjoyed our stay enormously and have only good things to say about this hotel. I researched hotels extensively when I planned this trip. I read all of the reviews of the Ritz Carlton on this website, as well as in the standard guidebooks and Zagat. I debated between this hotel and the Four Seasons for quite some time. Weighing in favor of Four Seasons was the fact that it usually receives the highest ratings in all of the sources I checked and that I tend to like the sleek contemporary décor of the Four Seasons rather than the formal, faux elegance type of décor of a Ritz Carlton. Weighing in favor of the Ritz Carlton was that I thought it had a better location for San Francisco tourism and less of a business atmosphere (i.e., better for a family) than Four Seasons, friends of ours who had traveled to San Francisco with their children had highly recommended it, and it was less expensive than the Four Seasons for the same type of room and the same standard of luxury. I felt that I could not go wrong with the Ritz Carlton, and I was right. It was the perfect choice.
The location was ideal for sightseeing. It is about two blocks from Chinatown, and a five to ten minute walk from the North Beach area (where we usually walked to a restaurant at night), Union Square, and the SOMA museums. Also, there is a stop down the block for the major cable car lines, and it just takes a few minutes to get to Fisherman’s Wharf with the line we took. (A taxi to this area or to Telegraph Hill would not be more than five minutes). I never saw homeless people on the block of the hotel, and I felt safe walking around the immediate area at night.
The hotel iself is in an elegant old building, and has a luxurious décor. As mentioned, although this “old world” elegance is not really my style (and I felt in particular that the breakfast restaurant could use a lot more light and a more casual and contemporary style), the hotel is definitely luxurious, without being stuffy or uncomfortable to be in with children. On the contrary, we saw tons of families with kids in the hotel while we were there (I totally disagree with a previous reviewer on this site that found the clientele of this hotel to be all old people. I did not see any old people at all, nor would I particularly care if I did). Our two rooms were quite spacious (especially for a city hotel), and I greatly appreciate the fact that we were able to get them interconnecting in a lower price category. Also, the rollaway bed in the second bedroom was free, and it is the only hotel I was able to find in downtown San Francisco that had this policy (although the Ritz Carlton makes up for it by charging slightly more than the others for parking). Our rooms had been recently renovated and were luxurious, comfortable and well appointed. The bedding and linens were exquisite. We always had delicious chocolate treats waiting for us in our rooms, and on our last night, received a special boxed set of treats with “Fond Farewell” written on it in chocolate. The hotel has a lot of nice touches like that and wonderful attention to detail. Also, our bathroom amenities were always restocked – something that doesn’t always happen even in other luxury hotels. There is a large indoor pool in this hotel. Although we did not have time to use it, I did check it out, and it looked pretty nice.
I mentioned that we had booked this hotel through the Amex Platinum desk. If you happen to have a platinum card, this is definitely the way to go. Although we could not take advantage of several of the available benefits on this trip (upgrades were not available at the time we checked in, we did not need early check in or late check out, and we did not have an opportunity to have our free lunch in the hotel), we had a huge savings by getting a daily $80 credit towards the price of breakfast. We travel a great deal as a family and we usually stay in luxury hotels. Typically, breakfast for a family of five runs about $150 in these places. Likewise, at the Ritz Carlton. The credit took the pain out of the breakfast tab. Another hint for savings on breakfast when you have kids – ask for the kids’ menu. On our first two mornings, it had not been offered to us and we did not know there was a kids menu (simply a discount on the price of the hot and cold buffet). On our third day, suddenly we were offered the kids’ menus. Even my 16-year old ordered the Mickey Mouse Pancake off of it for $5. The portions on the kids menu are absolutely huge and they are all $5. The Mickey Mouse pancake and the waffles on the kids menu would be enough to satisfy any ravenously hungry normal sized adult. Honestly, I would have ordered from it myself had I not been completely embarrassed to do so. As it was, I ordered the continental breakfast for four times the price.
The staff of the hotel is as friendly, courteous and helpful as they can possibly be. The service is top notch across the board from the chamber maids, porters, and doormen to the front desk. In fact, there was a glitch on one night during our stay, and it was handled in the best possible way. The hotel is undergoing renovation floor by floor. In the middle of one night, the alarm sounded several times within each of our rooms (and I believe throughout the hotel). I phoned the front desk who told me that everything was okay, but that the fire department was on its way. Apparently, as we learned subsequent to the incident, some construction dust on one of the floors being renovated got onto the smoke detector causing the alarm to go off throughout the hotel. Needless to say, we did not get a good night’s sleep that night. Nevertheless, the hotel could not have handled this situation better than it did. When I went to check out, I spoke to a manager about it and he was as gracious and accommodating as he could possibly be. Before I could even finish my sentence, he refunded the full amount for the two rooms for that night. No questions asked. I left having a very positive feeling about this place – I will definitely stay here on my next trip to San Francisco. I recommend it for anyone who wants a wonderful base to see or do business in this great city.
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