Decent stay, clean surroundings, and accommodating staff...no complaints with any of the basics. It is a boutique hotel. By "boutique" I mean the Boardwalk Empire music in the lobby, with furnishings from the same period. The lobby has a couple of thrones with claw feet that make it kind of funny. Or not.
Need wifi? There is a free laptop in the lobby. Otherwise, it's hit-or-miss if your device connects in the room. Keep a smartphone charged just in case.
Our room lacked adequate heat which came from a unit rigged to the wall. It blew cool which would have been fine on hot days, but not for November nights. Heat gets turned on at 9:30 pm, according to the front desk. I was surprised that for an old building it didn't have iron radiators. You can pull out a parabolic heater from the closet, but I thought it would pose more of a fire hazard than a benefit, mainly due to the long window treatments.
Rooms are small, like in many European hotels. If one stands in a room, the other has to cross to the other side over the bed. Practice your somersaults. And these quarters could use a professional's paint job on the ceiling.
The one tiny elevator is also Boardwalk Empire boutique, with its accordion gate. Make sure your kids don't get hands caught in that thing. (For us postwar babies, to get on you hold open its front door with one hand, then use your other hand to pull in the gate.)
It's continental breakfast in the bistro, a tiny restaurant via side door. Get coffee, bread, fruit, danish, and fresh squeezed (?) OJ. In the early evening, they serve wine in the lobby.
The guys working graveyard shift were most helpful & chatty.
Is Nob Hill Hotel worth it? Hmmm, yeah. It's a value mainly for location. Straight shot to the Wharf in one direction, and to downtown in the other. And not far from the Haight or Fillmore district. Public transit? The hardest part is making sense of it. You gotta know SF. You've got bus, you've got light rail, you've got subway, and then you've got trolleys. But the city has nothing that ties it all together seamlessly. I recommend taxi or rent-a-car. You should luck up with street meter parking near the hotel if you don't mind a few drive-arounds.
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