I liked it a lot, and I'd be pleased to stay there again.
The Warwick a smaller, older hotel that appears to predate the dominance of huge chains. There's nothing generic or sterile about it. The lobby is small, rich, warm, and welcoming. The room keys are still actual brass keys and the doors to the rooms are guarded by carved wooden figures of...rams with eagle wings? Well, whatever they were, it's a nice touch. My room (a corner on the third floor of this 8-story hotel) looked like it was furnished with actual furniture, as opposed to the airport lounge-grade decor that you often find in huge Marriotts and Hiltons.
But a useful review of the Warwick needs to make two observations. First, furnishings were rather dated. It was like a guest room at an older relative's house. A four-poster bed, a couple of overstuffed armchairs, thick, swagged window treatments, a big, upright armoire with swinging mirrored doors. The desk lamp had a modular phone jack for a laptop modem. Air conditioning came in the form of a ceiling fan (not an issue; it's San Francisco...heating is more needed than cooling). Overall, the decor was just the ticket for a couple on a getaway, but I can understand how a seasoned business traveler who's comforted by consistency might regard it as old and overdone.
The second issue is the larger one: the upkeep. There was a consistent lack of attention to fine detail. The room was clean, the furniture was in fine shape. But:
1) Door wouldn't open without a good hard shove (I initially thought there was an extra deadbolt engaged);
2) One of the taps on the shower dripped, the shower head needed to be de-limed, metal fixtures were dull or slightly rusty where they should have been shiny;
3) Underside of desk's glass top needed a cleaning;
4) Ice bucket included tag with phone extension to call for free ice delivery...extension not actually in service;
None of these things made me think this was a shabby room. Overall, it was indeed quite nice. But! If I were booking a room for someone who indulges in fault-finding and blame-placing as forms of ritual sport, I'd steer clear of the Warwick. I could imagine a hard-nosed father-in-law mentioning "that hotel you found for us, the one with the window that I couldn't open and the armoire with the crack in the molding" every Thanksgiving for the rest of his life.
It's a shame. A manager inspecting this room with a clipboard could have written a short to-do list that would have fixed all of these problems in just a couple of hours. I can recognize a hotel where there's an obvious lack of care, and the Warwick isn't one of those.
The rest of the experience was great. The staff was quick, efficient, and kind. There's quite a lovely restaurant attached and as you'll be quite pleased to wind up a night out with a drink in the bar.
It's on the corner of Geary and Taylor, on a great block in the theater district, and you're just a few quick blocks from Union Square. David's Deli is right next door (good quick eats, though perhaps 20% overpriced), as is a Starbucks, a terrific Japanese noodle restaurant (Katana-Ya), and a Southern restaurant on the far corner that served me an intensely flavorful brisket (Biscuits and Blues). There's a Walgreens right across the street for snacks and supplies. One afternoon I took a lovely (if hilly) walk to Grace Cathedral and then to Fisherman's Wharf. Great, central location.
I have to object to another reviewer's description of the neighborhood as "seedy." It's across the street from a swank hotel and two stage theaters that were hosting national tours; art galleries share that same block as well. That said, things get a little depressing three blocks to the west.
If you have the windows open, you'll get a lot of street noise. Geary Street is rather busy, so it's filled with normal car and pedestrian noises (and the tooting of a hotel doorman hailing cabs). The noise drops to nil with the windows closed.
As a personal aside: I had lots of work to do at my desk and found the view of the cars and people outside my big windows to be very stimulating.
The Warwick does seem like it's frozen in the 80s or early 90s, and not everybody will enjoy that. But it's not a downside either. It's as though the hotel has never gotten rundown and required an overhaul, and has remained busy throughout its lifetime.
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