Argonaut, A Noble House Hotel

My partner and I stayed at the Argonaut Hotel through Costco Travel for 4 nights, so we got a special rate and an additional dining credit ($30/day). Overall I would say it was a really nice experience, with very few (minor) caveats. Tl;dr - clean upscale hotel in a convenient location with incredibly friendly and helpful staff and good food, just with some minor downsides: no locks on bathroom doors, aggressive minibar promotion/placement, loud HVAC, fairly expensive restaurant without dining credits. ------- % ------- Pros ------- % ------- - Convenient and Nice Location: the Argonaut is really close to a lot of tourist attractions at and near Fisherman's Wharf (including Ghirardelli Square, Pier 39, National Maritime Historical Park) with easy access to the MUNI bus (requires a little bit of walking), cable cars, and Embarcadero streetcars. We found it really convenient to take public transit in and around the area with just a little bit of walking, and while it's a bit far from a lot of more central San Francisco attractions (and doesn't have access to the BART), Fisherman's Wharf is a safe, clean, high-foot-traffic area that is probably one of if not the best for tourists to stay in. There are also a ton of rental car options within walking distance. There's also a lot of nice food places within walking distance, including a cute Portuguese cafe right behind the hotel (the coconut mozzarella bread there is a must-try). - Cleanliness: the rooms themselves were very clean and nice (outside of a bit of grime in more concealed parts of the shower area, which is at least excusable since it didn't affect our experience in any way), and even the public areas of the hotel are really clean. The public restrooms in the hotel are key code restricted but the staff will provide it for you when you ask, and due to the fact that they are restricted to hotel guests and event attendees, it's really quite clean and nice to use. The hotel itself (elevators, corridors, common areas) is quite clean and we did not notice any issues. My partner has asthma and is very sensitive to dust and grime, but she didn't react at all to anything in the hotel (which has been an issue in previous hotels that weren't as clean) - that's one of the strongest endorsements I can give to the Argonaut. - Friendly and Helpful Staff: the front desk staff were pretty great - got us settled in and checked in/out with no issues, very helpful when it came to answering questions (I texted them a question about the dining credit and got a call on the room phone in 15-20 seconds), and the guys handling bag checks were very nice and took care of everything for us. The room was also kept in perfect condition by housekeeping. Additionally, when I had an issue with the billing, the front desk handled it without asking any questions. One of the better experiences I've had with hotel staff for sure, they even got our room ready 2 hours early before check-in for free just because we had gotten there so early. I would recommend this hotel just from the staff alone. - Fast and Convenient Restaurant: The Blue Mermaid is definitely expensive, but our $45/day ($15 for all guests from the mandatory resort fee + $30 from booking through Costco) dining credit applied to dine-in and takeout (no room service, you have to go to the restaurant physically to use it), and the takeout was fast and convenient: on average <10 minutes to get our food. There are also some really tasty dishes - we found the frittata to be very good, along with a ringing endorsement for the Dungeness crab & corn chowder from my partner, and with the credits we found the meals to be quite good quality for what we paid overall. ------- % ------- Cons ------- % ------- - Expensive Food: The Blue Mermaid serves some pretty good dishes, but they are really expensive - think $23 for French toast, $17 for oatmeal with brown sugar and fruit, etc. - so the credit is really what makes the value here. I wouldn't necessarily recommend extensively going to the Blue Mermaid outside of using your dining credits especially when there's so much good food in the area and in SF as a whole. - No Locks on Bathroom Door: self explanatory, found this inconvenient. It's a sliding door. - Expensive Minibar: we got an extra charge (reversed after a phone call) for minibar items, and they are EXPENSIVE - like $5 for a bag of chips. Take photos before/after in case you need to prove you didn't touch anything. They also just have a lot of minibar stuff in the room, so unless you absolutely mean to, just set everything aside and leave it alone. - Loud HVAC: made it a little hard for me to sleep until I got used to it. ------- % ------- Conclusions ------- % ------- Overall, I would strongly recommend the Argonaut - the Costco price was really good for what we got (not shown to us, but estimated to be ~$175 a night), and it's a great hotel. I really enjoyed my stay and would absolutely return here the next time I visit SF. And a pro tip - get a city or bay view room, the interior view is not as nice. We got a city view room and found ourselves looking into the main courtyard, which was pleasant - it was nice to not have to deal with being in a room closer to foot traffic.

Great location. Beautiful bay view. Clean and comfortable room. Amazing staff. Special thanks to Sharon, who was friendly and helpful.

The Argonaut is in a great location and allowed us to easily reach friends in the Marina, restaurants in North Beach, and many other parts of the city. The staff were incredibly friendly and we found our room comfortable. The filtered water stations on each floor were great and the fitness center was small but adequate. The reason I am deducting a star is as follows: - Our room really needed a deep cleaning. There were marks all over doors/walls and there was mildew all over the grout in the bathroom and some brown drips coming from the ceiling. When I got in touch for help for a quick wipe down, they were very attentive. -I know everyone is doing a resort fee now and the hotel was up front about it, but there’s not enough amenities at this hotel to justify it. -There’s no coffee in the room. Given the aforementioned resort fee, I should not have to request a coffee maker (or slippers!). And the coffee that was brought was pretty sad. If you position yourself as a boutique hotel, you should just put nespressos in the room and call it a day. Other than those items, we had a comfortable stay and the staff were really attentive.

Ideal place to stay to explore city, we stayed for convenience of going on a cruise, nice staff beautiful restored old building and large bedrooms

Booked via Virgin Holidays on a Bed & Breakfast basis. The hotel is well located within Fisherman’s Wharf, is very quirky given its design and nautical theme, its very clean, well appointed and the staff were all very friendly. The room is quite small but was fine for us with a large comfy bed. Breakfast is a choice of continental or a variety of cooked options. Our deal offered the continental only which we found to be more than enough, was disappointing to learn that the specialty coffees were chargeable as filter coffee or tea were the only hot drink included. We chose to eat in the hotel on one night, the food was good however the service was a little slow. The espresso martini was great! Be aware that the hotel bar shuts relatively early which we found strange however there is a bar nearby called The Buena Vista which is open until late.