The Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco

Service is excellent, rooms a little disappointing for $1,000 a night. Small and need up dating. Very clean. Could hear TV in next room. No frig for your own stuff. Prices for everything in the hotel are very high. Diet Coke $8, two eggs with potatoes and toast $28. Room service Cesar salad(nothing on it) $30. Public spaces are beautiful. Staff excellent. High hotel prices make you eat somewhere else. Would look at a different hotel next time.

This hotel did not live up to my husband’s expectations, that being said it was a comfortable stay, the room had everything we needed and our bed was good! The club lounge lacked atmosphere and the food was ordinary but the staff were friendly and helpful. The main bar has a good atmosphere and great margaritas! We didn’t eat dinner at the hotel so cannot comment on that. Good location!

I stayed here with two terminally ill family members in San Francisco for a short, costly trip to support clinical research. Sadly, this hotel fell far short of basic compassion and five-star standards. Despite being a Marriott Bonvoy Platinum Elite member with an Amex Brilliant card, my request for an accessible room was brushed aside with only a token upgrade. When I asked that my family members be granted lounge access for comfort, the request was flatly and unapologetically denied. Pre-arrival requests for temperature adjustments and accommodations were ignored. The property itself feels tired: painted-over walls, worn furniture, gray linens that wouldn’t pass for a three-star, and a pervasive odor in the rooms. Soundproofing is nonexistent—you can hear conversations next door word for word. Service was equally disappointing. Staff fumbled over something as simple as an extra cot, dragging the issue out until near 10 p.m. when management’s call woke my brothers before their important appointment. Worse, a broken bathroom faucet made bathing impossible, causing us to be late for that $3,000 cross-country appointment. I flagged it emphatically, yet nothing was fixed. Even turndown service requests went ignored. This hotel trades on its name, not on quality or empathy. It neither reflects the Ritz-Carlton reputation nor respects Marriott loyalty. If you expect true five-star care—or even the attentiveness shown by Hilton properties—you will not find it here.

The RC is a lovely, very comfortable hotel that does not have the offerings or amenities of a true 5-star hotel or other RC properties. That's not a bad thing necessarily, but please let my review help you clarify what you're looking for. Here is a slew of notes—some positive, some not—to help you out: -The RC uses full duvet covers! No triple sheeting that leaves the duvet exposed. That is so rare in the US these days, even at fine hotels, that it's worth it almost for this alone. -Diptyque toiletries are excellent, but RC chose a weak scent (Philosykos) that doesn't really do much. -The shower curtain was beginning to yellow, and reminded me of what you'd find in a Holiday Inn Express -Art in rooms and common areas is very mid -Weak water pressure and hot water is a struggle. No hand shower. -Thin towels and robes (for outstanding bath linens go to the Taj) -Improperly furnished rooms means the dresser is cluttered with gross upsell minibar items -Strange furniture finishes and decor choices, and the room feels like a very, very nice Marriott and not the RC -Turndown service is automatic, but doesn't comprise much. Water by the bed is the same that was there already, small chocolates, no slippers on linen. None of these things is necessary, but they are all signals that you're staying at a hotel where the staff is aware. -Grotesquely overpriced F&B. I know this is a huge part of a hotel's margin, but holy moly this is above and beyond. I felt embarrassed somehow. The Amex FHR breakfast credit is $87. It's just incomprehensible. -Cost aside, literally the best scrambled eggs I've ever had (except my mom's). -The breakfast restaurant is a dark hovel that feels like a Hyatt—strange decor that makes the no-taste convention crowd golf types feel hip, and sports on TV. Nothing airy and bright about it at all. I felt pretty glum sitting in there. A hotel breakfast should be a celebration of the morning! Flowers, fabrics, textures, coffee in silver pots, light -Weak coffee (*crying*), although I requested strong coffee for room service breakfast on my second morning and it was delicious. -Jorge at the front desk was great: he worked with me to find the right room after the first one smelled of stale men and the second felt like it was down in the basement -Hallways are dark, somewhat dreary. The carpet pattern is designed in such a way that it looks scuffed and caked in dirt. Elevator lobbies have strange furniture that feels rather bland. -There is no full dining restaurant, just the lobby bar. It's a nice space, but since it's multipurpose there are people working on laptops, and bright TVs playing sports, and the bar has a gauche red light on the front of it—altogether these things are more indicative of an airport Hilton -I did not try the Club because I was greatly skeptical that it would meet expectations, and from what I experienced in the rest of the hotel I'm glad I saved the money. -Check-in conversations were loud, and everybody could hear everyone else's business. Now that RC is part of Marriott there's all this extra stuff about status and various credits -The rooms have chaise sofas, which is such a good choice! Well done! -Absolutely outstanding Caesar dressing While investment is needed to overhaul some aspects of the hotel, there is much to work with, and the best feature of this property is that it isn't ostentatious and showy. It is understated and classic, in the tradition of the Ritz-Carlton, and not trying to be a slicked-up hyper-luxury location. That was my favorite part. It felt old-school, like the RC was in the 90s, when our family stayed at the Detroit hotel with traditional, but attentive hospitality. This location feels similar. My advice to the hotel is: the hotel needs a renovation, but it should be done in keeping with the neoclassical bones of the hotel. A great example of how to do this well—including how to handle the unavoidable constraint of tiny bathrooms luxuriously—is the Hotel Bristol in Warsaw. Replace fourth floor guest rooms with a full service restaurant. Brighten the breakfast room and soften it. Bright colors, but not too much: balance, taste. Combine television and coffee into a new, single unit that takes advantage of the wall space. Change Diptyque scents (not sure how much leeway individual properties have here). Remove the the gift shop and expand reception to include individual desks that have more privacy and are out of the way of the main circulation. Embrace the smaller-feeling, traditional vibe of this property, and use in-room amenities and service to complement. When corporate wants to build a new location in SF in some BS glass tower, send them to me and I'll talk them straight. TIPS: -Get a courtyard-facing room unless the outward view is worth it. The street noise is intense. -Avoid a room on the 4th floor. You will have to go through a service area

Best hotel service in San Francisco. We come once or twice a year to SF and out ot all the hotels this has been our favorite service so far. We have a toddler and she got coloring books and some little toys. The cleaning staff and valet service went above and beyond.