The Hotel Castro San Francisco

Great hotel with nice views both day and night. The concept is a little different (no front desk) but this didn't impact the stay at all.

I stayed at the hotel for 4 days. The location is convenient to the Castro neighborhood, but there were problems. Because it is across the street from a grocery store, delivery trucks begin arriving every day around 5AM. They park on the street in front of the hotel and it was very noisy. If you are ok getting up at 5:00AM, it may not be a problem for you. In the evening, the loud music from the lobby bar, and the loud patrons on the sidewalk, make sleeping an issue. If you are ok with loud noise until 1:00 or 1:00AM, then maybe that's ok for you. Lastly, the door access, elevator and room codes stopped working after day 3. It took customer service almost 20 minutes to respond to my chat and texts. I was finally given new codes, but those codes worked only once. Another 20 min with customer service. Every time I left my room, the codes stopped working. I spent a lot of time standing in the rain and cold on the sidewalk waiting for codes. In all, I spent 3 hours on a Sunday afternoon trying to get reliable access to my room. I eventually gave up and decided to skip my holiday party and just stay in my room. I didn't want to risk trying to get in at 10 or 11PM. There is no onsite help, and their virtual help is overwhelmed and can't respond in a timely way. For my trouble, they offered to refund the $50 cleaning fee. I didn't realize there was a $50 cleaning fee. There are a lot of hotels in San Francisco; I wouldn't choose this one again.

Different codes needed for elevator and room. Electric blinds sometimes worked. No bath soap in dispenser. Only one tea cup. Inquired about another and told this: I understand. For items not found in the concierge cabinet, guests often find nearby stores convenient for picking up any additional essentials.