Buena Vista Inn — Hotel in San Francisco

I rarely review products. This place was such a poor value for the money that I figured I would.

1.) Staff was adequate. Helped with bags and the rental bicycle company I used. No real problems with them.

2.) Breakfast was horrible. Coffee was maybe the worst coffee I ever had. Imagine folgers and then imagine something worse than that. Also, they had a cereal dispenser that would shower flakes all over the floor because the bowls weren't big enough to catch the cereal. Also, if you really like inedible green bananas, then this place is for you.

3.) One elevator. Sometimes the lights for the floors illuminated some times not. Nothing like standing there hoping that the elevator had registered your button push. I would have preferred the stairs except they weren't contiguous. Which meant to traverse two floors you had to go down a flight, then walk across the first floor and go down another flight.

4.) Vending. Soda Machine on the third floor was broken and the one on the second floor didn't take bills.

5.) Room. Hot. Always hot. The window unit wouldn't cool the room no matter what temperature I put the thermostat on. I think it was basically a fan with no real cooling mechanism in it. Also, we had this bar that stuck out from the foot of one of the beds that we ended up putting a coffee mug over because after one of us got "shived" by it we decided it might be a good idea to protect ourselves. We had a coffee maker, but the pot for it didn't match so if you wanted to brew coffee to avoid the "prison bilge" down at the continental breakfast you had to hold the pot up against the mechanism to facilitate the flow of coffee. Of course, this was only learned after one pot was deposited into the tray on which the coffee maker sat. Bathtub had no rubber mat. Showering was a bit like trying to ride a "slip and slide" while standing. Also, bathroom door wouldn't stay open and the tub and walls were filthy.

6.) Housekeeping - house keeping seemed to keep a schedule of "whenever you are there we are going to want to clean the room". Not a real cleaning either. unless cleaning means making the beds and leaving towels.

7.) Misc. - First night I was there ( and I was exhausted from travel) a hotel employee was beating on my door trying to deliver a pizza at 4:30 in the morning. Oh, and "refrigerator available" means they are going to charge you 10 bucks a night. I could have bought one for less.

In summary, whoever manages this place is either cheap or lazy. For the money you can...

We stayed here for two nights, the rooms are spacious, clean, and comfortable. The rooms do not have a mini fridge which made it difficult to keep our snacks and water cold. If your room is facing the street it could get a bit noisy, but not enough that you can't sleep. The parking is horrible, there are two levels, and the spaces are very narrow. The entrance to both levels are next to each other. We had such a hard time parking our car that we decided not to take out the car unless it was really necessary. This hotel is near a shopping area, there are plenty of restaurants around which made it easy not to drive around. Also we purchased a Big Bus Tour for two days at the front lobby and the bus picked us up at the front door. This Bus allows you to get off in any of their 14+ stops and you are able to catch the bus again in any of the stops. This made it easy to get to know San Francisco and get around. This hotel is good if you plan on being busy thought out the day and just need a place to take a shower and sleep. It was also...

Travelers beware! We arrived late at night. The area was uncomfortable, lots of people lurking. You talked through a window to the front desk guy. Signs of an unsafe part of town. There were maybe a total of 10 parking spots for the entire hotel and that's being generous. Tight parking. We had a hard time parking our Subaru Ascent for size reference. There was some sticky white substance on the bed sheets, couch, and walls. We called down asking if they had any housekeeping staff to tidy the room since it obviously hadn't been cleaned. The young man downstairs told us there wasn't any housekeeping at that hour. We wiped down the walls with disinfectant and got some fresh sheets. We started unpacking and grabbed the sheets to change them and a bed bug crawled out from the fresh sheets. Needless to say we did not stay the night and opted for the Residence Inn in Oakland instead. $30 less and so much...