Fitzgerald Hotel Union Square — Hotel in San Francisco

FULLY DISGUSTED by the room and service, I am writing this review.

BTW, would not trust the 5 star review… on the desk of the ‘reception’ if that’s what you can call it, it mentions that you get a Starbucks coupon if leaving a 5 star review. 🤣

I am traveling for 5 weeks in the USA, and have always been traveling. I can stay at basic places, as long as it is clean and safe, but this was everything but that. I hope my review can prevent other travellers of the horrible experience and the stress of checking out right away of the hotel and the stress of (in high peak season) finding a new place to stay in a foreign city / country!!!

I have booked the Fitzgerald in San Francisco based on the location and the pictures, which seems a bit old, but spacious and clean. However upon arrival, all was untrue and a nightmare. Even the location. To start off, better check out King George where we are staying now, four minutes walking, which is budget friendly, but so amazing, in terms of state of the hotel and room, service and cleanness. Also the location is better, minimal to no homeless people and clean streets right on the union square, unless Fitzgerald which is crowded with homeless people and a very dodgy street. We did not dare to step on the street when staying at Fitzgerald, where now we come home at 4AM.

I have included the booking.com pictures and also the actual pictures of the place.

Things I likes: One of the 4 (indian looking men) was kind at reception, others were horrible. A microwave was available in the lobby. There was a fridge.

Things I disliked: FALSE ADVERTISING The hotel and room, are nothing like the pictures. But really nothing!!!!! Please see attached pictures. When entering the hotel, it’s basically someone sitting behind a rusty-antique desk which serves as ‘reception’. The smell throughout the lobby, elevator and room, HORRIBLE. I think this was due to the uncleaned carpet for months, years, longer and lack of hygiene. We even tried to hide it and bought an air freshener. The elevator was rusty, smelly, tiny, but did its work. Upon arrival in the room, an unexpected guest was waiting for us, in the form of a spider above the bed and not sure what kind of other unidentifiable bugs. The bedsheets on the face end were stained (see enclosed picture) The window frame which were the only place to put anything (since there is no storage) were horrifying dirty as you could tell in the picture. Dirt, dust, fungus, just see the picture for an impression. We booked a spacious room based on picture, but got a closet space where we could not open our suitcases. Breakfast that so to say was included, was the biggest insult. There were some oats packages, container of diluted orange juice that was almost see through due to the dilution of the daily ice addition, that have been placed there daily and was lasting for I don’t know how many days. Besides that dry precut bagels and slices of bread, that seems to be taken from a diner disposal of the day before. Unfortunately no picture from that. Besides that coffee and hot water, which really was the full breakfast. Like mentioned the location was even though it’s advertised as Union Square horrible. It’s a dodgy street, where I don’t feel like walking on the streets in terms of traffic and lots of homeless people bothering. We are only 250 meters further to Union Square (which are packed by hotels btw, so enough other solutions to stay!!!!! ) where it is so pleasant on the street. Nice walk paths, minimal to no strange people passing by and no...

Me and my friends and I visited as part of our trip we were there for 3 nights . A married couple in 1 room, myself in a surprisingly small adjoining room and my other two friends in the twin room down the hall.

We walked in, and we were like, okay, it is a bit dated, but we wanted to make the best of it . We saw the elevator, which I can only describe accurately using the words 'ancient relic', and it was last serviced in 2020. This is important for later.

My room had a musty grimy odour, which did not leave my entire stay ( I left both windows open all day every day). There was a dip on the floor in the carpet that I nearly fell over every time I stepped out of bed. Also, there was not even room for my suitcase to go anywhere or for me to hang anything up. Don't forget that my bathroom was definitely not level - it was falling apart, and I put my deodorant on the bathroom counter, and it just slid off as well as everything else I put on there. So I spent three days literally living out of a suitcase that I had to undo every time I needed to use it.

However, I had a great shower with good water pressure if you closed your eyes and tried not to think about the yellow stained shower curtain stuck to your leg.

Breakfast consisted of anything but a continental breakfast... stale bagel with literally mouldy philadelphia cheese. We opened them and they were so mouldy they were just green. I would have a picture, but staff took them to hide them from other guests. My friend was delighted by her gluten-free apple and was devastated she also couldn't enjoy the lovely green cheese bagel.

The icing on top of the cake, however, had to be getting stuck in the elevator. It broke down completely.

So the capacity of this elevator was 8 people with an overall weight of 1250 lbs. We were at least 350 lbs under this. To set the scene, my friend is claustrophobic, and this is at maybe 6pm ish. We called the number for a stuck elevator that was taped on the wall and couldn't get through and then the desk help popped his head in the mini window of the lift ( we were in-between level 3 and 4 ) he was like press the buttons which obviously we had done and then just left us with no explanation. Turns out he was going to fix it, but he just didn't tell us. We got through to the hotel, and he was like, yeah, 5 minutes - he had no urgency - perhaps it was a daily occurrence ? He did get us out in maybe 15 minutes of being packed in, but we had no apology, and we still had to walk up the stairs.

Whilst the location is great, I would argue that the Fitzgerald Hotel is not worth more than 20 dollars. I would not even book it out...

We stayed in the Fitzgerald for our first night of vacation in CA. What a dive, the elevator is from the 20's and if you have any luggage it takes multiple trips to get your luggage to your room. Also, you have to call down to the front desk to get the elevator sent to your floor, clearly a left over from the days of elevator operators. The lobby was shabby, and the luggage storage area was a back office, the staff was so-so, helpful, but not overly friendly. We had to request additional towels, and when they were brought to our room, the front desk clerk, stated that these were all they had left, so we got a few threadbare hand towels, and a washcloth. The view of the alley, and the smell was memorable to say the least, there is no AC, which is no surprise in SF, but there are also no screens to keep the bugs out, so you are left with a dilemma, keep the windows open and endure the smells of the alley way , and bugs, or close the windows and swelter in the room (suite, yes we had a suite, what a joke). The mornings are so great, if you are traveling from the east coast, be warned the delivery trucks and trash pick up starts very early around the Fitzgerald, so forget about adjusting to the time difference. Homeless people abound around the area, and you find yourself looking for a coffee shop early in the AM, you will have to walk a long way. I would recommend you look into a chain hotel, before staying at this dive, unless you find the old world romance of smelly alleys, bugs, threadbare toiletries, and multiple trips in a closet sized elevator as you're thing, avoid this place at all possible costs, for the money and the accommodations do not equal out. The 1 star I gave is being generous, but I couldn't make...