FOUND Hotel Carlton, Nob Hill — Hotel in San Francisco

I took my boyfriend to San Francisco for a graduation present. I wanted to find an affordable yet nice hotel, as I know that San Francisco is an expensive city in terms of lodging. After seeing the amazing reviews for this hotel, I decided to book. Upon entering our room, I burst into tears. It was absolutely disgusting. The pipes on the ceiling were coated in dust. I’m not extremely picky, but this was dust left from months. The floors were discolored in a grotesque manner, not the usual wear of carpet. I don’t think they vacuum very often. I chose not to book at a nearby hotel because in one of their reviews it was stated that there was no climate control. Hotel Carlton said there was. Lies. Climate control is a fan. San Francisco can be rather cool, and with no heat in the room, it sucked. They claimed in the room info sheet that there was a heater. It was covered with a metal accent, which we removed. The condition of the heater was probably the worst thing in the room. It was rusty, so dusty that it had discolored the floor all around it, and coincidentally, it didn’t work. Moving on to the bathroom. I love my baths, showers are okay, but I like the relaxation of a bath. I could barely take a shower in there. The tub was discolored, cracking, and had MOLD! There was a window right beside the shower, meaning that when showering, the water and steam would most definitely hit the wood border of the window. This meant more mold. Also when the so-called cleaning ladies would come to clean the room, they would open the window and leave it that way. Meaning, we would come back in the evening to a freezing room. For any ladies, don’t expect any room to get ready. I had to put my makeup and hair supplies in the sink and on back of the toilet. That’s how roomy the bathroom was. Possibly worst of all, neighbors. All that separated us from the room beside us was a door, not even a full wall! Given it was permanently locked, but the noise was ridiculous. We could hear every word spoken by the man in the room next to us, and his snoring woke me at 2am, and kept me up. Lastly, they say to give them 20-30 minutes for your car? We stayed at a much more condensed and larger hotel in Seattle and service got it down within 5-10. Hotel Carlton staff couldn’t even get it in 30! Give them at least an hour if you need your car.

I don’t know how this hotel got the reviews that it has, but it is absolutely disgusting. Had I known the truth, I would have stayed at a dinky hotel near the airport and saved my money! The only benefit to the lodging of this trip was the Beach House in Half Moon Bay our last night. Absolutely beautiful. As far as Hotel Carlton, the dust, mold, and poor condition will make you glad to get...

We stayed here twice a few weeks apart, at the start and end of a big road trip. Overall we liked the hotel. It was a little slow getting checked in both times, and the "room key" arrangement is slightly annoying (they email you a code that you enter on a keypad on your room door. the system works fine per se, but EVERYONE at the check-in desk is a foreign traveler with no local 5G, so it's a tortuous process watching them have to log onto the hotel wifi to get their email, etc etc.)||Anyway, once that's done we found the rooms to be clean and well appointed. There's no desks, which is odd in a hotel room. Even the most basic motels tend to have a little work space where you can sit with a laptop or whatever. It didn't bother me but maybe wouldn't suit business travellers. But it's quite a stylish place and it was spotless, so that's half the battle. ||As for the area: we honestly found it totally fine. We walked to nearby bars and restaurants and felt completely safe. Before travelling we read a lot about the prevalence of homelessness in SF. Well a few blocks away I think there are some places you'll see that in high concentrations, eg Eddy St, Turk St, although we didn't encounter it anywhere near this hotel. (Conversely we did see a lot of homeless people in the Mission district, and the cab driver who took us there told us in a serious voice "be careful".) Also we had read a LOT of horror stories about car break-ins and our hire car was a very conspicuous one (a silly convertible mustang with racing stripes... i know, i know...) but we parked it in the parking garage a few blocks away from the Found hotel, on California street, and collected it later with no issues. So yeah, travelling anywhere requires some common sense, but we felt the pearl-clutching we had read re SF was very overblown.||tl:dr We'd have no hesitation in coming to...

This is a quaint, old-fashioned hotel dating from the early 1920s. The stairs, the elevator, the lobby, the walls and ceiling all bespeak of a time past, so this can be a very nostalgic hotel. The owners have done a wonderful job keeping the old-fashioned feeling with modern touches. The hotel is very clean and fresh.

Our room, with 2 full-sized beds, has the typical hotel niceties, is not air conditioned, but between the window in the main room and the window in the bathroom, ventilation and air flow are not a problem. There is an overhead light/fan combo and the fan moves the air and keeps the room feeling fresh. The beds were outstanding and for the first time in a long while, I got a good night's sleep on my first night! All the amenities are up-to-date and had good wireless (free). Some of the outlets are worn out (probably due to age) so our multi-USB power adapters don't stay firmly connected, especially the outlet between the beds. While the lamp has a plug in its base, our adapter is too bulky to fit. Luckily, the multi-plug on the desk has a good outlet.

Breakfast is not included, and to me, pricey: breakfast for two, with tip, was $37. That said, it was very tasty and filling and the hotel offers a $5 discount with an in-house discount card. The waitress was professional and polite and the service was efficient. Every evening, not sure of the time, there is a wine social.

I understand that the hotel room rate is typical for San Francisco but be forewarned that there San Francisco adds a $54 "Guest tax" and a $100 "Bed tax" which adds over 50% to the room cost. High prices are not the fault of the owners, but of the city.

The hotel staff is very eager to please, polite, and...