Hotel Del Sol — Hotel in San Francisco

tl,dr: avoid at all cost

we recently stayed at the joi de vivre hotel del solo in san francisco. our plan was to stay for 5 nights, but some hours after check in we could not bare it any longer. we ran out of it as fast as we could. luckily our reservation was flexible. the hotel still charged us one night. at USD 250+ i was expecting a memorable experience, moreover because the brand is associated with hyatt. it is substantially below average; rating our stay as terrible is an understatement.

upon checking the staff told us we had been upgraded to a family room in the top floor near the elevator. we had several bags and he told us that we could walked right into from the elevator exit. that was not the case, there were some stairs to climb before arriving to the room.

the room was old and the floor seemed to have a pronounced slope. there was a dreadful smell, it resembled the mix of mould and disinfectant. the carpet seemed old and had what appeared to be stains here and there. cleaning was substandard. there was also a room between the main room and the toilet, but we couldn’t access it. the bathroom was tiny, with only a small window for ventilation. the blinders/curtains had minor gaps that made privacy all but unattainable.

the problems:

bathroom: toilet clogged. at some moment in the middle of the night as I was using it, it overflew and dark water ran through the toilet. i called the front desk and was told to wait. several minutes later a person came, gave me some towels, a spray with some disinfectant, and a pump, he then told me to fix it myself and just leave everything outside when i was done!

room temperature: the room was cold because insulation seemed to be not perfect. consequently, we had to turn on the ac heater. that was a if mistake, the system made an awful noise that kept us awake. so the choice was between freezing or bear the noise.

staff: night staff told me, after i complained, “it is a free country, you can leave whenever you want.”

noise: we could hear the conversations in the room next to ours.

hotel del sol falls way below expectations. i would not recommend anyone staying there; to say it was terrible is an...

MOST IMPORTANT: Their website estimates your total rate based on an avg room rate of your nights and says clearly fees & taxes included, however the amenity fee of 27USD/day isn't included until you're at the front desk authorizing your credit card for the hold, which also gets added taxes and surcharges for CA laws on top of the taxes and fees for the room rate, so the final cost for 4 nights was almost $150 more than the web estimate at time of booking (on their site, not expedia). This is a hidden fee and should be illegal. They said the amenities fee is for the breakfast, the pool, and free bike rentals, and I could see all of that being worth the cost daily, but it should be included in the room price or optional costs based on usage, not thrust upon me post-red eye flight when I booked it 2 months ago and barely remember what my total should have been.

CIRCUMSTANTIAL REVIEW: This hotel manages to market itself well with cute sunny fiesta-style photos, but the bones of the rooms are very bare. Maybe it was just the ground floor rooms which neighbor actual parking spots on one side of the inner courtyard, but it feels like it wasn't built to be a hotel at all, but something else and retrofitted for hotel rooms. For example, there was no ventilation, the rooms are closed boxes with windows to the outside and a old fan-style temperature control unit, which just blasts hot or cool air into the room on demand, no thermostat to maintain a temp. The fire alarm and sprinkler on our wall were so gigantic & industrial it looked like ones from inside an actual parking garage. I really don't know if the upper rooms feel better, but I don't recommend the ground floor rooms. We had a Queen room, so, ostensibly to fit 2 people, and there wasn't even a second chair to sit down in when we eat breakfast in our room, as there's no indoor seating, only outdoors. The shower head was probably at 5ft, so below head height of most average people. Little things that just made the experience feel real barebones.

Overall, a 2* budget hotel for a budget experience that fit the frugal bill I needed if it weren't for...

Although this hotel is located in quite the convenient spot, its exterior is very dated and could use a little sprucing up. We were confused at first with where to park; you pull into the courtyard of the hotel, check-in, and then you must circle around into the "valet" entrance (which is really just a lot with daily parking included with your stay that anyone can park in). There is a "destination fee" (another word for "resort fee") of $15/night, which includes your wifi and whatever other amenities they offer, but does not include your parking fee, which is an additional $18/night.

We unloaded our luggage and headed upstairs to our room. The hotel was limited in its room types, so we had booked a double-queen room (more like Ricky-and-Lucy beds). Strangely enough, when we reached our room the door was propped wide open and a housekeeper was still making the bed. As a former employee of the hotel industry, I know that this is not something you want your guests to walk into. She was polite and excused herself, but proceeded to close the door and begin vacuuming while we stood there awkwardly, unsure of what to do. The front desk agent should have checked whatever software program they use to manage rooms to see if the room had been marked "clean" yet, or should have offered a small token for the inconvenience of our room not being ready at check-in time (which we arrived an hour past).

The room itself was bright and did the job for our one-night stay. Obviously, the interior is a little dated, but it felt fun and retro. The bathroom was a closet and the closet was another bathroom (I'll let you figure that one out), but it worked for our quick getaway. Towels were clean; again, dated, but clean nonetheless.

The staff seemed friendly enough, but the older guy working the front desk closer to midnight with the black blazer and grey hair seemed a little standoffish and not in the friendliest of moods.

Overall, this hotel was convenient for our concert's location, but we probably wouldn't stay again. My partner is a Hyatt member, so this was really more of a convenience stay...