Hotel Stratford — Hotel in San Francisco

SERVICE & TRANSITIONS -- Fantastic hospitality; the kindest service persons I've seen operate a hotel. For an electronic-assisted checkin, the process is really slow (they could really learn a thing or two from the Little House brand). Transitions aren't strong: Small lobby; really tight + slow elevators; narrow stairs; keycard required at every transition. Waiting for a lift can take MANY minutes & traveling to an upper floor is just as slow. Stairs are an option if you're comfortable with many flights of narrow steps. Latest checkout offered 12pm @ $50, crazy steep for a no-frills hotel❌❌❌

ROOM (https://youtu.be/Dzyq-4PV93M, https://youtu.be/53-E5UK5wSs) -- Cozy, Cute, Budget, Aromatic, modern, & well-maintained. 3rd-party booking site pictures do a poor job representing this one, so call ahead to confirm your room type. I found it confusing to navigate or identify which rooms have what features, even in-person. Room for improvement in transparency & quality of their booking system. A minimal work desk is installed. It's tiny and lacking ergonomics; a bummer for doing any real sitting work. Windows are also sealed shut in some configurations. 😭 The improvised wardrobe/storage was very clever!

BED -- A clean & tidy queen mattress. For those that enjoy old-school spring beds, you're in luck. Sleep quality was not good for me though. I never made it through a full night w/o waking up. Duvet & linens were pristine & airy. Pillows were decent.

BATH -- Either a split-bath design or full-bath, depending on the room. Both types include a box walk-in shower, streamlined design with bath products included. Temperatures & water pressure were satisfactory. It's a difficult experience for those with larger builds. No tub options, unless you win the lotto & procure the Stratford king room type. ⚠️ Towels provided by request only. ⚠️

TV/ENTERTAINMENT -- Expectations were low given the profile of this hotel, but some of these patterns were odd. ~40" Samsung smart TV mounted rather high. No physical wiggle room due to the choice of mount. Thankfully a Netflix integration is built in & they sprung for DirecTV! ⚠️TV resets every day at 3am even while using which can be inconvenient.

WI-FI & CELL RECEPTION -- Maximum reception (Verizon). Internet bandwidth was free & tolerable. --Performance-- Video streaming - average Online gaming - average Video chatting - average --Nerd Stats-- 16-56 Mbps download 4-18 Mbps upload 0% packet loss 7 ms latency 14 ms jitter

FOOD & DRINK -- Not DoorDash friendly. There are drinks served in the lobby, but thats all the convenience you get with this one when it comes to nourishment. In-room/on-floor: ❌ microwave ❌ mini-fridge ❌ in-room coffee ❌ vending machines ❌ ice ✅ tea

NOISE -- Minimal/quiet. You're still at the mercy of being inside the city (sirens, unhomed, horns, etc) so YMMV.

LOCATION -- Right in the thick of it (Union Square)! Literal steps away from designer stores, tours, & public transit. Good security practices made me feel safe.

VERDICT It's a competitive location & hospitality was unforgettable. Although "no frills", they will do what they can to make your stay comfortable. The Chancellor is still my goto in this same category, but I could see myself staying here again & would recommend it for those that need a barebones...

It's in a great location, the hotel is very close to shopping and public transport to key areas like fisherman's wharf, lombard street and the golden gate bridge. That's where the positives end for us.

Firstly, the room is misadvertised. Much smaller than we were anticipating - they must advertise the "Queen Suites" which are slightly bigger and leave you under the assumption you've got ample room. But with 4 suitcases in a tiny box, we were struggling for space. There's also NO amenities on site - no fridge, microwave, laundry. And the bathroom sink is located beside the bed. On a side note - if you want to do laundry they'll send you over a street to their sister hotel, The Bartlett.

Secondly, we experienced extremely poor customer service whilst we stayed here. When I was 5 minutes into my first shower of our stay, I was preoccupied washing my hair and my husband who had been in bed on his phone, yelled out that water was starting to run out under the bathroom door. I turned off the water and looked out, it turned out that the shower didn't retain water inside and was running out from the bottom. This resulted in my main suitcase getting soaked and A LOT of my clothes completely soppy and soaked. Keeping in mind it's autumn and without any laundry services on site, my clothes didn't dry.

My husband went downstairs to tell the front desk that our room was flooding and the man asked what did that mean and so he showed him a photo of the big water puddle infront of the bed and the man didn't say anything and started typing away. My husband requested a room change and the man wasn't really talking to him. After my husband made mention of wanting to check out, he handed him 2 new cards so we could move rooms. The next day when we returned the 2 old cards from the flooded room, there was still NO apology, no offer to comp our laundry services at their other hotel so we could have dry clothes and no mention of a discount.

Extremely disappointed, I wouldn't recommend staying here and there are plenty of other hotels around the street for...

Where to begin?

Pros: good location close to Bart and Muni.

Con: Tiny room.

No privacy between bathroom and bed. Terrible check-in process.

Only window in room looks into window of next room. 0 privacy with curtain open.

Forced to use kiosk to check-in even though multiple staff were standing around which led to a being double charged on a prepaid booking.

Elevator broke during second day of a 4 day visit and forced to used the stairs for remainder of stay to get to the 5th floor. Elevator broke on Saturday and was told the earliest it would be repaired was Tuesday!

As I write this it is 6:22am on Monday morning. There has been an alarm going off on the 5th floor for the last 20+ minutes. There is no one at the front desk and no one to call to address this issue. I wish I could give this place 0 stars. I called to front desk, no answer. I walked down 5 flights to be disappointed at an empty lobby with no one to be seen. I walked back up 5 flights to sit in bed and listen to the alarm while I write this review. I was hoping to sleep a little longer, but I guess I will get dressed and go for an early morning walk in the dark. Hopefully I don’t get stabbed by one of the countless drugged up zombies that live right outside the door of this place.

Stay away from this place.

Edit (a few more details) Our sink (which is next to the bed) was broken.

No temp control during the cold winter.

Garbage say in hallway for several days.

PS. A lot of the photos on the website are stock photos. The lobby lounge is nothing like the photo on the website. The other pics of the staff cleaning the hotel misrepresent the rooms and seem to...