Hotel Whitcomb — Hotel in San Francisco

This review pertains to a 7 day stay I had at this hotel. I will break it down into some categories that I find important during my travels.

Security: Plenty of security inside of the hotel. Ranging from security cameras to an actual security guard that guards the hotel lobby area. This is around the clock security.

Staff: Front desk staff was friendly. Always someone at the desk at all times of the day. Beyond this you really didn't see much of the staff beyond the front lobby as they did a rather decent job staying behind the scenes unless you needed someone. Depending on your comfort level this can be a mixed blessing as I know some people feel more comfortable if they see staff within eye sight at anytime during their walking around the hotel itself.

Room: I stayed in a 2 bed suite. Not bad. Beds were comfortable and clean. However you could tell the room was as historic as the hotel itself. Couple examples

Bathroom Door Handle: Older style. Once you closed the bathroom door, there was really no door handle on the inside of the bathroom..Instead you had this little dial you twisted to unlock the door to get out.

Bathroom itself: Small. The sink is right there as you open the door. Closing the door further decreases mobility in the bathroom itself. It felt very cramped when the door was closed and not much room to really move around. Didn't matter your body size type it was very uncomfortable to move around the bathroom with the door closed.

Electrical Outlets: Need updating. They're pretty old and anything connected into them can easily be bumped out of place and have to be reconnected. Newer outlets would allow your devices to be secured and charge more consistently. Not to mention the lack of outlets made it difficult for 2 people to keep their devices charged in the evening when coming back to relax.

Internet: Okay speed. Faster than most hotels I stay at. You wont be using it for much as you will most likely be exploring the city. They do have an internet business room downstairs. Not entirely sure if the speeds are better or if the computers are free to use or not.

Starbucks: They have a coffee shop in the main lobby downstairs and its open late. So its nice to be able to head down and get something to eat or drink. You can also walk across the street to 1 of the 2 diners and have a great meal or enjoy a meal at the restaurant inside the lobby.

NOTE: Hotel doesn't offer room service. However you can have food delivered using food delivery service apps like Eat24, Uber Eats etc.

Overall its a nice historic hotel with easy access to most of the San Francisco hotspots. However it could use some updating in their...

Hotel Whitcomb is in a great location for transit on the Eastern end of Market Street with easy access to BART, Muni and bus services. This end of Market Street has improved significantly over the last five years but is still a little rough around the edges. The hotel reception is impressive with wood carved ceilings hinting at the hotels history. The hotel does feel like it's slightly run down from its original glory but is still perfectly pleasant and reasonable value for a hotel in the city centre. I stayed in a Twin room to the rear of the hotel which was spacious, with a walk in cupboard, safe, desk and two comfortable (slightly form) beds. The bathroom is OK, although slightly run down, and had a hair drier and toiletries provided. The hotel does have some quirks and issues that you may want to bear in mind, the hotel is a city centre location and is very overlooked, which wouldn't normally be a problem, however the curtains in the room are for decoration only and are stapled up (?) on either side of the window. This situation is still better than the bathroom which has a plain glass window with no blind or cover at all. This means you are very conscious that if you can see into the rooms of surrounding apartments, hotels and offices then they can see you too, in the middle of the night with the light turned on. The door for our room was also through a fire door and in a stair well rather than in the main hallway, but this is a minor quirk rather than a problem and actually meant there was no real noise from the rest of the hotel. While I'm in the US I use a T-Mobile SIM and the reception is pretty poor at the back of the hotel, although there is WiFi throughout. This isn't a complaint, it's just useful to know, although poor signal across all networks is pretty common in older building in the city. There is a Starbucks in the lobby that's open until 11pm which is great if your working late. If they solved the window covering issue The Whitcomb Hotel would be a perfectly passable, slightly run down hotel with a great location for transit in an improving area of the city. If you can ignore the curtain issue and you're in the city on business and looking for a budget friendly option with great links via Bart to SFO/OAK and rapid connections to downtown this is a solid option. If you're travelling as a family or you're looking for a high end hotel then although the area is improving you may want to...

This is quite simply the worst hotel ever. It has nothing at all to recommend it. The best part about staying there was leaving. If you don't mind wasting money then this is your place.

I am no novice. I have been traveling and staying on my own in hotels for over 30 years. I've slept in the finest and the worst - in Singapore with rose petals on my pillow and in Mumbai with a knife underneath. I realize that you get what you pay for but this is absurd.

The property itself is tired and rundown. Not in a classic hotel kind of way but in a way which makes you think that management has given up entirely on maintenance and is just milking a cash cow because they can fool hordes of gullible German tourists. Stained and buckled carpets, peeling paint and visible signs of water damage were everywhere. There wasn't a single surface anywhere which didn't look as if hordes of grubby children had been pawing at it since the turn of the century.

The service is abysmal. It took nearly a full hour to check in and would have taken even longer if I hadn't spoken to the manager. The desk staff seemed content to natter endlessly with each guest as they checked in. I sat for 20 minutes watching European tourists negotiating with the desk staff for better rates. The ridiculous bellhop in his threadbare coat and foppish hat is unfortunately a necessity since the hotel can't otherwise seem to stop hordes of urine-reeking homeless men from coming into the lobby and cadging spare change from the guests.

The rooms are filthy -grimy carpets and huge stains on the furniture. Worst of all there is mold and an indefinable funk which is everywhere. The irony is that the only sign of any kind of service I witnessed was the maid banging on my door at 730 to ask if she could 'clean' the room. And it is extremely noisy.

WiFi does not work. In a three day stay I was able to connect exactly twice and both times it took in excess of 20 minutes to actually connect.

I didn't dare eat in the obscenely overpriced restaurant.

I feel ashamed that I actually spent my hard earned cash to stay here. I won't make that mistake again and hopefully neither will anyone reading this review. If I go back again I'll either stay at a chain hotel and pay the exorbitant rates or travel across the bay to Oakland...